Chuck's Choices for the weekend of August 20, 2012

As always, the choices are purely my personal opinion. Take with a grain (or a shaker) of salt.

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New this week:

The R-S Theatrics Summer Cabaret Series presents Christy Simmons in He Love Me, He Loves Me Not on Friday, August 24, at 8 PM. “R-S Theatrics is pleased and proud to bring you an evening with cabaret veteran, Christy Simmons, as she explores the ups and downs of love, in her own inimitable way.” If you have saw Christy in Last of the Red-Hot Mamas at New Jewish Theatre, you know she's a powerful performer. The performance takes place at the Gaslight Theatre, 358 North Boyle in the Central West End. For more information, email rstheatrics at yahoo.com, visti brownpapertickst.com, or call 314-968-8070.

The Kranzberg Arts Center presents singer and pianist Seth Ward Pyatt in Notes from New York Friday and Saturday at 8 PM, August 24 and 25. “The young writer's travel journal, chronicling a whirlwind trip to NYC, inspires his one-man show.” Seth has been very active on the local theatre scene as a performer and music director; it will be interesting to see what his solo cabaret debut looks like. Performances take place in the cabaret theatre at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information, you may visit brownpapertickets.com.

Held over:

The Fox Theatre presents the Disney musical The Lion King August 15 through September 2. It's a bit less spectacular this time around, but as I note in my review for 88.1 KDHX Julie Taymor's re-imagined version of the original animated film is still a remarkable piece of work; let's not hold the show's immense popularity against it. Great art can still be popular, as Shakespeare (among others) proved. The Fox Theatre is at 527 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information, fabulousfox.com or call 314-534-1678.

Stray Dog Theatre presents The Great American Trailer Park Musical Friday and Saturday at 8. I have three perfectly good reasons to recommend this show. First, I've worked with Stray Dog often enough in the past to know that they do entertaining trash just as well as more high-falutin' stuff. Second, how can you pass up a chance to see some of our classiest actresses get truly crude? Third, in his review for 88.1 KDHX, Robert Mitchell says "if you're looking for laugh-out loud absurdity punctuated by catchy country-tinged tunes and schmaltzy, heartfelt rock ballads, then by all means, head to Stray Dog's current production." Performances take place at The Tower Grove Abbey, 2336 Tennessee. For more information, visit straydogtheatre.org or call 314-865-1995.

Union Avenue Opera presents Wagner's Das Rheingold in a condensed and reduced version by English composer Jonathan Dove, Friday and Saturday at 8 PM. Union Avenue has a history of pushing the boundaries of what can be done with their modest budget and less than ideal performance space in the Union Avenue Christian Church. Wagner's Ring operas, in their original form, would simply not be possible with those constraints, which is why they're doing shorter, smaller-cast versions originally prepared for touring opera companies in Britain. As I note in my review for 88.1 KDHX, while this edited version has managed the neat trick of trimming 45 minutes from the original two and one-half hour running time without noticeably sacrificing anything, the production itself still has some serious shortcoming. It also has some very fine performances, though, which go a long way towards tipping the balance. Performances take place at the Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 Union at Enright in the Central West End. The opera is sung in German with projected English text. For more information, visit unionavenueopera.org or call 314-361-2881.