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My take: It might surprise you to learn that local high schools and colleges are turning out a large number of students who are interested in cabaret and musical theatre. The St. Louis Cabaret Conference has helped fuel that with an annual cabaret master class aimed at students. I have seen some of the graduates of that program in action and have been very impressed.
PNC Arts Alive and The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis present Making A Scene: A St. Louis Theatre Expo on Saturday, September 29, from 9 am to 1:30 pm. "This celebration will unite more than a dozen local theatre companies at The Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts in Webster Groves for a wide range of family-friendly activities, demonstrations, discussions and pop-up performances. The free expo will provide behind-the-scenes insight into how local theatre companies bring productions to life on stages throughout the St. Louis area." All events take place the Loretto-Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Rd. on the Webster University campus. For a complete list of events, visit www.repstl.org/events/detail/making-a-scene-a-st-louis-theatre-expo.
My take: Want a look behind the scenes of St. Louis theatre? Here's your chance. The expo features a wide array of events with a little something for nearly everyone.
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| This Random World Photo by John Lamb |
My take: As I noted in my KDHX review of the world premiere of this play at the Humana Festival, one of the great pleasures of the novels of Charles Dickens is the often comical way in which he arranges for characters from very disparate walks of life to be connected, often by wildly improbable coincidences. In This Random World, veteran comic playwright Steve Dietz stands that convention on its head. In Dietz's anti-Dickensian story, characters who are already related to each other, however tangentially, repeatedly miss making connections as a result of coincidences that are as unlikely and comical as anything the great British novelist ever dreamed up. I'm on the play reading committee at West End and was a strong proponent of including this inventive farce in our season. I think you'll enjoy it.
Held Over:
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| An Apology... |
My take: Joe Hanrahan and Dave Wassilak have performed both of these duet shows previously here in town to good notices but to the best of my knowledge this is the first time they've both been available in the same program. In An Apology, Dr. Faustus (Hanrahan)...well...apologizes for not standing up agaisnt Mephistopholes (Wassilak). The Hunchback Variations is even more improbable: a panel discussion between the Hunchback of Notre Dame (Wassilak) and Ludwig Van Beethoven (Hanrahan) about Chekov's The Cherry Orchard. Go figure. If you're up for something out of the theatrical norm, this just might be the show for you. And the Emerald Room at The Monocle is an cool space for intimate performances.
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| Evita Photo by Eric Woolsey |
My take: Evita has certainly gone through some changes since it first appeared as a two-LP "concept album" back in 1976 (note to younger readers: the LP is a primitive sound reproduction device invented by the ancient Mayans), with a 1978 Broadway production and a 2006 London stage revision that also made its way to the Great White Way. The Rep production is based on that revival, which makes what I see as a number of positive changes in the show. That includes new orchestrations, a focus on dance and movement that makes the show move like lightning without ever pushing the pacing, and dropping the notion that the character of Che is the revolutionary Che Guevara, which never really worked for me anyway. I liked that version when I saw it at the Fox in 2013 and local critics appear to like the Rep's production quite a lot a well. "The whirlwind that was the life of Eva Peron," writes Steve Allen, "travels at break neck speed with dazzling performances, costumes and set design all sweeping across the Rep stage in the capable hands of director Rob Ruggiero." Ann Lemmons Pollack calls it "a blockbuster of a show that takes full advantage of the extra time the summer gave to crank things up." We saw the show last weekend. Rob Ruggiero's direction is fleet-footed and precise and his cast is very strong, headed by Michelle Aravena as Eva Perón, Pepe Nufrio as Che, and Sean MacLaughlin as a forceful and charismatic Juan Perón. The 16 members of the ensemble take on a variety of roles and include some truly impressive dancers.
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| Love Never DiesPhoto by Joan Marcus |
My take: Unlike some of my fellow critics, I have never been inclined to jump on the anti-Lloyd Webber bandwagon. I've seen Phantom of the Opera a couple of times and have enjoyed it immensely. If my schedule had allowed it, I would have checked out Love Never Dies as well, even though I'm not entirely convinced the world was really crying for a sequel to the spectacularly successful original, with its irresistible score and clever parodies of operatic styles. Reviews of the show have been mixed at some of the earlier stops on this (presumably) pre-Broadway tour following its American debut in Detroit last October, as is the only review I have been able to find so far, by Calvin Wilson at STLToday.com. I'm putting it on the list anyway, just because I find fascinating the idea of a musical with a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber and a book by Ben Elton, the creator of Blackadder.
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| Oklahoma! Photo by Peter Wochniak, ProPhotoSTL |
My take: History (or at least Wikipedia) tells us that when Lorenz Hart was approached by his then-partner Richard Rodgers to work on a musical stage version of the 1931 Theatre Guild flop Green Grow the Lilacs, he declined, shrugging off the story of farmers and cowboys in turn-of-the-century Oklahoma as corny and uninteresting. He had a point there—the corn really is "as high as an elephant's eye" at times—but even so Oklahoma! was a box office smash in 1943 (a record-breaking 2,212 performances), garnered rave reviews, and has remained a favorite of audiences and critics ever since. The Stages production, which I saw last night, is broad and even borderline cartoonish in spots, but executed so flawlessly and with such precision that it's impossible not to find it vastly entertaining. Performances are top drawer and the score is, of course, irresistible.
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