Ann Lemons Pollack
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Fiddler on the Roof
It’s always heartening when an old standard of the theatre exceeds expectations. When the production turns out to be truly satisfying, it’s the sort of thing that can cause even the most acerbic to stroll out wearing a smile. And that’s the case with the Muny’s Fiddler on the Roof. It’s not a shiny production.
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An Occasion of Sin
I admit it: I love potato chips. My idea of guilty pleasure is potato chips and and a dry sparkling wine. No, it doesn't have to be Champagne, although I remember an assistant winemaker at Domaine Mumm many years ago who took his bubbly with popcorn. The wondrous food writer MFK Fisher loved potato chips.
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Peno Italian Soul Food
Yes, it's a little off the beaten path – but not much. But it's pleasant and casual at Peno, if I may call it by its first name, and it's a tasty stop. My editor at St. Louis Magazine used a phrase that translates as "hidden gem". Take a look at the fig trees outside when you
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Thom Paine (based on nothing)
As I sat watching Joe Hanrahan in the one-man show Thom Pain (based on nothing) in the basement of Herbie’s Vintage 72, I thought how much it felt like the early days of Gaslight Square. One performer, no set to speak of, a small audience, the background noise of eaters and drinkers drifting in, and
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LaBute New Theater Festival 2016, Part 2
Theater that makes you squirm: It could be a theme in much of playwright/film director Neil LaBute’s work. And we’ve got it in spades in the second half of the 2016 Labute New Theater Festival, under the aegis of St. Louis Actors’ Studio, now at the Gaslight Theater. As has been the tradition, LaBute gives
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Mamma Mia!
There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with jukebox musicals. Just because the music isn’t original for the show doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be staged. So the reappearance of Mamma Mia!, now showing for the first time at the Muny, shouldn’t be sneered at without some examination. Audiences love many of the jukebox musicals, although some of them
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Grey Gardens The Musical
Max & Louie’s production of Grey Gardens The Musical may not be perfect in every details. But it’s incredibly satisfying for a number of reasons. It is, of course, the story of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis’ cousins, a mother and daughter who became recluses on Long Island, a story made famous by Albert and David
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Flashback: The Jefferson Avenue Boarding House
What fun it was to ponder this one: The Jefferson Avenue Boarding House
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Young Frankenstein
Okay, so maybe Young Frankenstein isn’t a show for the kiddies. It’s awfully funny – and this from someone who hasn’t been wild about Mel Brooks movies – but it does rather merrily move into the bawdy whenever there’s an opportunity. There’s nothing subtle about this show. It’s Brooks. Of course there’s not. It’s broad,
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LaBute New Theater Festival 2016
St. Louis has a reputation for preferring the familiar. At Opera Theatre, you’re more apt to see empty seats at a newish work than at La Boheme, for instance. So it’s heartening to see a good turnout on the opening night of the fourth Labute New Theater Festival. It’s a project of St. Louis Actors’