Put a Little Drama in your Life
PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 9/30/14 Sixteen year-old Natalie Goodman is way past hoping for a normal family. She’ll settle for “Next to Normal.” But she might not even get that. There’s an unseen monster tearing at the fabric of her family: mental illness. Her mother, Diana, was long ago diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression. Her delusions are Read More →
PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 9/24/14 People always wonder how theater critics can see the same show over and over again. It isn’t always easy, but some plays are simply (or complexly) brilliant and timeless (Hello, Hamlet! I’m talking to you!). And others, some older, some more recent, just find a soft spot in my heart and I always welcome a revisit. Read More →
PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 9/23/14 Loneliness and loss. Dejection, rejection. Anger and bitterness. Untrusting and unloved. These emotions pulsate like an undertone through the searing slice of post-prison life that is “This Wide Night,” by award-winning English playwright Chloë Moss. It’s a two-hander tour de force, as a pair of Read More →
PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 9/22/14 If spending an evening with witty Brits, of the fizzy, frothy and frivolous sort, Noël Coward’s your man, and “Fallen Angels” is your current play of choice. This is early Coward, written in 1925, when he was a callow 26 years old. He would refine his urbanity and his characters’ inanity over time, but Read More →
PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 7/28/14 Whether you like your musicals dark, light, nerdy or battle-scarred, there’s a show in San Diego for you. Music is filling the air, and audiences are filling the seats… for “Mary Poppins,” “The Full Monty,” “Geeks! The Musical” and “Les Misérables.” It’s a veritable cornucopia of tuneful riches. The most magical Read More →
PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 7/22/14 Every one of us, at one time or another, has to go through a Dark Night of the Soul, after which, we hope, we’ll be “out of the woods.” Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine took us “Into the Woods” nearly 30 years ago, when their fanciful, Read More →
“San Diego is a hotbed of theater. Every year, I see 200-250 productions. This is fertile ground for new work. In addition to the prodigious local talent, theatermakers from around the country come here to premiere their latest creations. San Diego sends more shows to Broadway than nearly any other city in the U.S.”
-Pat Launer