Put a Little Drama in your Life
Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 September 18, 2015 Some plays are tailor-made for a small, intimate theater. That kind of setting enhances the claustrophobic feel of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” which makes it just right for The Broadway Theatre in Vista. Adapted in 1955 by screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, from Anne’s published journal, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play is set in the cramped Amsterdam Annex, upstairs from Otto Frank’s business, where 13 Read More →
Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 September 11, 2015 An early work by William Shakespeare, “The Comedy of Errors” is so silly, with its multiple mixups and mishaps, that setting it almost anywhere can’t harm it. The two sets of identical twins, each matched pair bearing the same name, is separated pretty much at birth, growing up in disparate places – Syracuse and Ephesus. So, why turn Ephesus into New Orleans? Well, why not? The place Read More →
Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 September 4, 2015 Nobody makes it through life unscarred. But Violet wears her wounds more prominently than the rest of us. A native of rural North Carolina, she was facially disfigured by a wayward axe blade at the age of 12. Taunted and rebuffed all her life, she’s become tough, insightful and resilient. Her faith, her father and her late mother’s Bible have helped her survive. Now an adult, Violet Read More →
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 →
Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 August 14, 2015 Did you ever look at someone you thought you knew and wonder, ‘What is going on inside your head?’ Well, the world premiere musical “Up Here” gives us an inkling of what’s ‘up there’ for one nerdy, shy, smart, introverted guy: Dan, the computer-man, engagingly played by Matt Bittner. We meet all the conflicting, disruptive characters in his mind – who sing, dance, cavort and keep him Read More →
Pat Launer, Center Stage on KSDS JAZZ88 August 7, 2015 Who let the dogs out? That monstrous, murderous hound is back, in “Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery,” at The Old Globe. This West coast premiere is the brainchild of Ken Ludwig, the award-winning comic playwright best known for “Lend Me a Tenor.” Here we have a deliciously campy riff on the classic 1902 Arthur Conan Doyle story, “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” Hewing surprisingly close to the Read More →