BEST BETS Friday 9/21

7:45pm

Theater

“Hold Please,” by Annie Weisman, is a seriocomic look at four women working on the lowest rung of the corporate ladder. Veteran receptionists Grace and Agatha, and the younger Erika and Jessica answer the phones at the mythical firm of Solomon, Greenspan, Sachs. The play, which is having its world premiere, watches them trying to exert and sometimes abuse their modicum of power in the workplace. More often they are overpowered by its lean-and-mean imperatives while facing personal difficulties that make career advancement a lottery rather than a reliably mapped path.* “Hold Please,” South Coast Repertory’s Second Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Regular performances begin tonight. Tuesdays-Sundays, 7:45 p.m., matinees Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. $19 to $51, with a pay-what-you-will matinee Saturday. Ends Oct. 21. (714) 708-5555.