RUBY SUNRISE

This enjoyable, somewhat Capra-esque, play about integrity and pertinacity in the television industry was recorded before a studio audience. In the 1920s, a rural tomboy invents television. In the 1950s, her illegitimate daughter strives to have her mother's untold story dramatized on TV, fighting pressure from her ambitious lover/collaborator and philistine boss. The earnest, high-energy production provides an amiable listen, despite weak performances in a couple of key roles. Its most interesting feature is an informative postlude interview with two broadcast historians. Ostensibly about hapless Philo Farnsworth, whose career inspired the play, the discussion touches significantly on early live television drama, which possessed a vigor and freshness long ago forsaken by boob-tube magnates, to the incalculable loss of today's viewing public. Y.R. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 07/ JAN 08]