New items include a Disney musical at the Fox, the return of a holiday favorite at Mustard Seed, and the closing shows in the fall Gaslight Cabaret Festival season.
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New This Week:
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| Disney's Aladdin |
The Fabulous Fox presents Disney's
Aladdin running through November 25. "From the producer of The Lion King comes the timeless story of ALADDIN, a thrilling new production filled with unforgettable beauty, magic, comedy and breathtaking spectacle. It's an extraordinary theatrical event where one lamp and three wishes make the possibilities infinite." The Fox is at 527 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information:
fabulousfox.com.
My take: The Disney organization has had a remarkably good track record when it comes to turning their hit animated films into his stage musicals, and judging from the reviews this is yet another colorful feather in the company's cap. "The national touring production of Aladdin," writes Mark Bretz
at Ladue News, "pulls out all the stops in a brightly festooned, lavish spectacle of a show filled with entertaining music, lots of laughs and an eye-popping array of razzle-dazzle special effects and glittering costumes." Sounds like a good time to me.
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| All is Calm |
Mustard Seed Theatre presents the acappella musical
All is Calm Thursdays through Sundays, November 15 - December 16. "Join us in celebrating the power of peace in this acapella musical based on the true story of soldiers during World War I who for one night, put down their arms and played soccer instead of exchanging bullets." Performances take place at the Fontbonne Fine Arts Theatre, 6800 Wydown Blvd. For more information, call (314) 719-8060 or visit the web site at
www.mustardseedtheatre.com.
My take: All is Calm has become an annual winter tradition at Mustard Seed. With a script by Peter Rothstein and musical arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach, this story of the remarkable Christmas truce of 1914—a spontaneous outbreak of peace that occurred at multiple points along the trenches in France—combines splendid and often quite complex acappella singing with readings of letters from soldiers and other historical documents. At a time when opportunistic politicians are pushing an agenda of hate, fear, and eternal war, this is a play that everyone needs to see. As we used to ask back in the 1960s, "what if they gave a war and nobody came?
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| Christina Bianco |
The Gaslight Cabaret Festival presents
Christina Bianco in
Diva Moments on Friday and Saturday, November 16 and 17, at 8 pm. "So Shonda Rhimes tweets a link to this Celebrity Impression Video, and 24 million youtube views later, Christina Bianco makes her St. Louis debut. She takes us on a musical comedy journey through the iconic songs that made divas out of the women who sang them. And we also get to hear that which makes Christina a diva in her own right." The performance takes place at the Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle. For more information:
gaslightcabaretfestival.com.
My take: No, I haven't seen this show yet—I'm going on Friday— and I haven't seen Ms. Bianco on stage in the past, but I'm putting this on the list just because it looks like great fun. And she comes to us with a raft of rave reviews from such diverse sources at the
New York Times,
Playbill,
Huffington Post, and Broadwayworld.com, so I suspect I'm on safe ground here.
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Doctor Faustus
Photo by Joey Rumpell |
Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble presents
Doctor Faustus, or the Modern Prometheus by Marlowe as adapted by John Wolbers. Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 pm through November 17. "Doctor Faustus, or the Modern Prometheus is a modern day retelling of the age-old bargain for limitless control over ones own fate. The brilliant Doctor Faustus grows weary of those in charge abusing their power; so, with the noblest of intentions, sells her soul to save the world. Thus begins an epic journey of seduction and love, justice and mercy, despair and hope, and ultimately damnation and redemption. Along the way Faustus must choose between good, evil and the compromise known as humanity. Playwright, John Wolbers, retains much of Christopher Marlowes original poetry, but reframes the story to examine: How does one effect change in an increasingly complex world? What is the value of a soul in todays modern age? And what holds us back from transcending our baser instincts to become our best selves?" Performances take place at The Chapel Venue, 6238 Alexander Drive. For more information:
slightlyoff.org.
My take: On the one hand, a contemporary reboot of Marlowe's original is a provocative idea, especially when it flips gender roles by making Dr. Faustus female. On the other hand, if you're going to tinker with an established classic, you had better come up with something that works as well as the original, lest you be accused of hubris. The critical verdict on
Doctor Faustus, or the Modern Prometheus looks a bit mixed but is generally pretty positive. Ann Lemmons Pollack, for example,
writes that she found it "curiously refreshing" and "a surprisingly satisfying two hours." Paul Friswold at the RFT is even more enthusiastic. "Driven by smart writing and quality performances from star Ashley Bauman and the cast,"
he writes, "director Ellie Schwetye's production is a thought-provoking, engrossing play that examines modern problems through the lens of the seventeenth century's cosmology." SATE has an enviable track record when it comes to innovative work, so I'm going to recommend this for those of you looking for something out of the ordinary this weekend.
Held Over:
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The Great Seduction
Photo by John Lamb |
The West End Players Guild continues its 108th season with the St. Louis premiere of the comedy
The Great Seduction by Vladimir Zelevinsky Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM, November 9 - 18. "In the mid-19th century, the prolific French playwright and author Alexandre Dumas penned a five-act bedroom farce Mademoiselle de Belle Isle. It was a tasteful telling of the story of an arrogant Duke, a randy Countess, a young stud of a chevalier and an innocent maiden freshly arrived from the provinces, seasoned with generous dollops of low humor and decolletage. Well, okay. It wasn't exactly tasteful. But it was a rollicking and bawdy smash hit.A century and a half later, playwright Vladimir Zelevinsky decided it was time for the Madmoiselle to return to the stage. His new play, The Great Seduction, retains all the wit and charm of Dumas's original work in a tighter two-act format and with a different and surprising climax that adds a clever twist to one of the most important moments in French history." There will also be a show on Thursday, November 15, at 8 pm. Performances take place at the Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 North Union at Enright in the Central West End. For more information, call 314-367-0025 or visit
www.westendplayers.org.
My take: Vladimir Zelevinsky surely has one of the most unusual resumes of any playwright. A native of Siberia who emigrated to the USA with his family, Zelevinsky has degrees in nuclear physics from MIT and a number of software patents to his credit along with this theatre credits. His
Manifest Destiny (which had its St. Louis premiere by West End, where I'm a board member, back in 2016) was a brilliant distillation of the American immigrant experience.
The Great Seduction goes off in a totally different direction with a sly take on the classic costume sex farce that turns out to be about much more than that. In
a 2016 interview for STLToday with Judy Newmark, the playwright said that he liked working with small companies because "that's where the interesting work is done." He has certainly provided some provocative pieces for those small companies to produce. Reviews have been very positive.
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| Ken Haller |
The Gaslight Cabaret Festival presents
Ken Haller in
Happy Haller Days on Saturday, November 18, at 8 p.m. "In his take on the holidays, Ken promises to be surprising, funny, personal, moving, great company and just a little exasperating. Just like all our holidays!" Marty Fox is pianist and music director for the show. The performances take place at the Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle. For more information:
gaslightcabaretfestival.com.
My take: In
my review of Ken's last production,
The Medicine Show, I noted that he "delivered the goods with that combination of theatrical smarts and vocal authority that has made him one of our town's principal cabaret exports." He and Marty Fox have done another first rate job this time around; check out
my review of this show for details.
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Into the Breeches!
Photo by Philip Hamer |
Shakespeare Festival St. Louis presents
Into the Breeches! through Sunday, November 18. "Written by the award-winning playwright of
Grounded, which starred Anne Hathaway in its New York run,
Into the Breeches! is a hilarious and heartwarming look at the WWII home front and a group of ladies who band together to keep the local theater going with their very own production of
Henry V." Performances take place at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand in Grand Center. For more information, including dates and times:
sfstl.com.
My take: The idea of
Into the Breeches! idea sounds like great fun and the Shakespeare Festival has had a rather good track record for many years now. Reviewing the play's world premiere earlier this year, the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal called it "a gem of a play, one of the sweetest nights of theater you're likely to see". Locally, Ann Lemmons Pollack
calls it an "absolutely delightful piece of work" while Calvin Wilson at the Post-Dispatch
says it's "a delightful and thoroughly engaging comedy-drama about persevering in the face of unfair obstacles and overcoming cultural prejudices that undercut the promise of the American dream."
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