Reviews

“gangster No. One” At The Fritz Theater

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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 →

“the Illusion” At San Diego Repertory Theatre

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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 →

‘the Liar’ At Scripps Ranch Theatre Is Riotous, Rhyming Fun

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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 →

At The Lyceum Theatre, Not Only “old Jews Telling Jokes”

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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 →

Adolescent Angst Takes The Stage At Diversionary Theatre In “bare: A Pop Opera”

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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 →