Theater/Film Reviews
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Mamma’s Boy
The fascination over the assassination of President John Kennedy has waned in recent years. It’s now almost fifty-five years since that November lunchtime in Dallas and the current political situation has eclipsed many things that went before. But there was a time when several generations could cite chapter and verse of not only where they
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An Apology for the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening and The Hunchback Variations
FAUSTival, a collaborative series of four plays based on the Faust legend and the numerous works of art that sprang from it, has a September offering from The Midnight Company. It’s a double bill, the first being An Apology for the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His
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Love Never Dies
Mozart probably wrote Cosi fan tutti with a quill. Andrew Lloyd Webber appears to have written Love Never Dies with a broad-tipped Magic Marker. It’s a sequel to Phantom of the Opera, and in many ways, “opera” is the key word here. It’s as broadly played as any grand opera, certainly, capes flourishing and arms
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Oklahoma!
You've been acquainted with someone for years. You think you know them. And then, after spending the evening together as usual, you find that they're not quite the same person you thought you knew. Consider the same thing in theatre. Stages St. Louis closes its 2018 season with Oklahoma!, a show that first graced a
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Crowns
BEAUTIFUL is the best word to begin to describe Crowns, The Black Rep’s opening show of the new season. Staged at Washington University’s Edison Theatre, it’s a celebration of African American women, the glory of their hats and where the tradition arose. A show that’s sung as much as it is acted, it brings satisfying
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Evita
The Rep opens its 52nd season with Evita, a blockbuster of a show that takes full advantage of the extra time the summer gave to crank things up. The second major Tim Rice-Andrew Lloyd Webber show, it’s become something of a cult favorite, lacking the built-in audience for the earlier Jesus Christ Superstar or the
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Lost in the Stars
I am deeply regretful that I didn’t get to see Lost in the Stars until its closing night. Union Avenue Opera finished its 24th season with the Kurt Will/Maxwell Anderson work from 1949, based on Alan Paton’s well-regarded novel Cry, the Beloved Country. It was, quite simply, splendid. A Zulu Anglican priest’s son has moved
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Meet Me in St. Louis
The Muny closed out its centennial season with Meet Me in St. Louis. It seems unnecessary to add “of course” at the end of that sentence. Unless one is a complete curmudgeon and sneers at any hint of boosterism or being a homer, it was very hard to resist this show. The Muny, clearly not
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The Robber Bridegroom
Talk about blood lines – The Robber Bridegroom book and lyrics are from Alfred Uhry, who gave us Driving Miss Daisy, from a novella by the esteemed Eudora Welty, who in turn apparently kipped it from the Brothers Grimm. Grimm, yes, but grim, not so much. Oh, there’s fightin’ and cussin’ – this takes place
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Gypsy
The Muny’s doing Gypsy this week, a show that’s been around so long that some folks don’t remember just how good it is. The script, based loosely on a memoir by Gypsy Rose Lee, a rather elegant (and relatively restrained) burlesque dancer of great fame, and written by Arthur Laurents, gives actors some serious stuff