Pat Launer: Spotlight on Theater

By Pat Launer, SDNN

Thursday, April 23, 2009

READ REVIEWS OF: “The Glass Menagerie,” “Peter Grimes,” “Shadow of Mercy,” the Baldwin New Play Festival at UCSD

The Last Unicorn

THE SHOW: “The Glass Menagerie,” the great American classic, presented by Lamb’s Players Theatre

His name was Tom. And he lived in a cramped St. Louis flat, trapped in a dead-end, shoe warehouse job and chafing under his domineering mother’s ministrations. His father had abandoned the family long ago. One night, he brought home a gentleman caller for his damaged sister. It was a disastrous evening, and it was her only potential suitor, ever. He would be guilt-ridden about his sister for the rest of his life.

Yes, it’s the plotline of “The Glass Menagerie,” but it’s also the real story of Tennessee Williams. His 1944 tour de force was his most frankly autobiographical play, based on reworked material from his short story, "Portrait of a Girl in Glass," and his screenplay, “The Gentleman Caller.”

Williams had deep concerns about the original Chicago stage production. So did the producers who, in response to weak advance ticket sales, prepared a closing notice. But by opening night in New York, the play was a smash-hit, and the cast received an amazing 25 curtain calls. The piece still has dramatic force and poetic beauty, and the power to move an audience to tears.

The Lamb’s Players Theatre production has plenty of the emotional power, but it doesn’t quite get the tears flowing; not yet. The lacy, ethereal set (Mike Buckley), golden lighting (Nathan Pierson) and charming 1930s costumes (Jeanne Reith) flawlessly set the stage. And the musical underscoring, a mournful sax, clarinet and bass clarinet (marvelously played by Rik Ogden), heightens the tone of lyrical reminiscence.

Lamb’s producing artistic director Robert Smyth has assembled an outstanding cast. His talented wife, associate artistic director Deborah Gilmour Smyth, is magnificent as the dominant and domineering Amanda, a study in multi-layered contrasts: clawing and cloying; hopeless and falsely buoyant; anxious, disappointed and devil-may-care; flirtatious and bullying, and relentlessly smothering her children in her overprotective zeal. She turns what some play as a harridan into an understandable and sympathetic, if narcissistic, character.

Sarah Zimmerman’s Laura is as delicate and fragile as her beloved glass collection, visibly crumpling under her mother’s scrutiny and attacks. She has a palpable love for her brother, a deep affection which is gently, sensitively returned. When Laura’s Gentleman Caller turns out to be the one boy she’s ever loved, the sports, debating and musical theater star of her fraught high school days, she fairly faints from the stress. But soon, in a painfully tender scene, under the confident attention of affable, self-improving Jim (pitch-perfect Jason Heil), she blossoms, becomes radiant, raising her head, meeting his eyes, dancing for once in her life. When it all comes crashing down around her, though, we don’t feel the full emotional weight of her shattering devastation. And in the final moment of the play, that last monologue of wistful regret, there’s also less heart-tugging sentiment than we expect.

As Tom, who frames the play as misty memory, Sean Cox is excellent with his assertiveness, annoyance, frustration and anger, but less believable as the brooding, dreamy poet, and that’s what the final scene requires. With a little more breathing room at the very end, allowing the audience to hold its collective breath, this production will come into its own as an aching, bittersweet remembrance of one disillusioned family, simultaneously real and imagined.

THE LOCATION: Lamb’s Players Theatre – 1132 Orange Avenue, Coronado. (619) 437-0600; www.lambsplayers.org.

THE DETAILS: Tickets: $22-58. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., through May 24.

THE BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET

Sea-worthy

THE SHOW: “Peter Grimes,” the masterwork by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), at the San Diego Opera

Peter Grimes was born in San Diego. Not the character, the opera. In 1939, pacifistic conscientious objectors Benjamin Britten and his partner, tenor Peter Pears (the first Peter Grimes), escaped the gathering clouds of war in Europe and sojourned for awhile in Escondido. During their time here, they were intrigued by an article novelist E. M. Forster wrote about “The Borough,” a poem written by George Crabbe in the early 19^th century. Pears tracked it down in a rare book shop in Los Angeles. Britten chose poet/novelist/playwright Montagu Slater as librettist. Once the language was laid down, it took the composer less than a year to complete the score. The opera premiered in London, 1945.

It’s the story of a misfit, a gruff, troubled fisherman brought down and made mad, by an insular, judgmental society. The gossipy villagers treat Peter as an outcast; they think he’s arrogant and volatile. He’s hard on his apprentices, and even lashes out at the schoolmistress who tries to understand and comfort him. After two of his young assistants die under questionable circumstances, the incensed community goes after him, and Peter is driven out of their borough, sent off to be swallowed up by the sea.

The San Diego Opera has brought in several artists with deep connections to the piece. Director John Copley began his theatrical career performing the Apprentice role in the first Covent Garden production of the opera in 1949. The conductor, Steuart Bedford, was a longtime collaborator of the composer, and is today widely recognized as one of the leading Britten experts. Both acquit themselves admirably in this production. Copley provides plenty of stage business for the 70-member cast (59 chorus, 11 supernumeraries). The first and last scene activity, replete with nets and ropes and women gutting fish, is especially effective. Under Bedford’s baton, the San Diego Symphony mines all the subtlety and nuance in the score, from the sweetly lyrical Sea Interludes to the tempestuous storm. Chorus Master Timothy Todd Simmons reaches a choral apex with the third-act aggression against Peter Grimes, as the townsfolk take up sticks and oars and chant his name in a powerful and ever-increasing crescendo. Commanding vocal work, and an ideal exemplar of the danger of gossip and herd mentality.

Anthony Dean Griffey plays the title character with a stunning tenor range and a wide array of dramatic emotions, from wistful sadness and hope to anger, violence and madness. He’s sung the role several times, culminating in his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera performance last year, which played in movie theaters across the country. Griffey considers himself “a singer who acts, and an actor who sings,” and he was true to his self-assessment, bringing a heartrending humanity to a character who’s not exactly a likable fellow. Grimes may not be a murderer, but he certainly is abusive of his young apprentices, overworking them and knocking them around. And he’s none too gentle with the loving, caring Ellen, either. As that widow schoolmistress, Jennifer Casey Cabot displays a heartbreaking devotion and a soaring soprano, but not the crispest diction.

Rod Gilfry brings his potent baritone, ramrod posture, compelling presence and a dollop of compassion to the role of Captain Balstrode, even though he’s the one who sends Grimes to his watery death. All three bass-baritones fare well as the town hypocrites: John Del Carlo as the magistrate, Swallow; Andrew Collis as the constable, Hobson; and Kristopher Irmiter as the quack/apothecary, Ned Keene. Mezzo-soprano Janice Meyerson plays the widow, Mrs. Sedley, a laudanum-addicted snoop, very much like the Wicked Witch of the West. She has the same big hat, black garb, menacing threats and splayed fingers. Priya Palekar and San Diegan Priti Gandhi are delightful as the so-called “Nieces,” the town strumpets, who are under the wing of “Auntie” (mezzo Judith Christin, reprising the role she played in the 1984 SDO production). Local young actor/singer Spike Sommers shows convincing terror as the silent, ill-treated, orphan apprentice.

The attractive set (Ken Toms), built in 1973 for the Lyric Opera of Chicago (much of it hastily rebuilt here, after nearly a third of the elements were lost in transit), was also used in the earlier San Diego production. The street scene, hut and beamed interiors are authentically rugged and weather-worn. The lighting (Gary Marder) is moody, and the costumes (Tanya Moiseiwitsch) favor dark blues, browns and blacks. With the 1830s style and shadowy illumination, some crowd scenes look positively Dickensian: busy and bustling.

With a dazzling performance at its center, this Griffey-Grimes pairing won’t be soon forgotten.

THE LOCATION: San Diego Opera at the Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown; (619) 533-7000; sdopera.com

THE DETAILS: Tickets: $25-$50. Friday 4/24 at 8 p.m., Sunday 4/26 at 2 p.m.

THE BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET

Leonard and John

THE SHOW: “Shadow of Mercy,” a world premiere dance production at Malashock Dance

Timing is everything. And choreographer John Malashock fortuitously timed his new dance piece to almost perfectly coincide with the sold-out, celebrated national tour by singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen. Malashock’s premiere is wrapped around Cohen’s soulful, imagistic songs, sung in his inimitable gravelly tone.

The production, staged over the weekend at the Lawrence Family JCC in La Jolla, was bare-bones. No set at all, just a black backdrop and mostly black costumes. But the blending of the artforms created something greater than the sum of its parts, and that was the intention. Malshock brought his signature athleticism and often witty, sometimes brutal couplings, to 14 Cohen numbers of poetic love, disappointment and despair, wry humor, longing and loss.

The opening, “I Can’t Make the Hills,” set to the music of Philip Glass (collaborating with Cohen), featured four of the ten dancers, in lyrical, fluid moves. As in the rest of the program, associate artistic director Michael Mizerany and featured dancer Christine Marshall were standouts. Malashock has partnered them before, to excellent effect (“Silver and Gold,” 2007), and they dazzled all through this production, despite the fact that Mizerany suffered a severely strained leg on opening night. Though he made it through the Saturday performance, he had to bow out of three numbers on Sunday (fyi, he’s doing fine). His stretches and leaps, and her weightless flights, are endlessly awe-inspiring, particularly spotlighted in “Everybody Knows.” Mizerany was terrific, as always, in “The Gypsy’s Wife,” which premiered in 2001, with Laura Segura as the agile, insouciant but abusive woman of desire.

Marshall also shone in the gorgeous, sexy female duet (with Heidi Kershaw), “By the Rivers Dark.” “The Story of Isaac” was a potent piece for Mizerany and Nicholas Strasburg, where a father and son, in lock-step, march up to the horror of a potential infanticide, set against the larger picture of competition and war (“I will kill you if I must; I will help you if I can… I will help you if I must; I will kill you if I can”). Chilling. Another energetic, athletic and disturbing piece was the five men running into “The Future” (“I’ve seen the future, brother; it is murder”). They kick and form kick lines, do grapevines and line dances, exhibiting twisted humor that’s repeatedly reflected in the upbeat melodies of some songs, juxtaposed with the terror or despair in the lyrics. And that’s just the mixed message of the decidedly upbeat finale, “Closing Time,” with its cheerful polka couplings and bubbly, circling groups, while the philosopher/troubadour intones, “Looks like freedom but it feels like death.”

Tonal disparity underscored the evening, in both song and dance, in a lovely, angular, coupled, contrapuntal melding of feelings and forms.

NOTE: “Shadow of Mercy” will have a reprise performance as part of the Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival. Sunday, May 31, in the Lyceum Theatre. http://www.malashockdance.org.

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY

…The Baldwin New Play Festival, UC San Diego’s annual showcase of its talented MFA students in playwriting, features four full productions and one staged reading. The topics range from fairy tale to futuristic, from homophobia and pedophilia to deviant cyber ducks. The writing, acting, direction and design are excellent across the board. This is a festival more San Diegans should attend. It gives us a sense of what young people are thinking and obsessing about these days, and it isn’t a pretty or positive picture, even though it’s sometimes drily humorous. True to the times, the pieces are frequently laced with dread.

In “Picked,” Stephanie Timm, a 2^nd year MFA student, creates what she calls “a grim (fairy) tale,” set in a world that’s timeless and/or futuristic, ominous and frightening. The wars have been endless, the land and people have all but been destroyed. Now it’s every man, woman and wolf for him/herself. There are three sisters, there’s a red cape, there are woods prowled by wolves. And there’s a mysterious, mute woodcutter who may just save the day. One sister is sold off into slavery (though the other sister is told she was sent off to be married). The next in line starts to realize that being sent away, being forced into “marriage,” isn’t what she wants at all. Defiantly, she falls in love with a wolf. As seductive as he seems, he’s still a wolf, and will eat her as soon as wed her. But she comes to find out that he’s been making monetary deals with her older sister, who’s as rapacious as he is. It’s a brutal story of a brutal time, the animal nature in humans coming to the fore. But some spark of humanity still survives. Not everyone gets what s/he wants, but good triumphs after all, as the flowery-named younger sibs, loving Lily and the escaped/returned lViolet, join up with the Woodsboyn and “discover their own kind of happily ever after.” It’s dark, to be sure, but so nicely conceived. Lori Petermann directs with a light and sure hand, and her cast (Sara Garcia, Jiehae Park, Maritxell Carrero, Johhn Gill and Evan Powell) is superb. The costumes (Christine Crook), especially the fur-trimmed wolf-coat, are delightful, as is the lighting (Stephen Siercks), with evocative use of projections (I loved how the tree-shadows morphed into the hut, but after a few repetitions, the effect became less magical). Still, a lovely effort all around.

“Clementine and the Cyber Ducks” has the most humor of the pieces, but it contains a dark underbelly, too. Set simultaneously in the present and past, Krista Knight’s cyber comedy takes off from the American western folk ballad, written in the 1880s, about the daughter of a "49er" (a miner in the 1849 California Gold Rush). He lost another Clementine (his wife) and then loses the younger incarnation, this time in a drowning accident. In some versions of the song (lyrics and alternate verses are handed out at the performance), the grieving father “kissed her little sister” and forgot his Clementine. There is a sister in Knight’s play, and she plays second fiddle to the darling Clementine, who steals from her father (the heirloom silver tea set) which she gives to her new boyfriend, a guy from the 21^st century who’s planning to sink the money into internet software schemes. And where do the ducks come in? Actually, they’re in the old song: “Drove she ducklings to the water/ Ev'ry morning just at nine.” Here, the ducks give her (bad) financial advice, and drive her into the water. Patté Award-winning director Adam Arian gives the piece the perfect comic spin, and makes the duck trio hilarious. Cate Campbell, a first year MFA student in acting, is delectable as Clementine, and as her wheelchair-bound father, the ever-stalwart Joel Gelman (graduating this month) strikes just the right note. First-year students Zachary Harrison and Anne Stella are energetic and engaging as the nearly-thwarted boyfriend and sister. It’s all kind of wacky, and lots of fun (when you’re not thinking about the darker elements about over-protective parents, jealous sibs, scheming investors and nefarious advisers).

Both “Obscura” and “Refraction” take their titles from photography. “Obscura” refers to the camera obscura that gave rise to photography, conceived as a box with a hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface where it is reproduced, upside-down. The play of the same name, by third year MFA playwright Jennifer Barclay, is set in a menacing country where everything is upside down. Torture is prevalent, neighbors spy and eavesdrop, and the government sends letters that seem to “disappear” people. The landlady of the apartment building (wonderfully imaginative set by first-year MFA design student Ian Wallace) has come from an even worse land, “far, far away.” She knows everything that’s going on in her midst, from the sex to the danger. Like all her tenants, she’s suffering, avoiding, escaping. Director Tom Dugdale (2^nd year) and his terrific cast (Zoë Chao, Ross Crain, Patrick Riley, Jessica Watkins, Josh Wade) keep the suspense building, gradually revealing bits of information till we finally piece it all together. In the end, it’s a tale of love, redemption and reunion, told in a tantalizingly offbeat way.

The most disturbing of the four new plays is also the most fully realized: “Refraction” by Ronald McCants, whose entry into the Festival last year, “The Strangest Fruit,” was also a highlight, a magical piece that confronted what it means to be an African American in this country at this time. This year’s play dances around the same theme, but it’s a lot more realistic, and even more unsettling. Nat (wonderfully grounded, centered Kyle Anderson, first-year MFA acting student) is a bona fide wunderkind. He was not only a star basketball player, and an accomplished photographer (his nature shots are the centerpiece of Colin McGurk’s set) but also an ace student, who snagged scholarships, a fine education and now, a high profile job working with the most troubled and difficult kids in a youth detention center. His cousin Paul has always lagged behind in Nat’s shadow, repeatedly getting in trouble, even serving a stint in prison. Paul’s always coming around asking for help, but this time, it’s his marriage that’s in trouble. He begs Nat to talk to his wife and find out why she took her young son and moved out. As events slowly unfold, we see that Nat isn’t the paragon of virtue that we thought; he is, in fact, a monster, who’s destroyed a number of lives along the way, all the while assuming the supercilious moral high ground. One might say that, as with refraction, as his light passes from himself to another, it bends; he’s bent, crooked, disturbed. As he effectively deals with a homophobic murderer, a young Latino gang kid who brutally killed a gay black youth, he’s forced to face his own sexual perversions, and his carefully built life comes tumbling down to rubble. Only the final second of the piece, a single, unnecessary comment, doesn’t ring true. This is a shocking piece of drama, about how the sins of one man can be passed along to many others, with long-term effects. Pedophilia is a disease that seems to linger, transmitted infectiously for generations to come. First-year director Jeffrey Wienckowski helms an outstanding cast: Bowman Wright, totally convincing as the hapless loser, Paul; Hugo Medina, forceful and frightening as the murderous Rico; and Marshel Adams, so luminous in McCants’ play last year, as the wife who feigns casual detachment but is seething underneath, and she unleashes her fury in one harrowing scene. McCants is definitely a writer to watch for; he’s already won several fellowships and awards, and he’s likely to go on to greatness.

THE LOCATION: various locations on the campus of UCSD in La Jolla; through 4/25

THE DETAILS: Tickets: $10-20. (858) 534-4574; http://theatre.ucsd.edu/season/newplayfest/index.html

THE BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET

NEWS AND VIEWS

…The Prize: “Ruined,” the latest creation of playwright Lynn Nottage, was named this year’s winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. A number of Nottage’s plays were commissioned by South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, and three have been showcased excellently here: “Crumbs from the Table of Joy” at the Old Globe (2001), “Las Meninas” at Cygnet Theatre (2004), and the stunning Pulitzer finalist, “Intimate Apparel,” at the San Diego Repertory Theatre (2006). Nottage loves to poke around in the dark corners of African American history, but this piece is more current, based on interviews she conducted in Africa, set in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. The title refers to young women who have been raped and brutalized, or “ruined” for life. It’s a tale of survival, and the Pulitzer judges said it presented an “affirmation of life and hope amid hopelessness.” The play premiered at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, and is currently running Off Broadway, at the Manhattan Theatre Club (through May 10). Hope we see more of Nottage ‘round these parts soon.

… It’s RAINing Beatles: “RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles,” playing this week (through 4/26) at the Balboa Theatre, is so popular that it’s already scheduled to make a return visit, this time to the 3000-seat Civic Theatre. So if you can’t snag tix this time, mark your calendar for Saturday, May 15, 2010, when there will be two reprise performances, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets for the future date are available at the Civic Theatre, 3^rd and B St., at (619) 570-1100 or through Ticketmaster (619) 220-TIXS.

… Center at the center of controversy: The California Center for the Arts, Escondido is under attack from police, firefighters and other residents, as the city struggles with proposed budget cuts. The question being bandied about is: Should the city of Escondido close a fire station before it closes the arts center? This sounds a little like the Library vs. Ballpark debate in the City of San Diego some years ago. The ballpark won. I hope the center does, too. Like all public arts facilities, the Center was never expected to make money, and the city was always committed to supporting it. In its 15 years of existence, the center has met its budget only three times; it’s been covering its losses with bank loans guaranteed by the city. That practice accumulated $1.7 million in debt. Now, city labor unions and politicians are not sure that an arts center is a luxury the city can afford, when local services and employee benefits are being cut to close a multimillion-dollar budget gap. In August, the Escondido city council ordered the center not to underwrite any more shows, but to rent its space to production companies that would be responsible for losses. Now, the future of the center is uncertain. But since the arts are eternally under attack, and they’re vital to a vibrant community, and the Center has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors and students each year, hopefully, some viable solution will be reached. Soon. In the meantime, if you want to put your two cents in, there will be an open board meeting on April 28 at 2 p.m., in the Conference Center, Salon I at 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido.

… Local Angel… and go-to guy: Ten years ago, when Diversionary Theatre was presenting Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize winning “Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches,” the actor playing Belize, the AIDS nurse and ex drag-queen, suddenly stopped showing up for rehearsals. A call was made to actor Anthony Hamm, and he stepped into the seminal role in the final week of rehearsals. Same thing just happened again. There were some complications with the actor playing Belize at Palomar College, and Tony got another call. When he went up to see the show, the director, Michael Mufson, asked him if he’d go on, right then and there, with script in hand. And so he did. And the lines started coming back to him. Now he’ll finish the run of the show, through the weekend. What a guy. Tony to the rescue! At the Howard Brubeck Theatre, on the Palomar College campus in San Marcos. Tickets, $8-12, at (760) 744-1150 x2453; http://www.palomar.edu/performingarts/index.htm.

… Shakespeare Rocks! This Saturday, 400 local school kids will participate in the 4^th annual San Diego Student Shakespeare Festival in Balboa Park. Scads of 15-minute performances will take place at five locations on the Prado, from 1-3 p.m. It’s a kick to watch the kids, all costumed and flushed with Shakespearean excitement. Admission is free. Just show up, wander around, and be inspired and entertained. http://www.sandiegoshakespearesociety.org/festival.htm.

.. Movin’ on up: Ken Novice, former director of marketing and public relations at the Old Globe, and more recently the managing director at the Pasadena Playhouse, has been named managing director at the Geffen Playhouse in L.A., which is known for bringing in Hollywood star power. Recent productions have featured performers such as: Jason Alexander, Debbie Allen, Dana Delany, Peter Falk, Neil Patrick Harris, David Hyde-Pierce, Carrie Fisher, Martin Short and Alicia Silverstone. It’s an exciting move for Novice, who still maintains his friends and contacts in San Diego (maybe he’ll send some of those icons our way).

.. A new take: Romanian director Gabor Tompa, head of Directing in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego, has created a new adaptation of Georg Büchner’s “Woyzeck,” which he will direct for a brief run, in the Potiker Theatre. The influential 19^th century German play is a “working class tragedy,” a dark, harrowing tale of jealousy and murder, incited by the dehumanizing acts of people in power, particularly the medical and military establishments. 4/27-5/2. Tickets are $6-20; (858) 534-4574. http://theatre.ucsd.edu/season/woyzeck.

… Gone but not forgotten: Tom Blakistone practically built North Coast Repertory Theatre by hand. He and his wife, Olive, created the theater 27 years ago. She was the artistic director for 15 years; he served as managing director for 13 years. The MIT-trained engineer and entrepreneur recently passed away. His life, and his profound influence on folks young and old, were celebrated at the theater this week. All the presenters spoke of his humor, incredible intelligence, unflagging interest in new concepts and ideas, and his enormous generosity of spirit. His relationships were inspiring. He lived his life to the fullest, and seemed to love every moment of his life. A new addition to the theater, announced by current artistic director David Ellenstein, is the naming of the performance space The Blakistone Stage. Tom would be pleased.

…PAT’S PICKS: BEST BETS

The Baldwin New Play Festival - stellar productions of provocative new plays

UCSD Theatre and Dance, through 4/25; http://theatre.ucsd.edu/season/newplayfest/index.html

“The Glass Menagerie” – moving production of a great American classic

Lamb’s Players Theatre, through 5/10; www.lambsplayers.org

“Peter Grimes” – magnificent singing in a deep, dark opera

San Diego Opera at the Civic Theatre, through 4/26; www.sdopera.com

“Mauritius – a gripping cat-and-mouse game, superbly performed
Cygnet Theatre, through 5/10; www.cygnettheatre.com.

Read Review here: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-04-16/things-to-do/pat-launer-spotlight-on-theater-4

“Be Aggressive” – a local setting, perky cheerleaders and lots to chew on – what’s not to like?
New Village Arts, through 4/26; www.newvillagearts.org.

Read Review here: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-04-16/things-to-do/pat-launer-spotlight-on-theater-4

“Rabbit Hole”- touching, searing drama, excellently executed
North Coast Repertory Theatre, through 4/26; www.northcoastrep.org

Read review here: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-04-09/things-to-do/pat-launer-spotlight-on-theater-3

“The Hit” - fast-paced, funny mix of murder, mystery and romance
Lamb’s Players at the Horton Grand Theatre, through 5/31; www.lambsplayers.org

Read review here: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-04-02/things-to-do/pat-launer-spotlight-on-theater-2

• “Opus” - exhilarating behind-the-scenes glimpse of artists at work
The Old Globe at the San Diego Museum of Art, through 4/26; www.theoldglobe.org

Read review here: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-04-02/things-to-do/pat-launer-spotlight-on-theater-2

• …“The Platt Brothers” -entertaining family fare, antics, acrobatics and all
Sunset Temple, through 4/24; www.sunsettemple.com

Read review here: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-03-26/things-to-do/pat-launer-spotlight-on-theater

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Pat Launer is the SDNN theater critic.