ST. LOUIS THEATER SHOWS

by Steve Callahan - May 23, 2023

Last Saturday Opera Theatre of St. Louis premiered a new adaptation of Scott Joplin’s legendary opera Treemonisha.  It is a bright and worthy addition to our recent flurry of adoration of some of America’s major black composers;  the Black Rep closed their stunningly fine evening of Eubie Blake’s mu...

by James Lindhorst - May 07, 2023

WELCOME TO ARROYO’S is the current production by The Tesseract Theatre Company that closed on May 7th.  Brittanie Gunn directs a funny and mostly effective production of Diaz’s uneven play. There are plenty of genuine laughs, more resulting from the energy, physical acting choices and rapping abilit...

by Rob Levy - May 07, 2023

Told in nonlinear time, the play is all about Doug and Kayleen's reconnections and missed opportunities. Over these years, the effects of alcoholism, bad relationships and family dysfunction complicate their relationship, testing the unspoken connection they share. Separated by time and distance, ea...

by James Lindhorst - May 06, 2023

Originally produced in the 1970s, EUBIE re-introduced audiences to Blake’s iconic career and  his music with a 23-song musical review. The Black Rep's production has taken century old music giving it a current sound with choreography that is both traditional and contemporary. The vocally talented ca...

by James Lindhorst - May 05, 2023

Midnight Company’s Joe Hanrahan performs all nine roles in the play that is narrated by detective Chuck Desantis as he tries to solve the mystery of what happened to Leonard. Along the way the audience is introduced to Leonard’s Aunt Ellen, his cousin Phoebe, one of his bullies, Tyler, and to about ...

by James Lindhorst - April 16, 2023

Michelle Hand is mesmerizing as Heidi, driving nearly all of the play’s dialogue. Her indelible presence is captivating. She enters, introduces herself as Heidi and tells the audience about her mother’s vision to help her pay for college by winning VFW sponsored debates about what the constitution m...

by James Lindhorst - April 16, 2023

Unfortunately, there are a lot of things broke with this production. The scripted part of the show is banal. There are too few laughs. The two songs written, one for each act, are forgettable. In fact, the only memorable thing about the production value of BROKE was the bright kelly green blazer and...

by James Lindhorst - April 07, 2023

While the source material is subpar, director Bekah Harbison uses simple staging with minimal set pieces to focus the audience on the relationships between the characters. Through her collaboration with her actors, she extracts committed and emotional performances out of each member of the cast. Her...

by Rob Levy - April 06, 2023

The second show of Stray Dog Theatre’s 2023 season honors the late Stephen Sondheim with an innovative take on his musical Into the Woods. Filled with great songs, this imaginative production gives audiences a thrilling theatrical experience.at did our critic think of INTO THE WOODS at Tower Grove A...

by James Lindhorst - April 01, 2023

Director Geovonday Jones vision and collaboration with his actors and technical crew deliver a superb production of SKELETON CREW. In addition to the exceptionally directed performances by the actors, Jones empowers his technical teams and allows their creativity to raise the production value to the...