ST. LOUIS THEATER REVIEWS

STAGES St. Louis celebrates their 30th year with a very funny musical that deserved a much better fate that the short run it had on Broadway, IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU. A play of sorts on the old song 'It Had to be You', this work is difficult to describe simply because there are so many farcical twists a...

It's that time of year again! Yes, right before it's officially Summer, our own town's one-ring circus pops up the big top behind Powell Symphony Hall. Circus Flora is a local tradition, and this years' presentation, PASTIME, also touches on another St. Louis tradition; baseball. It's a delightful m...

Salman Rushdie's tale of love and vengeance becomes a powerful opera in this commissioned work at Opera Theatre of St. Louis....

ATOMIC receives it's Midwestern regional debut with New Line Theatre's thoroughly engaging and informative production. While it might not seem typical of the productions you're used to seeing the company present, it falls into a category which they excel at; breathing fresh life into a new show, and...

'ARIADNE ON NAXOS' balances wondrously between classic beauty and parody....

In the grand tradition of MGM's classic That's Entertainment! (parts 1&2) comes the latest release from Severin Films called That's Sexploitation!, which takes us on a journey from silent cinema up to the 1970's when hardcore XXX films rendered them passe. It's a mind-bending excursion into over 2 h...

Opera Theatre of St. Louis continues its forty-first season with another remarkably fine production-Verdi's Macbeth....

Apparently, due to legal issues with rights that had to be worked out, this version of YENTL, based on the short story "Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy" written by Isaac Bashevis Singer (book by Leah Napolin and Singer), cannot be referred to in its title as a musical. It all has to do with Barbra Streisand'...

OTSL has opened a delicious 'La boheme'....

If you think about it, BULLETS OVER BROADWAY is the perfect Woody Allen film to turn into a Broadway musical, especially since it pokes fun at the process of producing one. Add some particularly well drawn characters (book by Allen, based on the original screenplay written with Douglas McGrath) and ...

I've always appreciated live stagings of THE GLASS MENAGERIE far more than the attempts by Hollywood to turn it into a film. They always spoil it by messing with the ending. It's a melancholy slice of playwright Tennessee Williams' life, albeit, one that bears more than a slight resemblance, but whi...

Rodgers and Hammerstein's THE SOUND OF MUSIC is still popular today, and there's really no need to wonder why. The songs are undeniably familiar, and the story and characters go through a number of compelling moments. However, it does require a good, solid cast and sharp direction to live up to the ...

BOSNIAN/AMERICAN: THE DANCE FOR LIFE is a winning little piece, dedicated to educating and informing the public about the immigration of Bosnian refugees who fled to St. Louis, MO, when frequent massacres and religious and cultural persecution became more and more prevalent in their homeland. It's a...

Donny Hathaway is the very definition of 'tortured genius', a singer/songwriter with velvety pipes, and melodies that were both memorable and timeless. Just listen to the gritty truths he expresses on his breakthrough tune, 'The Ghetto (pt. 1)', or his collaborations with Roberta Flack, particularly...

IVANOV is a formative work in the canon of Anton Chekhov. He was presenting us with the situations and character types we'd come to know and understand, but with the lack of irony that often permeates his material. The St. Louis Actors' Studio has put together a splendid evening of entertainment wit...

Gateway Opera is like a five-star tapas restaurant; it continues to delight its patrons with superbly delicious bite-sized offerings of that succulent dish-opera....

Based on the novel by Robert James Waller, that people seem to either love or loath, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY would seem to be a story which relies very heavily on particular imagery conjured up in the readers' mind by the landscape the characters occupy. The film version did make a valiant eff...

John Cameron Mitchell's (text) scathing and kinky rock and roll cabaret, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, is given its just desserts with Stray Dog Theatre's memorable production, which is currently running at the Tower Grove Abbey through April 16, 2016. Michael Baird bares his soul as tortured songwrite...

With spring training winding down, and the approach of another baseball season approaching, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis closes their 49th season with a terrific selection; SATCHEL PAIGE AND THE KANSAS CITY SWING. Set after the end of World War II, at a time when race relations were beginning ...

Once again the exciting young Gateway Opera company shows us that you don't need a massive budget to create wonderful opera....

Music has the power to move people in many different ways. As someone who plays a variety of instruments, I can speak firsthand about the ways it's made me feel, and the ways in which I've seen it affect others. I'm certainly no prodigy, and I've always been jealous of those who were born with gifts...

Although activism is still alive and well, one wonders if future generations will be moved to make change due to their increased isolationism. We live in a world where people feel more and more entitled, and have been raised to expect instant gratification. People who make a stand are becoming rarer...

It's interesting to me that IF/THEN is billed as 'a new musical'. It's the use of the word 'new' that I find puzzling. The concept certainly isn't an original one, having been explored on the big screen in the films Blind Chance (1981) and its sort-of remake, Sliding Doors (1998). And, even though n...

If you look up the definition of the word pulse in a dictionary, or at www.dictionary.com as I did, you find that the third meaning completely resonates with PULSE - A MADCO (Modern American Dance Company) Cabaret Performance, which is a collaborative effort with the UMSL Music Department. The 'rhyt...

I saw the touring production of AMERICAN IDIOT when it played at The Peabody Opera House a while back. I was eager to see it, being a fan of Green Day's music, and this rock opera, in particular. It was a great show, but the one thing that stuck in my mind afterward wasn't the performers, or even th...