"CURTAIN
CALLS" #199
By Pat Launer
06/29/07
Puppets and movies and siblings, oh my!
And from KPBS, a surprising
goodbye.
NEWS
OF THE WEEK:
KPBS has decided to decrease its theater coverage.
The station will no longer support my theater previews or reviews or the Patté
Awards – but THE SHOW WILL GO ON!!
My intense and lifelong passion for the theater
will never waver, nor will my commitment to the San Diego theater community,
and I will make sure that the Patté Awards continue to celebrate the amazing
extent and diversity of San Diego theater and its mega-talented theatermakers.
The Pattés existed before KPBS came on board, and will continue after them.
If you feel like you’re more than chopped liver and want to support the
future of honoring
My theater comments and reviews, and my Picks of
the Week, will continue to appear here at sdtheatrescene.com, as well as at www.patteproductions.com
and other venues (details to come).
P.S. Below is the blog
commentary of KPBS arts producer Angela Carone. Feel free to post a response
online at www.kpbs.org/blogs/culturelust/
June 27th, 2007 by Angela Carone
Big changes are always hard to wrap your head around,
particularly when they’re tinged with sadness.
This morning, after three cups of coffee and an intense Film Club of the
Air, I found myself in an office, meeting with the heads of the
new media and radio broadcasting departments at KPBS. I was still a little amped, and not particularly suited to digest the
information I was about to hear.
The announcement? Pat Launer, who has been covering the theater community for KPBS
for almost 20 years, will no longer be working with the station. No reviews. No
These Days. No Patté Awards.
I was stunned, especially since I was planning to have Pat
on These Days for tomorrow’s Weekend Preview segment.
It’s a sad day at KPBS. It will be even sadder for the
Why would KPBS end their relationship with her? And why so abruptly?
I talked with Doug Myrland,
general manager of KPBS. He said:
“The various entities using Pat’s work, the Web, radio, and
the Patté Awards wanted to do broader arts coverage. Just doing theater was
increasingly becoming a problem editorially.
KPBS’ contract with Pat is with her company Patté Productions and it was for a package
of services. So we didn’t close the door we just said we don’t want all of the
services you are offering. Now she may take her reviews and Patté Awards
somewhere else. But if she came back in the future and offered one of those
services, we may be open to those discussions.”
Fair enough. The broadcasting world is constantly in flux.
Shows and personalities come and go. But I’m still not sure why it happened so
abruptly. With respect to the timing, Doug pointed out that this is the end of
the fiscal year, “If you are not going to renew a contract, this is when you do
it.”
I understand the whole fiscal year thing, but why on a
Wednesday, in the middle of the week? What happened on Tuesday? Why not wait
until Friday, when the natural ending of the work-week would compliment the
ending of a professional relationship? It’s a silly point, but when your work
is cut short, it’s like getting sucker punched, and you don’t get sucker
punched on a Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. You get sucker punched in a bar, on a
Saturday night, when you’re drunk enough to take the blow.
Now that I’ve had a couple of hours to digest the ripple
effect of the change, I’m still reluctant to qualify it. Yes, we will continue
to cover theater on These Days. Yes, I will cover theater occasionally
on this blog. But can this measure up, in any way, to
the breadth of coverage Pat offered? And with the same — forgive me — drama?
The answer is clearly no.
But then where does that leave us? How will the arts
coverage at the station recalibrate after this loss? I’m left with a lot of
questions. But both Doug and radio program director John
Decker assure me that KPBS remains committed to covering the arts.
There is one thing I know for sure. Pat, your distinctive
voice will be missed.
— Angela Carone produces arts and culture
programming for These Days
and Culture Lust.
BIG
FISH, SMALL FISH
Since KPBS will not be uploading my final on air
radio review, from 6/29/08, online, I’ve included it here:
It’s a study in contrasts.
A tiny theater, and a large one. A
huge musical production and a small, dramatic one. An American classic
and a world premiere. “Carmen”
at
“Carmen” is a new adaptation of the beloved
(1875) Bizet opera, at the La Jolla Playhouse. Like
the opera and the new musical are based on the 1845 novella by the French
writer Prosper Mérimée. The story concerns that gypsy
seductress whom men find so irresistible. Carmen ensnares José, a hot-tempered
soldier, who becomes so obsessed with her, he leaves his wife, deserts his
regiment, joins her gypsy band of thieves, and when she attracts the attention
of a dashing matador, he resorts to murder, all in the name of his jealous,
overly possessive love.
Not only does the
adaptation not live up to the original, it doesn’t live up to its own hype.
Director Franco Dragone, best known for helming
Cirque du Soleil spectacles
and Céline Dion’s Vegas
extravaganza, said this show would change the face of musical theater. Instead,
it feels traditional and derivative. Several of the song and dance numbers look
like they leapt right of out “Les Miz,” “The Scarlet
Pimpernel, “West Side Story” or “Man of La Mancha.”
The pop music (by European songwriter John Ewbank) is
bland and undistinguished, but it’s belted out like rock anthems. Even the
choreography, heavy on flamenco, is disappointing, and that was a high
expectation, since the whole effort began with the choreographer, Sarah Miles,
who also wrote the uninspired book. Her dance vocabulary is limited here. And
throughout the show, although there are some gorgeous stage pictures, the
symbolism is of the blood-red, beat-you-over-the-head variety. On the plus
side, the leads and the singing are terrific. People either love it or hate it.
Most of the critics seem to fall in the latter category. But some audience
members, like José, are smitten by ‘Carmen.’
On the small side of
the theater spectrum, New Village Arts is mounting a deliciously intense
production of “True West,” Sam Shepard’s scorching 1980 drama, an occasionally
comic nightmare of sibling rivalry. There’s menace in almost every moment, as
two competitive brothers circle each other ominously, baring their teeth and
giving venomous vent to their lifetime of envies and resentments. One’s a
strait-laced
It smacks of Cain and
Abel, but it’s also one of Shepard’s dramatic re-conceptions of the myth of the
American West. And it’s very much about our own, and the playwright’s, split
personalities – part good kid/part bad seed, simultaneously craving the stable
and the rebel lifestyle.
Under the muscular
direction of Kristianne Kurner, the performances are outstanding. There are
several ways to play these two characters – as equal combatants or as predator
and prey. In the 2000 Broadway revival, the actors (John C. Reilly and Philip
Seymour Hoffman) actually switched roles a few times during the run. At New
Village Arts, Francis Gercke is a dangerous presence who terrorizes his
brother, and scares the dickens out of us, too. The cowering Joshua Everett
Johnson grows in power and dominance as he devolves into his dissolute brother.
As they square off, their verbal and physical battles are breath-stopping. In
small roles, as a vapid/flashy
New Village made
another kind of magic this week, of the financial sort. They built a new
theater space and moved in without any outstanding debt. That’s theatrical
nirvana. The community of
So the moral of this
two-pronged story is, less is often more.
THE DETAILS: “True West” runs through July 15 at
Chekhov.. Check!
Tonic Theatre is presenting a week of Chekhov
one-acts or “comic crises,” translated by Dustin Condrin
and entitled Flies in the Snuffbox , a quote from the funny/sad “On the
Harmfulness of Tobacco.” There were supposed to be four fully staged plays, but
much-lauded local actor/teacher Ron Ray took ill and could not perform, so
“Swan Song,” directed by Esther Emery, was done as a reading, and J. Scott
Bronson stepped in for Ray as the aging actor making his final (inebriated)
entrance, playing off the Prompter (Ed Eigner), with
stage directions read by Condrin. A
potent piece in any format.
These plays are a perfect little microcosm of
Chekhov’s unique ability to create characters who
embody human nature and human folly. In …Tobacco,
a zhlubby, henpecked, miserable husband is forced by
his domineering, penny-pinching wife to give a lecture, during which he barely
mentions tobacco, but bemoans his life as he becomes increasingly intoxicated.
Bronson is perfect in the role, just funny enough, drunk enough, pathetic
enough to engage an audience and evoke their sympathy.
The
Bear considers the bizarre emotional acrobatics of
romantic attraction. Amanda Cooley Davis is comical as the ever-grieving wife who
swears to remain faithful to her late husband until death, while acknowledging
that her mate was a chronic philanderer. John DeCarlo
is a hoot as the slovenly, loutish, loud-mouthed neighbor who comes to collect
a debt owed by the dead husband. Eigner runs
interference as the confused, put-upon butler. Director Dustin Condren keeps
the pace lively, and the humor factor high. The actors are well balanced -- formidable
emotional foes and delightful company. Amy Biedel, founder/producing artistic
director of Tonic Productions, directs “The Proposal,” the most farcical of the
quartet of one-acts, which considers the wealthy courting the wealthy for
convenience, and the decidedly inconvenient, unpleasant marriages that ensue.
This pair will definitely live scrappily ever after.
At North Coast Repertory Theatre, through June 30
MORE
PUPPET NUDITY…
With Avenue
Q (brought to us by the Old Globe, at the Spreckels Theatre through Aug. 5)
opening this weekend, it’s amazing that there was just another puppet show in town, with senior (rather than 20-something
slacker) puppet nudity. The San Diego
Guild of Puppetry/Puppetry Center of San Diego presented a short run of Goldilocks,
The Nursing Home Version: A Cautionary Tale.
It was the company’s first adult-themed production, and it received impressive
financial support: from the Jim Henson Foundation, the Commission for Arts and
Culture, the San Diego Foundation, Dr. Seuss Foundation and California Arts
Council. But the show just wasn’t ready for prime-time.
The intentions were excellent; the concept and
direction came from puppeteer Lynne Jennings, whose mother spent time in an
unfortunately awful nursing home (or skilled nursing facility, as they’re now
called). Her mother repeatedly exhorted
The script needs considerable re-thinking and
fine-tuning. It needs shaping and a more coherent narrative arc. Several of the
older folks (puppets) looked alike, and it was easy to get lost in ‘who’s doing
what to whom.’
It was clever to call the nursing home The Woods,
an ideal setup for the dangers that lurk within. There’s a Cuckoo’s Nest nurse Ratched (the nurse
was at times played, melodramatically, by live actress Bridget Rountree, and at times by a puppet) who’s systematically
not only emotionally torturing the patients, but snuffing them out. The
resolution (which, if the show were to be useful or educational, would report
her to the authorities, or have her job terminated in some way) instead compels
her to receive treatment in the nursing home herself, force-feeding her a taste
of her own (lethal) medicine.
The primary need here is for an accomplished
theatrical director. And more dialogue. There are many silent moments when the
unvoiced action is not clear or sharp enough to clarify the intent, and the
puppets could easily be conversing instead, which they do at times. No gripes
about the puppets, though. They’re fantastic: highly detailed bunraku, shadow and rod puppets.
And the scaled-down puppet props are amazing: a tiny walker, wheelchair,
glasses, a leg cast, even removable false teeth! The
puppeteers – Iain Gunn,
Punctuating the action is live performance of
songs created by Mary (Tamsin) Thoren
and Gibran Vicente, sung by Thoren,
accompanying herself on keyboards. The songs are cute and often clever,
performed in a variety of styles, presented quite well. They offer some of the
show’s best comic relief. But there are just too many untied strands here.
Another go-round, with a script doctor, director and staging simplification,
might make this into something worth touring around – if it didn’t come across
as just a screed or vendetta.
NO
BUSINESS LIKE ‘SHOW BUSINESS’
During its all too brief one-week run at the Ken
Cinema, the movie “Show Business: The
Road to Broadway,” was theater heaven.
The documentary chronicles the 2004 theater season on Broadway, focusing
on the making of four high-profile musicals: Avenue Q;
NEWS
AND VIEWS…
… Something old(ish), something new: Triad
Productions is debuting in San Diego with John Patrick Shanley’s
1983 drama, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea,
about two battered losers and their quest for love. Artistic director Adam
Parker (a recent grad of SDSU) directs Scott Amiotte and Annie Prichard. At the
….A
Chaotic collaboration: San Diego Asian American Repertory Theatre, in association with The
Collective Theatre company, presents
the world premiere of The House of Chaos, Velina Hasu Houston’s
contemporary adaptation of the Medea myth. Set in a
segregated community outside
And
speaking of Medea,
a reading of the Euripides original will mark the return of the Grass Roots Greeks. Scheduled to
coincide with the production of ..Chaos, the
reading will be held at 4:30pm in the Experimental Theatre, July 21 and 28,
leading up to the evening performance of Chaos
in the same space. Translator Marianne
McDonald will be on hand for a post-performance discussion. Local favorite
Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson reads the role of Medea.
…
And speaking of readings, Chronos Theatre Group
is back with a staged reading – with original music, dance and mime – of two
comic Chinese plays from the 12th-13th centuries: Qui Hu Tries to
Seduce His Own Wife and Grandee’s Son
Takes the Wrong Career. July 17 at the Lyceum Theatre.
www.chronostheatre.com
…
Killer women… Director
…Sashaying
down the Promenade:
…
Actor/dancer
… Resilience at 6th @ Penn… Programs
Six and Seven are on the boards at 6th @ Penn, as part of the Resilience of the Spirit Human Rights
Festival 2000. No
Sit, No Stand, No Lie, by San Diegan David Hogan, directed by
… Broadway San Diego has just become part of a new theater patron
loyalty program, the Audience Rewards,
an alliance of Broadway’s leading theater owners and nationwide
presenters. The organizations
represented include Nederlander Productions (of which
Broadway SD is a part), The Shubert Organization, Jujamcyn Theatres and members of The
Independent Presenters Network. The membership website offers info on Broadway,
Off-Broadway and national touring shows, as well as other live entertainment
events. There are links to the authorized ticketing company for each venue,
special benefits, and beginning this fall, a system for earning points toward
theatre tickets, merchandise and “special experiences.” For info or to sign up, go to www.audiencerewards.com.
…
The monster walks (and sings) again… The cast has been announced for The
New Mel Brooks Musical, Young Frankenstein.” The lineup will include: Roger Bart, as the
Doctor F, plus Broadway luminaries Sutton Foster (the Tony Award-winning star
of Thoroughly Modern Millie, first
seen at la Jolla Playhouse); Megan Mullally (of “Will
and Grace” fame, who also appeared at LJP, with
Matthew Broderick, in the revival of How
to Succeed… ), Andrea Martin, Fred Applegate and as Igor, Christopher
Fitzgerald. Previews begin Oct. 11; the show opens Nov. 8. Another high-profile
aspect of this production is the price: tix range
from a rear mezzanine (read: impossibly distant) seat at $61.50 to an orchestra
seat max of $451.50. And WHO is supposed to be able to afford to go to the
theater these days?? (On the plus side, it makes
'NOT TO BE MISSED!'
(Pat’s Picks)
True West – deliciously dangerous; wonderfully acted and directed
New Village Arts,
through July 15
Devil Dog Six – delightful production of a convoluted play. But watch those ponies run!
Sassy Sarah Vaughan, The
Divine One: more a cabaret concert than a play, but a
wonderful performance by Ayanna Hobson and a killer
band
Ira
(For full text of all of
Pat’s past reviews, going back to 1990, use the Search engine at
www.patteproductions.com)
Send
up fireworks for the 4th … and the theater.
© 2007 PATTÉ PRODUCTIONS, INC.