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“TURNING OFF THE MORNING NEWS” at OnStage Playhouse

Views:192

Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 5/28/22 RUN DATES: 5/27/22 - 6/19/22 VENUE: OnStage Playhouse Durang is difficult. Especially when he’s in his unhinged, absurdist mode, and his black humor is focused on deadly serious subjects. The playwright Christopher Durang has been poking our society in the eye for decades. He’s spent his life gleefully aiming poison darts at sacred cows and significant societal stressors: religion, politics, suburbia, family dysfunction, domestic abuse, mental illness and excessive use of weapons. Especially this week, Read More →

“MUD ROW” at Cygnet Theatre

Views:234

Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 5/30/22 RUN DATES: 5/18/22 - 6/19/22 VENUE: Cygnet Theatre Same roots, divergent branches. Two pairs of sisters, representing three generations of women in Dominique Morisseau’s 2018 “Mud Row,” take one of two paths: Fighter or Striver. The rebels fight for civil rights — or their own. The Strivers try to marry up, or obtain education as a path to success. Both branches are trying to cut loose from their roots and escape their shame: a patriarch who Read More →

“IN THE HEIGHTS” at San Diego Musical Theatre

Views:204

Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 5/24/22 RUN DATES: 5/6/22 - 6/5/22 VENUE: San Diego Musical Theatre “In the Heights” is set in the uppermost part of Manhattan, Washington Heights, a barrio that serves as a microcosm for the Latinx immigrant experience. Staging the award-winning musical by Lin-Manual Miranda (concept, music and lyrics, with book by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes) in a small space like San Diego Musical Theatre’s temporary Kearny Mesa digs, makes it intimate, maintaining the sense Read More →

“MALA” at The Old Globe

Views:221

Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 5/26/22 RUN DATES: 5/7/22 - 6/12/22 VENUE: The Old Globe One play. Two languages. Two solo performers. In one week. It isn’t often that a theater critic gets to see two perspectives on the same play. In two different languages. In “Mala,” playwright/performer Melinda Lopez is telling about the death of her mother, and earlier, her father. She’s relating parent-caregiving stories from other people, and offering a bit about her family history (Cuban-American, with a tinge Read More →

“I HATE HAMLET” at Scripps Ranch Theatre

Views:371

Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 6/4/22 RUN DATES: 5/27/22 - 6/12/22 VENUE: Scripps Ranch Theatre In the smart, funny Canadian sitcom, “Slings and Arrows” (2003-2006, using a phrase lifted from “Hamlet”), a seasoned Shakespearean director tries to calm a terrified young American film star who’s signed on to play the Danish Prince — a famously large and challenging role — by saying something akin to, “You just have to get through the seven soliloquies. That’s what people are coming Read More →

“HADESTOWN” from Broadway San Diego

Views:177

Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 6/2/22 RUN DATES: 5/31/22 - 6/5/22 VENUE: Civic Theatre (from Broadway San Diego) In the electrifying opening number, you’re introduced to a railroad line that’s the road to hell. Destination: “Hadestown.” Whether you get there by train car, bus, trolley or on foot — get there, to see the fabulous touring production of the eight-time 2019 Tony Award-winning musical. It’s fabulous even with understudies in two lead roles on the night I was there (Chibueze Ihuoma Read More →