Email Author Dennis Brown

2009 Stories by Dennis Brown

• St. Louis Theater Caps

  published September 23, 2009

  Also Reviewed Amadeus Thirty years after its sensational Broadway debut, Peter Shaffer's rococo account of jealousy,... More >>

• Distaff Inflection: Slightly Askew Theatre's Top Girls will befuddle — and enlighten — you

  published September 23, 2009

  Attention must be paid. Not because someone is reviving Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Rather because the seditious Caryl... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  By the Boards: Dennis Brown on the STL Theater Scene September 17-20

  published Sep 17, 2009

  The arrival of Caryl Churchill and Stephen Sondheim makes for an arresting weekend of theater. Each will be represented by one of their most popular works from the 1980s.Top Girls, Churchill's play ab... More >>

• Wolfgang in Sheep's Clothing: The Rep ushers in its new season with stale old Amadeus

  published September 16, 2009

  Thirty years ago British-born Peter Shaffer was the most lauded dramatist in America. Shaffer was that rare bird: a populist playwright who... More >>

• Down in Front!: What's up with all the rude people at the theater?

  published September 9, 2009

  Did you happen to see Patti LuPone last April when she appeared at the Fox Theatre in concert with Mandy Patinkin? If you did, give yourself a... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  By the Boards: Dennis Brown on the STL Theater Scene September 3-6

  published Sep 03, 2009

  Had you been a Tony Awards voter in the early 1950s, would you have voted for Guys and Dolls, which debuted on Broadway in November 1950 (and which opens a four-week stint at Stages St. Louis this wee... More >>

• Slay Kiel Opera House!: The mayor's push to rehab the downtown venue might doom the local theater community

  published September 2, 2009

  Have you been downtown lately? It's taken three mayoral terms to beat the place into shape, but you've got to give credit to the perseverance... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published August 26, 2009

  Newly Reviewed Mary Poppins If you only know the 1964 Disney movie adaption of the P.L. Travers stories, you're in for... More >>

• Susan Gregg, 1943-2009: The St. Louis theater community will miss the Rep's associate artistic director

  published August 26, 2009

  Three years ago in my Riverfront Times review of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis staging of Yellowman, I wrote that Susan... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published August 19, 2009

  Newly Reviewed Mary Poppins Reviewed in More >>

• A Nanny-Splendored Thing: Mary Poppins rules!

  published August 19, 2009

  The producers of Mary Poppins want to have it both ways. They have loudly hawked the notion that their lavish spectacle —... More >>

• By the Boards: Dennis Brown on the STL Theater Scene August 13-16

  published Aug 13, 2009

  Those who look forward to a weekly fix of musical theater may be disappointed that the Muny summer has ended, but we're not done with musicals just yet. Two musicals open this week and one is closing.... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published August 12, 2009

  The Drowsy Chaperone The Drowsy Chaperone, the musical within the musical of the same name, is rife with scenery-chewing actors,... More >>

• Poppins Fresh: It's a jolly holiday with Ashley Brown when Mary Poppins comes to the Fox

  published August 12, 2009

  Good things happen to Ashley Brown in St. Louis. Her route to Mary Poppins, which opens at the Fox Theatre this week, began here... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  By the Boards: Dennis Brown on the STL Theater Scene August 6-9

  published Aug 06, 2009

  It is perhaps the most felicitous opening line ever written:"If music be the food of love, play on."In this very first sentence, Shakespeare sets the elegiac tone that dominates Twelfth Night, which o... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published August 5, 2009

  The Drowsy Chaperone The Drowsy Chaperone, the musical within the musical of the same name, is rife with scenery-chewing actors,... More >>

• The Last Dance: In Hairspray, the Muny's season finale, youth is served

  published August 5, 2009

  It has been a summer of passages in Forest Park. Seven weeks ago the season began with a stellar production of 42nd Street, a nostalgic... More >>

• By the Boards: Dennis Brown on the STL Theater Scene July 31-August 2

  published Jul 31, 2009

  There's something for everyone among this week's openings. rKids are apt to be amused by Alice in Wonderland, this summer's musical for children at Stages St. Louis. You're not likely to see this show... More >>

• Dead of Knight: Camelot is a crowd pleaser — if you're a Muny crowd that's hell-bent on being pleased

  published July 29, 2009

  For nearly a half-century now, Lerner and Loewe's grandiose, at times bellicose, musical extravaganza Camelot has been difficult... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published July 29, 2009

  Camelot Reviewed in More >>

• By the Boards: Dennis Brown on the STL Theater Scene July 23-26

  published Jul 23, 2009

  We have some long titles opening this weekend. You Know I Can't Eat Buffalo Meat When There's a Terrorist on the Loose from First Run Theatre is the unknown quantity, but then that's the point of prod... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published July 22, 2009

  Collected Stories Reviewed in More >>

• Secret Sharer: Orange Girls mount a pitch-perfect telling of Donald Margulies' Collected Stories

  published July 22, 2009

  It has been reported that in his heyday, whenever F. Scott Fitzgerald heard someone tell an anecdote he felt had dramatic potential, the... More >>

• By the Boards: Dennis Brown on the STL Theater Scene July 16-19

  published Jul 16, 2009

  Wouldn't it be nice if our local theater folk could figure out a way to stagger their openings so that all the companies could get their fair share of attention. But it never happens that way. Too oft... More >>

• St. Louis Stage Capsules

  published July 15, 2009

  Nerve Reviewed in this... More >>