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“My Fair Lady” at Cygnet Theatre

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PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 3/17/15 Talk about your Extreme Makeovers! There was never a sculptural re-molding of a human lump of clay like the Greek Metatmorphosis myth of Pygmalion and Galatea, brilliantly refashioned by George Bernard Shaw into the play, “Pygmalion” (1913), which then underwent another transformation, into the magnificent Lerner and Lowe musical, “My Fair Lady.” The book and lyrics may be credited to Alan Jay Lerner, but many of the lines were penned by that Read More →

Arc Of Relationships At Heart Of “kin” At Ion Theatre

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PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 3/15/15 The arc of relationship is traced in “Kin,” by English-born, New York-based playwright Bathsheba Doran. Actually, it’s the arc of multiple relationships. At first, the drama (spiked with comic moments) seems like a pastiche of duets, each pair at a certain point in their bond as friend, parent or lover. But gradually, we Read More →

Parenthood Takes A Hit In “baby With The Bathwater”

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PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 3/14/15 Playwright Christopher Durang loves to shoot holes in sacred cows, from religion (“Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You”) to Chekhov (“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike”). In 1983, he took aim at parenthood, in “Baby with the Bathwater,” which hasn’t been seen in a professional San Diego production for decades. Read More →

Clothes Make The Woman In “love, Loss, And What I Wore”

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PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 3/2/15 When men open their closets, they see pants and shirts and shoes. But women see their lives spread out before them; a flood of memories: favorite items worn to unforgettable events, beloved or unwanted gifts, people they were with and the times they had. This is the premise Read More →

A Classic Comedy That Could Run Forever At Lamb’s Players

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PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 2/23/15 The Sycamores really know how to live. “Life’s pretty simple if you just relax,” says Grandpa. “All we ask is to go along and be happy in our own sort of way.” Each member of the family blows with the wind (or, as the late mythologist Joseph Campbell Read More →

Shakespearean Rumble: Jets Meet Sharks In “west Side Story”

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PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 2/18/15 There was a time when Broadway musicals provided the pop hits of the day. “West Side Story” was certainly one of those shows. It was a groundbreaker, with its brilliant score by Leonard Bernstein, book by Arthur Laurents and lyrics by a twentysomething Stephen Sondheim, spawning songs like “Tonight,” Read More →