St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of February 29, 2016

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

For information on events beyond this week, check out the searchable database at the Regional Arts Commission's events web site.

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Jeffrey M. Wright

The Presenters Dolan present Jeffrey M. Wright in The 40's: Theirs...And Mine on Saturday, March 5, at 8 PM as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival. "A very popular and immensely likable leading man, Jeff Wright comes back with his sold-out splash. Songs made famous by Comden and Green, Cole Porter, Garth Brooks, Jimmy Webb, U2 and Rodgers and Hammerstein." The performance takes place at the Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle. For more information: gaslightcabaretfestival.com.

New Line Theatre presents the musical American Idiot, based on the album by Green Day, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 PM, March 3-26. " New Line continues its 25th season with the powerful, high-octane, rock fable AMERICAN IDIOT, based on the powerhouse album by Green Day, a scorching attack on what they saw as the hypocrisy and moral evils of the Bush Administration after the attacks of Sept. 11, as well as the increasingly submissive nature of the American public. The score includes every song from Green Day's hit album American Idiot, as well as several songs from their follow-up release, 21st Century Breakdown, with music by Green Day, lyrics by frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, a book by Armstrong and Michael Mayer, and musical arrangements and orchestrations by Broadway composer Tom Kitt (High Fidelity, Next to Normal, If/Then). The Toronto Star called the show 'the first great musical of the 21st century.'" Performances take place at the Marcelle Theater, 3310 Samuel Shepard Drive, three blocks east of Grand, in Grand Center. For more information, visit newlinetheatre.com or call 314-534-1111.

The Bissell Mansion Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre presents And Away You Go through March 27. The Bissell Mansion is at 4426 Randall Place. For more information: bissellmansiontheatre.com.

Beautiful—The Carole King Musical
Photo: Joan Marcus

The Fox Theatre presents Beautiful—The Carole King Musical running through March 6. "BEAUTIFUL - The Carole King Musical tells the inspiring true story of King's remarkable rise to stardom, from being part of a hit songwriting team with her husband Gerry Goffin, to her relationship with fellow writers and best friends Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in popular music history. Along the way, she made more than beautiful music, she wrote the soundtrack to a generation." The Fox is on North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: fabulousfox.com. Read the 88.1 KDHX review!

The Lemp Mansion Comedy-Mystery Dinner Theater presents Clueless through April 16. The Lemp Mansion is at 3322 DeMenil Place. For more information: lempmansion.com

Disgraced
Photo: Peter Wochniak

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar through March 6. "Successful corporate lawyer Amir Kapoor comes from a Pakistani family, but he long ago distanced himself from his roots to embrace life as a slick New Yorker. On course to become a partner at his law firm, Amir's carefully constructed world begins to unravel when unexpected events cause him to question his own beliefs. Raw, turbulent and unsettling, this smart drama reveals hidden attitudes toward modern culture and faith. Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama." Performances take place on the mainstage at the Loretto-Hlton Center, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves, MO. For more information, call 314-968-4925 or visit repstl.org. Read the 88.1 KDHX review!

Elephant's Graveyard
Photo: Joe Angeles

The Performing Arts Department at Washington University presents Elephant's Graveyard Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM, February 26 - March 6. "Something went very wrong when Sparks Traveling Circus arrived in the small Appalachian town of Erwin, Tennessee in 1916. Join us for this unbelievable, yet true, story about the desire for spectacle and Old Testament-style retributive justice in America." Performances take place in the Edison heatre in the Mallinckrodt Student Center on the Washington University campus. For more information, visit pad.artsci.wustl.edu or call 314-935-6543.

The Presenters Dolan presents Emily West on Thursday and Friday, March 3 and 4, at 8 PM as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival. "A finalist in the 2014 America's Got Talent show, a grad of the Grand Olde Opry and the chicest rooms on both coasts, Emily West is as stunning with a plaintive ballad as she is with a powerhouse anthem. " The performances take place at the Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle. For more information: gaslightcabaretfestival.com.

The Improv Shop presents Heartbreak running through March 19. "Heartbreak is an improvised serial show where we explore, in depth, the stages of doomed relationships. Watch characters go from strangers to friends, friends to lovers, and from lovers to heartbreakers. Heartbreak. It doesn't happen all at once." The Improv Shop is at 510 North Euclid in the Central West End. For more information on this and other Improv Shop shows: theimprovshop.com.

St. Charles Community College presents the comedy Lend Me a Tenor Wednesday through Sunday, March 2-6. "The harried impresario, the haughty socialite Board Chair, the Italian superstar opera singer, his shrewish wife, the young lovers ... all get farcical treatment in this non-stop, door-slamming, hilarious comedy. Set in a fancy hotel suite in 1934, the Cleveland Opera Company is poised to present the world-famous tenor, Tito Morelli, as the lead in their history-making production of Othello.” Performances take place in the FAB Theater in the Donald D. Shook Fine Arts Building on the campus at 4601 Mid Rivers Mall Drive in Cottleville, MO. For more information, call 636-922-8050 or visit stchas.edu.

Robert Breig

The Presenters Dolan present Robert Breig in Making Every Moment Count-The Music of Peter Allen on Sunday, March 6, at 3 PM as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival. "Robert Breig celebrates the life and times of Peter Allen, a giant of live performance in the 70s and 80s. Judy Garland discovered him in 1964, at age 20, performing in a trio at the Hong Kong Hilton. (Allen was Australian.) He left immediately to go on tour with Garland, and soon after married her daughter, Liza Minelli. Thus anointed, he started performing in small cabarets in New York, including Reno Sweeney, the Continetental Baths and the Bitter End. His grew so popular that he regularly sold out the 6,000-seat Radio City Music Hall. His signature songs were "I Go to Rio" and "Quiet Please, There's a Lady Onstage." If you don't know his music or performance genius, check out the video of Peter Allen below." The performance takes place at the Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle. For more information: gaslightcabaretfestival.com.

The St. Louis Art Museum presents a high-definition video broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera's production Puccini's Manon Lescaut on SaturdayMarch 5, at 11:55 a.m. "Soprano Kristine Opolais and tenor Roberto Alagna join forces in Puccini's obsessive love story. Opolais sings the title role of the country girl who transforms herself into a Parisian temptress, while Alagna is the dashing student who desperately woos her. Director Richard Eyre places the action in occupied France in a film noir setting. “Desperate passion” is the phrase Puccini himself used to describe the opera that confirmed his position as the preeminent Italian opera composer of his day. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads the stirring score." The live digital HD video broadcast from New York takes place in The Farrell Auditorium at the Art Museum in Forest Park. For more information: slam.org.

The Hettenhausen Center for the Arts presents the Mcendree College Theatre Department production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream on Thursday through Saturday, March 3-5. The Hettenhausen Center for the Arts is at 701 College Rd., at Alton St. on the McKendree University campus in Lebanon, IL. For more information: www.thehett.com.

Christ Memorial Productions presents Once Upon a Tree Friday sand Saturday at 7:30 PM and Sunday at 2 PM, March 4-6. "Once Upon a Tree is an original dramatic production that presents glimpses into the life of Christ with an emphasis on Christ's sacrificial gift of love for all people. Once Upon a Treeuses powerful musical scores and a full orchestra to bring the dramatic interpretation of The Greatest Story Ever Told to life. The production focuses on the Gospel as recorded by Luke, and depicts a world of passion, faith, deceit, truth, power, murder, and undying love. Pepper Choplin's musical scores and other powerful songs are incorporated into this dramatic musical presentation, and is directed by Dianne Mueller." Performances take place at Christ Memorial Lutheran Church, 5252 South Lindbergh. For more information, visit CMPShows.org or call 314-631-0304.

Zi

The Emerald Room Cabaret presents magician Zi in Playing With Impossibilities on Friday and Saturday, March 4 and 5, at 8 p.m. "When was the last time you were truly blown away by a Magic show? Curious about what Mentalism means? There will be no rabbits in hats or doves from sleeves here! Instead, come experience jaw-dropping moments as Zi amazes and delights with feats of the mind, and makes you reconsider the true depths of what we are capable of! Watch as everything from how we think to how we connect with each other become charged with an element of the supernatural, and come witness as things happen that should be utterly impossible. Watch as the impossible becomes a playground. " The performances take place in the Emerald Room at The Monocle, 4510 Manchester in the Grove neighborhood. For more information: buzzonstage.com/st-louis

On Saturday, March 5, from 1 to 2:30 p.m., Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents author Salman Rushdie, composer Jack Perla, and OTSL General Manager Timothy O'Leary in a panel discussion of the opera Shalimar the Clown, based on Mr. Rushdie's novel. Opera Theatre will be presenting the world premiere the opera as part of its 2016 season in June. The event takes place at the Sheldon Concert Hall, 3648 Washington. For more information: opera-stl.org/shalimarevents.

Winter Opera St. Louis presents Verdi's Il Trovatore Friday at 8 PM and Sunday at 3 PM, March 4 and 6. Performances take place at The Skip Viragh Center for the Arts at Chaminade College Preparatory School, 425 S. Lindbergh. For more information, visit winteroperastl.org.

The Theatre Guild of Webster Groves presents the comedy The Underpants by Carl Sternhiem, as adapted by Steve Martin, March 4-13. "Louise and Theo Markes, a couple whose conservative existence is shattered when Louise's bloomers fall down in public. Though she pulls them up quickly, Theo thinks the incident will cost him his job as a government clerk. Even though it does not result in the feared scandal, it does attract two infatuated men, each of whom wants to rent the spare room in the Markes' home. Oblivious of their amorous objectives, Theo splits the room between them, happy to collect rent from both of them." Performances take place in the Guild theatre at Newport and Summit in Webster Groves, MO. For more information: theatreguildwg.org or call 314-962-0876.

Would you like to be on the radio? KDHX, 88.1 FM needs theatre reviewers. If you're 18 years or older, knowledgeable in this area, have practical theatre experience (acting, directing, writing, technical design, etc.), have good oral and written communications skills and would like to become one of our volunteer reviewers, send an email describing your experience and interests to chuck at kdhx.org. Please include a sample review of something you've seen recently.