Ann Lemons Pollack

  • My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding

     It's a mark of how far St. Louis has come that the New Jewish Theatre is staging "My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding" in a quiet suburb and the opening night audience was not only plentiful but having plenty of fun. This Canadian musical, which began at a fringe festival, hits a topic that's suddenly

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  • Mezzrow

     Years ago, when I was visiting New York, I would slip into a saloon called Bradley's on University Place in Greenwich Village. All I knew was that it was a bar with a music schedule. It took me a while to realize it was famous as a hangout for serious jazz musicians and that the

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  • What’s Up?

    Relative radio silence here is related to a new baby in the family and a college graduation. Things should get back to perking soon. In the meanwhile, I've got some stuff here in the St. Louis Magazine Food Lovers Guide. And there's about to be discussion of a jazz bar. So stay tuned, please.

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  • Art

    It's always difficult for me to remember that Yasmina Reza's play "Art" is a comedy. It's always seemed as I looked back on it that it's a drama about friendship. So the current staging at St. Louis Actors Studio felt fresh to me. Director Wayne Solomon has given us a particularly emphatic version of this

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  • An Invitation Out

     A drawing room comedy set in the late 21st Century: That's "An Invitation Out", a new play by Shualee Cook at Mustard Seed Theatre. It's about virtual reality and real reality, the "out" of the title, and the widening gap between them.   Cook makes no secret of her admiration for Oscar Wilde, the emperor

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  • Flashback: The Sunshine Inn

    It was the first place I ever ate chocolate mousse. the first place I ever ate sunflower seeds. The former picky eater actually scarfed down the date nut bread. It was the Sunshine Inn on South Euclid. Another RIP, to be sure, but what we all learned from it… Here's the Memory Lane piece from

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  • Grapeseed

    There are out there, somewhere, probably, souls so dead that they could resist a dish called turkey leg nachos. Well, maybe vegetarians. But for the rest of us, the giggle of the name lures us onward. It may well be the most popular dish at Grapeseed, which has been planted on Nottingham at Macklind Avenue.

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  • Tastes Good, Does Good.

    A Tasteful Affair is 27 years old. Food Outreach has been helping nourish St. Louisans a long time. They've broadened their client base, and serve folks of all ages with cancer and HIV/AIDS. This is one of their big fundraisers. And that silent auction…my, my, a villa in the south of France? It's Sunday, and I

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  • A New Old Couscous

     Couscous has in recent years appeared in restaurants that aren't North African at all. Most of what appears on the plate is what's known as Israeli couscous, which is really little pearl pasta. I'm not fond of it, having begun my couscous adventures with a friend who'd lived in Libya years ago. The newer iteration

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  • The Mystery of Edwin Drood

     Looking for a rowdy evening? Hie yourself to Stray Dog Theatre's "The Mystery of Edwin Drood". Based on the unfinished last work of Charles Dickens, it uses the play-within-a-play concept set in a late Victorian music hall. The large cast – Dickens novels absolutely teem with characters – roam the audience before the start of

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