The St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of January 3, 2011

[Looking for auditions and other artistic opportunities? Check out the St. Louis Auditions site.]

I'm now adding my own purely personal comments to events about which I think I have anything worthwhile to say. Because that's what bloggers do.

Cooking With Elisa

Upstream Theatre presents Cooking With Elisa January 7 through 23. Performances take place at 305 South Skinker. This is the US premiere of the play by Argentine author Lucía Laragione, in an English version by Upstream's Artistic Director Philip Boehm.  Bonnie Taylor directs. For more information, visit www.upstreamtheater.org or call 314-863-4999.

Everydaycircus Inc. performs shows hourly from 11 AM to 4 PM each weekend at City Museum, 701 N. 15th St. Shows are FREE with regular museum admission. (645-4445 or 231-CITY).

The Fall of Heaven

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents The Fall Of Heaven Tuesdays through Sundays, January 5 through 30. Performances take place at the Loretto-Hlton Center, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves, MO. For more information, call 314-968-4925 or visit repstl.org.  I'm a big fan of Walter Mosley's crime novels, so I'm looking forward to his stage adaptation of his fantasy novel The Tempest Tales.  Great novelists aren't necessarily great playwrights, so it will be something of an adventure.

The Giver

Metro Theatre Company and the The Edison Theatre at Washington University present the St. Louis premiere of The Giver, Eric Coble's stage adaptation of Lois Lowry's celebrated novel, January 7 - 23. Each performance will be immediately followed by a discussion exploring questions raised by the story. The play is recommended for adults and young people 10 and over. For more information, call the Edison Theatre Box Office at (314) 935-6543 or call Metro Theater at (314) 997-6777.

The Fox Theatre presents Monty Python's Spamalot Friday through Sunday, January 7 through 9. The Fox is at 527 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information, call 314-534-1678.  I reviewed the first tour of this when it came through town in November of 2006 and found that it had too much of everything, including running time.  Part of that was apparently due to the sluggish pacing of that tour - possibly an attempt to adjust to the fact that, with a seating capacity of over 5000, the Fox is nearly four times the size of the Shubert in New York, where Spamalot began.  The grapevine says this tour is being produced by a different organization and is using more non-Equity talent.  The load-in is also shorter, suggesting a technically simpler production.

The Theatre Guild of Webster Groves presents the comedy Over The River And Through The Woods January 7 through 16. Performances take place in the Guild theatre at Newport and Summit in Webster Groves, MO. For more information, visit theaterguildwg.org or call 314-962-0876.  I acted in the St. Louis premiere of this script several years ago with Act Inc.  It has since made its way around most of the community theatre groups in town, and for obvious reasons:  it's a funny, well-written piece about an eccentric but loving family, with great roles for both young and old actors.  If the Webster folks do right by the script it should be a fun evening.

The Black Rep presents Shakespeare's Pericles January 5 through 30. Performances take place at the Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square. For more information, call 314-534-3810.  It will be interesting to see what they do with this rarely-performed bit of semi-Shakespeare (scholars think he may have only written half of it). The company web site describes it as "a panorama of breathtaking visual imagery creating a stunning metaphor for the African American experience". The full title is Pericles, Prince of Tyre - a purely fictional character who has, AFAIK, nothing to do with the real-life Athenian statesman.

Ridgefield Middle School Talent Nite

Jo Firestone and Dylan Marron present their two-person, 17-character comedy Ridgefield Middle School Talent Nite Friday and Saturday, January 7 and 8, at 8 PM at The Auditorium at Wydown Middle School, 6500 Wydown. For more information, visit talentnite.blogspot.com or send email to ridgefieldtheplay at gmail.com.