Theater/Film Reviews
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South Pacific
It was truly an enchanted evening at the Fox Theatre last night as "South Pacific," in all its tuneful glory, opened a two-week run with the splendor and style that have made big Broadway musicals such an exciting part of the American theatrical canon. The touring company of the 2008 Broadway revival (the first Broadway
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Long Day’s Journey Into Night
The dysfunctional families described in plays by Edward Albee, Harold Pinter and Tennessee Williams are extremely dysfunctional, but they can't hold a candle to the Tyrones, created–and lived–by Eugene O'Neill in "Long Day's Journey Into Night." The searing drama opened last night in a solid production by Muddy Waters Theatre, and will run through Nov.
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Inside Job
Horror movies are always popular–torrents of blood, talons tearing flesh, nubile young women menaced by creatures leaping from graves. Given that, here's what I consider the most frightening horror film of 2010, "Inside Job," opening today, and audiences will be slim to non-existent. People will stay away on droves. Why? Well, "Inside Job" is a
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Last Train Home
“Last Train Home” is a mind-boggling documentary that one must see to even comprehend. In China, millions upon millions of people work in communities far from their homes, living in uncomfortable dormitories, working long hours in factories. Once a year, around Chinese New Year, they get a few days off to go home and see
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For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf
It could only be a match made in Hollywood–on one side, the huge ego of Tyler Perry, whose every previous film starts with his name introducing the title, whose movies reek of fake sex and faux religion, who seems to pander to an African-American audience at its lowest common denominator on one side. And on
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Excellent News
St. Louis theater-goers and concert fans scored a major ethical victory, and a financial bonus, to celebrate the new month on Monday. Grand Center parking meters now end at 7 p.m., cut back from the 10 p.m. established a few months ago. Vince Schoemehl, president of Grand Center, phoned me at 10 a.m. Monday to
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Next Fall
There's a lot going on beneath the surface of "Next Fall," the fast-moving, engaging play by Geoffrey Nauffts that opened the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis Studio last night at the Grandel Theatre. But it throws the audience a bunch of questions, some easy, some hard, some solved, some left unanswered, just hanging like Charlie
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The Tillman Story
When it comes to concocting stories to make their organization look good, there are no bigger bumblers than the U. S. Army, and "The Tillman Story," sickening in both origin and execution, is just the latest. It opens today, just another illustration of the sad fact that all through the long, bloody, losing war in
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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
People don't come much more well-rounded than Lisbeth Salander. She can hack your computer with one hand, break your arm with the other. She can pleasure your body and mess up your mind. To use popular expressions, she's hard as nails, tough as a boot, quick as a wink, smart as a whip. She is,
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The Chosen
In a community with three Jews there are four synagogues–one for the divergent faiths held by each, and a fourth one to provide the space where none of them would be caught dead. These attitudes, harder than pressed steel or a jilted lover’s heart, are on display in “The Chosen,” a powerful, passionate adaptation of