Put a Little Drama in your Life
KPBS AIRDATE: October 04, 2002 Every once in awhile, something comes along onstage that stops your breath and steals your heart, that reminds you why you go to the theater 120 times a year and makes you grateful for the genius of creation and the brilliance of sheer theatricality. The Mabou Mines production of "Peter and Wendy," now at La Jolla Playhouse, is so thrillingly magical, it Read More →
Published in Gay and Lesbian Times October 04, 2002 'Working -- Everybody's doing it!' screams the promotional material. But it isn't for everybody. The musical revue, based on the book of interviews by Pulitzer Prize-winning social historian Studs Terkel, is a vocalization of vocations, a series of reflections of the American wage-earner. The show opened on Broadway in 1978 and ran for only 25 performances, Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: September 27, 2002 There's a striking similarity between "Adoration of the Old Woman," the new Jose Rivera play at the La Jolla Playhouse, and "The Mummified Deer," by Luis Valdez, which premiered two years ago at the San Diego Rep. Both plays, steeped in family history, center on feisty, aging matriarchs who spend much of their onstage time in bed. Both women are Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: September 20, 2002 "Pericles" is an enigma. The play is rarely performed, hard to categorize, and doesn't appear in the all-important First Folio of Shakespeare's works, probably because it's thought not to have been written by The Bard alone. Completed around 1608, it's been compared to Homer's "Odyssey," in which a man is cast adrift in the world and through his Read More →
Published in Gay and Lesbian Times September 19, 2002 **HIGHLY RECOMMENDED/BEST BET Some call it Shakespeare's "Odyssey." In "Pericles," the title character spends a long time at sea, journeying to many lands, does battle, is shipwrecked, finds and loses a wife, has and leaves a daughter, grieves inconsolably and winds up back at home. Like Odysseus, Pericles is a man cast adrift in the Read More →
Published in Gay and Lesbian Times September 19, 2002 Just as the infamous Dr. Henry Jekyll tried repeatedly to get his notorious experiment right, Frank Wildhorn seems to need to keep re-working his musicals until they're in shape. "The Scarlet Pimpernel" went through many incarnations before it became a respectable show, and the same goes for "Jekyll and Hyde." Although audiences flocked to New York in droves (devotees were 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