Ann Lemons Pollack
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Jersey Boys
The boys from Jersey are back. Nah, it’s not the guys from the Bing. It’s Frankie Valli and his pals who made up the Four Seasons, in “Jersey Boys”, currently enthralling folks at the Fox. For my peers, it’s the soundtrack of our youth. The show was here two years ago, but this version turned
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PaPPo’s Pizzeria and Pub
PaPPo’s Pizzeria and Pub just feels right. A St. Louisan raised in Midtown and now gone, except for brief visits, for 25 years or so looked around the premises as he waited for his pizza. “It’s perfect. If you put me down here no matter what city it was in, I’d feel like I was
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Dough
Dough is the story of a kosher baker in a transitional neighborhood in London. He's a widower, his only child, a son, is a fancy-schmancy barrister and his apprentice has just politely resigned to go to work for the chain store next door. His grandfather started the business – what's a chap to do? Sell
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The St. Louis Rooming House Plays – and breaking news
The St. Louis Rooming House Plays has four more performance left, and as I write this, there are a few tickets left before it disappears into the air. At 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., an old house in Grand Center holds a remarkable group of performances, part of the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis It’s
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Yentl
It’s a mark of, well, something that when the average person hears the title Yentl, they think of the Barbra Streisand movie. What’s being staged at The New Jewish Theatre isn’t that Yentl. Both of them are based on an I.B. Singer short story, but this one began as a 1975 play from Leah Napolin
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The Two-Character Play
“The Two-Character Play”, one of the first offerings from Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis, was written in 1973. It’s not one his more well-known works, coming later in his career as he was complaining that critics didn’t appreciate his style as he evolved. It is, in some ways, rather reminiscent of absurdist theater, things like
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The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie may be the most frequently staged of any of Tennessee Williams' plays. The St. Louis references and setting are accurate and evocative. It's a play many theater-goers are familiar with. So how does a company go about staging it without seeming merely to put the play on life support, pounding on its
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Cha Cha Chow
Much credit has to go to a restaurateur who opens a new place in the face of serious traffic disruption. But Cha Cha Chow's brick-and-mortar location, begat by its food truck, is just across South Kingshighway from O'Connell's. Local foodists will know that means a detour coming in from the south to get there, since
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La Patisserie Chouquette
I had lunch with a friend from Kansas City today, and took her into La Patisserie Chouquette afterwards. Simone Faure's work is always dazzling, of course. Just take a look at the cakes she's doing for Mothers' Day. Alas, they just stopped taking orders for them as we stood at the caisse ready to pay for the armload
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Tennessee Williams: These Foodish Things Remind Me…
On Sunday, May 15, the last day of the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis, Slide Piece Food Truck is making a guest appearance. From 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. they'll be near Strauss Park in Grand Center, offering sustenance to theater-goers. That's a busy afternoon, with four different matinee performances, a couple of lectures, a