TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2006 XXXXX ABCD D3
7 a.m. KPFA-FM (94.1): The MorningShow. Authors, artists and activistsinterviewed.
9 a.m. KDFC-FM (102.1): Mozart inthe Morning. Divertimento No. 1 in D,K. 136, and Sinfonia Concerto for Violin& Viola in E-flat.
9 a.m. KPFA-FM (94.1): DemocracyNow! Investigative news. Amy Good-man, host.
9 a.m. KQED-FM (88.5): SenateJudiciary Committee ConfirmationHearings. Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.nominated for Supreme Court associ-ate justice.
10 a.m. KCSM-FM (91.1): Mid-DayJazz. Four hours of jazz.
Noon. KALW-FM (91.7): PhilosophyTalk. “Philosophy and The Law.”
Noon KALX-FM (90.7): Women In theArts. Interviews with women in theperforming, literary and visual arts.
1 p.m. KALW-FM (91.7): Common-wealth Club. “Religion & Politics: A
Queer Perspective.”
4 p.m. KPFA-FM (94.1): Hard KnockRadio. The hip-hop view of life. DaveyD, host.
8 p.m. KUSF-FM (90.3): In the SoulKitchen with Harry D. Roots andrhythm music.
8 p.m. KDFC-FM (102.1): San Francis-co Symphony Broadcast. Faure’sMasques & Bergamasques; Polulenc’sPiano Concerto. Franz Bruggen, con-ductor.
9 p.m. KCSM-FM (91.1): Jazz at theLincoln Center. Pianists Cyrus Chestnutand Benny Green
9 p.m. KALW-FM (91.7): Echoes.Modern ambient soundscapes ofmusic.
10 p.m. KDFC-FM (102.1): ClassicalGiants at 10 and 10. Glazunov’s Sym-phony No. 6 in C, Op. 58, “Optimistic.”
10 p.m. KUSF-FM (90.3): FreeFall.Digital underground music.
RADIO HIGHLIGHTS
from the moment he critiqued hisportrait.
The upside of my naivete is thatI was relaxed, not awed. Then, asnow, I was a woman of substance,to a point. Well-educated, well-traveled, observant. I knew a littleabout a lot. A lot about very little. Idebated whether I was deeply su-perficial or superficially deep.
Capote gives us a turn aroundhis living room. On the table be-low the portrait is a banana peel,delicately carved from ivory.“People think I’m a slob whenthey see that, but it’s art!”
We perch on the couch. In thephoto in Mademoiselle’s August1968 issue, Capote is laughing,though it has been a bitter-sadweek. He has just returned fromthe Kennedy compound in Hyan-nis. His good friend Bobby, whowas to be featured in the maga-zine, had been assassinated in aLos Angeles hotel days earlier.
“I assume everything is goingto turn out for the worst, andwhen it doesn’t that’s just so muchgravy,” Capote says.
“I don’t think America is moreviolent than any other country, al-though recent events don’t seemto bear that out. Speaking of statis-tics, did you know that 8 percentof all hitchhikers have servedsome time in prison?”
We didn’t. He tells us he is surethe Supreme Court will rule cap-ital punishment cruel and unusu-al punishment, because of the rar-ity with which it is enforced. Thatso-called student rebellions arejust a “kind of grim fun,” a desirefor identity. “I can’t see seekingnotoriety as a group, as a massmovement. The hippie communi-ties, too, have to conform. Youmight as well be living in ShakerHeights.”
We five in our summer linensare aspiring editors, not rebels.My brown and white plaid dress,damp in the small of my back onthis hot June afternoon, is cinchedat the waist, a bow at the decollate.
The writer talks about writing,claiming his material chose him.
The serious artist, like Proust, asopposed to a mere craftsman, is“like an object caught by a waveand swept to shore, obsessed byhis material. It’s like a venomworking his blood and the art isthe antidote.”
His sprightly tone dims, nowreflective. “Sometimes the droneof the talk shows helps me fallasleep,” he tells us. “Last night Isuddenly realized they were talk-ing about me. It was boring. Thereis a certain kind of serenity thatcomes with that feeling.”
I leave his apartment thinkingabout liberal leaders assassinatedthat spring — Martin Luther Kingand RFK, about whether the ven-om of writing is in my blood, thatI needn’t go abroad to meetstrange people. Daisy Miller is atad less innocent.
A tour of Capote’s home— banana peel and all1 CAPOTEFrom Page D1
Truman Capote: “I assumeeverything is going to turn outfor the worst, and when itdoesn’t that’s just so muchgravy.”
It’s too much story, with theauthors almost desperately shoe-horning some of Rice’s plotturns, narrative flights and inter-minable vampire creation mythsinto a song here, an overstuffedconfrontation there or the large-scale video animation sequencesthat blanket the set. The charac-ters prove even more problemat-ic, but then, despite her creativedepartures from Rice’s novels,very few of the figures in Wool-verton’s script have much charac-ter.
Of the three who inhabit bothbooks, Louis — the narrator of“Interview” (which makes upmost of the second act) — is aperipheral, one-dimensional im-age of unrelieved angst, stronglysung by Jim Stanek. Armand,very capably performed by anenigmatically commandingDrew Sarich (the understudy forthe departed Jack Noseworthy), ispretty much the fundamentalistvillain he’d become in the secondbook. Lestat, the uncommunica-tive dark menace of the firstbook, is much more the intermi-nably loquacious, questing vam-pire of the sequel.
He’s the narrator of his ownstory, the narrative popping upon the scrim as he types his taleon a laptop — a device that growsold very fast. As he narrates, thescene shifts from a modern officeto the 18th French century estatewhere he was raised; to Paris,where he becomes an actor and avampire, turns his mother andhis best friend into vampires inturn, confronts Armand andleaves on his quest for deepknowledge; and eventually (we’rein the second act now) settles inNew Orleans, where he makesthe vampires Louis and, Rice’smost intriguing invention, thechild vampire Claudia.
A vivid array of scenic projec-tions — gothic interiors, deep for-ests, Parisian and New Orleanscityscapes — upholster the largemoving flats and arches of DerekMcLane’s inventive sets (the visu-al concept is by graphic-novelartist Dave McKean, with sculp-tural lighting by Kenneth Posn-er). Hyperactive animation se-quences less successfully serve asspecial effects for the battle withwolves and bloodsucking epi-sodes. Susan Hilferty’s costumes— vivid and ghostly, historical orwildly imaginative — help keepus apprised of where we are andwhen.
None of this matters much,though, unless Lestat is endlesslyfascinating, which is another
problem. Woolverton and Tau-pin have had to truncate so muchstory that they’ve barely sketchedin the main character. Hugh Pa-naro, who plays the role, is tall,reasonably dashing and singswith a big, powerful voice, butseems lost in his long stretches ofdialogue. His speech is rhythmicand unconvincing, which is allthe more bothersome givenWoolverton’s only partial successin enlivening Rice’s clunky dia-logue. Nor does it help that Pana-ro’s acting seems to consist ofknitting his brows to indicatefear, confusion, anger, remorse,thirst, joy or pain.
A vibrant Carolee Carmelloenlivens the stage as Lestat’smother, Gabrielle, infusing therole with great reservoirs ofstrength as a dying elder andwonderfully feral enthusiasm as a
vampire. She exhibits a stunningrange and force on her solo“Nothing Here,” persuading herson to leave for Paris, and singswith great power of the thrill ofthe hunt in the overblown “TheCrimson Kiss.” But Gabrielle’sstage time is too brief. Too muchof the first act consists of Panaroand an attractive Roderick Hill,as best friend Nicolas, lookinguncomfortable trying to figureout how homoerotic their friend-ship is supposed to be.
Some beautifully staged shad-ow-play theater bits and amasque of vampire ancient histo-ry (musical stagings by MattWest) add a bit of spice. Thingspick up briefly in the second actwith the arrival of Allison Fi-scher’s eerie child, Claudia, espe-
cially with her country-rock war-bled “I Want More” — but littleof her story is left, and her otherbig solo, “I’ll Never Have ThatChance,” is one of John’s mostcloyingly syrupy concoctions. Asolid-looking Michael Genet isunconvincing as the sage Marius.The chorus and orchestra per-form flawlessly under BradHaak’s musical direction.
The songs, however, rangefrom mildly interesting to, forthe most part, banal and virtuallyundistinguishable. Taupin’s lyricsare often woodenly prosaic andrarely advance the story or ourunderstanding of the characters.When he tries to cram informa-tion into a song, as in the tale ofvampire creation, “The Origin ofthe Species,” the result is simplyconfusing. John seems to spendmost of the evening trying to be-come Andrew Lloyd Webber athis most vapid and pretentious.
It’s the finale that hits rockbottom. Woolverton, Taupin andJohn try to sum up vampire wis-dom in a resolution that reuniteseverybody in loving-kindness.Perhaps because of Rice’s recentreconversion to Catholicism,though, they don’t want to getinto the flirtations with atheismand heartfelt Mother Earth wor-ship of the “Lestat” novel. Whatwe’re left with is pure blandschmaltz. For vampires, frankly,that sucks.
E-mail Robert Hurwitt [email protected].
The pace picks up in the 2nd act of ‘Lestat’1 “LESTAT”From Page D1
Photos by Darryl Bush / The Chronicle
Hugh Panaro as the vampire Lestat in the new musical at the Curran Theatre.
Hugh Panaro, top, as Lestat and Jim Stanek as Louis, the vampirehe “makes” in New Orleans, in “Lestat.”
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