ST. LOUIS THEATER REVIEWS

Dick Scanlan (revised book and additional lyrics) deserves a hand for the long process that led to a reinvigorated and refocused version of Meredith Willson's THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN. A few years ago he started tinkering with this venerable classic, having workshops and readings before finally hi...

ALL SHOOK UP, a celebration of music performed by the King, Elvis Presley, is a entertaining mash-up of Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT, combined with some ideas from FOOTLOOSE, and with just a pinch of the movie version of GREASE (book by Joe DiPietro). I know how that sounds, but instead of taking its...

Union Avenue Opera mounts a delightful production of 'Albert Herring,' Benjamin Britten's only comic opera....

Brimming with painfully amusing puns, by gag writers Larry Gelbart and Bert Shevelove , who bring a bit of borscht belt humor and a sprinkling of vaudeville to the proceedings, and adorned with the wonderful music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM is an i...

It's interesting to imagine just what fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen would think of the musical version of THE LITTLE MERMAID (book by Doug Wright, music by Alan Menken, and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater) that's now gracing the stage of The MUNY. Though he might quibble with th...

There's just something magical about the world of Dr. Seuss and its hold on children. It's the language he uses to tell his fanciful tales. It's re-invented and rhymed in a manner that clearly appeals to children and adults. SEUSSICAL is a catchy and clever musical that adapts various elements from ...

Growing up in the 1970's I can't tell you how many times I came across the boxed LP set, complete with booklet, that housed Tim Rice (lyrics) and Andrew Lloyd Webber's (music) classic, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. For those of us who grew up on the records, and even the movie version, it was a rock, pop,...

The Opera Theater of St. Louis has opened the fourth and last production of it's forty-second festival season. It's Mozart's final opera, La clemenza di Tito, or (as it's billed for this English-language performance) simply Titus. Everything about this production - from its glorious voices and orche...

I've seen several stagings of JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT over the years, and I've always enjoyed the Tim Rice (book and lyrics) and Andrew Lloyd Webber (music) show each time. However, STAGES St. Louis has really outdone themselves with their latest production of this exuberant mus...

Just before Summer arrives each year the iconic red big top of Circus Flora pops up behind Powell Symphony Hall to provide a refreshing (it's air-conditioned inside) and entertaining show that mixes a specific theme with various performing acts. It's a unique kind of circus play that never fails to ...

There are so many things to love about New Line Theatre's latest production, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, that this review is certain to be filled with superlatives. I've watched the 1957 film a number of times, and I like the way John Guare's book for the show uses the first act as a backstory before it...

The American premiere of The Trial has opened at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. This is a very major event in opera. Franz Kafka's nightmare tale of Joseph K, trapped in an enigmatic trial for his life, has fascinated readers since it appeared in 1925. Composer Philip Glass read the novel as a yout...

What a show! Opera Theatre of St. Louis has opened The Grapes of Wrath, a work by Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie. I have never in my life been more emotionally moved by an opera than by this glorious production....

Amy Herzog's marvelous play, 4000 MILES, draws upon relationships and people from the playwright's own life. The experience of watching these characters interact is undeniably affecting, and definitely warms the heart. It made me wish I had had a grandmother like the one that is portrayed on stage. ...

Parts of playwright Brian Friel's DANCING AT LUGHNASA are joyous, and some are unsettling, mainly because we come to care so much about the Mundy family that inhabits it. I personally found it fascinating and disturbing at the same time. It's that dichotomy that drives the action, and it provides no...

Several years ago the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's touring production of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY touched down at the Fox Theatre and I was blown away by it. I think it spoiled me with its massive set and terrific ensemble. So, when regional theatre companies began staging playwright Tracy Letts' work,...

August Wilson's SEVEN GUITARS represents the sixth installment in his "Pittsburgh Cycle", this time representing the decade of the 1940's. Apropos of the story, there are seven characters that we encounter in this play, which plays out as a sort of murder mystery. While I haven't yet seen all the wo...

Stephen Sondheim's gloriously dark and enormously tuneful take on the tale of the 'Demon Barber of Fleet Street', SWEENEY TODD, is given a highly entertaining presentation in Stray Dog Theatre's latest production. There have been several different stagings of the musical over the years, one of which...

Before the performance of MADCO's FREEDOM took place the four choreographers who created this piece, along with Executive and Artistic Director Stacy West, took the stage to discuss the genesis of their work, and to take questions from the packed audience who gathered to witness these amazing segmen...

Magicians have always found a home on stage, whether it was during vaudeville's heyday or on Broadway, and THE ILLUSIONISTS is proof that this association is still going strong (of course, the art of magic goes back many centuries, long before either existed). I have to confess that I've never actua...

I've seen MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET several times, and I've always enjoyed the experience, even though it's a heavily fictionalized version of the day four music icons gathered in the studio that started their careers. If you've ever heard the original recordings that were made you know that Jerry Lee ...

Like a lot of writer John Logan's works NEVER THE SINNER explores the darker side of humanity. It was his first play, but you wouldn't know it by the intensity it spawns as its tale unfolds. The New Jewish Theatre is presenting a taut production of this piece which focuses our attention on Leopold a...

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis always provides amazing, intimate, and innovative shows for their Studio Theatre season, and playwright Marco Ramirez' THE ROYALE is certainly no exception. This is fiercely creative work that features some sonic embellishment that provides a literal pulse to the p...

There's something oddly life-affirming about the character of Zobra. He's a cheerleader for living life to its fullest. ZORBA the musical (lyrics by Fred Ebb, music by John Kander, and book by Joseph Stein) impresses an audience with the realization that time never stands still, and therefore, life ...

The Repertory Theatre of St Louis is presenting Christopher Sergel's adaptation of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and it's a stunning production that is sure to be a smash hit. The addition of a representative group of African Americans referenced in the program as...