Put a Little Drama in your Life
KPBS AIRDATE: SEPTEMBER 29, 1999 By now, we've all had a bellyful of American mobsters… their contorted faces looming ominously on the small and large screen. Mafiosi with their Noo Yawk accents, their molls, their mothers and their murderous machinations. Now, we meet their transcontinental counterparts. The London underworld is the setting of the brutal and brutally funny "Gangster Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: NOVEMBER 12, 1999 Theater is all about illusion. "The Illusion" is all about theater. Well, not only theater. It's also about reality versus artifice, mortality, redemption and lust… but mostly, it's about love: filial, friendly and passionate. And since a reclusive sorcerer takes center stage, it's about magic. Which brings us back to theater. Read More →
Pat Launer TimesofSanDiego.com 4/3/14 Beware the Ives of March! It’s been a great season for playwright David Ives. Last month kicked off with North Coast Repertory Theatre’s hilariously over-the-top, heavily wigged and period-costumed production of “The School for Lies,” Ives’ 2011 verse adaptation of Molière’s 1666 farce, “The Misanthrope.” And March went out like a lion, Ives-wise, with the opening Read More →
PAT LAUNER FOR: TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 5/5/14 “There’s times when it’s kosher for Jews to be a ham.” So goes a (somewhat lame and questionably grammatical) lyric in one of the goofy songs in the Lyceum show called “Old Jews Telling Jokes.” Okay, they aren’t all ‘old.’ There are two young Jews (one of whom isn’t actually Jewish… but who’s Read More →
PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 7/15/14 The shocking , incendiary -- and frequently banned – Frank Wedekind play, “Spring Awakening,” was written in 1890. Its Tony Award-winning musical adaptation debuted on Broadway in 2006. Between the two, premiering Off Broadway in 2000, is “bare: a pop opera.” All three penetrating Read More →
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 →
“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