Put a Little Drama in your Life
KPBS AIRDATE: January 05, 2007 Taking a musical from stage to screen is always a major challenge. But “Dreamgirls” has a truckload of extra baggage. First, of course, there’s the comparison to the original 1981 stage musical, which won six Tony Awards and ran for more than 1500 performances on Broadway. In brief: more glitz, less grit. Then, there’s the source material, the meteoric rise of Diana Ross Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: March 09, 2007 Two comedies set in the 1880s; two writers, separated by a half-century, paying homage to the plays of the past. One is a bona fide chestnut; the other, a modern warhorse-wannabe. “The Matchmaker,” by Thornton Wilder, is an American classic, begun in 1938, revised in 1955, and ultimately the famous source for the megahit musical, “Hello, Dolly!” Read More →
KPBS Airdate: 05/11/07 If you think it’s gutsy to go ‘The Full Monty,’ it takes even more cojones to start up a brand new musical theater company. And this week, we get exposed to both at once. The new company is called the San Diego Musical Theatre, and it’s helmed by executive directors Gary and Erin Lewis -- Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: MAY 13, 1991 It's kind of like old wine in new bottles. Or, more aptly, old Irish Whiskey re-corked. "Remembrance" is basically a love story. But it's definitely a contemporary one. First, because it deals with a December-December romance; love blooms in two widowers in their sixties. And second, Read More →
Aug 13-18 KPBS AIRDATE: AUGUST 14, 1991 I'm tempted to call it "The Bland Hotel." It's as if some wayward Kansas tornado lifted this large, sumptuous New York construction and plopped it down at the Civic Theatre intact. For me, it’s another one of those vapid, vacant but elaborate concoctions that's been passing for a Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: October 3, 1991 "I smell destiny," says Macon Hill when she first meets Bess Johnson. The two are mail-order brides, starting new lives in the Wyoming Territory of 1868. "Abundance," a disturbing play by Beth Henley, inaugurates a new life for the Bowery Theatre, too, under its new name -- Blackfriars -- and its 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