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“A Chorus Line” performs Thursday through Sunday and runs through February 8th. Photo by Paul Hayashi
PERMIT NO 00005
February 6, 2015 Vol. 8 No. 10
“Duck and Cover” Hugh Whitebottom (Michael Shaw), wife Claire (Yo Younger) and Bunny (Scott Smith) Photo by Clark Dugger
By Jack Lyons Theatre and Film Critic Dezart Performs of Palm Springs presents the West Coast Premiere of its 2014 Annual Theatre Festival award winning production “Duck and Cover”, written by Michael Kimball and directed by awarding winning actor/director Judith Chapman. It’s 1962. WW II is but a
sad memory. America has lost its innocence and now teeters on the brink of massive social change: civil rights, women’s rights, students’ rights, Viet Nam, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and the Pill. But in suburban Massachusetts, the Whitebottom household remains sheltered from it all. Young twelve-year old
Stevie Whitebottom (Stephen Lee) wants a pair sneakers. His mother, Claire (Yo Younger), would like to get her driver’s license. But her priggish husband Hugh (Michael Shaw), a shoe store manager, sees sneakers, and women’s rights as the first step to the breakdown of American society. And then those troublesome and pesky
Russians are up to their old tricks as in the “cold war”. Something to do with nuclear missiles down in Cuba. What’s a typical American family to do? Before Hugh, Claire, and Stevie can figure out a coping plan, Hugh deems it’s time for Stevie to get the traditional “birds and the bee’s chat” from the father, except that Hugh
gets tongue-tied and a case of sweaty-palms; ultimately postponing the session. Claire’s brother Bunny (Scott Smith), an itinerant trumpet player and his musician buddy Eddie (Robert Ramirez) arrive unannounced looking for a place to crash. Bunny, it seems, Continues on Page 3
Super Bowl XLIX
By David Bauder AP Television Writer NEW YORK (AP) - An estimated 114.4 million people watched New England’s thrilling win over Seattle, making it the fifth time in six years that a Super Bowl game has set a record for the most-watched event in U.S. television history. The viewership eclipses the 112.2 million who watched Seattle beat Denver in the 2014 game, the Nielsen company said. The game also set standards for social media and online. “Right now the NFL and the Super Bowl are defying media gravity,” Mark Lazarus, NBC Sports Group chairman,
said Monday. With the buildup involving the league’s two top teams and a controversy over the inflation of footballs in the Patriots’ conference championship, the game may have set another record even without the compelling finish, he said. But that finish - a circus catch to put the Seahawks on the doorstep of a last-minute win and a game-saving interception by the Patriots’ Malcolm Butler - kept viewers glued to the tube. An estimated 120.3 million people were watching during the last 10 minutes that the game was being shown, according to Nielsen. Lazarus said there
were likely even more viewers, because Nielsen doesn’t count people watching in sports bars, for example. The ratings attest to the continued strength of the NFL as a television property despite a year of controversy over the league’s response to domestic violence, and also to the ongoing power of live events to bring viewers together before their televisions. Katy Perry has bragging rights, too. The singer’s halftime performance was seen by 118.5 million people, the biggest audience ever for the halftime Continues on Page 4
AP Photo/Michael Conroy). New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski kisses the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the NFL Super Bowl XLIX football game against the Seattle Seahawks Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015, in Glendale, Ariz. The Patriots won 28-24.