St. Louis Theater Reviews

Review: PROFESSOR SUNSHINE'S TRAVELING POST-APOCALYPTIC ROCK 'N ROLL REVIVAL at Blue Strawberry Showroom and Lounge
by James Lindhorst - September 21, 2023

Kelly Howe follows up her incredible performance as Linda Ronstadt with another dynamic rock ‘n roll performance highlighting her immense range. She uses every type of timbre and quality from falsetto to chest/head voice and belt. While the song set won’t be revealed in this review in order to keep ...

Review: THE LEHMAN TRILOGY at Loretto-Hilton Center
by Rob Levy - September 15, 2023

Compelling from start to finish, the production infuses the company with a vibrancy that oftentimes was lacking in previous seasons. The result is the first must-see production of the fall theater season....

Review: MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET at STAGES St. Louis is Rollicking Rock 'n Roll Fun
by James Lindhorst - September 14, 2023

STAGES St. Louis has resurrected the spirits of Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis in a dazzling, high energy and flashy production of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET. This show is musical theatre perfection from top to bottom. The performances are spectacular. The musicianship is masterful...

Review: SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER at COCA's Catherine B Berges Theatre
by James Lindhorst - September 09, 2023

TWSTL’s SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER is a fairly well-constructed production of Tennessee William’s play. There is a lot to unpack in the 90-minute psychological drama including maternal obsession, malice, repressed homosexuality, mental illness, manipulation, pedophilia, greed, and cannibalism. Most of it ...

Review: THIS PALPABLE GROSS PLAY At The Chapel
by James Lindhorst - August 24, 2023

Schwetye’s vision is brought to life by the crisp direction of Lucy Capshion. Her brisk blocking moves the actors from scene to scene across the two time periods with ease. Capshion effectively guides the energetic performances of her actors so the audience can clearly distinguish which of the two c...

Review: KINKY BOOTS at The Grandel
by James Lindhorst - August 19, 2023

This production of KINKY BOOTS by is a show with a lot of heart and a few too many technical glitches, especially related to the mics and sound design. Director Taylor Gruenloh, his cast, and crew get a lot right with this production. Good performances, fun choreography, and some inventive staging m...

Review: AMERICAN STAGE SESSIONS – HISTORY OF WORLD DRAMA PART 2,666: A CLOSER LOOK AT THE WORK OF BRYCELAND DAVIES DAVID at High Low Coffee Shop
by James Lindhorst - August 19, 2023

Glass Elevator’s inaugural production of a 60-minute play of caustic humor showed that this company has an artistic vision that needs to be explored further. The St. Louis arts community may have a budding theatre group to add to the robust and growing number of companies who produce plays and music...

Review: The Muny's SISTER ACT is Fabulous Baby!
by James Lindhorst - August 16, 2023

The Muny has delivered a big, bold, over-the-top production of delightful disco divinity that exceeds every expectation. Credit Director and Choreographer Dennis Jones for his directorial vision and collaboration with the entire production team. He, and The Muny’s casting partners at The Telsey Offi...

Review: WAYWARD at The Kranzberg Blackbox Theater
by James Lindhorst - August 12, 2023

Director Phil Wright magnificently captures the playwrights voice in this premiere production of WAYWARD. He leads a talented cast to tell the stories of the young women who were forced to give their babies up for adoption due to the societal norms of the 1960s. Wright’s analysis of the script and h...

Review: GODSPELL at Tower Groves Abbey
by Rob Levy - August 11, 2023

Powerful and prophetic, Stray Dog Theatre’s Godspell is a welcome redux filled with great performances, excellent choreography, robust numbers, and even some smoke....

Review: RENT at The Muny
by James Lindhorst - August 06, 2023

Director Lili-Anne Brown follows up her magnificent production of last season’s THE COLOR PURPLE with a poignant production of RENT and the story of friends who are coping with the extreme circumstances of life-threatening disease and poverty. Her treatment of Jonathan Larson’s RENT remains true to ...

Review: Midnight Company's YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU at The Blue Strawberry Showroom And Lounge
by James Lindhorst - August 03, 2023

Fans of Judy Garland will love Midnight Company’s production of YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU for three reasons. First, because Hanrahan’s script about Garland’s life and career is compelling. Second, because Owens is relatable when she is sharing Garland’s story to the audience. Finally, because of the deli...

Review: CAROLINE, OR CHANGE at The Marcelle
by James Lindhorst - July 30, 2023

Director Brian McKinley, his cast, orchestra and technical team have staged a production of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE that elevates the script and score. In his first try as a director, McKinley has led a vocally accomplished cast and an exceptional crew to a tremendous success. CAROLINE, OR CHANGE will c...

Review: CLUE at STAGES St. Louis In The Ross Family Theater At The Kirkwood Performing Arts Center
by James Lindhorst - July 29, 2023

St. Louis Stages is producing their first play in decades with their astonishing, brilliant and comical production of CLUE. The dictionary doesn’t hold enough superlatives to describe the superb quality of this production. This review is going to sound cliché in its description but be assured that a...

Review: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at The Muny
by James Lindhorst - July 27, 2023

Director Maggie Burrows and choreographer William Carlos Angulo have put their unique spin on this frighteningly fun new Muny production of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Burrows knows that for any production of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS to succeed it requires stellar lead and background vocals from the trio ...

Review: SUNDAY STANDARD TIME WITH TIM SCHALL at Blue Strawberry
by James Lindhorst - July 23, 2023

Schall and Schmidt are a lovely duo providing a vintage feel of a 1940’s supper club. Wrapping his vocals with his pleasing tenor and a deep resonant lower register, Schall takes on standards of old and what he calls the new standards of the 1970s Baby Boomers. His opening set is “S Wonderful” as he...

Review: WEST SIDE STORY at The Muny
by James Lindhorst - July 17, 2023

Ruggiero, his casting partner’s at Telsey & Co., and the Muny assembled an appropriately youthful, talented and beautiful cast. Every member of this young cast understands how to use lyrics plus subtext to tell story through song. Kanisha Feliciano’s (Maria) gorgeous soprano pierces the stratosp...

Review: THE YEARS at The Chapel
by James Lindhorst - July 15, 2023

Sisters Andrea (Alicen Moser) and Eloise (Summer Baer), and their first cousin Isabella (Ashley Bauman) are the trio of women who help one another cope with the hardships that life throws at them. Moser, Baer and Bauman access their character’s genuine feelings by tapping into the character’s emotio...

Review: THE TURN OF THE SCREW at Union Avenue Opera
by Benjamin Torbert - July 10, 2023

“The Turn of the Screw,” a deft psychological exploration of the dimensions of horror and the human mind. UAO’s successful staging of the work appropriately raised more questions than it answered, about danger, fear, the limits of human perception, and a host of other commonplaces in horror....

Review: THE NERD at The Strauss Blackbox Theater At The Kirkwood Peforming Arts Center
by James Lindhorst - July 09, 2023

Moonstone Theatre Company’s production of THE NERD is a riotous fun time thanks to swift direction and the cast’s ability to execute on slapstick comedy with impeccable timing. Director Gary Wayne Barker juices ever last laugh from the script. His vision and blocking extracts performances of sharp p...

Review: CHESS at The Muny
by James Lindhorst - July 07, 2023

While this Muny production is more similar to the original West End production in London versus the Broadway rewrite, CHESS is still more of a concert-like production. While the actors, ensemble and orchestra perform this material masterfully, the story doesn’t fully capture the competitive nature o...

Review: DISNEY'S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at The Muny
by James Lindhorst - June 24, 2023

The Muny and director John Tartaglia have staged an enchanted and epic tale as old as time for the second show of the Muny’s 105th season. This production of Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is like no other production you’ve experienced before. The opulent scenic design, the elegant set decoration, th...

Review: VAMPIRE LESBIANS OF SODOM at Tower Grovey Abbey
by Rob Levy - June 19, 2023

Stray Dog Theatre has brought one of the longest running comedies in Off Broadway history to the Tower Grove Abbey. Hilarious, camp fun from start to finish, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom is both a hilarious frolic and an example of how art can serve as a defiant act. Thanks to tight pacing and excepti...

Review: BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL at The Muny
by James Lindhorst - June 13, 2023

The Muny’s production of BEAUTIFUL is a nostalgic delight. They have taken one of the best jukebox musicals, adapted to The Muny stage and elevated it with a large cast of exceptional performers who deliver the songbooks of two prolific and competitive songwriting teams of the 1960’s, Carole King/Ge...

Review: ABSENT FRIENDS at Kranzberg Black Box Theater
by James Lindhorst - June 11, 2023

There are those rare instances when a director perfectly casts and directs a play. The actor in every role inhabits the playwright’s characters and delivers performances that transcend an exceptional script to further elevate the material. That is exactly what Robert Ashton has done with Albion Thea...