Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 December 26, 2014 Young Clara has a lot in common with Cindy-Lou Who. They both confront a Christmas-hating creature, and manage to save the day – and the holiday. Cindy-Lou sidles up to the Grinch; Clara outsmarts the Rats, in a “modern retelling” of “The Nutcracker.” Read More →

Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 December 19, 2014 True to its title, singing is the focus of Cygnet Theatre’s new adaptation of “A Christmas Carol.” At times, Sean Murray’s version is near-operatic in structure; he takes Dickens’ phrases, from the various incarnations of the 1843 classic, and with the aid of composer Billy Thompson, puts the Read More →

Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 December 12, 2014 He knew everyone and told everything. That was a source of pride for him – no one could name-drop like Truman Capote – but it could be a source of pain, too. When he was 8, living in Monroeville, Alabama, he published his Read More →

Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 December 5, 2014 The Old Globe is takin’ it to the streets. Well, maybe not the streets, but out of the theater box and into the community.   Renowned producer Joseph Papp created the Mobile Shakespeare program in 1957, and decades later, Globe artistic director Barry Read More →

Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 December 27, 2013 Don’t you wish, sometimes, that you could just walk – or fly – away from the interminable obligations of adulthood? That’s part of our endless fascination with Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up. In its gazillion stage and screen adaptations, Read More →

Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 December 20, 2013 Holidays got you down? Already overstuffed on treacle and sentimentality? Theatrical help is on the way. Musical, satirical or silly, there’s a Christmas antidote with your name on it. If you think “The Christmas Carol” could use a little goosing, try “Scrooge in Rouge” Read More →