Ann Lemons Pollack

  • Pippin

     Pippin ain't, apparently, what it used to be. A near-warhorse with amateur theatricals has been revived in the proper sense of the word, given new life, and the Tony-award winning Best Revival of a Musical version settles in briefly at the Peabody Opera House. Feeling like a dazzling version of Cirque de Soleil mated with

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  • Ring of Fire

     "Ring of Fire" is the holiday offering from the Repertory Theatre this year. While it's easy to understand why they're tired of Ralphie and the Cratchits and all of Whoville, their choice of a tribute to Johnny Cash is something of a surprise. This is not a play; there's really very little dialogue. The story

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  • Blithe Spirit

    Am I the only one who remembers when young people wanted to be seen as grown up and smooth and sophisticated? There may be no better examples of it on the stage than the plays of Noel Coward. Coward's dialogue is crisp and snappy, with only an occasional languid pause, probably to wait for laughs

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  • Gallagher’s

    A nice drive in the country, anyone? Over the river and down the road – it's almost gramma's house.

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  • Reality

     And so Hot City Theatre closes out its existence. A loss to the arts community of our area, to be sure, but they're closing with a bang, or at least a smart shot across the bow. "Reality" by Lia Romeo is, yes, about reality tv. (What a treasure trove of potential stories that's will prove

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  • Becoming Dr. Ruth

     If all that comes to mind when you hear "Doctor Ruth" is a tiny little woman with an accent and a little bit of a giggle – well, you'll probably enjoy The New Jewish Theatre's "Becoming Dr. Ruth" more than you expect. The journey from pre-war Frankfurt to becoming America's sex educator is a long

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  • Annie

     I may perhaps be the only regular theatergoer in the St. Louis area that hadn't seen "Annie" until it opened last night at the Fox. So I come at it with no memories of Andrea McArdle or Dorothy Loudon and so on. If, like me, you've been sleeping under a rock for the last thirty-plus

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  • Flashback: Bandera’s

    A half-basement that WASN'T Rossino's, in an old house on West Pine, my kids learned to eat out in Rossino's. And here's more about it.

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  • Paris 2014, Part 1

    Autumn is a great time to visit Paris. Yes, there are some gray days – at that latitude, it's a given, they tell me – but there are plenty of positive things that offset the gray. For starters, the angle of the sun produces a golden light that makes lots more than the dome of

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  • The Chelsea Flower Show

    This has been a year of an amazingly (wonderfully) large amount of travel. In May, I had a chance to go to the Chelsea Flower Show, an annual event in London.  I had wanted to go for years – I'm not a gardener myself but gardening is another form of architecture, which I do love,

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