Tanya Seale - Page 3

Whether you're 7 or 107, Philip Grecian's adaptation of the 1983 cult classic film, A Christmas Story, will likely tickle your funny bone and get you reminiscing about holidays past. You'll be greeted at your seat by evocative Christmas carols and a stage flanked with decked-out trees and shiny, wrapped gifts as Ralphie's quest to obtain a 'legendary official Red Ryder 200-shot Carbine Action Range Model Air Rifle with a compass and this thing which tells time built right into the stock' begins.

You only have two more chances to see Rebel and Misfits' Macbeth: Come Like Shadows, directed by Sean Patrick Higgins and Kelly Hummert, and even in a city of generous theatre offerings, you will probably not have the opportunity to see anything else quite like this. Not anytime soon anyway. Cancel your weekend plans and click over now to buy your tickets. Seriously. I'll wait.

Admissions, a brand-new dramedy by playwright Joshua Harmon, provides a timely and realistic view into contemporary upper-middle-class liberalism, with its barbed humor and challenging subject matter.

Lauren Gunderson's Silent Sky is the factual story of astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, whose turn-of-the-century career had an important effect on science and discovery throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries.

Chef, a play by UK/Egyptian playwright Sabrina Mahfouz and winner of the 2014 Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival, made its U.S. premier at Upstream Theatre, opening the 2018-19 season. Linda Kennedy starred in this one-woman show, directed by renowned Swiss director Marianne de Pury.

As the story goes in Gilbert & Sullivan's 1879 operetta, The Pirates of Penzance, Frederic the pirate has just been released from his indenture to a comical band of soft-hearted pirates when he meets Mabel, the daughter of Major-General Stanley, and falls in love. As the story also goes, in 2013, New Line Theatre's Artistic Director Scott Miller made an extraordinary discovery:  the never-seen-before draft manuscripts for The Pirates of Penzance, which actually-believe it or not-originated as The Zombies of Penzance.

Lillian Hellman's 1939 drama, The Little Foxes, is a well-made drama about Southern aristocratic avarice and female suppression. When brothers Oscar (Bob Gerchen) and Ben (Chuck Brinkley) Giddens-who have inherited the whole of their father's fortune-go to their sister Regina (Kari Ely) needing money to build a cotton mill, Regina, the only sister in the Giddens family, must cunningly exploit her depressed husband Horace (William Roth), and outsmart her scheming brothers, if she is to enjoy any independence or wealth of her own.

Oh, what a beautiful production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, directed by Michael Hamilton with choreography by Dana Lewis, musical direction by Lisa Campbell Albert, and orchestral design by Stuart M. Elmore. In fact, Stages St. Louis knocks it clear out of the pasture with this final show of their 32nd season.

Meet Me In St. Louis is the picture-perfect nostalgic closer for The Muny's centennial season, a romantic musical based on the 1944 film that follows the Smith family through 1903 and into the new year as they await the opening of the 1904 World's Fair. The plot is a bit old fashioned by modern standards, but focuses on family, friendship, and love, and pays an affectionate tribute to a bygone era in St. Louis history.

In Will Eno's Drama Desk Award-winning The Realistic Joneses, we meet Bob (Alan Knoll) and Jennifer Jones (Laurie McConnell), whose young new neighbors John (Isaiah Di Lorenzo) and Pony Jones (Kelly Hummert) infiltrate their lives with normalized erraticism that is darkly funny, dry at times, and surreal. Upon John and Pony's awkward entrance in fact, we realize there is something not quite right in this world, but we are captivated by the offbeat, disjointed dialogue and the comment John makes to Bob, 'We're not so different, you and me.'

Mamma Mia! is an entertaining musical experience at any venue, with any cast, but Stages St. Louis' production is an especially satiating late-summer treat, featuring a rockin' beach party atmosphere and all the chart-topping ABBA hits you know, including "Dancing Queen," "Winner Takes It All," "Take a Chance on Me," and of course, "Mamma Mia."

You'll want to attend the tale of Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street School Edition, a dark and delicious musical thriller, presented by Ignite Theatre Company's capable young cast now through Sunday at The Marcelle.

You'd better gussy yourself up and get over to The Muny this week for the seven-time Tony Award-winning musical, Annie. This family show has it all - hope, heart, and a heaping helping of humanity, and Peyton Ella shines in the title role like the superstar she is.

Insight Theatre is an equity theatre in its 11th season, and Artistic Director Maggie Ryan says she has wanted to produce The Importance of Being Earnest for years. 'I delight in the language of this play,' she says of the classic farce. It's a 'trivial comedy for serious people,' which showcases playwright Oscar Wilde's intellectual genius. This is quite simply a brilliant play for smart audiences that stands the test of time. It overflows with hilarious double entendre and euphemisms aplenty, and if you've never indulged yourself in seeing it, make plans now to do so, as we can all delight in this spectacular performance, directed by Ed Reggi.

What a night it was at The Muny for Jersey Boys, the 2006 Tony Award winner for Best Musical. And when I say what a night, I mean Oh. What. A. Night. of doo-wop megahits galore! The Muny's opening night audience of over 8,400 showed up ready to be rocked, swayed, grooved, and shook, and all of that and more was delivered.

Now that the weather has finally cleared up in St. Louis, you'll want to go celebrate The Muny in its 100th year at Singin' in the Rain. Celebrated as one of the most iconic musicals of all time-and perhaps as relatable today in some ways as ever, while we move through the digital revolution-Singin' in the Rain, a comedy set in the Golden Age of Hollywood, tells an amusing story about what can happen when technology changes everything.

What do you get when you mix a few displaced New Yorkers, a couple of hungry foosas, a fanciful lemur leader, and an enormous dancing steak? A crackalackin' romp of a good time, that's what!

In a beautifully polished performance, Corinne Melancon as Agnes and Steve Isom as Michael (or Kari Ely as Agnes and David Schmittou as Michael on an alternating performance schedule) open Stages St Louis' 2018 season with I Do! I Do! which is a two-character musical version of the Tony-award-winning Best Play, The Fourposter by Jan de Hartog.