Symphony Review: Denève and the SLSO present a musical and visual feast

Five years ago, when Stéphane Denève was the Music Director Designate of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), I asked him if he was thinking of using any visuals to go with the ballet scores he was planning since this was something the symphony had done successfully in the past. He said no "because as much as I love combining art forms, I'm very doubtful about the visual and the music together… Every time you have a visual which is very powerful, the music tends to become an accompaniment. And therefore it's very hard to find the right balance to make that successful."

[Find out more about the music with my symphony preview.]

Grégoire Pont
Photo: Israel Solorzano

Judging from the use of animation in the concerts Maestro Denève and the SLSO presented this past weekend (January 27 and 28), he has found that balance. Two out of the three works performed during the concert were accompanied by animation. When we saw the concert on Sunday afternoon the result in both cases was unquestionably successful.

The program opened with the 1912 "ballet-pantomime" "Le Festin de l'araignée" ("The Spider's Feast") by Albert Roussel (1869–1937).  Set in a garden at twilight, the whimsical scenario shows us ants grabbing a rose petal, and worms dodging praying mantises to gorge themselves on a piece of fruit dislodged by the wind. A mayfly, unable to resist the demands of her insect audience, dances herself to death.

Meanwhile, the titular spider has spun an intricate web and is lying in wait for her next meal. She traps and kills an incautious butterfly along with a pair of mantises, who have worn themselves out in a pointless duel over who was responsible for letting those worms give them the slip.  Before she can begin her feast, a dung beetle frees a mantis who deals the spider a death blow. As the night falls, the surviving insects come together to bear away the body of the mayfly in a somber funeral procession. Curtain.

Roussel's score is a tour de force of tone painting. His ants enter with a slightly silly march. The worms slither on in high strings on their way to the fruit and then wiggle off, stuffed with fruit, in the low strings. The spider mends her web with quick rising glissandi in the violins and later does a celebratory dance that echoes the "Danse infernale" from Stravinsky's "Firebird."

As Denève pointed out in his pre-concert chat, the score for "Le Festin de l'araignée" is filled with notations of the ballet's stage directions as a reminder to the conductor; "Entrée des Fourmis" ("Entrance of the ants") at rehearsal number 7. and "Danse de Papillon" ("Dance of the butterfly") at number 19, and so on. Instead of displaying static stage directions on a screen, Denève enlisted the help of French illustrator and animator Grégoire Pont to animate them. Pont's work was shown for the first time last week during a performance of the score that Denève conducted with the New World Symphony in Miami.

As you can see in Pont's Facebook sample reel, his fanciful and witty line drawings match the music perfectly. I especially liked what he did with the final bars, when a firefly, after a few false starts, finally achieves illumination, and his light changes into a crescent moon. It was (ahem) de-light-ful.

Every time Denève conducts a Roussel score for us, I'm reminded of why he has so much affection for this composer's work and how completely justified that affection is. Roussel surely deserves more attention than he has gotten over the years. The high quality of the performances his music gets from Denève and the orchestra should help to remedy that situation.

"Le Festin de l'araignée" got a sympathetic and elegant reading from Denève and the usual excellent playing from the orchestra. Associate Principal Flute Andrea Kaplan got a well-deserved nod during the curtain call for her many fine solos, and everyone else was at the top of their game.

After intermission, we leaped forward to 1942 and a suite from the ballet "Les animaux modèles" ("The Model Animals") by Francis Poulenc (1899–1963).  Denève said this work had a special place in his heart because of the ingenious way the composer, who was already part of the resistance movement, managed to sneak in Antifa messages that would be understood by his audience but would sail over the heads of the Nazis. Fascists, as we are reminded far too often, are notoriously unable to handle nuance.

The most notable example is the insertion in the fifth movement of the suite, "Les deux coqs" ("The Two Roosters") of the refrain of the 1871 Franco-Prussian war song “Alsace et Lorraine”: "Vous n'aurez pas l'Alsace et la Lorraine / Et malgré vous nous resterons Français" (roughly, "You will not have Alsace and Lorraine, and despite you we will remain French). Denève favored us with a couple of bars in his talk, which might have made it easier to spot when the trumpets let loose with it in performance. As Poulenc recalled later, "each time the trumpet started out on the tune, I couldn't help smiling."

The orchestra's spirited and incisive performance, along with Ken Page's suave readings of three of the La Fontaine fables on which the ballet is based, left the audience smiling. The rhyming translations of the fables by the late, multi-talented Craig Hill captured the satirical wit of the originals, at least based on my somewhat rudimentary French.

Denève masterfully built the slow crescendo to the somewhat musically ambiguous "Le petit jour" ("Day Break"), with its abrupt shift to darkness near the end, and brought out all the noble romance of "Le lion amoureux" ("The Lion in Love"). Poulenc's vivid portrayals of a man's two rather picky mistresses and the fight of the roosters with its reminder about the evanescence of victory (probably lost on the Germans) were sharply etched in Sunday's performance.

There was excellent playing here from the horns and brasses, especially in "La mort et la bûcheron" ("Death and the woodcutter"), and impressively precise articulation by the strings. Harpists Julie Smith Phillips and Ellie Kirk added to the richness of the sound.

The final work on the program, "Peter and the Wolf" by Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953), is written for narrator and orchestra. This time around, however, the narration was replaced with the 2006 “stop motion” animated film “Peter and the Wolf” by British writer/director Suzie Templeton. Templeton's film sticks fairly close to the outline of Prokofiev's original story but embellishes it substantially and sets it in a somewhat dystopic Soviet Russia. Peter is still a hero and the wolf, especially in his animated incarnation, is still menacing. The hunters, though, are essentially thugs, Peter's animal friends are skinny and scruffy, and everyone seems to be leading a hand-to-mouth existence. It's imaginative but a bit bleak.

The music, however, remains unchanged and was played just as well as the last time I heard the orchestra perform it in 2021. Most of the soloists were also the same, including Andrew Cuneo, the Principal Bassoon who played the role of a comically pompous grandfather, and Jelena Dirks, the Principal Oboe who portrayed a mournful and (in this grittier version) unquestionably dead duck. Percussionists Will James and Alan Stewart, the Principal and Associate Principal respectively, played the fearsome hunters. Kevin Ritenauer, who was not part of the 2021 ensemble, joined them on the tympani.

Principal Flute Matthew Roitstein's bird was wonderfully light and agile—allegro and staccato with lots of grace notes, just as written. The contrast with Templeton's clumsy, broken-winged creature (who needs a balloon to stay aloft) was heavily ironic. Ditto clarinetist Steve Ahearn as the cat: musically sly and slinky in contrast with the clumsy and inept animated counterpart.

Titled "Musical Fables," the concert was an innovative approach to putting old wine in new bottles without damaging the vintage. Hats off to everyone.

Next from the SLSO: Denève conducts the orchestra and violin soloist Augustin Hadelich in Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto along with the local premieres Valerie Coleman’s “Umoja: Anthem of Unity” and the Symphony No. 3 by Florence Price. Performances are Friday at 10:30 am and Saturday at 7:30 pm, February 2 and 3, at the Touhill Center on the UMSL campus. The Saturday concert will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

Symphony Preview: Reanimated

This Saturday and Sunday (January 27 and 28) Music Director Stéphane Denève returns to lead the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in an unusual program of three works with three things in common. First, they were all written during the first half of the last century. Second, they were all theatrical (two ballets and one piece for narrator and orchestra). And third, all three will be performed in ways that probably would never have occurred to their creators.

[Preview the music with the SLSO's Spotify playlist.]

Albert Roussel in 1913
Public Domain, Link

First, it’s the score for the 1912 “ballet-pantomime” “Le Festin de l’araignée” (“The Spider’s Feast”) by Albert Roussel (1869–1937).  A relatively solitary and independent figure, probably due to the loss of his parents and grandparents before he turned ten, Roussel was influenced by both Impressionism and Neo-classicism. He absorbed those trends into his own personal style, which Nicolle Labelle (in Grove Online) describes as “harmonically spiced and rhythmically vigorous.”

You can hear that in “Le Festin de l’araignée,” which he wrote at the request of Jacques Rouché, director of the Théâtre des Arts in Paris. The scenario, as you might guess from the title, describes a day in the lives and deaths of insects caught by a spider who is himself done in by a praying mantis. That sounds a bit grim, but Roussel’s music is so exotic and appealing in its mashup of late French Romanticism and Impressionism that it’s impossible not to love it.

That said, complete ballet scores don’t always work in a concert setting, tied as they are to the action on stage. In this performance, though, visuals will be provided by illustrator Grégoire Pont using a technique he calls Cinesthetics. This involves Pont creating his illustrations in real time as the score is performed with the intent of “offering audiences spellbinding new connections between eyes, ears, and mind.”

Pont does this using a touch screen and stylus, with the images displayed on a big screen in the auditorium. For a preview of what to expect this weekend, check out the artist’s short demonstration video on YouTube. This is, quite literally, performance art. Given the state of the art in film back in 1912, I doubt that this would have ever crossed Roussel’s mind.

Although not one of France’s better known musical sons, Roussel is a favorite of Denéve, who recorded all of his symphonies for Naxos back in 2010. His performance of Roussel’s Symphony No. 3 with the SLSO in 2020 was enough to convince me that his admiration for the composer is fully justified.

Francis Poulenc in 1922
Photo by Joseph Rosmand

After intermission we leap forward to 1942 and a suite from the ballet “Les animaux modèles” (“The Model Animals”) by Francis Poulenc (1899–1963).  A member of that eccentric group of French composers known as “Les Six,” Poulenc is best known for witty and somewhat Neoclassical works like his Organ Concerto, Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (performed so brilliantly here in 2018, and his many pithy pieces for solo piano. Poulenc also had a more serious side, though, as revealed in his opera “La voix humaine” (a fine performance of which graced Opera Theatre’s 2020 season), his religious works, and his 1955 opera “Dialogues des Carmélites” (“The Dialogs of the Carmelites,” also presented at Opera Theatre in 2014).

“Les animaux modèles” shows off both sides of Poulenc’s musical personality. Based on the tales from the twelve volumes of Fables by Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695), the full-length ballet ranges from brightly comic numbers like “L'homme entre deux âges et ses deux maîtresses” (“The Middle-Aged Man and His Two Mistresses”) to the passionate nobility of “Le lion amoureux” (“The Lion in Love”) and the solemnity of the concluding “Le repas de midi” (Lunchtime). The suite includes these numbers along with three others.

Since it was written in Nazi-occupied France, “Les animaux modèles” has a subtext that goes beyond La Fontaine’s fanciful stories. Poulenc was already part of the resistance, having joined the Front National des Musiciens (The National Front of Musicians), which fought the Teutonic invasion of the musical world, and embedding pro-French and anti-Nazi themes in his music. He did so in a way that went over the heads of the Nazis, fascists being notoriously unable to handle nuance. As David Raymond wrote in program notes for the Rochester Philharmonic, “The fables of LaFontaine are (or were) considered one of the glories of French literature, and given that any educated French audience would recognize them, Poulenc’s ballet became a symbol of French civilization and resistance.”

We’ll hear one example of the composer’s Antifa sarcasm Sunday, in the fifth movement of the suite, “Les deux coqs” (“The Two Roosters”), in which Poulenc quotes the 1871 anti-German song “Alsace et Lorraine.” Written in the wake of the Franco-Prussian war (which resulted in the German annexation of Alsace and Lorraine), the refrain goes like this:

Vous n'aurez pas l'Alsace et la Lorraine,
Et malgré vous nous resterons Français ;
Vous avez pu germaniser la plaine,
Mais notre cœur, vous ne l'aurez jamais.

Rough translation: “You will not have Alsace and Lorraine, and despite you we will remain French; you were able to Germanize the plain, but you will never have our hearts.” As Poulenc recalled later, “I gave myself the treat, recognized only by some members of the orchestra…each time the trumpet started out on the tune, I couldn’t help smiling.”

Unlike Poulenc’s audiences, most Americans are unlikely to be familiar with La Fontaine’s work, so Denève has chosen a novel approach. The suite has been cut down from its original eight movements to six, and each one will be paired with a modern English translation (by the late Craig Hill) of its original fable, read by our own "trusty and well-beloved" thespian Ken Page.

Prokofiev in New York, 1918
en.wikipedia.org

With the final work on the program, “Peter and the Wolf” by Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953), we go from adding narration to removing it. Composed in 1936 on a commission from Natalia Satz, director of the Moscow Children’s Musical Theater, this tale (with a text by Prokofiev) of the stalwart Peter’s mostly successful attempt to protect his animal friends from the nefarious wolf has proven to be wildly popular worldwide.

It has been much admired at the SLSO as well, most recently performed in May 2021 under the baton of David Robertson with actress and singer/songwriter Alicia Revé Like as the narrator. This time around the narrator will be replaced with the Oscar-winning 2006 animated film “Peter and the Wolf” created by British writer/director Suzie Templeton. Templeton uses a technique known as “stop motion,” in which real-world objects are manipulated one frame at a time to create the illusion of motion.

Stop motion dates back to the silent film era, but I remember it primarily from the films of Ray Harryhausen, where it was used to create special visuals for films like “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms” (1953) and “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad” (1973). George Pal used stop motion for his “Puppetoons” in the 1940s and Nic Park used a variant called “Claymation” (in which the figures were sculpted from plasticine clay) for a series of films in the 1990s and 2000s such as the whimsical “Wallace and Gromit” shorts and the Hollywood hit “Chicken Run” (2000).

These days mass-market films have moved on to less time-consuming digital techniques, but stop motion still holds a place in the hearts of many film fans and directors. Using it here instead of the usual narrator will, according to the program notes, “tell a richer and more nuanced tale” and “demonstrate that music can tell powerful stories without uttering a single word.”

Next from the SLSO: Music Director Stéphane Denève returns to conduct the SLSO and actor Ken Page in Poulenc’s ballet “Les animaux modèles” (“The Model Animals”), Roussel’s ballet “Le Festin de l’araignée” (“The Spider’s Feast”), and Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf.” In an interesting change-up, Prokofiev’s work will be performed without the usual narration but with Suzie Templeton’s animated 2006 film, while the Poulenc will be performed with Page reading contemporary translations of the La Fontaine fables that inspired the composer.  Performances will be Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3 pm (January 27 and 28) at the Stifel Theater downtown.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

And that's how it's done

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Who: Ken Page
What: Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue
When: February 20 and 21, 2014
Where: The Gaslight Theatre

I've always maintained that actors in general and musical theatre actors in particular have something of a head start when it comes to cabaret.  They already know how to give meaning to a lyric and how to connect with an audience.  As evidence, I offer up Ken Page's "Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue," which kicked off The Presenters Dolan's Gaslight Cabaret Festival on February 20 and 21.

A veteran of stage and screen and a familiar figure at the Muny, the St. Louis-born actor has been on the cabaret circuit for many years now, including appearances at one of New York's newest and (I'm told) coolest venues, 54 Below.  His show at the Gaslight was almost a textbook example of How to Do Cabaret—perfectly paced, completely engaging, and nicely balanced.

To illustrate my point, let me tell you how the evening began.  It started with an upbeat instrumental version of the Temptations hit "Get Ready" by Mr. Page's talented combo: pianist/music director Henry Palkes, drummer James Jackson, and bassist Vince Clark.  Then, after a moment of silence, Mr. Page's voice was heard from house right singing the opening phrase of "Feelin' Good" (from "The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd")—a cappella and right on pitch.  Resplendent in basic black with a bright red scarf and pocket handkerchief, he came onstage singing, the band kicked in, and everything was off to a strong start.

But there was a problem.  Mr. Page's wireless mic had failed, so he interrupted the song to ask the sound tech to fix it while he used the wired mic on stage.  It was all done smoothly and with good humor.  The mic was fixed, the song ended, and Mr. Page chatted with the audience a bit.  He confessed, with mock shyness, that people had taken to calling him "Big Daddy" lately—a comically self-deprecating reference to Mr. Page's girth.  He then built an audience participation bit on that, getting everyone, on the count of four, to yell "Big Daddy!"  It took a few tries for us all to get the beat, but in the end the house rocked with the words "Big Daddy" and the audience was solidly on Mr. Page's side.  When he then launched into a cheerfully raunchy version of Howlin' Wolf's "300 Pounds of Heavenly Joy" he brought the house down.

And that, as Johnny Carson once said of another cabaret veteran, Marilyn Maye, is how it's done.  Within the space of five minutes or so, Mr. Page had established his vocal chops, shown he could deal gracefully with bumps in the road, and established a rock solid relationship with the audience.

As I said: textbook. 

Ken Page as Old Deuteronomy in "Cats"

The rest of the evening followed suit.  You can see the complete song list at the end of this review, but here is what struck me as some of the highlights.

About halfway through the show, Mr. Page introduced "Memory" from "Cats" (one of the many Broadway shows in which he has appeared) by dedicating it to all the friends he has lost over the years to HIV/AIDS.  His performance was hushed and almost reverential—utterly unlike the big "eleven o'clock number" approach most singers take.  He made it, as a result, completely his own and completely moving.

At the other end of the emotional spectrum was his set of songs from the "Fats" Waller tribute musical "Ain't Misbehavin'" (another of Mr. Page's Broadway triumphs).  "The Joint is Jumpin'" and "Your Feet's Too Big" were appropriately rollicking and "Ain't Misbehavin'" was nicely wistful.  His updated version of the Sonny and Cher chestnut "The Beat Goes On" was great fun and his powerfully soulful take on Count Basie's "Mr. Piano Man" was enhanced by great keyboard work from Mr. Palkes, replicating Basie's original.

One of the most winning moments of the evening was a tribute to the late St. Louis songwriter Fran Landesman.  Mr. Page recalled Ms. Landesman's importance as both a lyricist and a guiding light of the Crystal Palace nightclub during the heyday of Gaslight Square, the legendary St. Louis entertainment district that flourished around Olive and Boyle (just north and east of the Gaslight Theatre) back in the 1950s and early 1960s.  That served as the introduction to Ms. Landesman's best-known song, "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" (music by Tommy Wolf).  The song was clearly a recent addition to the show, so Mr. Page used a lyric sheet because "this song has a great lyric and I don't want to get it wrong."  His performance was nevertheless tremendously effective.  Seated next to me, my friend Anna Blair—who knew Ms. Landesman well and has done a Landesman tribute show of her own—was fighting back tears.  That's how good it was.

The evening closed out with high-voltage renditions of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman's "They Just Keep Moving the Line" (I know the feeling…) from "Smash" and "Be a Lion" from the show that marked Mr. Page's Broadway debut, "The Wiz."  His encore, the poetic "Shambhala," was accompanied by overtly theatrical hand gestures that should have come across as artificial and affected but instead felt organic and completely right for the lyric and the mood.  Like everything else in this very solid show, it just worked.

The Gaslight Cabaret Festival continues through April 25th at the Gaslight Theatre, 358 North Boyle in the Central West End.  For more information: gaslightcabaretfestival.com.

Song List:
Get Ready (Smokey Robinson)
Feelin' Good (Anthony Newley / Leslie Bricusse)
300 Pounds Of Heavenly Joy (Howlin' Wolf)
The Beat Goes On (Sonny Bono)
Summertime Love (Frank Loesser)
Magic To Do / Corner Of The Sky (Stephen Schwartz)
The Joint Is Jumpin' (J.C. Jones / Andy Razaf / Fats Waller)
Your Feet's Too Big (Ada Benson / Fred Fisher)
Ain't Misbehavin' ("Fats" Waller)
Memory (Andrew Lloyd Webber)
Mr. Piano Man (Count Basie)
Betty and Dupree (Traditional)
Spring Can Reeally Hang You Up The Most (Tommy Wolf / Fran Landesman)
They Just Keep Moving The Line (Marc Shaiman / Scott Wittman)
Be A Lion (Charlie Smalls)
Shambhala

Chuck's Choices for the weekend of Februarty 21, 21014

As always, the choices are purely my personal opinion. Take with a grain (or a shaker) of salt.

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New this week:

The Presenters Dolan present Ken Page: Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue on Friday, February 21, at 8 PM as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival. "Star of stage and screen, Ken Page is newly added to the Gateway Cabaret Festival lineup! A veteran of Broadway's original casts of Cats, Ain't Misbehavin', The Wiz, Ain't Nothin' But The Blues, and Guys & Dolls, Ken is one of Broadway's and the MUNY's favorite players. Film audiences know Ken from Dreamgirls, Torch Song Trilogy, and as the voice of Mr. Oogie Boogie in the Tim Burton cult classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas. In Old, New, Borrowed & Blue, look for Ken to include a range of songs from Old Broadway, New Broadway, his favorite artists, and the blues." The performances take place at the Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle. For more information: licketytix.com.

My take: I saw this show Thursday night and all I can say is that if you want to see how a real master works a house, you'll definitely want to see the second and last show on Friday. He'll have you calling him "Big Daddy" before you know what hit you because (to paraphrase a lyric from "St. Louis Blues"), if his blues don't get you then his jazzin' must. It's a well-balanced collection of songs and reminiscences nicely turned out by an old pro.

Photo: Jerry Naunheim, Jr.

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents Other Desert Cities through March 9. “Things get bumpy when promising young novelist Brooke Wyeth returns home to Palm Springs to get her family's approval of her newest work - a tell-all memoir dredging up long-kept family secrets. Daring her conservative parents to oppose her, Brooke draws a line in the sand, and when it is crossed, the result threatens to undo them all. Politics, lies and regrets collide in this biting, sharp and fiercely funny Pulitzer Prize finalist.” 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.

My take: This production has gotten very good press so far. In her review for 88.1 KDHX, for example, Tina Farmer says it's "an intense and deeply personal examination of love and family loyalty that twists audience expectations and still manages to deliver a surprisingly satisfying resolution."

The Presenters Dolan present Tim Schall: 1961 on Saturday, February 22, at 8 PM as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival. " In 1961 the Beatles debuted at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, Bob Dylan entered the Greenwich Village folk scene, 19 year old Carole King wrote her first #1 hit, Moon River won the Oscar for Best Song and in February of that year Tim Schall was born! Join Tim as he celebrates his birthday in a show dedicated to the music of his natal year." The performance takes place at the Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle. For more information: licketytix.com.

My take: As this is being written the show is sold out, but you can always put yourself on the wait list for cancellations. Tim is one of my cabaret mentors and the head of The Cabaret Project St. Louis as well as a popular voice coach and actor locally. He's been doing cabaret in St. Louis longer than pretty much anyone and can always be relied upon for a great performance.

Held Over:

Mustard Seed Theatre presents Gee's Bend through February 23. The play “explores the affect of the Civil Rights Movement on a remote island in Alabama.” 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: "The story of the community of Gee's Bend, Alabama, its origins and struggles, is an interesting and important square in the American quilt," writes Tina Farmer in her review for 88.1 KDHX. "That this small community also contributed to the American folk art movement in significant ways with their own quilts adds an amazing layer of beauty and warmth." She calls the production "thoughtful and affecting" and notes that "the show is grounded with memorable performances and dramatic tension." Mustard Seed often takes on unusual and challenging scripts, always with the focus on "issues of faith and social justice," so this is right up their alley.

Photo: John Lamb

Stray Dog Theatre presents Douglas Carter Beane's The Little Dog Laughed Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 PM through February 22, with an extra 2 PM matinee on the 22nd. “A devilishly hilarious Hollywood agent, a movie star with a recurring case of homosexuality, and a hustler and his ambitious girlfriend struggle to uncover the truth about what they really want. In the process, they trigger a non-stop stream of laughs in this Tony-award winning comedy. For MATURE AUDIENCES: In an effort to keep the selection of shows engaging and dynamic, this production may not be appropriate for all ages.” Performances take place at The Tower Grove Abbey, 2336 Tennessee. For more information, visit straydogtheatre.org or call 314-865-1995.

My take: I've done a number of shows with Stray Dog over the years and have been consistently impressed with their professionalism and with the care they take to make sure their actors get the best support possible. That shows in the quality of what they put on stage. Reviews for this show have been good. In his review for talkingbroadway.com, for example, Richard Green says "it's very funny, and you should definitely go see it." "Bell keeps the action moving between the twin levels of the set in parry-and-thrust fashion," writes Mark Bretz at Ladue News, "ensuring that pacing never lags. The Little Dog Laughed is written mostly for laughs, with a dollop of rueful rumination. Stray Dog’s rendition is faithful to that mixture, a tasty tonic on a cold winter’s night."

Chuck's Choices for the weekend of July 13, 2012

As always, the choices are purely my personal opinion. Take with a grain (or a shaker) of salt.

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New this week:

The Pub Theater Company presents Bye Bye Liver: The St. Louis Drinking Play, a comedic romp through the joys and pitfalls of The Gateway to the West's favorite pastime. Performances take place on Saturdays at 9 PM at Maggie O'Brien's, 2000 Market Street. The show has been running for as long as I can remember, so it deserves points for longevity, if nothing else. Word on the street is that it's not great art but is great fun. For more information, you may call 314-827-4185, email stlouis at byebyeliver.com, or visit byebyeliver.com/stlouis.

Held over:

The Muny presents the first Muny production of the Broadway musical Aladdin through Friday in the outdoor theatre in Forest Park. The show has gotten great reviews, including from Connie Bollinger at 88.1 KDHX, who describes it as "a treasure of fun and surprises for everyone." Besides, the cast includes our own Ken Page, Thom Sesma (who was such an impressive Sweeney Todd at the Rep many years ago), and Mr. Showbiz himself, the irrepressible Jason Graae. For more information, visit muny.org or call 314-361-1900.