Theater/Film Reviews
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Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men, one of John Steinbeck’s great works, was originally written as a novella and potential play. Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble’s take on it is now running at The Chapel by. I suspect the novella isn’t taught much anymore in school – there have been arguments about vulgarity and offensive and racist language
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Pizza Shop: An Italian-American Dream
The St. Louis International Film Festival has, in effect, a food night this Sunday. Advance tickets strongly suggested. Here's more info: Here's more info on it – you can smell the pizza baking.
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On Your Feet!
On Your Feet! The Emilio & Gloria Estefan Broadway Musical (to give it the full proper title) ticks lots of boxes. Looking for a modern musical that isn’t sung through – that is to say, there’s lots of dialogue so it’s far easier to understand what’s going on? Yup. Thinking you’re needing some flash instead
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Titus Androgynous
Well, it’s Halloween season, which may account for the timing on YoungLiar’s production of Titus Androgynous. YoungLiars has a history of trying some innovative theatre, so the Usual Suspects know things will be different when they walk into a one off their shows.. It’s a farcial version of the Shakespeare play of the near-same title,
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Heisenberg
For those of us unschooled in quantum mechanics (I sigh and raise my hand), Heisenberg was the physics professor who created the uncertainty principle, which says that you can’t exactly measure both the speed and position of a particle, because to measure one would affect the other. He also discovered why some metals become magnetized.
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Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery
2018 in St. Louis has been a year of serious theatre. What I’m talking about here is serious, as in not funny. Maybe it’s coincidence but for those who go to a lot of theatre or watch a lot of news, it’s been heavy going this calendar year. So when something lighter comes along, it’s
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Hamlet
It’s a rather different Hamlet that’s up and running at The Repertory Theatre St. Louis. It’s not weird – no Hamlet-on-Mars – but the pacing feels different, zippier, Hamlet is played differently and the visuals are anywhere from great to downright stunning. The oft-told tale is of a prince of Denmark whose father has died
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Cardenio
When I write or talk about food, I've often declared that I won't argue about barbecue or pizza. Let me immediately state that as someone who writes about theater, I will not discuss the authenticity of Shakespeare's plays. Any of them, not just Cardenio, which is closing up this weekend at the Ivory Theatre under
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Tuesdays with Morrie
Discomfort with serious illness: A dramatic subject if ever there was one. Certainly the person who is ill has their own emotional and intellectual battles. But the constellation of people around the patient – they’re equally interesting to the neutral observer. Pulling away? See it all the time. Anger? Oh, yeah. Frantic demanding of fixing
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Sweet Revenge
The title above says Sweet Revenge. But the full title of this version of a classic Polish comedy as translated by Upstream Theatre’s founding artistic director Phillip Boehm is Sweet Revenge as Performed by the Juliusz Stowacki Players, St. Louis, 1933. Zemsta, as it was called in Polish, was written in 1833, and soon became