Email Author Dennis Brown

2002 Stories by Dennis Brown

• Springtime for St. Louis

  published December 18, 2002

  Ever since its already legendary Broadway opening twenty months ago -- in fact, even earlier, beginning with its triumphant tryout in Chicago --... More >>

• This Anything Should Go

  published December 11, 2002

  Let's be clear about this. The audience at last Saturday's performance of Anything Goes, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis' current... More >>

• The Other Producer

  published December 4, 2002

  As just about everyone who loves film comedy knows, The Producers tells the story of slimy Broadway producer Max Bialystock, who tries to... More >>

• Flights of Fancy

  published November 27, 2002

  The first thing you notice about Captain Lindbergh's Ocean Flight, the ingenious piece of stagecraft being performed this week at... More >>

• A Change That Refreshes

  published November 20, 2002

  Here's the temptation in staging Godspell, the ubiquitous musical based on the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, as recorded in the... More >>

• Beaux Coups

  published November 13, 2002

  Would you believe it? This season's two theater coups are both occurring this week. Broadway veteran Ken Page has returned home to St. Louis to... More >>

• Empty Vessel

  published November 6, 2002

  The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis has opened its new Studio Theatre season with The Shape of Things, a nasty little opus that... More >>

• Faded Edge

  published October 30, 2002

  Once upon a time, Once in a Lifetime was a sharp satire about the excesses of Hollywood. In the decades since this smart-aleck... More >>

• Period Piece

  published October 23, 2002

  We don't want to be disrespectful to Eugene O'Neill, one of the giants of the American theater. Yet there's no escaping the conclusion that... More >>

• Chain Reaction

  published October 16, 2002

  Early in Scene 1 the beleaguered heroine of Nicky Silver's ruthlessly amusing The Food Chain boasts that one of her poems is... More >>

• Faith and Affirmation

  published October 9, 2002

  In the past few weeks, local theatergoers have been treated to stellar productions of classics by the likes of Tennessee Williams and Oscar Wilde.... More >>

• Wilde at Heart

  published October 2, 2002

  Plots are tedious," Oscar Wilde once remarked with great disdain. "Anyone can invent them." Wilde wasn't just anyone, which may help explain why... More >>

• Season's Greetings

  published September 18, 2002

  The new theater season has begun with a flourish, thanks to two exquisitely directed productions that elevate comedy and tragedy to classic... More >>

• Much Ado About a Shrew

  published September 11, 2002

  The playbill for the current St. Louis Shakespeare production of The Taming of the Shrew features this intriguing program credit: "Stage... More >>

• Mixed Bag

  published August 21, 2002

  Hype. That's the name of the game (to borrow an ABBA song title) when it comes to luring bodies into theater seats. It's hard to see a play if you... More >>

• Stunt Double

  published August 7, 2002

  Paula Vogel must be the luckiest playwright in America. Ever since she won the Pulitzer Prize four years ago for How I Learned to Drive,... More >>

• Summer Knights

  published July 31, 2002

  It's a little thing -- you might not even notice it -- but in the opening scene of Lerner and Loewe's Camelot, which is playing... More >>

• Wilde at Heart

  published July 17, 2002

  One of the intriguing dividends of theater in the round is that in addition to watching the play, you can observe the audience. The audience... More >>

• Taking Stock

  published July 10, 2002

  Here's one of the curious, inexplicable wonders of theater: Sometimes you know in the first minute -- in the first line, even -- how a production... More >>

• Town Crier

  published June 26, 2002

  "Everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal," the Stage Manager reminds us in Thornton Wilder's classic drama Our Town. One... More >>

• Spirit of '76

  published June 12, 2002

  How well do you recall 1976? The year of the American Bicentennial provided a calm interlude between the excesses of Watergate and the Iran... More >>

• Dream Debased

  published June 5, 2002

  The Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis opened its second season with a prosaic production of The Emperor's New Clothes.Oops. Check that.... More >>

• Love Train

  published May 15, 2002

  They're jumping, stomping and jitterbugging to beat the band in the current Kirkwood Theatre Guild production of Over Here! Best of... More >>

• Death's Door

  published May 8, 2002

  The play is set in the 1950s, in a simple South Side Chicago apartment dominated by a devout, Bible-thumping mother. If that time and locale sound... More >>

• Endless Night

  published May 1, 2002

  It's a funny thing about audiences and critics. Sometimes a review can enhance a viewer's appreciation of what he or she is seeing; on other... More >>