Ann Lemons Pollack
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Stairs to the Roof
Hie thee to the Boo Cat Club. Carrie Houk, artistic director of Sudden View Productions, has brought us a rarely-produced play of the very young Tennessee Williams, on the very stage where his work was probably first put on the boards. "Stairs to the Roof" is clearly an early work, romantic and dreamy and with
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Consider The Savory Pie
Am I the only one who was traumatized by the frozen pot pies from the early adventures of frozen food? Swanson and Banquet's renditions came quickly to be a mainstay of my working mother's repertoire, much to the dismay of picky-eater me. All that stuff mooshed up together. Pastry that wasn't crisp all the way
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Frank Papa’s Ristorante
Nobody seems to make much of St. Louis' tradition of unpretentious family-owned Italian restaurants. But they click along with a good amount of regular clientele and without much fanfare. One such place is Frank Papa's in Brentwood, around for many years and with a full clientele of loyal regulars. So what happens to restaurants like
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Rembrandt’s Gift
"The willing suspension of disbelief" is a phrase still tossed around once in a while as an impediment to enjoying art, or even just entertainment. It's nonsense, of course, but sometimes you still hear it with plays like "Rembrandt's Gift". Tina Howe, a playwright who writes on the border of absurdism, is often great fun
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A Kid Like Jake
"A Kid Like Jake" starts out like a New York magazine story: Manhattan parents obsessing about how to get their toddler into just the right private, expensive, exclusive school. Sure, we all want the best for our kids – but admission essays for parents? Come on. How many of us can identify with that? Just
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Chancers
If it's an Irish comedy, somehow it's perfectly logical that it's a dark comedy. That's "Chancers", Max & Louie Productions newest offering, now running at the Kranzberg Arts Center. This is the American premiere of the play by Robert Massey, which recently finished its Dublin run. Chance, and chancers, refer to the lottery,
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Flashback: Velvet Freeze
I don't think I could have raised my kids without having Velvet Freeze as the glove in the iron hand. Little sticky fingers, chocolate-stained shirts, dropped ice cream cones…funny, though, I don't remember feeling like those were the memories they'd keep. But they are. Here's now – and a little then, too.
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Flashback: The Majestic
Ah, the Majestic. It had gone on so long it was impossible to think about it not being there. I first went there about this time of year – egad, fifty years ago? My math skills have gotten rusty, maybe that's it.
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Just a Bite: The Kitchen Sink
If you're one of the folks who love those post-Thanksgiving mashups of all the leftovers layered on two defenseless slices of bread, I've got the dish for you. The Kitchen Sink – now, of course, in its elegant new digs on Union Boulevard – offers the Humble Pie. This is not pie as in "apple".
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The Diary of Anne Frank
The morning after I saw "The Diary of Anne Frank" at the New Jewish Theatre, I heard someone on NPR talking about the idealism that blossoms in young adults and how they have this far-sighted view of what's possible. There she was in my mind again. The 70-year-old story combines optimism and horror as adolescent