Entertainment

BY: ANDREA BRAUN – THEATRE CORRESPONDENT

    Playwright Lynn Nottage was born in 1964, and published Crumbs From the Table of Joy which is set in 1950 in 1995. So, the play is a young woman’s perspective of a crucial time in Black American history through which she did not live from 45 years in the future. Considering all that distance, the work seems to be a knowledgeable depiction of the characters, but overall, a rather shallow look at their world.

BY: COLIN MURPHY - SENIOR WRITER

Miss Gay America pageantry season is in full swing. Three preliminaries for female impersonation’s oldest national contest were held throughout the bi-state:

    Get ready for a party in the streets! The fifth annual Grovefest is gearing up to show St. Louis what The Manchester Strip has to offer. The all-day street festival will take place between 4 p.m. and midnight, featuring two dance stages and appearances by the St. Louis Zombie Squad, the Arch Rivals and many more.

    “We want to show St. Louis that The Grove can contend with any other neighborhood here.” said Alexis Tucci, event coordinator for MAC Meetings and Events.

BY: COLIN MURPHY – SENIOR WRITER

    The curtain rises on the 2010-2011 U.S. Bank Broadway Series at The Fabulous Fox with a big-green-ogre of a hit in Shrek The Musical, Sept. 11-26.

BY: ANDREA BRAUN – THEATRE CORRESPONDENT

Arthur (Tom Lehmann) and Howard (Stephen Peirick) are friends, though on the surface they have little in common. Arthur shambles around in sloppy, mismatched clothes and red Converse sneakers. He’s a “starving artist.” Howard wears an ascot, a navy blazer and gray slacks with polished tassel loafers to hang around his house oozing success.

BY: ANDREA BRAUN - THEATRE CORRESPONDENT

If I were to tell you everything I didn’t like about SLS’s production of Jane Martin’s Anton in Show Business, this page would be blank. In fact, I loved it all so much that Alvy Singer would say, “I lurved it.” It is a funny, touching and even profound script (but never sentimental—that is discouraged in the dialogue) extremely well-played as directed by Carolyne Hood with impeccable timing and amazing grace.

BY: ANDREA BRAUN – THEATRE CORRESPONDENT

    What can you say when your heart is shattered? If you’re a member of the family Jenny Schwartz has created in God’s Ear, quite a lot. Some of the statements sound like nonsense but make sense. Some observations are hilarious, but considering the situation, it doesn’t seem quite right to laugh, yet it’s impossible not to. I think you feel God’s Ear as much as hear it, so it is necessary to have all chakras open and maintain an intense focus because on many levels, this is no play for sissies.

BY: COREY STULCE

    Julie anxiously clicked the heels of her cowboy boots—pink, to signify she had kicked breast cancer’s ass.

    In walked Melissa, the brown leather fringe on her long coat flickering as she strode into the room to greet a few lucky fans.

    Julie held her restraint, knowing in a few moments she would be meeting her hero. Would she cry? Gush? Lose her mind completely?

BY: ANDREA BRAUN – THEATRE CORRESPONDENT

    Talking to Liz Callaway is a lot of fun and a little hard to do at the same time. When I rang off on our call, I felt like I’d spent 45 minutes talking with a girlfriend, and that I’d done as much of the sharing as she did. I liked her immediately, and I’m confident you will too.

BY: ANDREA BRAUN - THEATRE CORRESPONDENT

    Promises, Promises is the only musical written by composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David. There’s a reason for that: the music is (mostly) completely unmemorable. When the Broadway revival opened earlier this year, two more songs were added for Kristin Chenoweth, “I Say a Little Prayer” being one of them, and it is considerably stronger than anything in the original. However, that makes the show even longer than its current 2 hours, 45 minutes, which is not a good thing.