Lavonne Byers News

Stray Dog Theatre tackles another classic musical, bringing Kander and Ebb's CABARET to the stage at the Tower Grove Abbey on this occasion. and It's a splendid rendition that combines a strong cast with incisive direction. Some bench seats have even also been removed to allow for a group of smaller club tables to surround an extended stage that puts the show right in your lap. I like that. I'm always a fan of any presentation where the audience can actually feel the intensity that the actors are putting forth. This production is definitely worth seeing, and judging by the large crowds, tickets will go fast.

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Playwright Joe Orton's writing career was brief, ending abruptly when he was bludgeoned to death in 1967. In a very short span he wrote a handful of plays that are still being performed to this day, and one wonders what he would have created if he'd lived longer. You can catch one of his early plays at HotCity Theatre as they are currently presenting his darkly cynical work ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE. A fine cast does a splendid job of bringing these peculiar characters to life.

The St. Louis Theater Circle has just announced the nominees for the 2013 Louie Awards, honoring excellence in professional theater. The ceremony is set to take place on March 11 at the Gaslight Theater (358 North Boyle Avenue). To reserve tickets, email stltheatercircle@sbcglobal.net.

If Die!Mommy!Die lovingly skewers swinging suburbia, then THE DIVINE SISTER is a swift kick to the groin of Catholicism and religion in general. Like his twin son from a different mother, filmmaker John Waters, playwright Charles Busch is adept at crafting overwrought melodramatic tales that are hilarious to some, and offensive to others. I fall into the former category, thoroughly enjoying his playfully perverse creations. HotCity Theatre has put together another holiday alternative with their production of this controversial and side-splitting work.

HotCity Theatre, a professional theatre company with a focus on contemporary programming and new play development announces the opening of SLASHER, by Minneapolis-based playwright Allison Moore. SLASHER premiered at the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays and it continues to be produced in theatres across America. HotCity brings this 'horrifying comedy' to St. Louis as the final show in their 2010 Season. Chuck Harper directs.

I'm a big fright film fan and aficionado, and I've even been to a couple of horror conventions, so playwright Alison Moore's fiendishly clever work, SLASHER, is right up my alley. In fact, I was hooked from the opening dinner conversation, which immediately makes mention of film director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) during a discussion of the much-maligned genre, and winds up turning into a job interview for two 'lucky' people. HotCity Theatre provides an alternative to the typical holiday fare with this brilliantly conceived and staged production, and it will certainly warm the cuckolds of any groovy ghoul's heart.

HotCity Theatre, a professional theatre company with a focus on contemporary programming and new play development announces the opening of SLASHER, by Minneapolis-based playwright Allison Moore. SLASHER premiered at the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays and it continues to be produced in theatres across America. HotCity brings this 'horrifying comedy' to St. Louis as the final show in their 2010 Season. Chuck Harper directs.

HotCity Theatre, a professional theatre company with a focus on contemporary programming and new play development announces the opening of SLASHER, by Minneapolis-based playwright Allison Moore. SLASHER premiered at the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays and it continues to be produced in theatres across America. HotCity brings this 'horrifying comedy' to St. Louis as the final show in their 2010 Season. Chuck Harper directs.

Stray Dog Theatre presents MASTER CLASS by Terrence McNally 9/16-10/2/2010. Join Maria Callas, one of the most renowned opera divas of the 20th century, as she teaches a master class. Glamorous, commanding, and larger than life, Callas glories in her illustrious career, dabbles in opera dish, and flat-out seduces the audience. Memories of artistic triumphs and scandalous love affairs consume her. Humorous, titillating and poignant - this is a play (with music) to remember and savor long after the curtain falls.

Playwright Terrence McNally's MASTER CLASS is a fascinating peek at the life and legend of famed soprano Maria Callas, capturing the former opera star at a time when her talent was beginning to fade. The play is loosely based on events that occurred during actual classes that Callas taught in the early 1970's at the Juilliard School at Lincoln Center, and often reflects the passionate love of music that Callas possessed, as well as the bitterness she harbored at how she was treated prior to undergoing a dramatic weight loss. Stray Dog Theatre's current production of MASTER CLASS neatly conveys the complexities at work within this iconic figure.

Stray Dog Theatre presents MASTER CLASS by Terrence McNally 9/16-10/2/2010. Join Maria Callas, one of the most renowned opera divas of the 20th century, as she teaches a master class. Glamorous, commanding, and larger than life, Callas glories in her illustrious career, dabbles in opera dish, and flat-out seduces the audience. Memories of artistic triumphs and scandalous love affairs consume her. Humorous, titillating and poignant - this is a play (with music) to remember and savor long after the curtain falls.

Stray Dog Theatre presents MASTER CLASS by Terrence McNally 9/16-10/2/2010. Join Maria Callas, one of the most renowned opera divas of the 20th century, as she teaches a master class. Glamorous, commanding, and larger than life, Callas glories in her illustrious career, dabbles in opera dish, and flat-out seduces the audience. Memories of artistic triumphs and scandalous love affairs consume her. Humorous, titillating and poignant - this is a play (with music) to remember and savor long after the curtain falls.

The first thing I was reminded of while watching John Kolvenbach's funny and intriguing play, LOVE SONG, was David Lynch's surreal cult film, ERASERHEAD, if only for the obvious comparisons that pop up between their respective protagonists. Henry, in ERASERHEAD, is a lonely daydreamer with an overactive and dark imagination, and so, to a degree, is Beane from LOVE SONG. But, the comparisons really end there. LOVE SONG follows an odd, melancholy, yet decidedly cheerier path, presenting its audience with a number of strong laughs, and plenty to chew on. The St. Louis Actors' Studio's current production is a charming and provocative delight, buoyed by a talented cast and sharp direction.

St. Louis Actors' Studio continues its third season, themed Love and Honor with an offbeat comedy: John Kolvenbach's LOVE SONG. When Beane-a lonely oddball-suddenly finds blissful happiness with the woman who was burgling his apartment, his sister Joan is baffled. Even as Joan attempts to unravel the identity of this mysterious new love in Beane's life, her brother's newfound joy seeps into her own life and rekindles her marriage. LOVE SONG is an exhilarating and menacingly comic rhapsody to the power of love-whatever form it may take.

Mustard Seed Theatre presents FIDDLER ON THE ROOF October 30 - November 22, 2009 at the Fontbonne University Black Box Theatre in the Fine Arts Building at 6800 Wydown Boulevard in Clayton. Celebrate the lives of Tevye and his family as they navigate tradition, progress, love and hate. You'll see this well-loved musical in a new light: staged in an intimate setting, focused on the characters and the melodies of their relationships.

Mustard Seed Theatre's production of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF is being billed as a more intimate staging, eschewing some of the elements of spectacle and scope that can often overwhelm this simple tale. This presentation succeeds by focusing our attention on Joseph Stein's characters, and their joyous celebration of life. It's also a good way to appreciate Jerry Brock (music) and Sheldon Harnick's (lyrics) delightful score, with the meaning coming through with clarity and precision. The cozy confines of the black box theatre on the campus of Fontbonne College provides a perfect space for this timeless classic.

Mustard Seed Theatre presents FIDDLER ON THE ROOF October 30 - November 22, 2009 at the Fontbonne University Black Box Theatre in the Fine Arts Building at 6800 Wydown Boulevard in Clayton. Celebrate the lives of Tevye and his family as they navigate tradition, progress, love and hate. You'll see this well-loved musical in a new light: staged in an intimate setting, focused on the characters and the melodies of their relationships.

Echo Theatre Company presents the regional premiere of THE SECRETARIES by The Five Lesbian Brothers from September 25-October 11. Directed by Echo's Artistic Director Eric Little, the comedy will feature the talents of two-time Kevin Kline Award winners Colleen Backer and Lavonne Byers and Julie Layton, Sara Renschen and Amanda Williford*.

THE SECRETARIES is a bizarre play, mixing strange elements and eccentric characters together like something out of a John Waters or David Lynch film. The climax alone features a bevy of women in lingerie covered in blood; an image that evokes the exploitation era of the 1970's. To make it work it requires a very talented and brave cast, and a director who's not afraid to take a risk or two.