Our St. Louis Critics
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BWW Review: St. Louis Actors' Studio Presents ROCK 'N' ROLL
We probably take the cultural impact of rock 'n' roll for granted, not fully comprehending the effect this raw, powerful blast of rebellious freedom has had worldwide, where it has somehow managed to shape generations that are far removed from its origins. With his play ROCK 'N' ROLL, Czech playwrig...
BWW Review: Avalon Theatre Company Presents THE GOOD DOCTOR
Neil Simon's THE GOOD DOCTOR finds the playwright mining the short stories of Anton Chekhov for material, and this comedy with music, is a decidedly mixed bag, occasionally producing laughs, but not nearly in the abundance we've come to expect. It's an odd marriage of styles, and more often than not...
BWW Review: Spectacular Production of SOUTH PACIFIC at the Fox Theatre
If you've only ever seen the movie version, or a community theatre production, you owe it to yourself to check out the touring company of the 2008 Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC that's currently playing the Fox Theatre. This is a lavish and impressive production filled w...
BWW Review: West End Players Guild Presents A WOMAN'S PLACE
An eclectic collection of one act plays by the likes of Susan Glaspell (Trifles), David Mamet (Australia), William Saroyan (Hello Out There), and Harold Pinter (Ashes to Ashes), A WOMAN'S PLACE fulfills the promise of its title by placing women in key roles in each of these unique pieces. The West E...
BWW Review: Citilites Theatre's Charming Production of MARRY ME A LITTLE
MARRY ME A LITTLE is an interesting little musical that cobbles together cut songs and lesser celebrated numbers composed by Stephen Sondheim. It's a clever idea, and even though some of the numbers don't really seem to fit perfectly with the 'story', they still provide an opportunity to hear a mast...
BWW Review: Mustard Seed Theatre's Production of THE CHOSEN
The second half of the mini-Potok festival continues with an engaging and thoughtful dramatization of his classic novel THE CHOSEN, which I can recall reading (for English class) and enjoying myself many years ago. This adaptation, like the recent production of MY NAME IS ASHER LEV, is also written ...
BWW Review: The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis Presents NEXT FALL
Playwright Geoffrey Nauffts has put together a provocative and engaging evening of theatre with his work, NEXT FALL, which thematically concerns itself with issues of homosexuality and faith. It certainly fulfills my personal requirements for must-see theatre by making the audience laugh, cry and th...
BWW Reviews; St. Louis Actors' Studio Presents Hilarious Production of NOVEMBER
While the chief target of David Mamet's hilariously funny play, NOVEMBER, may not in actuality be former president George W. Bush, Bush's uncanny knack for coming off less than intelligent, and his frequent, and often creative malapropisms, are clearly evident. But, really this isn't about any one p...
BWW Review: The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis Presents Powerful Production of HIGH
There's a moment in playwright Matthew Lombardo's play HIGH when Father Delpapp asks the coarse and tough-demeanored Sister Connelly why she became a nun. Her answer is telling, because it's not the typical selfless response you might expect; she's seeking redemption and forgiveness for her transgre...
BWW Review: Stray Dog Theatre's Fun and Gory Production of EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL
I can distinctly recall catching filmmaker Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 in a local theatre (an unrated cut) and being wowed by his audacious and imaginative camera work, as well as the copious amounts of gore and humor that gushed forth at breakneck speed. I'd only had the opportunity to see the first fi...
BWW Review: Upstream Theater Presents Powerful Production of OEDIPUS KING
The story of Oedipus is a tragic one, and perhaps one of the most pitiable and pathetic in all of the Greek canon. The tale is familiar and famous enough to have inspired a complex named after the protagonist, although Sigmund Freud's description of it relates more to the unconscious guilt that cent...
BWW Review: Echo Theatre Company Presents ANOTHER HOME INVASION
Joan MacLeod's play, ANOTHER HOME INVASION, is a cautionary tale, and while the setting may be Canada, the message is one that will resonate with anyone who has aging parents that are living on their own. This short work, which runs about 70 minutes, focuses our attention on the survivor of a home i...
BWW Review: New Jewish Theatre Presents MY NAME IS ASHER LEV
Playwright Aaron Posner has done a wonderful job of adapting Chaim Potok's novel MY NAME IS ASHER LEV for the stage. With amazing economy, Poser whittles down the work to 90 minutes of stage time, and with two of the three actors playing multiple roles, condenses the complexities even further, and y...
BWW REVIEW: Ben Nordstrom at the Sheldon Concert Hall
Since I started writing theatre reviews a few years back one of the most interesting things that's occurred has been the opportunity to watch performers grow and take risks. A little over a year and a half ago I had the chance to cover Ben Nordstrom's first cabaret performance at the Kranzberg Arts ...
BWW Review: St. Louis Shakespeares' Production of THE TEMPEST
Shakespeare's last great play, THE TEMPEST, has always been a favorite of mine, if only because it lends itself to intriguing stagings and imaginative re-interpretations with it's appealing mix of comedy, romance, and magic. And, with director Julie Taymor's film version about to be put into wide re...
BWW Reviews: New Line Theatre's Production of I LOVE MY WIFE
With their funky and fun production of I LOVE MY WIFE, New Line Theatre begins their 20th season with a trip back to the swinging seventies, when the last dying embers of the sexual revolution were still smoldering in the suburbs. It was a time when collars were broad, chests were hairy, and polyest...
BWW Review: Insight Theatre Company's Production of PROOF
In the academic world of mathematics 'proofs' are a kind of intellectual currency. If published, they can launch a career. But, they're rare and precious items, essentially the product of sweat and genius; the very essence of math. David Auburn's play, PROOF, examines this form of the word, but also...
BWW Review: Stray Dog Theatre's Production of MASTER CLASS
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 ea...
BWW Review: SHREK THE MUSICAL at the FOX
The original animated film SHREK was a kind of adult fairytale, though it was obviously aimed squarely at the youth market as well, successfully spawning a franchise with sequels and merchandising galore. So, it should come as no surprise that Dreamworks would opt to try their luck on stage with a m...
BWW Review: HotCity Theatre's Production of EQUUS
If you only know about HotCity Theatre because of their dedication to producing new and original works by some of the most talented and unknown playwrights around, then you should also know how adept they are at staging revivals of edgy and provocative modern classics. This season they've chosen Pet...
BWW Reviews: Repertory Theatre of St. Louis Opens Season with YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU
George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's classic play, YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, has been given a wonderfully performed and staged presentation by the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. This venerable favorite is brought to life in splendid fashion, with a superb cast proving that Kaufman and Hart's punchli...
BWW Review: Stages St. Louis Close Their Season with STATE FAIR
STATE FAIR was the only musical that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote specifically for Hollywood and two versions were filmed, one in 1945 and the other in 1962. The one that's probably most familiar to audiences today is the rather forgettable 1962 version which features Pat Boone serenading a pig. Ha...
BWW Reviews: Mustard Seed Theatre's Production of CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY
Playwright Lynn Nottage's CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY, which is set in the 1950's, initially gives us more than enough plot for one play, presenting us with a grief-stricken widower who decides to pack up his two teenage daughters and haul them off to New York. But, Nottage isn't content to play ou...
BWW Reviews: The Union Avenue Opera Production of PIKOVAYA DAMA (THE QUEEN OF SPADES)
Tchaikovsky's opera, PIKOVAYA DAMA (THE QUEEN OF SPADES) is based on a story by Pushkin, but the libretto tweaks the story ever so slightly, by having the lead protagonist, Gherman, already in love with the object of his desire before the plot is firmly put into motion. And the change makes all the ...
BWW Reviews: Citilites' Production of PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS
Playwright John Patrick Shanley explores the 'feminization' of the male of the species with his work PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS (google Krafft-Ebbing for a more detailed explanation of the historical and ground-breaking, but essentially flawed, text that the title is copped from, but bears no resemblance...
Videos
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The Light in the Piazza Loretto-Hilton Center (5/30-6/28) |
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God of Carnage New Jewish Theatre (NJT) (6/11-6/28) |
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The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee Stages St. Louis at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center (5/29-6/28) |
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The Wasp by Morgan Lloyd Malcom Albion Theatre (6/12-6/28) |
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The SpongeBob Musical Chesterfield Community Theater (6/19-6/20) |
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The Book of Mormon (Non-Equity) Fox Theatre (2/02-2/07) |
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Saint Louis Ballet's ENCORE Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center (6/13-6/13) |
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Please Don''t Destroy: Live The Pageant (8/08-8/08) |
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USAF Band of Mid-America “Freedom 250” Concert Missouri Botanical Garden (7/01-7/01) |
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We Will Rock You The Marcelle Theater (6/04-6/27) |
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