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New This Week:
The Muny has a couple of high-profile events this weekend in anticipation of its upcoming 100th anniversary season. Friday night, May 18, at 9:15 pm there's An Evening With the Stars, featuring a cast of 100 with special performances by show business legends Chita Rivera and Tommy Tune, along with Broadway and Muny stars Patrick Cassidy, Ken Page, Jenny Powers, Lara Teeter and Graham Rowat. There will also be an ensemble of 32 singers and dancers, the Muny Kids and Muny Teens troupes, and (of course) Muny Orchestra. On Saturday, May 20, from 1 to 5 pm you're invited to a free Centennial Birthday Bash. Events include a Chorus Line headshot mosaic, Follies reunion photos, the "Mile of Muny Memories" and No Business Like Show Business Karaoke. The event will culminate with a grand finale inside the theatre. It all happens at the Muny in Forest Park. For more information: muny.org.
My take: No matter how you feel about The Muny, it's centennial is certainly worth celebrating. It looks like the weather might even cooperate, with lows in the low 60s Friday night and highs in the upper 80s Saturday with only at 20% chance of rain.
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| Phantom of the Opera |
My take: It's easy and popular in some quarters to sneer at ALWs absurdly popular mega-musicals, but the fact is that Phantom of the Opera is an entertaining and well-crafted diversion. It doesn't raise any important social issues and there's no subtext - what you see is what you get - but it does have the same the mix of humor and melodrama that characterized Leroux's original novel. The lyrical, dramatic, and intelligent score is, in many ways, one of Lloyd Webber's best, managing to both make fun of and pay homage to 18th and 19th-century opera conventions. The "Prima Donna" septet, for example, could pass as a set piece by Meyerbeer or Massenet, both of whom are deftly parodied in the opening number from the fictitious opera Hannibal. And yet, the score has also produced popular songs such as "Music of the Night" and "All I Ask of You". The latter is probably one of the most ecstatic love duets to emerge from the theatre since Rogers and Hammerstein's "If I Loved You." Reviews have been good, and I say go out and enjoy the spectacle.
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| A Streetcar Named Desire Photo by Ride Hamilton |
My take: You don't need me to tell you that A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the best things Tennessee Williams ever wrote - right up there with The Glass Menagerie - or that it's generally regarded as an American classic. Maybe you don't even need me to point out that Stanley Kowalski's toxic concept of masculinity and attendant moral hypocrisy are trying desperately to make a comeback these days, with active encouragement from our nation's capitol, which makes the script relevant all over again. So I'll just point our that this production has gotten splendid reviews from folks like Tina Farmer at KDHX and Ann Lemmons Pollack at St. Louis Eats and Drinks, among others. And this weekend is your last chance to see it.
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