Ann Lemons Pollack
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Water Street
As we left Water Street, we mused. about restaurants. If Kirkwood is the new Clayton and South Grand the new Loop, then has Manchester in Maplewood become the new Euclid? Dining from casual to high-end, a few bars, some interesting shopping. Could be. Not that there’s anything wrong with Clayton, the Loop and Euclid, of
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Hairspray
The happily checkered history of “Hairspray” began with a 1988 movie written and directed by John Waters. Fourteen years later, it was re-created as a musical and opened on Broadway, where it won eight Tonys and ran more than six years. The musical became its own movie in 2007. A bright, funny, well-acted and -directed
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God of Carnage
When helicopter parents turn their vehicles into gunships, all hell will break loose pretty soon. That's what happens in "God of Carnage," Yazmina Reza's Tony-winning play which opened at the Rep last night, to run through Nov. 6. The strong, talented cast came out of the gate at full speed, partly because the same group
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The Mill and the Cross
Time was when the very idea of a moving picture was mind-boggling. To see people walking on a movie screen created awe, or fright. But the visual artistry and technical progress of movies has reached heights that early filmmakers could not have imagined. Lech Majewski's "The Mill and the Cross," which opens here today, shows
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My Afternoons With Margueritte
Okay. It’s sentimental, and it posits an absurd premise or two. But “My Afternoons With Magueritte” has an innocent charm that won me over. It also has the magical Gerard Depardieu, the 97-year-old Gisele Casadesus as the title character and the cutest bus driver I’ve ever seen in Annette (Sophie Guillemin), a little round girl
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Mysteries of Lisbon
Somewhere between soap opera and costume epic, “Mysteries of Lisbon” is a long, lush movie of love and passion, jealousy, royalty, criminality and other good things, playing this weekend as part of the Webster University Film Series. And the moviegoer can take all weekend to see this 4-hour, 17-minute movie, too. James Harrison, director of
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Brunch: The Piccadilly & The Cheesecake Factory
Once again, we’re offering short views of two different brunches, a small independent restaurant and a large (and more expensive) member of a chain. While we found pleasing things about both of them, outdoor dining overlooking a shopping mall parking lot just leaves us shaking our heads. The back patio at Piccadilly at Manhattan feels
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Nuts
Courtroom dramas provide good entertainment; maybe lawyers can see many legal flaws that audiences or drama critics miss, but they allow for exciting stories that often deal with taboo or rarely explored subject matter. "Nuts," which opened the 2011-12 season of the St. Louis Actors' Studio last night at the Gaslight Theater, looks at some
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Blood Wedding
There's nary a drop of blood on the stage, or on the costumes, but the mind and the emotions are soaked with it after watching Upstream Theater's production of Federico Garcia Lorca's "Blood Wedding," which opened at the Kranzberg Theatre last night, to run through Oct. 23. It's dazzling theater, featuring Philip Boehm's always spot-on
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The Who’s Tommy
"The Who's Tommy," a ground-breaking concept album from 1969, has split into a variety of entertainment forms. First, as noted, was the album, with music and lyrics by Pete Townshend. In 1975, there was a movie version, loaded with special effects, directed by Ken Russell and starring Roger Daltrey. In 1992, a stage version opened