Put a Little Drama in your Life
KPBS AIRDATE: July 3, 1991 Thomas Wolfe said you can't go home again. But Horton Foote says you can. In his warm-hearted 1953 play, "The Trip to Bountiful," widow Carrie Watts tries desperately to get back to her old Texas home town, Bountiful, the barren farmland that once lived up to its name. She's in the big city now, Read More →
Aired on KSDS-FM on 1/13/17 RUN DATES: 1/6/17 - 4/2/17 VENUE: Welk Resort Theatre It’s a classic by any definition: brilliant, timeless and definitive. “My Fair Lady” is musical theater perfection, with a sterling, provocative story, adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” which was in turn adapted from Ovid’s mythology. And it boasts a spectacular score by that dazzling duo, Lerner and Lowe. The 1956 masterwork can, however, be a bit long for modern tastes; several local productions have Read More →
Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 8/17/18 RUN DATES: 8/15/18 - 9/1/18 VENUE: Moonlight Stage Productions Not every musical can create a good story. And not every good story makes a good musical. Case in point: “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” Victor Hugo’s 1831 romantic/Gothic novel about faith and love, outsiders and acceptance. Noble themes all, especially at this moment in our own history. But when Disney gets into the act, the depth and darkness are typically sheared off. The 1996 animated film, Read More →
By Pat Launer www.sdtheatrescene.com 05/11/07 While the Monty guys are busy undressin ’ Josephine gets a Piano Lesson. TAKIN ’ OFF … BY TAKIN ’ IT OFF THE SHOW: The Read More →
Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 2/25/17 RUN DATES: 2/10/17 - 3/5/17 VENUE: Talent to aMuse Theatre “Hope” is a triple whammy: mystery/thriller, sci-fi fantasy and space odyssey. Each genre is a dramatic challenge in its own right; combining the three onstage, without massive special effects, is a theatrical Everest. O.P. Hadlock, a veteran of 300 productions in San Diego (he’s served as actor, director, writer, designer and probably chief cook and bottle-washer, at various local theaters), has written, designed and Read More →
Aired on KSDS-FM on 2/5/16 RUN DATES: 1/21/16 2/21/16 VENUE: San Diego Repertory Theatre There’s relentless rain, of course, coupled with loneliness, stubbornness and depression. A fight over the family farm. Superstitions and spectral voices, underscored by the lilt of flute, fiddle and brogue. Sure and begorrah, playwright John Patrick Shanley has written a valentine to his ancestral homeland, in “Outside Mullingar.” He’s even used the actual names of his relatives, to tell a tender and bittersweet love story 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