Ann Lemons Pollack

  • Farmhaus

                     Beware of chefs bearing meatloaf. This is now be part of the Busch Stadium security rules after Kevin Willmann, chef-owner of Farmhaus, cheerfully carried some into the Cardinals’ clubhouse during the celebration after winning the World Series.. Fact is, that meatloaf, actually several trays of individual meatloaves, each wrapped in bacon, would work well with

    read more

  • How I Learned to Drive

    In addition to bearing a nickname as sleazy and demeaning as Li'l Bit, her entire childhood seems aimed at turning her into a mess as a grown-up. Uncle Peck pulled the trigger, molesting her as part of a tawdry, seven-year-long attempt at a complete seduction. That's the essence of "How I Learned to Drive," Paula

    read more

  • Palmer Park

    Optimists say: "Residential integration is the solution; when the children live together they will go to school together." Pessimists say: "Integration is the period of time between the first black person moving into the neighborhood and the last white person moving out." Playwright Joanna McClelland Glass seems to side — sadly — with the pessimists

    read more

  • Anonymous

    Poor Wm. That’s Wm. short for William, Shakespeare, again under attack by some who say he could not have written the plays that have been under his name for 500 years or so. “Anonymous,” which opens here today, is the latest in a long line that has offered Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and many others

    read more

  • The Women on the 6th Floor

    Spanish housemaids in Paris are like Mexican farm workers in Texas. They’re overworked and underpaid, treated badly, kept on a lower social level in a permanent underclass. They’re “The Women on the Sixth Floor,” a pleasant little French comedy that opens here today. Set in 1962, it’s a feel-good piece that might have made its

    read more

  • Martha Marcy May Marlene

    Dividing four into one can be a difficult task. Dividing one into four is creates a problem for the one. Whichever way the division goes creates problems, and that's the key to "Martha Marcy May Marlene," which opens today. Elizabeth Olsen, sister to the more famous twins, is extremely effective in the title role of

    read more

  • Billy Elliott

    Musical theater has trite plots. But never mind. They can be great fun, as proven at the Fox last night when "Billy Elliott" came to town and danced up a mighty storm. Yes, there are exceptions to my thinking about plots, but they're few and far between, and besides, the show is too much fun

    read more

  • Harvest

    Has it really been fifteen years since Harvest opened? The Richmond Heights restaurant is another example of a hot spot that settled in to become an established part of the St. Louis scene. It’s what most restaurateurs hope for as they begin to bring a dream to fruition. We have never yet heard anyone tell

    read more

  • Circle Mirror Transformation

    Whether art imitates life, or it’s the other way around, the warp and woof of art and life make for fascinating patterns, experiences, even hopes and dreams. All surface during “Circle Mirror Transformation,” which opened the 2011-12 Rep Studio Theatre season over the weekend in the little theater in the basement of the Loretto-Hilton Center.

    read more

  • The Kitchen

    English playwrights in the 1950s and 60s wrote so many plays set in dingy homes and involving lower-middle class families that they began to be termed “kitchen sink drama.” Arnold Wesker’s drama, “The Kitchen,” is set in a restaurant kitchen but is so inflammatory it might be better called “kitchen stove drama.” The play, written

    read more