Interview with the playwright Eric O’Meara
https://thesinglemansblog.wordpress.com/2016/12/14/beachboyfable/ &
http://cpcnewstoday.com/archives/18300Highlights:
"Brought to the Santa Monica Promenade Playhouse under the direction of Natalia Lazarus, it portrays Dennis’s life as the intense,
beautiful, and short-lived burst of light of a falling star in the night sky.
O’Meara, fascinated with the sights and sounds of 60’s era California beach culture, quotes band member Carl Wilson on why the Beach Boys’
music is so iconic to that generation: “Our music is an expression of joy, and a celebration of life, on a very basic level that everyone could
connect to”. The life of Dennis Wilson was a perfect inspiration to capture the era, according to O’Meara: “[Dennis] was a living expression of California during the 1960s —the surfing, cars, girls, the romance, and the rebellion; that wild, uncontrolled, let-it-fly, manifestation of freedom”."
"More fascinated than daunted by the plenitude of dramatic material that made up Dennis’s life, O’Meara says his writing challenges came once
the play was in pre-production. One week before rehearsals, one of Dennis’s ex-wives, an integral character to O’Meara’s script, contacted him
to say that she did not wish to be represented in the play. This news necessitated a massive rewrite...Unexpected rewards often come from
taking on a challenge. O’Meara read Scott Wilson’s book, Son of a Beach Boy while writing the play and connected with Scott’s own story
relating the crazy, good times he had with his dad, Dennis Wilson. They became friends and O’Meara says,
“I now consider Scott Wilson my friend and brother—a truly sensitive, genuine, kindhearted, human being.”
...The play has also been attended by Carl Wilson, Dennis’s son by his wife Barbara Charren, as well as
Bobby Figueroa, a keyboardist and percussionist for the Beach Boys."
Cast interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phDdFRnNJn0