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Review of Say It Flo at A Call to Conscience

Say It Flo is a tribute to attorney and activist Florynce Kennedy. The play by Michelle Tyrene Johnson just received an excellent staging by A Call to Conscience in the Legend Room of the National Blues Museum.

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Review of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis

I would never spill the beans in a review of a whodunit. Only a small fraction of the viewer’s experience would be spoiled, however, if I revealed the ingenious ending of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, the current production at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. This marvelous show is about the journey, not the destination.

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Review of Fools at KTK Productions

Fools ran barely a month on Broadway, probably the least successful of Neil Simon’s plays. It followed the string of hits which made him the king of the Great White Way for a time from the late 1960s that seemed likely to go on forever. According to Broadway rumor, now legend, perhaps started by an […]

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Review of Grand Horizons at Moonstone Theatre Company

As the lights come up on set designer Dunsi Dai’s kitchen-eating area-sitting area in a generic apartment of an independent living community for retirees called Grand Horizons, wife Nancy and husband Bill are repeating a routine they have performed for most of the fifty-some years they’ve been married, silently setting the table for dinner and […]

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Review of New Works Collective Premieres at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis

To disrupt the established commissioning process and ensure authentic inclusion, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis established The New Works Collective, a three-year commissioning cycle guided by members of St. Louis community. Each year, the collective puts out an open call for 20-minute operas, reviews proposals, and selects three projects for development.

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Review of Tootsie at the Fox Theatre

The movie Tootsie was a great comedy, and musical is a great comedy, too. The book is filled with hilarious dialogue, and the comic timing is wonderful in the touring production.

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Review of Every Brilliant Thing at New Jewish Theatre

Every Brilliant Thing, currently at The New Jewish Theatre, is a coming-of-age solo play with many performers. As audience members enter the theatre, each is handed a small card with a word or brief phrase on it and a number between 1 and 1,000,000. During the course of the evening, The Player, as the program […]

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Review of Stranger in the Attic at the Theatre Guild of Webster Groves

The Theatre Guild of Webster Groves has a season this year almost entirely of plays that are the source of a movie or are taken from a movie from the 1950s, mostly the lighter movies, not the great ones. But now we have a welcome break in the series. Barbara Mulligan, president of the Guild […]

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Review of A Bright Room Called Day at the Sargent Conservatory of Theatre Arts

I was delighted to learn that Sargent Conservatory directing senior Gregory Almanza had chosen Tony Kushner’s play A Bright Room Called Day for his Capstone Project. The play was the first of Kushner’s plays to be professionally produced, the last before Angels in America. I have been hearing about it for years, some from those […]

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Review of Peter and the Starcatcher at Fly North Theatricals

I first saw Peter and the Starcatcher when it was on a national tour based on the original Broadway staging. The sets, costumes, lighting, sound, and routines were all dazzling. To my surprise, I did not miss the Broadway splendor in subsequent encounters with the play. In fact, my respect for the script has grown […]