Chuck's Choices for the weekend of August 3, 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:

Stray Dog Theatre presents The Great American Trailer Park Musical Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 PM, August 2 through 18. There will be a matinee on the closing Saturday at 2 PM in addition to the evening show. I have two perfectly good reasons to recommend this show. First, I've worked with Stray Dog often enough in the past to know that they do entertaining trash just as well as more high-falutin' stuff. Second, how can you pass up a chance to see some of our classiest actresses get truly crude? Performances take place at The Tower Grove Abbey, 2336 Tennessee. For more information, visit straydogtheatre.org or call 314-865-1995.

Held over:

Circus Harmony, in collaboration with the Galilee Circus, a Jewish/Arab youth troupe from Israel, present Peace Through Pyramids at various locations around the St. Louis area through August 4. How, I ask you, can you not love this idea? For more information, visit circusday.org or call 314-226-3633.

Chuck's Choices for the weekend of July 6, 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:

Not the Muny's Aladdin, but you get the idea

The Muny presents the first Muny production of the Broadway musical Aladdin Thursday, July 5, through Friday, July 13 in the outdoor theatre in Forest Park. I'm not normally a big fan of the Muny. The atmosphere is too much like a baseball game and too little like a theatre for my tastes. They appear to be doing awfully good work these days, but you'd have to hold our dog for ransom to get me out to Forest Park in this unseasonal heat. A bunch of very talented performers will be sweating in that heat to entertain everyone, though, so for that reason alone I want to give them a nod this week. Besides, this being a Disney musical, you can probably expect some great songs, colorful sets and costumes, and even a bit of stage magic. For more information, visit muny.org or call 314-361-1900.

The Wine Press presents guitarist Mike Krysl and singer Shuana Sconce in an evening of cabaret on Saturday, July 7, from 8 to 11 PM. Shauna and Mike have been performing together for a while now and have developed a great rapport. She has a killer voice and he has great guitar chops along with a knack for truly inspired arrangements. The Wine Press is at 4436 Olive in the Central West End. For more information, visit stlwinepress.com.

Held over:

Union Avenue Opera presents Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball) Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, June 29-July 7. Performances take place at the Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 Union at Enright in the Central West End. The opera is sung in Italian with projected English text. I won't get to see this until Friday, but I'm singling it out because Union Avenue is almost always a company worth watching and because performances of thie work are relatively rare. For more information, visit unionavenueopera.org or call 314-361-2881.