SOURCE: Blanchard, Jayne M. “‘Hot’n’ Throbbing’ Hits Abuse Headon.” The Washington Times (25 September 1999): D2.

In the following favorable assessment of Hot’n’ Throbbing, Blanchard commends Vogel's intelligence and compassion as well as her courage to take on controversial topics.

With How I Learned to Drive, Paula Vogel's subject was the sexual abuse of a young girl by a family member. With Hot’n’ Throbbing, it's domestic violence. Not exactly topics that have you tappity-tapping to the theater humming a peppy tune.

But when you think about it, it was not the incest angle or the fact that the hero gets his eyes poked out that has given the Oedipus cycle such a long shelf life. We have to own up to the horrible aspects of human nature, and we could not ask for a better guide than Miss Vogel. She takes us by the hand and urges...