ST. LOUIS THEATER REVIEWS

The first thing that might strike you about the very concept of this show, DEAD MAN WALKING is: why an opera? It's already been made into a movie that treated the foreboding subject matter with respect. Well, songs typically allow for emotional content to be spilled forth in musical theatre, and the...

MISTAKES WERE MADE is a very funny play, full of in-jokes for those in the know of theatre and the Hollywood scene for sure, but also for those who are aware of the history of the French revolution. Although essentially the ravings of one man, the part of his secretary keeps him in check and adds a ...

HIROMI KANDA is a unique talent, casting her lot among the bevy of performers proffering up classic standard recordings, while contributing her own original lyrics to some tunes as well with her newest collection Days of Yesterday (2011), and with 2010's Hiromi in Love. Both feature lush orchestrati...

Before receiving this detailed biography, Jeffrey Spivak's BUZZ, my knowledge of Busby Berkeley was limited to some articles I'd read in a few fan magazines as well as an old trade paperback from 1973 (The Busby Berkeley Book). Spivak's book not only fills in the gaps, but it brings a lot of previou...

Playwright Edward Bond parodies, skewers, and otherwise upends the restoration comedies so familiar to theatre-goers with his work RESTORATION. It's a wickedly funny piece that attempts to make some sense of how and why the division of wealth was so unbalanced (sound familiar, it should be since we'...

Audiences will probably be more familiar with the 1963 film version of BYE BYE BIRDIE from its innumerable screenings on television, with Dick Van Dyke, Ann Margaret, Janet Leigh, Maureen Stapleton and Paul Lynde all making vivid impressions under George Sidney's direction. But, seeing it live reall...

The story of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb has been written about and filmed on a few separate occasions, most notably with Alfred Hitchcock's version of Patrick Hamilton's play, Rope (shot in single film reel length takes as an added novelty), and with Meyer Levin's more fictionalized account Com...

Debbie Does Dallas was a ground-breaking bit of sordid celluloid that ushered in an era of amateur pornography, where a pimply ass was not something to be ashamed of, but something to be celebrated, sort of. And it was a time when you could watch this kind of stuff at home without the fear of anyone...

When the 1954 musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was initially adapted for the stage it didn't meet with much success on Broadway back in the early 1980's (film director Joshua Logan had actually optioned the story for a stage musical). Yes, it's yet another adaptation culled from the big scree...

Jacopo Ferretti (libretto) and Gioachino Rossini's (composer) re-imagining of the fairy tale LA CENERENTOLA (CINDERELLA) is a clever and charming take on the original work that's suitable entertainment for the entire family. Apparently, the self-described 'jocular drama' was initially met with some ...

Frances Hodgson Burnett's work, THE SECRET GARDEN, was initially serialized before being published in 1911 and becoming a children's classic. Several attempts by Hollywood have tried to capitalize on it's dramatic and hope-filled story, with the 1949 MGM adaptation, starring Margaret O'Brien, wonder...

It's been speculated that Queen Elizabeth I enjoyed the character of Falstaff so much she asked Shakespeare to write something else with him in it. Thus, we have one of the earliest examples of a sequel of sorts with THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. Though it definitely lacks brevity, it's an amusing tri...

I'm a big fan of lowbrow horror and science fiction films, especially those made between the 1930's and late 1970's, and I've always enjoyed the work of cult director/producer Roger Corman. The original 1960 film version of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, was supposedly shot in four days, and it downright b...

The movie version of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN is one of my all-time favorites. It has such an upbeat feel and infectious sense of humor that it's almost disappointing when you finish watching it, step outside, and it isn't raining. Happily, the stage version retains a great deal of the tone and vivacity ...

When initially transforming Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale THE LITTLE MERMAID into an animated film, Disney provided an instant classic that was a smash hit with children and adults (and was a key player in their animation revival). But the transition to the stage proved more troublesome and cu...

The Union Avenue Opera begins season seventeen with Giacomo Puccini's classic, and final work, TURANDOT (with libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni), and it's an excellent production buoyed by several fine performances. The opera itself combines the exotic, the romantic, and the poignant in P...

Citilites Theatre presents a late night show, making a sort of double bill for theatre patrons after they take in THE CRUMPLE ZONE, with the short musical, SONGS FROM AN UNMADE BED. Fortunately, it's well worth staying over for (although I took in a Sunday matinee performance), featuring a terrific ...

Buddy Thomas takes the typical trappings of a romantic triangle and places them in a rundown New York apartment somewhere in Staten Island, with the twist here being that all the participants (in the triangle) are gay. THE CRUMPLE ZONE certainly has some entertaining moments and a few memorable line...

DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA is an early piece by playwright John Patrick Shanley, but you wouldn't know it, since it's filled with the same kind of crackling dialogue and troubled characters that populate most of his work. I was reminded more than once of Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler's classic compo...

Following closely on the heels of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis' sparkling 1950's update of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, audiences at the Muny get the unique opportunity to compare and contrast the original with the musical remake as KISS ME KATE takes the stage in wondrous fashion. The chance to hear ...

The stage version of 101 DALMATIANS differs greatly from the original 1961 Disney film classic, but the changes are smart ones that focus our attention more on the evil villain of the piece, Cruella De Vil, rather than on a lengthy, suspense filled chase through snowy woods and icy ponds, which real...

Muddy Water Theatre continues their season devoted to playwright Paula Vogel with her work THE MINEOLA TWINS, and it's an interesting piece that covers a period of around 40 years in the lives of two very different twins, Myra and Myrna. The play is, at times, very funny and wryly examines the chang...

For those who haven't seen the film or the musical verion of LEGALLY BLOND, the plot revolves around a rich Malibu Barbie, who comes complete with an ever-present pink ensemble, named Elle Woods, who's blindly and blissfully in love with the man of her dreams. When he decides to dump her and head of...