Ann Lemons Pollack
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Dressel’s Public House
Lives there a soul so dead as to say no to a hot, freshly-fried potato chip? Particularly when it's accompanied by a glass of an appropriate chilled beverage, be it beer, sparkling wine or even a diet Dr. Pepper? There's something particularly addictive about them, and a heaping basket, all golden-brown and crisp at the
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This Week’s Wine March 24, 2010
Robert Craig stood behind a makeshift table at Grapevine Wines, the Kirkwood wine retailer and, like every winemaker I've met, talked about his wines as if they were his children. "I've always liked wines that went well with food," he said, lifting a bottle and pouring the deep garnet wine into a glass. "That's why
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Cusanelli’s
There aren’t many St. Louis restaurants that have been around as long as Cusanelli’s, a traditional Italian spot of the sort that once lived on a large number of street corners throughout the city, but it’s an extremely low-key spot and one of the few establishments that seems to be thriving in a far-south neighborhood
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The Fantasticks
All the superlatives about "The Fantasticks" have been written, and they're all true. In the 50 years since it opened off Broadway, there has not been a night when a production was not playing somewhere in the world. I can't count how many times I've seen it, but the first time included Jerry Orbach in
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The Art of the Steal
The continuing story of the Barnes Foundation is a tragedy, one of many in America when the rich and powerful, using expensive p.r. firms and lots of money, manage to weaken the rule of law and the rights of property for those less well-endowed, all the while claiming to be acting for the benefit of
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The Boathouse
“Nice day for ducks,” we murmured approvingly as we approached the Boathouse in Forest Park. It wasn't pouring, but it was drizzling pretty hard, and we were still in a pre-breakfast mood, which means we were just warming up our clever word-plays while we observed a collection of our feathered friends. Their Sunday morning
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Desire Under the Elms
Muddy Waters, a small theater organization that works from the Kranzberg Arts Center, devotes each season to a single playwright. This is Eugene O'Neill's year, which began over the weekend with a tense, almost-frightening production of "Desire Under the Elms," pairing a veteran local actor, James Anthony, with a comparative rookie, 25-year-old Franklin Killian. They're
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Crime and Punishment
Everyone says that Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment" is one of the world's great novels. But hardly anyone has read the entire book. Well, it's been reduced to a mere 90 minutes, moves at the speed of a NASCAR racer and practically sucked all the air out of the Rep Studio Theatre when it opened
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Gutenberg! The Musical!
We've seen too many self-referential, let's-pat-ourselves-on-the-back productions on local stages since we entered 2010, and another one arrived at the Ivory Theatre last night, to run through March 28. Steve Isom and Ben Nordstrom, with a solid Henry Palkes at the piano, are partly responsible for "Gutenberg: The Musical." Scott Brown and Anthony King, who
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Our Family Wedding
Stereotypes on parade are front and center as an African-American boy, a would-be doctor from New York, plans to wed a Mexican-American girl from Los Angeles. His father is a popular disc jockey; hers is a successful auto mechanic and rehabber of classic cars. And the movie, "Our Family Wedding," which opens today, is produced