Theater/Film Reviews
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All About Steve
Zany movie comedies are a major gamble. On too many occasions, the humor does not work for enough people, or maybe the director’s sense of humor is different from the audience, or the comedian/actor does not connect. "All About Steve" may be a shallow story, with television disaster coverage enough of a comedy all by
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World’s Greatest Dad
When Robin Williams tries to be funny, he’s a delight. When Robin Williams tried to be serious, he’s a travesty. He overacts, he gets maudlin, he tries to squeeze out tears and succeeds only in becoming funny-looking. And when he teams with comedian-turned-director Bobcat Goldthwait, as in "World’s Greatest Dad," which opens today, they create
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Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Gertrude Berg was truly an amazing woman. She wrote and performed, as Molly Goldberg, in 12,000 episodes of one of radio’s first serials, which went on the air in 1929, a week after the market crash. She made the transition to television in the well-known New York minute, earning the first Best Actress Emmy ever
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Play The Game
Did I miss something? Did I pull a Rip Van Winkle and are we now in the 1970s or 80s, and in the run-up to the television season? Probably not, but I could swear I saw a pilot the other day. It was called "Play the Game," and it stars Andy Griffith, and Doris Roberts
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Taking Woodstock
Looking backward is a wonderful way to spend time. Surrounded by fond memories that cast a golden haze, everything looks so much better. Reality gets lost in reminiscence, just as it does in "Taking Woodstock," opening today and painting the famous festival in kind and lovely colors – with only a couple of exceptions. After
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Last Train To Nibroc
The small towns of Kentucky are not common sites for plays with even a little sophistication, but with an apparent goal of some easy laughs, it’s not difficult for playwright Arlene Hutton to appeal to a different audience, the kind that laughs at bad grammar, ignorance, religiously uptight attitudes, people who might be termed hoosiers,
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Anna Blair: Inside Story
Fran Landesman would be pleased and proud today. Anna Blair, who first met and sang with her last October, formed a cabaret evening of selections from Landesman’s great songs and poems and performed it with style and grace last night at Jazz at the Bistro. She repeats tonight at 8. Blair, a veteran local actress
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Something’s Afoot
The first song I heard about a dinghy was "He’s Got the Cutest Little Dinghy in the Navy," and is was sung by Ruth Wallis, who made a specialty of lyrics with sex-laden double entendres during and after World War II, though she continued singing the same songs long enough to show up in St.
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Streetballers
Talk about a busy man! That’s Matt Krentz, who wrote, produced, directed and stars in "Streetballers," a feature film debut that opens here today, showing considerable style and talent, shot on locations ranging from our streets, parks and playgrounds to St. Louis Community College at Forest Park to Dogtown in time for the St. Patrick’s
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Seraphine
An artist without training, driven by an a fierce religious zeal, Seraphine Louis scrounged blood from the local butcher and candle wax from her church to help create the colors and textures of her paintings, and the semi-documentary, "Seraphine," that tells her life story, is a small masterpiece. It opens here today with a track