St. Louis Theater Reviews
BWW Review: LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST at Winter Opera St. Louis
by Steve Callahan - March 09, 2020
St. Louis's wonderful Winter Opera closes it's thirteenth season with a fine production of a rarely-seen work by Puccini--La fanciulla del West, or The Girl of the Golden West. Now Puccini was fond of choosing exotic settings for his operas--look at Madama Butterfly and Turandot. Well, to a European...
BWW Review: HEAD OVER HEELS Has a Good Beat and You Can Dance to It.
by Rob Levy - March 09, 2020
Camp, corsets and Aqua Net collide in a kinetic burst of Greece lighting that meshes the intense drama of Sir Philip Sidney's 16th century literary work, The Arcadia with the seemingly frivolous power punk of The Go-Go's,...
BWW Review: ANNAPURNA Unpacks Baggage to Tidy Old Messes
by Tanya Seale - February 17, 2020
There are defining moments in every life that change a person's entire trajectory. Sometimes we recognize them as such. Other times, we never recognize them at all, or maybe worse, we recognize them too late. Annapurna, a tender but unsettling 2013 two-hander play by Sharr White asks, among other qu...
BWW Review: Costumes, Comedy and Camp Come Together in
THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP at The Repertory Theatre St. Louis
by Rob Levy - February 17, 2020
There is a lot to wig out about with The Rep's production of The Mystery of Irma Vep. A rapid-fire mélange of B-movie insanity and camp hijinks, it is a throwback to a time when bawdy and raucous theater was a rebellious sign of the times....
BWW Review: DRESS THE PART Is Super Fresh Hip Hop Musical “Ad-rap-tation” of Two Gentlemen of Verona
by Tanya Seale - February 14, 2020
St. Louis is so lucky to have a Shakespeare Festival, yes? Aren't we also lucky to live in a city where an energetic audience comes out on a weeknight in the middle of an icy February to pack a house and watch characters originally created some 430+ years ago take their shots at first love? Teens an...
BWW Review: BURIED CHILD Digs Up the Past and Positions New Community Theatre For Bright Future
by Tanya Seale - February 05, 2020
Jordan Matt-Zeitler says he and Richard Matt-Zeitler packed up two years ago after ten years running Open House Theatre in Athens, IL to start Myriad Productions in St. Louis. They wanted to design a company that could produce new work as well as shows that aren't produced very often. a?oeA myriad o...
BWW Review: WILDFIRE Burns With Raw Emotion
by Rob Levy - February 04, 2020
Theater is at its most compelling when the work on stage stays with the audience long after they have left the production. This is especially true with Upstream Theater's Wildfire, a well-acted and perfectly executed play that delves deeply into the psyche of some pretty ugly people....
BWW Review: FLANAGAN'S WAKE Invites Participation, Improvs Your Stories, and Pays Respects to Everyone's Favorite Cousin
by Tanya Seale - February 03, 2020
Flanagan has passed. It was terrible how he went. It was terrible that he went. But here you are in the pub with the others to hear the reading of the will and to mourn his passing at a traditional Irish Catholic wake. Not Irish? Or Catholic? Not a problem. Grab a name tag in the lobby before you en...
BWW Review: MY NAME IS ASHER LEV Paints Stirring Picture of the Complexities Between Art and Faith
by Tanya Seale - January 31, 2020
My Name is Asher Lev is a play written by Aaron Posner and directed by Aaron Sparks, adapted from the 1972 novel with the same title by Chaim Potok. It calls on its audience to imagine what it was like to be a Hasidic Jew whose artistic genius brings great conflict to his family and community in 195...
BWW Review: LA FILLE DU REGIMENT at Winter Opera St. Louis
by Steve Callahan - January 28, 2020
Winter Opera St. Louis continues its 13th season with a most charming production of Gaetano Donizetti's comic La fille du regiment (The Daughter of the Regiment)....
BWW Review: THE THANKSGIVING PLAY Serves Up Delicious Satire
by Tanya Seale - January 20, 2020
If there was ever room on a plate for a heaping helping of delectable holiday conflict, it's inside a classroom where heartfelt high school drama teacher and teaching artist Logan (Shayna Blass) sets out with three well-intentioned white allies to write and produce a a?oefully-devised educational pl...
SUMMER: THE DONNA SUMMER MUSICAL Opens at The Fox - I'd Love to Love You, Baby
by Tanya Seale - January 17, 2020
SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical opens with a swell of music and a chorus full of sequined, big-haired glittered-up dancers who sure can sing. The costumes are dazzling. The strobe lights are electrifying. Everything is loud and large and pulsing and promising. a?oeYou like that modest opening?a?? D...
BWW Review: The Rep Raises the Bar in the Barrio with MOJADA: A MEDEA IN LOS ANGELES
by Rob Levy - January 14, 2020
Expeditiously paced and featuring a talented ensemble, The Rep's Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles is an unflinching look at the underbelly of immigration that continues this season's focus on offering intriguing dramas filled with complex characters....
BWW Review: MADAM at .ZACK
by Steve Callahan - January 13, 2020
1870: Eliza Haycraft, the reigning Madam of St. Louis brothels fights the powers that be in a bright new musical....
BWW Review: The REP Presents PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (and Beats)
by Rob Levy - December 07, 2019
In staging a refreshed version of Pride and Prejudice, the Rep has confidently made its case that well produced drama of classic works can continue to remain relevant in the context of contemporary times....
