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“Side By Side By Sondheim” – North Coast Repertory Theatre

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Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 July 24, 2015 They say every picture tells a story. But not every song. Unless it’s written by Stephen Sondheim, musical theater’s most revered living composer/lyricist. With his dazzling wordplay, he conveys a character, an emotion, and a very particular moment in time. Sondheim has actually said that, without those pieces of information, he can’t even begin to write a song. Many evenings of theater have focused on his funniest Read More →

“The Music Man”

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PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 7/21/15 The art of the con and the power of love: “The Music Man” at Moonlight “You gotta know the territory.” It’s a through-line in the beloved Americana musical, “The Music Man.” And it certainly applies to its magnificent creator/composer/lyricist, Meredith Willson, who was born in the state where he set his show – small-town Iowa (his native Mason City became the fictional River City). He was also a flutist and piccolo player in Read More →

“Kiss Me, Kate” – The Old Globe

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Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 July 17, 2015 You don’t have to “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” to enjoy “Kiss Me, Kate.” But the more familiar you are with “The Taming of the Shrew,” the source of this brilliant 1948 musical, the more you’ll relish it. The clever book is by Sam and Bella Spewak, with its crafty play-within-a-play structure. The gorgeous score is by Cole Porter, smart/satiric wordsmith extraordinaire. Darko Tresnjak, former artistic director Read More →

“Eternally Bad”

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PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 7/14/15 Wonder Women: Goddesses take center stage in “Eternally Bad” Some mythical goddesses have done some very ungodly things… like castrating men, or cutting their heads off, or eating them alive. This, among other juicy-but-nasty tidbits, is what we learn in “Eternally Bad,” the world premiere lecture cum song cycle written and directed by Javier Velasco, based on the 2001 book by feminist comics artist and writer Trina Robbins (who was in town for Read More →

“Always… Patsy Cline” – Onstage Playhouse

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Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 July 10, 2015 She sold 10 million albums in 2005, though she’d been dead for over 40 years. Patsy Cline recorded timeless songs like “Crazy,” “I Fall to Pieces” and “Walkin’ After Midnight.” Now, she’s making a comeback locally, at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista. “Always…Patsy Cline” is a 1988 jukebox musical framed as fan-mail, a love-note from an adoring devotee who got to meet her idol one night in Read More →

“The Quality Of Life”

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PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 7/7/15 What does “Quality of Life” mean to you? This play considers the options Pain, loss and grief: How to live with them, how to move on from them. Those questions are at the heart of the gut-wrenching drama (with a welcome slice of comic relief), “The Quality of Life,” by Emmy Award-winning L.A. writer Jane Anderson (“Mad Men”), now getting its San Diego premiere in a knockout production at Intrepid Theatre Company. Director Read More →