Put a Little Drama in your Life
Published in Theatremania October 2000 Monty, Millie and the Mummy. What's going and coming on San Diego stages this fall? A stripper, a flapper and a deer. Fresh from its knockout, sellout world premiere at the Old Globe, the musical version of "The Full Monty" bares all on Broadway in October. Meanwhile, the next local Broadway-bound project is a new musical Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: SEPTEMBER 29, 2000 Hamlet was wrong. Sometimes, the play is not the thing -- even when it's written by Shakespeare. In two productions currently at the Old Globe, the play is a mere trifle. The serious enjoyment comes from other sources. In "Love's Labour's Lost," the young Shakespeare was obviously punch-drunk on language. There are more puns per square inch than you can shake a Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: SEPTEMBER 22, 2000 It's been a great week for women in the theater… well, sort of. Some wonderfully juicy roles for actresses to sink their teeth into. But all the women they portray are tyrannized -- suffering at the hands of men. In an ancient play, they are the spoils of war; they've lost brothers and fathers and sons, and they face a future Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: SEPTEMBER 16, 2000 Trying to analyze, interpret, dissect or explain the work of Samuel Beckett is often, like his plays, an exercise in futility. So instead of trying, in the face of a veritable Becketteria these last few months…. "Waiting For Godot" last spring, and two quickies -- "Krapp's Last Tape" and "Play" now at Sledgehammer Theatre, I thought you might get a better Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: SEPTEMBER 8, 2000 Here's the plane truth: For the first time in umptysquat years, Starlight Musical Theatre has eliminated the annoying stop-action freeze frame. No more listening for the noise level, trying to determine if this one will be visibly green-lighted or will it be a red-light special, frozen mid-sentence and mid-song, to await the passage of an overhead aircraft. No more painstaking Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: SEPTEMBER 1, 2000 SONG: "Getting to Know You" When in doubt, go for the known quantity. That seems to be the philosophy behind the Moonlight Amphitheatre production of "The King and I." The lush and lovely sets and costumes were rented, the choreographers, Don and Bonnie Ward, did the same service for the Welk Resort's "King" last year, and 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