“curtain Calls” #200
Views:982
By Pat Launer www.sdtheatrescene.com 07/06/07 My 200th column! It’s hard to believe Too many productions to even conceive! This week offered a giddy brew: Hamlet, Nest, Annie and Arcadia , too! Read More →
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Pat Launer
Put a Little Drama in your Life
Reviews
“Return To The Forbidden Planet” – New Village Arts
Views:869
Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 August 28, 2015 Fasten your seatbelts. It’s a bumpy ride: an intergalactic space flight that is a mishmash mashup of B-level 1950s sci fi, The Bard and 1960s music. Sounds wacky, right? It is. And not always in a good way. At New Village Arts, “Return to the Forbidden Planet” has a far better cast and production than it deserves. This jukebox musical spoof, created by playwright Bob Carlton, Read More →
“BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING STORY” at Broadway San Diego
Views:1127
Aired on KSDS-FM on 8/5/16 RUN DATES: 8/2/16 - 8/7/16 VENUE: Broadway San Diego at the Civic Theatre “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” takes you on a heart-rending journey. It’s the story of one woman’s evolution from awkward Brooklyn songwriting wannabe to singing superstar. But it’s also the tale of two working partnerships and marriages: one that succeeds, one that doesn’t. And it’s a chronicle of the music styles and clothes of the 1960s and ‘70s. Carole Klein, who became Read More →
“OUTSIDE MULLINGAR” at the San Diego Repertory Theatre
Views:1141
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 →
“SEVEN GUITARS” and “KING HEDLEY II” at Cygnet Theatre
Views:1006
Aired on KSDS-FM on 10/14/16 RUN DATES: 9/28/16 - 11/6/16 VENUE: Cygnet Theatre August Wilson wrote jazz; he wasn’t a composer, but in his plays, the language is distinctly musical, with dips and riffs, crescendos and stunning solos. The late playwright famously chronicled the African American experience in the 20th century, through ten decade-by-decade dramas, mainly set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Cygnet Theatre, which relishes presenting plays in repertory, has brilliantly paired two Pulitzer-nominated Wilson pieces, set in the 1940s and Read More →
“COME BACK TO THE FIVE AND DIME, JIMMY DEAN” at Vista’s Broadway Theatre
Views:1519
Aired on KSDS-FM on 5/12/17 RUN DATES: 5/4/17 - 5/21/17 VENUE: Vista's Broadway Theatre Denial and self-delusion run deep. But “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,” a 1956 drama by Ed Graczyk, is getting a buoyant revival at Vista’s Broadway Theatre. The action is set in two timeframes in a tiny West Texas town, not far from Marfa, where “Giant” was filmed. That was the last movie of heartthrob and cult icon James Dean. In 1955, 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