Email Author Dennis Brown

2012 Stories by Dennis Brown

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  Twelve to Glow On: 2012's Best St. Louis Stage Performances

  published December 27, 2012

  Year's end portends lists. Ten best. Ten worst. Runners-up. This page doesn't deal in "best," but we certainly had some favorites — and... More >>

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  Fourth Time's the Charm: St. Louis can't get Wicked enough, and vice versa

  published December 20, 2012

  Funny thing about goose bumps. I tend to associate them with my arms. But early in "Defying Gravity," the now-iconic Act One finale in... More >>

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  Eat, Drink and Be Bitchy: Fully Committed dishes up dirt on New York dining scene

  published December 13, 2012

  Upstairs and out of sight is a room of sumptuous beauty, a luxurious Manhattan restaurant where dining is a rarefied (and outrageously... More >>

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  Ho, Ho: The current theater slate brings two very funny early Christmas gifts

  published December 6, 2012

  To everything there is a season, the Old Testament's Book of Ecclesiastes tells us, including "a time to weep, and a time to laugh." December... More >>

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  On with the Shue: Remembering the playwright who died in a 1985 plane crash but lives on in The Foreigner

  published November 29, 2012

  For more than two decades, The Foreigner, which opens this week at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, has been one of the most... More >>

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  Have Atom: The SLU theater company's nuclear option might blow your mind

  published November 15, 2012

  The title is a grabber, provocative and catchy. Radium Girls might betoken futuristic science fiction. But D.W. Gregory's play,... More >>

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  Facing Facts: Facing the Shadow covers a compelling topic — with everything except drama

  published November 8, 2012

  Sheila Payton's new play, Facing the Shadow, which is receiving its debut production from the Black Rep at the Missouri History... More >>

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  Halfway Home: Clybourne Park's first act provides some of the best theater you'll ever see

  published November 1, 2012

  Some stories just don't go away; they burrow under the skin and linger. Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 family drama A Raisin in the Sun is... More >>

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  Lightening Bug: Pack up all your cares and woes at the Rep with a tuneful Daddy Long Legs

  published October 25, 2012

  You might have noticed that things are getting a little strident out in the real world. If you're weary of hearing about legitimate rape and... More >>

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  Beast in Show: Upstream Theater wrestles The Hairy Ape to a draw

  published October 11, 2012

  Everybody knows who Eugene O'Neill is. He's the so-called father of serious American drama. "It was my luck to be the first, that's all,"... More >>

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  Grandma Moseys: New Jewish can't help but get Lost in Yonkers

  published October 11, 2012

  Grandma Kurnitz is not a lot of laughs. "Anger has been in me a long time," she declares in her thick, threatening German accent. When Grandma... More >>

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  Pogrom Notes: C.P. Taylor's WWII drama Good is bad (in a good way)

  published October 18, 2012

  "One may smile, and smile, and be a villain." So says the prescient prince in Hamlet, who then adds, "At least I am sure it may be so in... More >>

• Kids Today: Webster students give The Children's Hour an incandescent reading

  published October 4, 2012

  There's something about Mary. Something bad. For starters, she's spoiled rotten. She's also a bully. Worst of all, she's a congenital liar. The... More >>

• Adding Machine

  published September 6, 2012

  Beginning on September 7, R-S Theatrics will stage the acclaimed avant-garde musical The Adding Machine, an adaptation of Elmer... More >>

• Going to See the Elephant

  published August 30, 2012

  Looking for some unusual theater fare this fall? Start by (going to see) Going to See the Elephant. Set in the front yard of a sod... More >>

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  Meal Thicket: Dramatic License Productions rustles up Dinner with Friends

  published September 20, 2012

  You've got to meet Beth, a sprightly will-o'-the-wisp who loves dogs and sunsets and who paints vivid oil canvases. Beth is not perfect: She's... More >>

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  The Rep's Brighton Beach Memoirs? It's a shore thing.

  published September 14, 2012

  Because there is no curtain on the thrust stage at the Loretto-Hilton Center, the moment you enter the auditorium for the Repertory Theatre of... More >>

• Rave On

  published August 16, 2012

  When he died in an Iowa plane crash in 1959, 22-year-old Buddy Holly had only reached the top of the Billboard music charts once, with... More >>

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  Thoroughly Modern Muny: Did Mike Isaacson's debut season in Forest Park make the grade?

  published August 30, 2012

  Even before the first musical opened in late June, the 2012 Muny season was (by Muny standards) unconventionally ambitious. Five of the... More >>

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  Mauve Up: The script's a tad purple, but a spirited production calibrates The Violet Hour

  published August 30, 2012

  Long before Woody Allen struck a chord with viewers in his time-traveling movie Midnight in Paris, playwright Richard Greenberg took... More >>

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  Eclectic Ensembles: Embrace the strange and the scandalous

  published August 23, 2012

  Are you looking for some unusual theater fare this fall? You don't have to look far. Start next week with (going to see) Going to See the... More >>

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  All Hail the King: The Muny dishes up a royal treat with the King and I

  published August 9, 2012

  It took all summer, but here in its closing week the Muny is finally telling a story about real people experiencing real emotions. Up till now,... More >>

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  Trailer Trashed: Stray Dog Theatre's redneck musical veers into the ditch

  published August 9, 2012

  At the end of an ambitious season that has included the Who's Tommy and the complete Angels in America saga, Stray Dog Theatre is... More >>

• Kevin Gray returns to Muny for his signature role in The King and I

  published August 2, 2012

  Kevin Gray will never forget his inaugural entrance onto the Muny stage. "The first time I ever performed in Forest Park was in The King and... More >>

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  Pirates! is the Muny's greatest treasure of the season

  published August 2, 2012

  Shiver my timbers, as Long John Silver would say. This week Forest Park is awash with pirates, and they are a fearsome bunch. Fearsomely funny,... More >>