Theater/Film Reviews
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Jimmy Webb
Jimmy Webb sure doesn't sing very well, but he writes good songs and tells great stories, and puts an awful lot of energy into his cabaret performance, which opened a three-night run last night at the Kranzberg Arts Center. He'll be back on stage Friday and Saturday, hitting many high spots on his nearly half-century
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A Somewhat Gentle Man
Coming out of prison after serving 12 years for murder can be a disorienting experience, but Ulrik (Stellan Skarsgard) shot a man as a hired killer, not as an emotional revenge-seeker, a robber, or someone in a passionate argument. That makes it both easier and more difficult for him to return to a normal life,
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Limitless
In a world where "mind over matter" has fallen far behind its reverse rival in the way things work, it's a great pleasure to see "Limitless," a movie where suspension of disbelief is a very difficult task but one worth striving for. Its success brings an almost-overwhelming sense of power and pleasure in succumbing to
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In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play
How does one write–for a St. Louis audience–about an interesting, unusual play that deals with sexual arousal among men and women of the late 19th century? Very carefully, I would say. And yet. . . . Sarah Ruhl's often-funny, sometimes-enlightening play, "In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play," opened last night at the Rep
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Even the Rain
Like a set of those nesting Russian dolls, "Even the Rain" has a film within a film within a film within a film, a nod to Francois Truffaut's "Day for Night," a political statement, a social polemic and a revisionist view of Christopher Columbus, all in an hour and 44 minutes. It opens today on
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Battle: Los Angeles
The Marines win again. Could there have been any other possible outcome? Well, at least they won in Los Angeles, shown at maximum explosive volume in “Battle: Los Angeles,” which opens here today. All we know for sure is that they defeated a bunch of invading aliens in one city, though TV reporters keep interrupting
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The Baltimore Waltz
Paula Vogel's brother, Carl, died of AIDS in 1988. She wrote "The Baltimore Waltz," as a tribute to him and an expiation of her own grief. It's a wild ride of explanation and fantasy, of frustration, dark wishes and overwhelming love, with believable acting and first-rate direction. The Muddy Waters Theatre production opened last night
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Two Gentlemen of Verona
Proteus and Valentine, the title characters in William Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen of Verona," and in the Galt McDermot (music)-John Guare (book and lyrics) musical adaptation, are more rounders than square shooters as they talk about wedding while aiming at bedding someone of the opposite sex. The play isn't great Shakespeare, nor is it great McDermot-Guare,
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Charlie Chaplin Series
Now that the super-hype of the Academy Awards is over, there isn't much to see on big screens around town. With one huge exception. The Webster University Film Series, under the leadership of James Harrison, is devoting March to a great collection of movies, all eight feature films of Charlie Chaplin. A consummate writer, director
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The Housemaid
Stark and visually striking, “The Housemaid” revisits a classic, 50-year-old film of the same name. With a plot that has fueled thousands of pornographic tales, the Korean film that opens today has some nudity, more sex and a story of wealth, stealth and revenge all sitting as the whipped cream atop a milkshake of wealth,