Arts & Entertainment >>

• Best Arts Institution
  KDHX-FM
  "Community" is a word grown obscure through inconsiderate usage. It's too often used to describe a group of people with little more than a thin thread in common -- ethnicity (the African-American community, the Latino community), common interests (the arts community, the gay community),... More >>
• Best Arts Administrators
  Centro Sociale
  If art wasn't administered, would it just run amok? Does arts administration exist, in reality, to keep art contained, rather than -- as arts administrators insist -- to nurture (oh God, that word), as if artists are the eternal unweaned infants of society? For what if art were truly unleashed... More >>
• Best Theater Group
  Opera Theatre of St. Louis
  Since last summer, St. Louis has been treated to outstanding theatrical offerings, and though many folks kept the roar of the greasepaint audible, the easy winner for Best Theater Group is Opera Theatre of St. Louis. These days, a city of any size must count itself lucky merely to have an opera... More >>
• Best Dance Program
  Washington University Performing Arts Department
  From its Dance Close-up faculty recital that opens the St. Louis dance season, through the big student dance concerts, to the senior recitals, Washington University's Performing Arts Department's dance program, under the direction of Mary-Jean Cowell, is consistently superior, both in concept... More >>
• Best Nonmusical Theater Production
  Fences, St. Louis Black Repertory Company
  There have been some outstanding theatrical offerings since last summer, and some sad farewells. We bid adieu to The New Theatre (would someone negotiate with St. Louis University to use that handsome new space?) The St. Marcus Church closed its doors to terpsichorean and thespian tenants, and... More >>
• Best Musical Theater Production
  Radamisto, Opera Theatre of St. Louis
  In this category, we included opera along with conventional fare. Why? Because we heard far too many citizens wrinkle their noses and say, "I don't like opera" when they have a world-class organization presenting superb work on their doorstep every May, though folks who do like opera won't turn... More >>
• Best Play Seen in St. Louis
  A Midsummer Night's Dream, Guthrie Theatre at the Edison Theatre
  Plenty of local organizations are willing to take a chance on touring companies, and though there was some cheerful bombast (Fame at the Fox, anyone? Remember any of those tunes?), local audiences had the chance to observe some quirky and memorable theater. All in all, the most wonderful... More >>
• Best Curtain Call
  On the Razzle, St. Louis Shakespeare Company
  The cast took their bows in character, as if they were posing for Mack Sennett freeze-frames. Here, one actor raises an arm to threaten another; there, another pair bend at the waist to kiss. Such roistering was in keeping with this fast-moving farce, yet also in character with the... More >>
• Best Lighting
  Faustus, Echo Theatre Company
  You want guts? Try staging Marlowe's tragedy in the Neoclassical-style lobby of the Midtown Arts Center using votive candles and the occasional follow-spot. Candles on the floor, by the way. And not a lot of them, either -- just enough to provide flickering shadows on the young faces of these... More >>
• Best Setting
  Through the Eyes of a Child, Historyonics Theatre Company
  Historyonics' Through the Eyes of a Child was a warm celebration and elegy of St. Louis's historically African-American neighborhoods (the Ville, East St. Louis, Carr Square and Kinloch) and how they changed "from a place to a place to be from." Interviewer Gwendolyn Moore spoke to people who... More >>
• Best Movie Theater
  Tivoli Theatre
  The Tivoli (6350 Delmar Blvd., 314-862-1100) wins hands down for so many different reasons. Five years after its $2 million renovation by Loop mogul Joe Edwards, it's still pretty swank. You can entertain yourself gazing at art-deco gewgaws before the previews start. Nobody's head gets in your... More >>
• Best Movie-Theater Concessions
  AMC Theatres
  Movie theaters can sell just about anything at the concession stand if they want to. They could have coffee and tea, sandwiches, crackers, hors d'oeuvres. They could have anything, but they usually don't. They almost always rely on soda, candy and popcorn. There is a good reason for this. Movies... More >>
• Best Film Series
  Webster University
  With the proliferation of art houses in town -- the Plaza Frontenac, the Tivoli, the Chase, the Hi-Pointe -- you'd swear that any film of substance has played at least briefly on one of their screens. But you'd be wrong. Even movies that generate significant buzz in the national press bypass St.... More >>
• Best New Film Series
  Fontbonne College
  Once, in those halcyon days of the '70s, before the advent of video, college film series flourished. St. Louis University's Jim Rollins programmed a smart, innovative selection of local premieres and revivals, and anonymous Washington University film buffs unspooled complete retrospectives of... More >>
• Best Visiting Artist
  Tony Leung
  Despite the residency of theater innovators Lanford Wilson and Marshall Mason at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis last fall, the artist who took up shop in this town with the most noteworthy rep was not the Pulitzer/Tony/Obie Award-winning duo but the actor who went on to win best actor at... More >>
• Best Gallery
  Gallery 210, University of Missouri-St. Louis
  Sure, there are bigger galleries. There are galleries with bigger, more dependable budgets. There are galleries with more and more permanent staff members. But this year, Gallery 210 proved to be the little gallery that could. There was no more reliable place to see an inventive show, whether it... More >>
• Best Gallery Exhibition
  Kit Keith, Gallery 210 and William Shearburn Gallery
  If nostalgia is a disease, then Kit Keith's art is the cure. She takes old, even seedy objects -- paper from yellowed accounting ledgers, box springs, faded images from magazine advertisements -- and skews them anew. To a photograph of two adorable white kittens -- the kind a little girl would... More >>
• Best Museum Show
  Abelardo Morell and the Camera Eye, St. Louis Art Museum
  A good criteria for "best" is "that which is most remembered." The images created by photographer Abelardo Morell, which appeared at SLAM last spring, stay with the viewer. Gorgeously rendered black-and-white prints of otherwise undramatic objects -- maps, dictionaries -- have a quality most art... More >>
• Best Defunct Organization
  Gallery Michael Williamses Closet
  The thing about the art world is that there's this great gulf between (1) the transcendent beauty of some of the best art and (2) the shallow snob caste and exclusive gallery/museum system that buy and sell these works. The hoops through which a serious artist must jump to make a living are just... More >>
• Best Public Sculpture
  "The Way"
  Sometimes, size matters. Alexander Lieberman's triumphant fire-engine-red "The Way" sculpture at Laumeier Sculpture Park may be overplayed as an image for magazine and book covers, but to approach it in person is to marvel at something that is, unfailingly, magnificent art writ very large.... More >>
• Best Local Artist
  Carol Carter
  The deep blues, purples and oranges of Carol Carter's acrylic and watercolor paintings are like magnetic-resonance images of their subjects -- a person or scene divulges something of its interior significance, perhaps, by way of her incongruous color choices. Her sugarcane cutters, tropical... More >>
• Best Curator
  Terry Suhre, Gallery 210, University of Missouri-St. Louis
  Terry Suhre probably has the toughest job in the art business: He's the curator of a small university gallery. That means he's got to fill a yearlong calendar with art. He's got to curate original shows and nab traveling exhibitions. He has to work with a small space and an even smaller budget.... More >>
• Best Performance-Art Troupe
  Third Lip Cabaret
  The woman, an attractive young blonde who said she had just arrived from New Jersey, squeezed herself into the van's backseat without spilling her beer. And then there were four of us randomly wedged together, strangers in a strange, confined space. We weren't exactly traveling anywhere in the... More >>
• Best Sculptor
  Phillip E. Robinson
  Years ago, when Phil Robinson was concentrating mainly on painting and drawing, he took a finished canvas, stretched it around a cylinder frame and placed it on its side. The only way you could see the entire painting was when the thing was rolling toward you. That piece tells you a lot about... More >>
• Best Photographer
  Jennifer Dorsey
  Jennifer Dorsey photographs straight. She doesn't make installations, or peel Polaroid transfers, or use light boxes. Those things are great, but when all's said and done, it's nice to look at a straight image, carefully chosen. A 1999 M.F.A. graduate from Washington University, Dorsey's most... More >>
• Best New Photographer
  Bob Reuter
  Bob Reuter is best known around town as an elder brother of the roots-music scene, a guy who has written as many killer songs as anyone without managing to sustain much of an audience. He is also the survivor of a rare blood disease that disabled him from doing his old day job (paint houses) and... More >>
• Best Cartoonist
  Bob Staake
  Bob Staake may not have the name recognition around town his work deserves, but there are few busier cartoonists in the country. Consider these highlights from Staake's résumé: contributions to The Ren and Stimpy Show (the famous dog-water fake commercial) and the animated series... More >>
• Best Writer
  William H. Gass
  You could argue that William H. Gass has written the best novel (Omensetter's Luck), the best short story ("In the Heart of the Heart of the Country"), the best prose poem (On Being Blue) and the best book of translations (On Reading Rilke) of any living St. Louisan. You would then have to point... More >>
• Best Bar/Nightclub
  Blueberry Hill
  It almost goes without saying, but we'll say it anyway: There's just not a better place to hang out in St .Louis, for various and sundry reasons, than Blueberry Hill. But let's tick a few of them off: They've got great food, including world-class burgers; a wide array of beers; and ambiance --... More >>
• Best New Bar/Nightclub
  Lo
  That Lo is the best new nightclub is indicative of the dearth of interesting new nightspots; more seemed to close than open this year, and even those that closed were no great shakes. So, kind of by default, Lo's the best of the new. Their initial foray into ridiculous exclusivity (those dumb... More >>
• Best Alternative-Music Club
  Centro Sociale
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know: What is "alternative" anymore? Nipple rings and tattoos? Uh, no. Punk rock? No way, man; that's yesterday's news. Some "electronica" club? Not since the scene made the cover of Time. Chances are the most "alternative" club in the city is some dingy members-only club... More >>
• Best Jazz or Blues Club
  Troy's on the Park
  The room is small, and it's usually full, whether it's the Wednesday-night poetry reading (sometimes erotic) or the live local jazz on every other night (always erotic). But whatever your fetish, Troy's on the Park can probably quench your thirst. There are 30 martinis to choose from -- owner... More >>
• Best Folk-Music Venue
  Focal Point
  To hear Rambling Jack Elliot sing his epic talking blues, "The 912 Greens," is to travel from New York's Washington Square to the back alleys of the French Quarter, bustin' through the Smokey Mountains with Guy and Frank, looking for a five-string-banjo player named Billy Fair who lived at 912... More >>
• Best Dance Club
  Upstairs Lounge
  It depends on what you want, of course. Velvet's the best of the big dumb clubs, replete with the requisite big dumb dance floor, the big dumb dress code and the fake crowd queues they create outside. Velvet brings great house DJs into town, though, and supports the area's better rave promoters... More >>
• Best Rock & Roll Club
  Way Out Club
  On the right night, you can find some great rock & roll at the Way Out Club's new location on South Jefferson (at Gravois), but that's not what makes it the best rock club in town: It's the venue itself that rocks so hard. Great bars have great bar staff. In the heyday of the old Cicero's,... More >>
• Best Rave Site
  We're Not Telling
  What, you think we're going to spoil it by publishing it in the RFT? Nope, we're not telling you. You're going to have to find out for yourself. But let's just say that it's in the city itself -- not in the Lemp Brewery, last year's unawarded winner (here's hoping they'll reconsider their... More >>
• Best Topless Bar
  Roxy's
  We like it raunchy. That's why we like Roxy's in Brooklyn, Ill. Brooklyn and Centreville have long enjoyed the reputation of having the rawest, could-this-possibly-be-legal topless joints in the metro area. Choosing a winner is tough, but the nod goes to Roxy's for two reasons. One, there's a... More >>
• Best Casino
  President
  Everyone loves an underdog. That's why we love the President Casino on the Admiral. Yes, it may be an unlucky game of baccarat away from bankruptcy. Yes, its restrooms may not always be tidy. Yes, parking is a hassle. But the President has character. It has history. It has the Mississippi River... More >>
• Best Place to Feel Young
  Powell Symphony Hall
  Are strands of gray sneaking into the audience of your hair? And is that crowd thinning? Did you get a walking stick for your last birthday? Might it have been your last birthday, for all the aches and pains you suffer? You might be on your way over the hill, a rough ride that's more like the... More >>
• Best Entertainment Value on a Hot Summer Evening
  Compton Heights Concert Band
  There's nothing like a rousing rendition of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" to make your heart leap, especially when the authentic Civil War cannons go off in the final few minutes. When it comes to performing the music of yesteryear, the Compton Heights Concert Band doesn't half-step. The 2000... More >>
• Best Place to Drop a Quarter
  Arcade Lanes
  Caught at the moment in one of the down cycles between its periodic renaissances as a hangout, the Arcade Lanes could become your own private funhouse. It's not the cheapest place to drink, but it's a kind of anti-Lo (recommendation plenty), and it manages to provide what no place else does: on... More >>
• Best Open Mic
  Frederick's Music Lounge
  When it comes to assessing the merits of an open mic (or, as the crowd at Frederick's would have it, a hootenanny), our preferences depend on our perspective -- a novice performer might favor nice emcees, for instance, and audience members that won't scream, "Show us your tits!" (one reason... More >>
• Best Booker for a Music Venue
  Shannon Hill, Creepy Crawl
  Many overlooked people make major contributions to the local music scene. An even-handed doorperson allows you to have fun without endangering yourself or others, and he or she steps in when "others" cross that line. A good soundman enhances a band's live show, keeping the music clear and well... More >>
• Best Pop Hooks
  Adam Reichmann, Nadine
  Hooks are to pop music what grooves are to funk: the bread and butter, the sine qua non. And like a groove, a hook is much more easily felt than explained. It's all about pith and melody, being catchy without sounding overly clever, and Adam Reichmann has the knack in a big way. His bandmates in... More >>
• Best Chorus
  St. Louis African Chorus
  When we think of a chorus, most of us probably think of a church choir, and, as it turns out, St. Louis' best chorus -- the St. Louis African Chorus -- just became a church choir of sorts. Their new CD, A E Na O: The Sacred Music of Harcourt-Whyte was recorded in a local church (St. John the... More >>
• Best Stage Charisma
  Jennifer Swift
  Beautiful as it is, musical talent is not uncommon, especially not in this town. Any day of the week, you can walk into a half-dozen or more local venues where you will find fulfilling, inspiring music. But it's a rare day when you stumble across stage presence. Charisma is famously hard to... More >>
• Best Country Singer
  Mark Rennard
  He's the guy in the Flying Mules with the fiddle crimped under his neck, slouched back in his chair, emotionally distant in the eyes and a bit ferocious with the bow. Then he relaxes his fiddle muscles and leans up to the mike, and this 10,000-year-old, warm-as-butter-on-hot-boiled-corn voice... More >>
• Best Non-Western Classical Musician
  Imrat Khan
  We tend to talk of "classical music" thinking of Mozart and the boys, but India has forgotten more classical music than the West will ever have time to learn. The greatest local non-Western classical musician hails from Calcutta, India, and he comes from ancient music: Imrat Khan grew up in a... More >>