Jop Hits 100
My wife and I attend lots of shows at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and a smile always crosses our faces whenever we see that the cast includes Joneal Joplin. We've seen him in "Follies," "You Can't Take It With You," "Witness For The Prosecution," and many...
Todd Robbins, “True Nightmares”
Todd Robbins returned to my show today to talk about the second season of "True Nightmares," the show he hosts on Investigation Discovery (ID). It includes dramatic re-creations of real stories about grave robbers, mysterious murders, and other dark and twisted crimes...
Kevin Burke, “Defending The Caveman”
Twenty years ago, when I was doing mornings in Washington, DC, I met a comedian named Rob Becker, who had developed a one-man play called "Defending The Caveman." I saw him perform it at the Improv, invited him to guest on my show, and we became friends. I then...
Theater Review: The Front Page
Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's "The Front Page" is one of the most beloved scripts of the 20th century, and a remarkable group of talented people have performed it. It was a hit in its first incarnation 88 years ago, directed by George S. Kaufman and produced by...
Best Thing I’ve Read Today
Ken Levine on the epidemic of standing ovations in the theater, as if every performance of every show is spectacular: This seems to be the pattern. Show ends. Actors take their curtain call. Half the audience leaps to its feet. Another quarter sees this, wasn’t going...
All The Way
I saw Bryan Cranston as LBJ on "All The Way" on Broadway a couple of years ago and walked out astounded at his talent. Here's what I wrote at the time: Cranston plays Lyndon Johnson from shortly after he became president in November, 1963, until he was elected to his...
Random Thoughts
I was downtown last night, drove by The Dome, and noticed that it still has signs outside exhorting people to buy St. Louis Rams tickets. I'm sure someone will get around to taking them down any month now. I was going to write a post about Larry Wilmore’s performance...
I Forgot These Rotten Things
That's Tony-winner Christian Borle as William Shakespeare in "Something Rotten," in a performance at the White House that reminds me of Tim Curry. I'm returning to "Something Rotten" because in writing about it yesterday, I mentioned how the show pokes fun at other...