Theater/Film Reviews
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The 39 Steps
Who would have thought a goofball comedy-melodrama could have come out of a thriller novel a hundred years old – even if it evolved into a 1935 movie from a young Alfred Hitchcock? ”The 39 Steps”, the current offering from Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble, is a slam-bang piece of work, amusing on its own, layering
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I and You
In the spring of 1981, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, the woman who was known for her work with patients who were terminal, came to St. Louis. In my memory of that spring afternoon, the main stage theater at The Rep was full, or nearly so, of people who were eager to hear what the author of On
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Angel Street (Gaslight)
It's autumn, the time when the line between the real, the was-real and the not real sometimes becomes very blurry indeed. To mark the season, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis brings us "Angel Street". Or, just to get things off to a nicely unsure start, "Angel Street (Gaslight)". The play, which opened in London
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The Sunshine Boys
"The Sunshine Boys" is a not-new play about a couple of not-new performers It's now running at the New Jewish Theatre. Neil Simon wrote it in 1972 about a couple of aging vaudevillians. Partners in a long-popular act, they broke up when one, Al Lewis, unilaterally decided to retire, leaving the other, Willie Clark, up
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The Kiss/De Kus
Ever have a memorable conversation with a stranger? The sort of encounters that happen in a neutral place, sitting on a train or a cross-table cafe chat that begins casually and sort of grows of its own accord? Those I've had always seemed like short stories or the genesis of novels. Maybe one of those
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Dogfight
Let's get this out of the way: On one level, it's hard for me to be objective about "Dogfight", the new musical at Stray Dog Theatre. The play, from the film of the same name, runs from the night before the JFK assasination until a year later. Three young Marines are about to leave for
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Heathers
"Heathers" might as well have been written for Scott Miller, New Line Theatre's founder. It's hard to imagine a high school musical being that full of social criticism – although perhaps less difficult to conceive of the language and sexual discussion that the show brings, social criticism and overt sexuality being part of Miller's professional
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Seminar
It's a large Upper West Side apartment, populated by four authors in search of, yes, characters but also encouragement and enlightenment and, in some cases, success. Theresa Rebeck's play "Seminar" at St. Louis Actors' Studio gives us four young and young-ish authors who have paid big bucks for ten weekly sessions with a formerly famous
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All The Way
The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis' choice of plays to open its 49th season, "All The Way", could not have been more perfectly timed. The nation now sits in the aftermath of Ferguson and in the opening campaigns of the 2016 presidential elections. Robert Schenkkan's powerful play about Lyndon Johnson and the Civil Rights Act