ALL THE MEN WHO’VE FRIGHTENED ME at La Jolla Playhouse

Noah Diaz’s  “All the Men Who’ve Frightened Me, now in its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse through October 12, is less a family dramedy mixed with magical realism exploring what and who makes a home. The play, directed by Kat Yen, probes parenthood, inheritance, and identity with humor and tenderness, though its foundation wobbles under the weight of too many unfinished foundations.

Photo Credit:  (L-R) Armando Riesco, Leonardo Romero, John Padilla, Kineta Kunutu and Hennessy Winkler in La Jolla Playhouse’s world-premiere production of ALL THE MEN WHO’VE FRIGHTENED ME; photo by Rich Soublet II.

As if one complicated family dynamic weren’t enough, three mysterious visitors arrive in the night (Leonardo Romero, Armando Riesco, and John Padilla), each at a different age and stage of regret, or lack thereof, of their life’s choices. What do you say to a surplus of questionably helpful men who show up uninvited, with squatter’s rights in your husband’s psyche? If you’re Nora, you put them to work. After all, if your husband hasn’t gotten around to fixing the cabinets, why not set these handymen loose with the toolkit? It’s part petty antagonism, part productivity hack, and it’s one of the play’s funniest ideas.

The production is anchored by Winkler, who brings quiet warmth to Ty, making him sympathetic even when the script leaves his motivations for this seemingly impulsive and life-changing decision opaque.  Kunutu has the tougher role: her Nora is written in an almost constant cycle of panic or sadness, and without earlier glimpses of joy, her legitimate anxieties read as relentless fret. 

Soules leans hard into comic caricature as Dale and brings laughs, while Keren Lugo, as Ty’s bubbly younger sister Carrie, injects much-needed spark into the family stew. The three spectral dads are slyly funny and oddly endearing, but their purpose remains undercooked. If they’re not remorseful and not here to change, then why are they here?

Adam Rigg’s scenic design is a split-level house that transforms as quickly as the family inside, acting as the production’s most visible metaphor. The walls shift, the boxes multiply, the rooms echo with old history. 

For all its ambition, “All the Men Who’ve Frightened Me” is messy, but like the families we inherit and the homes we make, it is half funny, half frightening of the unknown, and feels like a draft in progress. 

The cast of La Jolla Playhouse’s world-premiere musical The Heart; photo by Rich Soublet II.

How To Get Tickets

“All the Men Who’ve Frightened Me” runs at the La Jolla Playhouse through October 12th.  For ticket and showtime information, go to www.lajollaplayhouse.org