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New This Week:
You can read more about all the upcoming operas at OTSL in my preview post.
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| Ariadne on Naxos Photo: Ken Howard |
My take: Your mileage may vary, but I have always found the comic carrying on of Zerbinetta and company to be some of the best bits. That said, the concluding love duet for Bacchus and Ariadne shows Strauss at his most rhapsodic. Look for distinguished St. Louis-based actor/singer/playwright Ken Page in the role of the Majordomo. In his review for KDHX, Steve Callahan says OTSL has done "a simply perfect production of this work. It's entire sensibility -- staging, costumes, sets, lights, and especially the acting style -- expresses a profound empathy with Strauss's subtle blend of classicism and parody."
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| Atomic Photo: Jill Ritter Lindberg |
My take: "A long forgotten but important historical figure gets his due in the zealous rock musical Atomic,'" writes Lynn Venhaus at the Belleville News-Democrat, "which bursts with passionate performances, an expressive score and combustible conversations. New Line Theatre's smart production features a synergetic ensemble fully committed to telling this complex, fascinating story about Leo Szilard. We Americans should know of him, but unfortunately many of us don't." New Line is once again breaking new ground in St. Louis musical theatre.
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| Broken Bone Bathtub Photo: Kimberly N. |
My take: This is Siobhan O'Loughlin's second St. Louis appearance (her first was at last year's St. Lou Fringe Festival). I didn't catch her show, The Rope in Your Hands, back then, but I did see her display her considerable talents as a storyteller as part of a performance by the improv comedy group Sorry, Please Continue. “Broken Bone Bathtub is unlike anything you've ever seen before, says New York Theatre Now. "It will change your perspective.” And the supposedly haunted Lemp Mansion is a pretty fascinating space in any case. In her KDHX review, Tina Farmer says M. O'Loughlin "succeeds spectacularly by taking a very intimate act and showing us the universal connection."
The Emerald Room Cabaret presents Taylor Pietz in #Crazy is the New Black on Saturday,, June 11, at 8 .m.. "We're all a little crazy sometimes. We do crazy things for love, crazy things for art, crazy things to make it all work. This show might be a little crazy too." The performance takes place in The Emerald Room at The Monocle Bar, 4510 Manchester in The Grove neighborhood. For more information: www.buzzonstage.com/st-louis.
My take: I have known Ms. Pietz professionally for over a decade now. We first met during a production of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" nearly thirteen years ago when she was 17 and I was-well-thirteen years less old than I am now. I was playing Senator Wingwoah and she, appropriately, was playing Shy. I say "appropriately" because she struck me than as a somewhat shy young lady-but with terrific pipes and impressive acting skills. The ensuing years have only sharpened those skills and developed that voice into a lovely precision musical instrument. That old shyness seems to have morphed into a kind of pixyish, cheerfully ironic stage persona.
Clayton Community Theatre presents the drama Inherit the Wind Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., through June 26. "Inherit the Wind is far more than a dramatic retelling of the Scopes Trial of 1925. It is a parable about attempting to mold society by enforcing a specific worldview or philosophy. It seeks, instead, to celebrate the individuality of man as a reasoning being, capable of living life according to his own personal convictions." Performances take place at the Washington University South Campus Theatre. For more information, call 314-721-9228 or visit placeseveryone.org.
My take: I haven't seen any reviews of this production, but the play itself is, I'm sorry to say, as current now as when it was written. Attempts by the religious radicals to replace science with superstition continue to poison our educational system but here in the USA and abroad as well. The war on science, alas, isn't limited to any one religious system.
Shakespeare Festival St. Louis presents the comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream nightly except for Tuesdays through June 26. "It's time for a comedy! Last seen at the Festival in 2002, Midsummer will feature a diverse cast of actors portraying some of Shakespeare's most beloved characters as they get lost and fall in and out of love in the woods around Athens." Beginning at 6:30 the Green Show presents pre-play entertainment a variety of local performers on multiple stages. The play begins at 8 p.m. Performances take place in Shakespeare Glen next to the Art Museum in Forest Park. For more information, visit shakespearefestivalstlouis.org.
My take: I've had a soft spot for this play every since I appeared as Oberon in the St. Louis Shakespeare production many decades ago. Ann Lemmons Pollack says the production "is particularly easy-going and understandable. At times, it feels rather like a screwball comedy, not, goodness knows, that there’s anything wrong with that. ..The play is a delicious, somewhat elaborate pastry." Go and enjoy.
Circus Flora presents its new show, Pastime, through July 3 under the air-conditioned, red-and-white, big top tent in Grand Center next to Powell Hall. "Along with runs and hits, the box score will fill-up with flips, flights, and laughs throughout PASTIME. When the hometown Zephyrs struggle to get out of last place, only their biggest fan and some incredible (and unlikely) stunts can help them turn their season around. Join us, and the magic of baseball." For more information: circusflora.org.
My take: Although I was born and have spent most of my life in St. Louis, there are some local traditions and institutions that I never have and probably never will understand. White Castle, for example, or the business about asking where you went to high school. What's THAT all about, anyway? Circus Flora, though, is a St. Louis tradition that anyone can embrace. And what could be more St. Louis than a show inspired by baseball? Happy 30th birthday, Circus Flora. The elephant after which you are named may have retired to Florida long ago, but you're still going strong.
Held Over:
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| La Bohème Photo: Ken Howard |
My take: Pretty much everything I want to say about this fine production is in my 88.1 KDHX review!. There are some minor aspects of this particular La Bohème that I find less than ideal, but the production as a whole is so very good so often that I have no hesitation in recommending it.
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| Macbeth Photo: Ken Howard |
My take: I haven't seen this yet and won't get the opportunity to do so for a few weeks, but I'm recommending it anyway because I have always liked this economical and dramatically charged operatic version of Shakespeare's terse tragedy. Yes, it's more Italian than it is Scots or English, but it's rattling good yarn all the same.
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