This legit, cutting-edge theater is run by Tim Robbins and his gang of top-notch thespians.

When Robbins studied theater at UCLA, he and some of his pals developed a fascination with commedia dell'arte, a style of extremely theatrical acting involving stock characters, makeup and extreme emotional states. As Robbins ascended to stardom, he funneled cash to the Actors' Gang, where he is the artistic director. Translation: No run-of-the-mill stagings of "Our Town" or "A Christmas Carol" will see stage time here. Favored instead are award-winning new plays (the off-Broadway hit "Bat Boy: The Musical" got its start here) and wild interpretations of classics (the challenging Shakespeare work "Titus Andronicus" got rave reviews once this Gang got its bloody hands on it). Though the plays sometimes (well, okay, often) seem designed for an exclusive group of hipsters and critics, The Gang is still responsible for some of the most exciting moments in LA theater, and the performers are uniformly top-notch.