Put a Little Drama in your Life
Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 February 27, 2015 A writer writing about writers. A story about storytelling. Nathan Englander’s “The Twenty-Seventh Man” is a slice of Soviet history that was barely known until the KGB files were opened in the 1990s. It’s a tragic tale that, sadly, Read More →
PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 2/23/15 The Sycamores really know how to live. “Life’s pretty simple if you just relax,” says Grandpa. “All we ask is to go along and be happy in our own sort of way.” Each member of the family blows with the wind (or, as the late mythologist Joseph Campbell Read More →
Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 February 20, 2015 There are foot-spellers and hand-spellers, whisperers and eye-crossers. Everyone’s got a gimmick in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” and they make for a lovable bunch of obsessives in Intrepid Shakespeare Company’s new production. The 2005 musical, with music and lyrics by William Finn Read More →
PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 2/18/15 There was a time when Broadway musicals provided the pop hits of the day. “West Side Story” was certainly one of those shows. It was a groundbreaker, with its brilliant score by Leonard Bernstein, book by Arthur Laurents and lyrics by a twentysomething Stephen Sondheim, spawning songs like “Tonight,” Read More →
PAT LAUNER TIMES OF SAN DIEGO 2/16/15 Spend an evening with Stephen Sondheim. The brilliant composer/lyricist will show you around his place. He’ll point out the Baldwin piano he got “at cost,” that once belonged to Leonard Bernstein. He’ll play for you. He’ll even sing for you (though honestly, maybe that’s not the best idea). And he’ll tell you about Read More →
Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 February 13, 2015 You probably know him from his pitch-perfect impersonation of Bill Clinton on “Saturday Night Live.” You may not know that he was the longest-running cast member on that show. Or that he’s performed for four Presidents. There’s a whole lot more you don’t know about Darrell Hammond, and he’s Read More →