Marshall Jennings

Jennings took the stage and playfully launched into an extended version of the Toys ‘R Us jingle to establish the decade of his childhood. He told stories of his friendships, his favorite childhood TV shows, his first crushes as a boy, a magical first kiss (at least for him,) and the maturation that resulted in his growing appreciation for his mother.

This production of KINKY BOOTS by is a show with a lot of heart and a few too many technical glitches, especially related to the mics and sound design. Director Taylor Gruenloh, his cast, and crew get a lot right with this production. Good performances, fun choreography, and some inventive staging made this production of KINKY BOOTS entertaining, especially for those who love this show. Gruenloh didn’t take the easy route, keeping many of the fun elements from the original Broadway Production, and adapting them to a much smaller performance space. The upbeat Act One closer, ‘Everybody say Yeah,’ and early second act doozy ‘In this Corner’ were staged with all the intricacies and blocking of the original production. The presentation and choreography of these big numbers illustrate that with directorial vision a streamlined version of a big musical does not have to sacrifice memorable elements. But what was sacrificed was the energy and strong performances from the ensemble and featured players. Their mics were either left too low or not turned on, perhaps to avoid feedback or other issues. As a result, the dialogue, solos, and background vocals from the ensemble were often lost, significantly reducing the overall energy from the ensemble, not allowing this good production to achieve greatness.

WELCOME TO ARROYO’S is the current production by The Tesseract Theatre Company that closed on May 7th.  Brittanie Gunn directs a funny and mostly effective production of Diaz’s uneven play. There are plenty of genuine laughs, more resulting from the energy, physical acting choices and rapping ability of Kevin Corpuz (Nelson) and Jacob Schmidt (Trip) than from the actual script itself. Corpuz and Schmidt play two DJs who advance half of the narrative with their hip-hop performance and their story telling. These two are the heart and soul of the play and never fail to captivate the audience when they are front and center.

The Tesseract Theatre Company will open the St. Louis premiere of Welcome to Arroyo's on April 28 at the .Zack Theatre.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 19th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld St. Louis Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 12th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld St. Louis Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 5th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld St. Louis Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The first live standings have been announced for the 2022 BroadwayWorld St. Louis Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

This production of SOMETHING ROTTEN is terrific. New Line Theatre’s production delivers a robust number of laughs from a script filled with nonsense musical theatre references. Director Scott Miller has taken a big, overblown musical and effectively shrunk the performance to a smaller stage with a simple set. Music Director Mallory Golden, Choreographer Alyssa Wolf, and Sound Designer Ryan Day collaborate to deliver musical numbers that are well mixed and entertaining. Music Direction and Sound Design for this production is critical because many of the funniest moments are written into the score by Kirkpatrick and O’Farrell.

New Line Theater will present SOMETHING ROTTEN Sept. 22-Oct. 15, 2022, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, all at 8:00 p.m., at the Marcelle Theater. Check out photos of the production here.

Special Offer: New Line Theatre Brings You Something Rotten!

Set in 2027, Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis' URINETOWN is an hilariously subversive fable of greed, corruption, love, revolution, and urination, in a time when water is worth its weight in gold and there's no such thing as a free pee. Set in a near-future dystopian Gotham, a severe 20-year drought has led to a government-enforced ban on private toilets. The citizens are forced to use public 'amenities' now, regulated by a single malevolent company that profits by charging admission for one of humanity's most basic needs. In this nightmare world, the punishment for an unauthorized pee is a trip to the dreaded Urinetown. But from the ruins of Democracy and courtesy flushes, there rises an unlikely hero who decides he's held it long enough, and he launches a People's Revolution to lead them all to urinary freedom!

Set in 2027, Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis' URINETOWN is an hilariously subversive fable of greed, corruption, love, revolution, and urination, in a time when water is worth its weight in gold and there's no such thing as a free pee.

New Line Theatre, whose tagline is fittingly #MusicalTheatreAF, opens their 29th season with Cry-Baby, the 2007 musical with book by Mark O'Donnell & Thomas Meehan and songs by David Javerbaum & Adam Schlesinger. It is based on Cry-Baby the film, written and directed by Hairspray creator, John Waters. Let me just pause here and say if you have only ever seen the film, you're missing out, as the musical has a much more cohesive, developed...

It's 1954. Everyone likes Ike, nobody likes communism, and Wade 'Cry-Baby' Walker is the coolest boy in Baltimore. He's a bad boy with a good cause -- truth, justice, and the pursuit of rock and roll.

It's 1954. Everyone likes Ike, nobody likes communism, and Wade 'Cry-Baby' Walker is the coolest boy in Baltimore. He's a bad boy with a good cause -- truth, justice, and the pursuit of rock and roll.

New Line Theatre, "the bad boy of musical theatre," has announced casting for its 29th season of adult, alternative musical theatre, which opens with the return of the wild, comic rock musical CRY-BABY,  based on the iconic John Waters film, a show which New Line first produced in 2012 in its American regional premiere, running Sept. 26-Oct. 19, 2019. The season continues with the electrifying new rock musical fresh from Broadway, in its regional premiere, HEAD OVER HEELS, a high-energy, adult romp about gender and sexuality, based on a 16th-century novel and using the songs of the 80s rock band The Go-Go's, running March 5-28, 2020. And the season closes with the return of one of New Line's biggest hits, which the New Liners first presented in 2007, the pitch dark satire URINETOWN, the hilarious, outrageous fable of greed, corruption, love, revolution, and urination, running June 4-27, 2020.

R-S Theatrics is excited to announce it has sold out its initial performance dates of 'In the Heights.' Due to high ticket demand, we have added a performance on Thursday, August 24, 2017 at 8:00 pm. Performances will continue at the .Zack Building, 3224 Locust Street, Saint Louis, MO. Patrons may try for the 'In the Heights' waitlist. Patrons may arrive at 7:00 pm and sig-up, any unclaimed or returned tickets will be sold 10 minutes before the performance in the order names appear on the list. 

R-S Theatrics is excited to announce its eighth season opener Light in the Piazza with the lush music of Adam Guettel (Floyd Collins), and the book by Craig Lucas (Prelude to a Kiss) has distilled Elizabeth Spencer's novella to a poignant tale about the essence of love. This production will continue R-S Theatrics residence with the Kranzberg Arts Organization.

I always know to expect the unexpected when I attend a production by New Line Theatre. Artistic Director Scott Miller has a gift for choosing shows that are consistently engaging, entertaining, and smartly cast and directed. Whether it's a revival of a classic or something of a more recent vintage, each receives the same special care and attention that makes the old seem new again, and makes you wonder why some of the newer material wasn't more successful during their initial runs. With JERRY SPRINGER THE OPERA, New Line brings us a St. Louis premier of a musical that has actually achieved a modicum of success (including a filmed staging in 2005), but it's not a choice that you're likely to find anywhere else in this region due to its adult nature and content. New Line is dedicated to taking those kind of risks. And, I'm so glad they are, because I love seeing presentations that push the envelope, especially when they're done so brilliantly. JERRY SPRINGER THE OPERA (music by Richard Thomas with book and lyrics by Stewart Lee and Thomas) delivers a unique, funny, tuneful, and completely tasteless parade of humanity that will win you over immediately. Prepare yourself to see opera from an entirely different perspective, in way that manages to stay true to the very tropes that define the genre, while turning them on their head with delicious blasphemy.