Theater/Film Reviews
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Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll
"And who carries around an egg salad sandwich in their pocket?" That's a sample of dialogue from "Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll". It's Joe Hanrahan, our own Man In Black and leading local purveyor of author Eric Bogosian's works, in the opening monologue of this 75-minute spree. This particular fellow is a street person who
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Funny Girl
There's a lot to like in Stray Dog Theatre's production of "Funny Girl". Lindsey Jones, playing Fannie Brice, who became a Ziegfield and then radio star, sounds fabulous. Brice's husband (her second, a fact omitted in the show), Nicky Arnstein, is Jeffrey Wright, properly swainish and swinish by turns and showing a real gift for
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How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying
Time marches on. It says something when one of the hot Broadway shows of one's youth now is a period piece. "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying", currently at Stages St. Louis, is just that. The last time I saw it, the whole sexist thing in it was just embarrassing. Now, it just
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The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
The newest generation of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (to give the show its full legal title) opened with a celestial light show Monday night. The opening was delayed by rain about 35 minutes, and when the orchestra, part of this touring show, struck up the national anthem, the lightning to the south came darn
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Billy Elliot The Musical
The Muny's 96th season kicked off with, in effect, a shout of "Five, six, seven EIGHT!" Monday night as it put "Billy Elliot The Musical" on stage. The show itself may not be the best musical to cross a Broadway stage in the last decade – for instance, it slows a bit late in the
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Love! Valour! Compassion!
Love! Valour! Compassion! created such high feelings when it was first staged here in 1996, a year after it was on Broadway, the company had a very difficult time finding somewhere to house the production. (It ended up on a small stage at Webster University.) The play, about eight gay men at a summer
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Circus Flora 2014
Circus Flora is back. The big top is erected behind Powell Hall, the cotton candy is ready, and the air crackles with the excitement of children of all ages – including big kids like me. The 2014 edition is one that would have done the late and much-lamented David Balding, Flora's creator, proud. The story
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Old Jews Telling Jokes
When you're young, you think about Old People as being stiff, arthritic in both their movement and their thinking. And then you realize thirty years have passed, and you're more like Them, except you don't feel like Them. I suspect that's universal. I once asked my feisty mother-in-law, when she was 95 or so (and
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Cabaret
Baseball teams win pennants when many players have what's termed "career years" – when their abilities peak. And so it is with Stray Dog Theatre's "Cabaret", when a number of actors we've watched for some time give peak performances. The idea of casting a woman as the Emcee is a striking one, but the context