Steve Callahan

It’s a headlong dive into a fiercely black, wildly comic nightmare.  It’s a venture into betrayal and menace and sex and chaos, and into the unplumbed depths of the psyche.  It’s Wolf Kings, the Young Liars’ remarkable new piece now playing at The Chapel.

It's a splendid production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s 'H.M.S. Pinafore', and it brims with glorious music, wonderful voices, and bright, delightful, timeless comedy.

The wonderfully imaginative Young Liars company pressents 'Wolf Kings'-- part Victorian Drag Show, part Parisian Literary Salon, and part Fairy Tale Resistance Rally.

Dont miss this rare opportunity to see this gem of Spain's 'Golden Age of Drama'-- Calderón's 'Life is a Dream'.

It is surely one of the most perfect productions I’ve seen at The Rep in some years. Jordan Coughtry plays Tony, the scheming husband. His performance is from the Realm of Ideal Forms. It is that perfect!

Ron Himes’ amazing Black Rep company is opening its 48th season with a piece of pure delight.  It’s called Blues in the Night, and it’s a glorious musical revue of the history of that genre.  And such a vastly diverse history that is, with vaudeville songs, deeply moving songs of love and loss, lush and lonely excursions into real jazz, and comic novelty songs that get seriously, hilariously bawdy. 

The Union Avenue Opera completes its 30th season with a lavish production of Into the Woods.  It’s yet another large challenge for this small company—and once again they meet and conquer it with élan.    

Elephants? No elephants here. Just grand, grand opera! (Tenor Limmie Pulliam will astonish you!) The evening is filled with moments of glory.

Twelfth Night:  It marks the end of Christmas and in Shakespeare’s day it was celebrated with great festivity—cakes and ale, wassailing and singing, merriment abounding.  A very good time was had by all.

Saint Louis’ Union Avenue Opera is celebrating the start of it’s thirtieth year with a superb production of Bizet’s Carmen!  (Thirty years—that’s twenty-nine seasons.  Like everyone else Union Avenue was “dark” in 2020.)  Thirty years of ever-increasing excellence in this most challenging of musical arts.  Housed in the nave of the Union Avenue Christian Church, this company offers the most intimate opera experience you’re likely to find anywhere. 

It’s like the dreamiest dessert cart one could imagine after the glorious musical meal of OTSL’s four main productions this summer.

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis has opened an utterly glorious production of his opera, Galileo Galilei. It reconfirms OTSL’s place among the finest opera companies in the world. And it will assuredly help you resolve your issues with Phillip Glass.

Handel's 'Julius Caesar' opens at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

You'll fall in love with Puccini yet again. Opera Theatre of St. Louis continues their forty-ninth season with a superb production of Puccini’s masterpiece, La Bohème—his most beloved work.  The occasional sprinkle of very light rain seemed to refresh rather than deter those dining on the lovely grounds.  Again the theatre was packed to the rafters with eager opera lovers.  They were not disappointed.

Spring fever?  If you’ve been made a bit dozy by these warm spring days the new production at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis will, with a bang, hoist you wide awake in all your senses.  Rossini’s The Barber of Seville opened Saturday to an audience that packed the Loretto-Hilton theatre to the rafters.   

Packed with Borodin's music, and African rhythm and dance, romance, and humor that smacks of vaukdeville, this strange package has many delights.

A veritable hail-storm of verbal shrapnel, with shreds and shards of Shakespeare, frenzied fund-raising fragments, and a sprightly sprinkle of super-powers.

The remarkable Upstream Theater is approaching its twentieth season.  This unfailingly excellent little company was founded by Philip Boehm as a vehicle for bringing to America plays from around the world—plays that, for the most part, make their very first American appearance at Upstream.  We so need that!

This was a dream of an evening of opera! It vastly exceeded expectations.

DREAMING OF LEAR is a brilliant, memorable piece of leading-edge experimental theater. Its director, Lucy Cashion, has, I think, the most refreshing brain in the St. Louis theater world.  It’s been a decade since she appeared on my horizon, and in that time she’s led a number of exciting productions.  She joined the SLU faculty and has recently become Director of the school’s Theatre & Dance Program—a position which is virtually (and was perhaps literally) “made for her”.