Put a Little Drama in your Life
Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 1/17/17 RUN DATES: 1/6/17 - 2/12/17 VENUE: Lamb's Players Theatre “You don’t lie to your parents!,” Sarah Goldman’s father shouts at her. “I’ll tell you when you lie... You lie to the man who says you can’t come into his country… You lie to the man who says you can’t go to his school because you have a name that sounds funny.” Coming late in the second act of “Beau Jest (a very funny Read More →
Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 1/21/17 RUN DATES: 1/12/17 - 2/12/17 VENUE: San Diego Repertory Theatre Everyone likes to get a peek behind the scenes. In “Our Great Tchaikovsky,” Hershey Felder offers a glimpse into how he does what he does: create multi-faceted musical biographies that capture the essence of composers like Beethoven, Chopin, Gershwin and Bernstein. First, he tells us, in his latest, uncharacteristically personal piece, he picks a piece of seminal, representative music. Then, he delves deeply Read More →
Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 1/23/17 RUN DATES: 1/12/17 - 2/12/17 VENUE: Cygnet Theatre Truth be told, the characters aren’t so much “Bad Jews” as they are odious people. Well, two of them, anyway – the most verbal and vociferous. The family in Joshua Harmon’s 2013 dramedy – three cousins (plus one shiksa girlfriend) – don’t interact; they scream, berate, pontificate and judge. Oh boy, do they judge. Daphna (née Diana), the über-Jew, has nothing but contempt (laced with jealousy) for Read More →
Aired on KSDS-FM on 12/30/16 RUN DATES: 12/4/16 - 1/15/17 VENUE: Ahmanson Theatre, L.A. How do you take a gorgeously shot, thoroughly cinematic French film and adapt it for the stage? Making the delightfully offbeat 2001 movie, “Amélie,” into a musical is actually less of a challenge than capturing the stunning look and sensibility of the source. The new musical, “Amélie,” premiered in 2015 at Berkeley Rep, and after some tweaking and cast changes, it’s now running at the Read More →
Aired on KSDS-FM on 1/27/17 RUN DATES: 1/11/17 - 2/5/17 VENUE: North Coast Repertory Theatre The older you are, and the older your parents -- if they’re still alive – the more disturbing and discomfiting you’re likely to find “Marjorie Prime,” the 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist currently having its local premiere at North Coast Repertory Theatre. Artificial Intelligence has made considerable progress. The likelihood of a lifelike, interactive robot seems assured in the not-too-distant future. In Jordan Harrison’s short, intermissionless play, Read More →
Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 2/2/17 RUN DATES: 1/31/17 - 2/5/17 VENUE: Civic Theatre “Sometimes you have to be a little big naughty,” sings the precocious, bookish 5 year old. At first, Matilda seems too good (and smart) to be true. But she is an inveterate prankster, who acts out against her neglecting, narcissistic parents (bleaching her father’s hair and gluing his hat to his head, for example). Once she realizes that she has telekinetic abilities (she can make 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