Put a Little Drama in your Life
DECEMBER 1997 Published in the Globe Magazine Albert Ramsdell Gurney, Jr. ("Pete" to his friends) was born in 1930 and raised in Buffalo, New York. He's been dubbed the American Theatre's John Cheever, or the WASP Neil Simon. But whatever he's called, he's clearly the keeper of the flame for the dying breed of well-to-do (or at least well-bred), tight-lipped, Read More →
Published in KPBS On Air Magazine December 1997 “San Diego -- Now and Forever Plaid.” That’s the motto of hope for the Theatre in Old Town, which just celebrated the first anniversary of “Forever Plaid”, the perennial revue that, like its protagonists, refuses to die. “Plaid”, you may remember, is about four geeky guys who sing Read More →
Published in KPBS On Air Magazine November 1997 The critics called it Capra-corn. It was never intended as a Christmas movie and it wasn't a box-office hit until thirty years after it was produced, when it fell out of copyright protection and hit the public domain. But every Christmas, sure as there isn't snow in San Diego, there are a million showings of "It's a Read More →
Published in KPBS On Air Magazine November 1997 No top hats and tails for these tappers. More like hard-hats, tank-tops and workboots. Ever since their meteoric ascendance in Sydney in 1995, Tap Dogs have been taking the world by storm, and have helped to transform tap-dancing from its traditional staid and elegant grace to a pounding, hard-hitting, rock-beat, blue collar, sexy, sweaty, energetic obsession. Read More →
Published in KPBS On Air Magazine November 1997 Does success mean sellout? Does ambition mean compromise? Do black artists have to dilute and sanitize their work to appeal to white audiences? These and other musical questions form the foundation of “Dreamgirls”, one of the biggest Broadway hits of the 1980s (last here in 1987), now on an 18-city national tour prior Read More →
Published in KPBS On Air Magazine October 1997 “I always wanted to be a waiter, but I had to take these acting jobs instead.” The sarcasm drips from a voice so low you feel like a soprano or castrato by contrast. “When I was a child, my voice never changed,” intones the actor, “it sunk.” Paxton Whitehead, he of Read More →