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“NEXT TO NORMAL” at the Coronado Playhouse

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Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 6/9/18 RUN DATES: 5/25/18 - 6/17/18 VENUE: Coronado Playhouse Lots of families are unhappy and dysfunctional. And many have trouble communicating. But the Goodmans have extra angst: a long-ago family trauma that lingers, and won’t go away. And a mother who suffers the anxiety, mania, depression, hallucinations and pill-popping instability of bipolar disorder. So, Diana has distanced herself from her frustrated, snarky 16 year-old daughter (compelling, credible Chloe Marcotte) and her faithful, put-upon but ineffectual Read More →

“SOUTH PACIFIC” at San Diego Musical Theatre

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Aired on KSDS-FM on 5/11/18 RUN DATES: 4/27/18 - 5/27/18 VENUE: San Diego Musical Theatre San Diego Musical Theatre’s “South Pacific” is somewhat less than “101 pounds of fun.” Though it’s a big production -- high energy and enjoyable -- there’s virtually no dancing in what should be a dance-happy musical. Numbers like “Bloody Mary” and “There is Nothing Like a Dame” should be choreographic show-stoppers. Here, there’s only the most basic of movement throughout. The 1949 musical certainly retains Read More →

“THE WANDERERS” at The Old Globe

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Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 4/16/18 RUN DATES: 4/6/18 - 5/6/18 VENUE: The Old Globe Two disturbing stories are being told in parallel in “The Wanderers.” Unexpectedly, both turn out to have dire personal consequences: one tragic, the other internally cataclysmic. And both are based in fact. Anna Ziegler’s new play, commissioned by The Old Globe (her intriguing 2016 work, “The Last Match,” was also first staged at The Globe), has a number of sharp turns and surprises, which keeps Read More →

“HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES” at North Coast Repertory Theatre

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Aired on KSDS-FM on 4/20/18 RUN DATES: 4/11/18 - 5/13/18 VENUE: North Coast Repertory Theatre He may be England’s most prolific playwright: 82 plays and counting, over the last 60 years. He may be a knight. He may create juicy and colorful characters. But the comedies of Sir Alan Ayckbourn are rife with cynicism – especially about marriage. And despite the fact that his 1982 diversion, “How the Other Half Loves,” is as clever as his other works, it Read More →

“PETER AND THE STARCATCHER” at Lamplighters Community Theatre

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Aired on KSDS-FM on 5/4/18 RUN DATES: 4/20/18 - 5/13/18 VENUE: Lamplighters Community Theatre When you were young, didn’t you wish you could fly? Then disaster struck: you grew up. Everyone’s favorite airborne sprite, the one who never grew up, is back, in “Peter and the Starcatcher,” which is the creation legend of Peter Pan. The wildly imaginative play by Rick Elice, based on a novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, was first seen locally as a Page-to-Stage workshop Read More →

“HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF” at the Wagner New Play Festival

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patlauner.com Blog Post on 5/11/18 RUN DATES: 5/10/18 - 5/17/18 VENUE: UC San Diego I just saw a terrific play in the Wagner New Play Festival at UCSD . “How to Defend Yourself,” by Lily Padilla, a third year MFA student in the playwriting program, is a knockout. Another of her works was in the La Jolla Playhouse WoW Festival (“And Then You Wait”). This one has an offstage centerpiece: a campus rape, which engenders all manner of feelings, Read More →