Lynn (Zipfel) Venhaus has had a continuous byline in St. Louis metro region publications since 1978. She writes features and news for Belleville News-Democrat and contributes to St. Louis magazine and other publications.
She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, currently reviews films for Webster-Kirkwood Times and KTRS Radio, covers entertainment for PopLifeSTL.com and co-hosts podcast PopLifeSTL.com…Presents.
She is a member of Critics Choice Association, where she serves on the women's and marketing committees; Alliance of Women Film Journalists; and on the board of the St. Louis Film Critics Association. She is a founding and board member of the St. Louis Theater Circle.
She is retired from teaching journalism/media as an adjunct college instructor.
Based on true events, writer-director Yaron Zilberman chronicles the disturbing descent of a promising law student into a delusional ultranationalist obsessed with murdering his country’s leader, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. It’s an unnerving look through the eyes of a murderer who silenced a powerful voice for peace.
After the 1993 Oslo accords, it looked like peace was at hand between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
But Yigar Amir, an Orthodox Jew, transformed from a hot-headed
political activist into a delusional extremist who assassinated Israeli Prime
Minister Itzhak Rabin on Nov. 4, 1995.
Zilberman methodically shows how a person can be radicalized as he identifies with fanatic groups about the decades-old violence in the Middle East. Zilberman weaves archival footage into the story, giving it the feel of a docudrama.
The movie, Israel’s submission for an Academy Award International
Feature nomination, won the Israeli award for best film. Both Yehuda Nahari, as
Yigar Amir, and Amitay Yaish Ben Ousilio, as Yigar’s father Schlomo, were
nominated but did not win.
Zilberman’s last film, “A Late Quartet,” a drama about a
string quartet with dysfunctional lives starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman,
Christopher Walker and Catherine Keener, came out in 2012.
He co-wrote this engrossing, well-researched script with
Ron Leshem and Yair Hizmi, and they get inside the psychological mindset of the
assassin and the personal turmoil affecting his judgment.
Nahari gives as srong performance as Amir, showing how his anger
fuels his delusions, as does his girlfriend leaving him as he becomes more
isolated. He recruits fighters and arms them to kill Palestinians. He thinks
that their territory is God-given and he can bring salvation to his people. He
discovers an ancient rule, The Law of the Pursuer, and insists it gives him the
right to murder Rabin.
The result is a chilling portrait into the mind of an assassin and a look at how fragile democracy can be.
“Incitement” is directed by Yaron Zilberman and stars Yehuda Nahari Halevi, Amitay Yaish Ben Ousilio, Anat Ravnizky. It is not rated, but there are scenes of graphic violence. The film is 2 hours, 3 minutes, and is in Hebrew, with subtitles. Lynn’s Grade: B+
This review also appeared in the Feb. 21 Times newspapers — Webster-Kirkwood Times, South County Times and West End Word.Timesnewspapers.com
Lynn (Zipfel) Venhaus has had a continuous byline in St. Louis metro region publications since 1978. She writes features and news for Belleville News-Democrat and contributes to St. Louis magazine and other publications.
She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, currently reviews films for Webster-Kirkwood Times and KTRS Radio, covers entertainment for PopLifeSTL.com and co-hosts podcast PopLifeSTL.com…Presents.
She is a member of Critics Choice Association, where she serves on the women’s and marketing committees; Alliance of Women Film Journalists; and on the board of the St. Louis Film Critics Association. She is a founding and board member of the St. Louis Theater Circle.
She is retired from teaching journalism/media as an adjunct college instructor.
The multi-award-winning Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis proudly announces its Fifth Annual Festival for Thursday, May 7 through Sunday, May 17, 2020, headlining The Rose Tattoo. A preview performance of the play is set for Thursday, May 7, with May 8 as the official opening night. There will be more than a dozen separate elements, scheduled so that attendees may attend every one during the eleven-day run, all held in the Grand Center Arts District and on The Hill.
The theme of the 2020 Festival is “Tennessee Williams & Italy.” Williams frequently traveled to Italy, recalling in his Memoirs: “As soon as I crossed the Italian border, my health and my life seemed to be magically restored. There was the sun and there were the smiling Italians.” He wrote to his grandfather, “It is difficult to tear myself away from Italy which is the nearest to heaven that I have ever been, the people so friendly, gentle and gracious and the days so tranquil and sunny.”
In that spirit the Festival will mount a stunning production of The Rose Tattoo, set in a resilient community of Sicilian immigrants on the Gulf Coast near New Orleans.
Executive Artistic Director Carrie Houk has consulted extensively with our region’s Italian-American community to ensure their engagement and to provide authenticity.
Festival highlights include:
▪ Williams’ Tony award-winning masterpiece The Rose Tattoo, which is currently enjoying a triumphant revival on Broadway. The Rose Tattoo will be staged at The Grandel Theatre.
▪ A new collection of Williams’ one-act plays, The St. Louis Rooming House Plays, will provide an immersive experience in Grand Center’s historic Stockton House, where audience members will move from room to room and play to play. Previous versions of this remarkable theatrical experience have been some of the hardest-to-get tickets in town.
▪ An academic series, “Tennessee Williams and his Midwest Experiences,” will bring noted scholars and historians from around the world to discuss how Williams’ life in the Midwest influenced his later life and his works. As audience members will see, his life events in the Midwest permeate his works, and are even directly relevant to his Italian experiences.
▪ A variety of special events including: Tennessee Williams Bus Tour; La Dolce Vita Pool Party at the Last Hotel (formerly the International Shoe Company where Tennessee Williams worked); a staged reading of Glass (which imagines what transpired between Tennessee Williams and lead actress Laurette Taylor on the opening night of The Glass Menagerie) by Michael Aman; Amor Perdido, composed of Williams works that are new to the stage, from the University of Illinois; screenings of Italian-themed The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and Boom; “TW Jam”, a late-night jam of poetry, monologues and music; “Tennessee Williams Tribute” at Guido’s on The Hill; the “Williams Playwriting Initiative;” panels, parties, conversation, and much more.
“We are proud that, in five years, the Tennessee Williams Festival has become one of St. Louis’ most widely attended and anticipated cultural events,” said Houk, the Festival’s founder. “Last year, our attendance soared and we were showered with awards. In our fifth season, we aspire to go even further.”
Lead sponsorship of the festival is provided by Emerson. The Festival is also funded in part by Mary Strauss, Ken and Nancy Kranzberg, The Whitaker Foundation, Regional Arts Commission, the Missouri Arts Council, Missouri Humanities Council, Trio Foundation of St Louis and the Arts and Education Council.
Tickets will go on sale March 1 through Metrotix and at the Fox box office.
For more information, including parking, food, hotels, etc., please contact Helene Estes at info@twstl.org. For media inquiries, please contact Marla Stoker Ballenger at marla@marqueemediastl.com or at (314)-997-5525.
About the Festival
The Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis was established in 2016 by Carrie Houk, the award-winning producer, casting director, actor, and educator.
The Festival, which aims to enrich the cultural life of St. Louis by producing an annual theater festival and other artistic events that celebrate the artistry and life of Tennessee Williams, was named the 2019 Arts Startup of the Year by the Arts & Entertainment Council.
In 2014, Houk produced Williams’ Stairs to the Roof with such success that the on- going annual Festival was established. The inaugural Festival was themed “Tennessee Williams: The St. Louis Years,” followed by “The Magic of the Other” in 2017 and “The French Quarter Years” in 2018. The 2019 festival featured Night of the Iguana and A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur. As the years have passed, the awards have mounted. Last year’s St. Louis Theater Circle gave them eleven nominations and seven awards, and has nominated them for seven more awards this year. The Festival has attracted thousands to its readings, panel discussions, concerts, exhibitions, and productions.
Tennessee Williams
About Tennessee Williams
Born Thomas Lanier Williams III in 1911 in Mississippi, Williams moved to St. Louis at age seven, when his father was made an executive with the International Shoe Company (where the City Museum and the Last Hotel are now located). He lived here for more than two decades, attending Washington University, working at the International Shoe Company, and producing his first plays at local theaters. He credited his sometimes difficult experiences in St. Louis for the deeply felt poetic essence that permeates his artistry. When asked later in life when he left St. Louis, he replied, “I never really left.” Most people are familiar with the famous works that have garnered multiple Pulitzer Prizes, Tony Awards and Academy Awards, such as The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly Last Summer. He also wrote hundreds of additional plays, stories, essays, and poems, many of which are only now seeing the light of day as his estate permits greater access. He is today considered by many leading authorities to be America’s greatest playwright.
Lynn (Zipfel) Venhaus has had a continuous byline in St. Louis metro region publications since 1978. She writes features and news for Belleville News-Democrat and contributes to St. Louis magazine and other publications.
She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, currently reviews films for Webster-Kirkwood Times and KTRS Radio, covers entertainment for PopLifeSTL.com and co-hosts podcast PopLifeSTL.com…Presents.
She is a member of Critics Choice Association, where she serves on the women’s and marketing committees; Alliance of Women Film Journalists; and on the board of the St. Louis Film Critics Association. She is a founding and board member of the St. Louis Theater Circle.
She is retired from teaching journalism/media as an adjunct college instructor.
In 1999, Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble began as Off Center Theatre, a community theatre group. Then in January 2001, the company began to pay artistic and technical staff, making the switch to becoming a non-Equity professional theatre company. In this capacity, Off Center presented 15 productions from 2001 to 2005.
Founding Artistic Director, Margeau Baue Steinau, took over directorship of the company in 2005, shortly after which, in 2006, Steinau and other local artists formed Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble (SATE), under the umbrella of Off Center Theatre.
To mark the year 2020, SATE is looking back on productions from its history. We are re-visiting plays that were popular with audiences at the time and deserve another production. Given the growth of the company over the past 20 years, HINDSIGHT IS 20/20.
The SEASON OF HINDSIGHT will include the following productions:
Aphra Behn Festival, SATE’s annual festival founded in 2017, highlighting woman directors and designers (March 6-8, 2020)
Top Girls by Caryl Churchill, originally produced in 2009, examining the paradoxical lives of women in the workforce and at home, directed by Rachel Tibbetts (Aug. 12-29, 2020)
Classic Mystery Game adapted and directed by Keating, originally produced in 2019, investigating Western society in 2020 through the lens of the 1985 movie, CLUE (Oct. 28-Nov. 21, 2020)
Lynn (Zipfel) Venhaus has had a continuous byline in St. Louis metro region publications since 1978. She writes features and news for Belleville News-Democrat and contributes to St. Louis magazine and other publications.
She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, currently reviews films for Webster-Kirkwood Times and KTRS Radio, covers entertainment for PopLifeSTL.com and co-hosts podcast PopLifeSTL.com…Presents.
She is a member of Critics Choice Association, where she serves on the women’s and marketing committees; Alliance of Women Film Journalists; and on the board of the St. Louis Film Critics Association. She is a founding and board member of the St. Louis Theater Circle.
She is retired from teaching journalism/media as an adjunct college instructor.
“In this intense one-act duet, Laurie McConnell and John Pierson illustrate why if you are going to put two people in one room, it might as well be them.”
By Lynn Venhaus “The Mystery of Irma Vep” is the play that went wrong — and not in a funny way. Its once-red hot reputation for absurdity and daring has dimmed as the overwhelming digital world of content has surpassed its satiric mix of genres three decades later.
Mashing up B-movie mysteries is no longer novel and spoofing Victorian melodrama is too creaky, even in drag. And despite its look-hard-to-read-between-the-lines allegory for monsters and terminal illness, none of it registers with this 21st century audience. Sadly, the show never catches fire and the material lands with a loud thud.
Playwright Charles Ludlam’s campy farce is a specific scenario that may make clever interactive dinner-theater but somehow seems saggy and dated in 2020, especially as a major production. Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif described it as one of the all-time great comedies, the 1984 original won Drama Desk and Obie Awards, and in 1991, it was the most produced play in America.
Thirty-six years later, no matter how they focused on the ‘monsters in society’ during the AIDS epidemic, its message is lost in translation because this script is not engaging.
Think the goofy merriment of Monty Python, or even Tim
Conway and Harvey Korman on the old “The Carol Burnett Show.” They are timeless
but this show is not. Why doesn’t it work? Are the dark-and-stormy-night manor
gimmicks no longer effective? It’s old Abbott and Costello hijinks set in an
outdated supernatural world.
When the dense pop culture landscape has given us vampires next door, the
walking dead roaming our cities and ghost hunters flourishing in recent years, “Irma
Vep” doesn’t even have quaint going for it.
Esteban Andres Cruz, photo by Jon Gitchoff
Out of touch and out of tune, the show is in sorely need of a trim, as its construct fails to engage in two too-long acts on The Rep’s mainstage. Clearly, a 90-minute running time would have helped, instead of prolonging viewers’ misery, and the pace could have picked up.
Unlike the 2005 parody adaptation of Hitchcock’s 1935 movie
“The 39 Steps,” which turned into a surprising amusing romp, this jumble of
ancient family curse, mummy and howling werewolf is not interesting. When they went
to Egypt, they lost me and it went downhill from there.
A “Penny Dreadful” is a psychological thriller that features dark mystery and suspense, but when this show is intended for laughs, neither the comedy nor the horror ignites. That’s a shame because the odd day-glo weird angles set by scenic designer Michael Locher looks terrific – although some sight line issues and what is with the giant skull? — and the lighting by designer Marie Yokoyama is spooky and effective.
This play was produced years ago in The Studio, and that intimate space seems to be a better fit than the larger auditorium. It could have benefited the two actors who try very hard to keep a momentum that involves playing eight characters and a few dozen costume changes and wigs. Bless those dressers, who get a herculean work out.
Nimble Esteban Andres Cruz and Tommy Everett Russell are obviously accomplished actors and look fabulous in the bold, elaborate costume designs by Sara Ryung Clement. They are trying hard to entertain, especially in the colorful drag outfits, and play off each other well.
But the frolic seems forced. This is a show that sorely needed a fresh interpretation, but director Nelson T. Eusebio III didn’t hit the refresh button to deconstruct what didn’t age well, but went big visually with the souped-up focus on outrageous drag looks and gender politics. That’s unfortunate because the production is an epic letdown.
Is it trying to do too much? To be more things to more people? To have hidden meaning when people aren’t looking for it? To create magic, you need a spark, and why isn’t it there?
And by the number of audience members who left at
intermission, it’s not connecting with core subscribers. I was hoping it would
find it’s “legs,” but there is obviously something that’s preventing people from
getting into the story. The adventure isn’t all that adventurous.
Photo by Jon Gitchoff
The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents “The
Mystery of Irma Vep” Feb. 14 – March 8 on the mainstage at the Loretto-Hilton
Center on the Webster University campus. For more information, visit repstl.org.
For the box office, call 314-968-4925.
Lynn (Zipfel) Venhaus has had a continuous byline in St. Louis metro region publications since 1978. She writes features and news for Belleville News-Democrat and contributes to St. Louis magazine and other publications.
She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, currently reviews films for Webster-Kirkwood Times and KTRS Radio, covers entertainment for PopLifeSTL.com and co-hosts podcast PopLifeSTL.com…Presents.
She is a member of Critics Choice Association, where she serves on the women’s and marketing committees; Alliance of Women Film Journalists; and on the board of the St. Louis Film Critics Association. She is a founding and board member of the St. Louis Theater Circle.
She is retired from teaching journalism/media as an adjunct college instructor.
On this President’s Day, let’s look back at the films
centered around an American President, and what actors were best at portraying
the Commander-in-Chief – be it fact or fiction. Here are some of my favorite
dramas, comedies and even romances that included the most powerful leader of
the free world. We are only listing theatrical films and the HBO film
adaptation of “All the Way.”
If we included television, we’d have a wider pool, and that’s
for another list. What are your favorites that spotlight our U.S. leader?
1.Lincoln (2012) — Daniel Day-Lewis not only delivers the best presidential portrayal ever on screen, but also one of the best male performances of all-time. Day-Lewis won his third Oscar, and it was never in doubt. Just a remarkable portrayal of Abe as a man struggling to hold the country together and lead them to higher ground. Director Steven Spielberg brought a humanity to the story rarely seen in historical portraits.
Kevin Kline in “Dave”
2. Dave (1993) — Kevin Kline is Dave Kovic, who is hired to impersonate the commander-in-chief when President Bill Mitchell suffers a stroke during an illicit affair.
A comedic take on an everyman winning over government wonks with his common sense, solidly directed by Ivan Reitman. Sigourney Weaver is a formidable First Lady.
Bruce Greenwood as “Thirteen Days”
3. Thirteen Days (2000) – President John F. Kennedy saved the day when we were on the brink of nuclear war with Russia, known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. This is a historical look back at this tense political time in 1962, through the perspective of White House assistant Kenneth P. O’Donnell (Kevin Costner), with Bruce Greenwood strong as JFK.
Michael Douglas as President Andrew Shepherd in “The American President”
4. The American President (1995) – This is Aaron Sorkin’s idealism front and center before “The West Wing.”
Michael Douglas shines as a widowed president running for re-election who starts a romance with an environmental lobbyist played by Annette Bening, but the political fallout affects their relationship.
Savvy script, smart casting (especially Martin Sheen and Michael J. Fox as chief of staff and press secretary) make this Rob Reiner-helmed comedy-drama a memorable one.
Harrison Ford in “Air Force One”
5. Air Force One (1997) – Harrison Ford as kick-butt President James Marshall. Love it! The fit commander-in-chief is a Vietnam vet in this political action-thriller directed by Wolfgang Petersen. A group of terrorists hijack the president’s plane and threaten the U.S. but our hero won’t let that happen on his watch. Glenn Close is the vice president and Gary Oldman the Russian bad guy, but it is Ford, in all his star power, as the take-charge head of state that made this movie one of the most successful of the ‘90s.
Anthony Hopkins as “Nixon”
6. Nixon (1995) – Anthony Hopkins embodied the beleaguered president during his tumultuous White House years, with Joan Allen riveting as his long-suffering wife Pat. Oliver Stone directed, so the agenda is clear.
Michael Sheen as David Frost and Frank Langella as Richard Nixon in “Frost/Nixon”
7. Frost/Nixon (2008) – Frank Langella was Oscar-nominated as the disgraced Nixon seeking redemption in his four-part interviews with Britain’s David Frost in 1977. Ron Howard sharply directed the adaptation of Peter Morgan’s 2006 play, with whip-smart movie script by the playwright.
8. Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) – Director John Ford teamed up with actor Henry Fonda for this look at honest Abe during his early years. Fonda embodies the heroic ideals of the lawyer and statesman who would become the 16th president of the United States.
Brian Cranston as LBJ
9. All the Way (2016) — Bryan Cranston won a well-deserved Tony Award for his masterful portrayal of Lyndon Baines Johnson during the early days of the Civil Rights movement in the 2014 play by Robert Schenkkan.
This is the Emmy-nominated HBO adaptation, written by the playwright and directed by Jay Roach. Cranston is again uncanny as political animal LBJ, and the all-star cast includes Anthony Mackie as Martin Luther King Jr., Stephen Root as J. Edgar Hoover, Bradley Whitford as Sen. Hubert Humphrey and Melissa Leo as Lady Bird Johnson.
Jeff Bridges as the President and Christian Slater as a reporter in “The Contender”
10. The Contender (2000) — The wonderful Jeff Bridges is a likeable two-term Democratic President, Jackson Evans, who decides to break the glass ceiling and appoint a woman Vice-President after the current one dies.
However, his nominee, Ohio Senator Laine Hanson (Joan Allen) gets entangled in vicious hearings with a bullseye on her back. This political thriller is written and directed by Rod Lurie, a former newspaper guy. Both Bridges and Allen were nominated for Oscars.
Emma Thompson and John Travolta as thinly veiled Hillary and Bill Clinton in “Primary Colors”
11. Primary Colors (1998) – John Travolta was at the top of his game portraying Jack Stanton, a charismatic Southern governor running for president. Recognize anyone? Based on the 1996 “Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics” by Newsweek’s Joe Klein, this fictionalized account of Clinton’s 1992 campaign had a crackerjack supporting cast (Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Oscar nominee Kathy Bates), sharply directed by Mike Nichols and written by his former comedy partner Elaine May.
Tiki Sumpter and Parker Sawyer in “Southside with You”
12. Southside with You (2016) – A ‘what if’ movie that works, quirks and all, with its imagining of what Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama’s first date was like back when they were lawyers in Chicago. Written and directed by Richard Tanner, this little charmer comes alive when the nervous future two-term president shows off his oratory skills at a community meeting. Parker Sawyer is a genuinely believable Obama but Tika Sumpter really shines as the life force who would become First Lady Michelle Obama.
Michael Shannon as Elvis and Kevin Spacey as Nixon in “Elvis and Nixon”
14. Elvis and Nixon (2016) – You may think this is preposterous, but this really did happen. And it’s one goofy movie. On Dec. 21, 1970, rock ‘n’ roll icon Elvis Presley went to the White House for a meeting with President Richard Nixon – and that historical photograph is the most requested one at the National Archives. Talk about offbeat casting — Michael Shannon is a different kind of Elvis while Kevin Spacey impersonates Nixon.
16. Independence Day (1996) – Bill Pullman is memorable President Thomas J. Whitmore facing an alien invasion, and his rallyng-all-Americans speech is one of the best-known in films. Here is the transcript of that great speech:
President Whitmore: Good morning. Good morning. In less than an hour aircrafts from here will join others from around the world and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. Mankind, that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it’s fate that today is the 4th of July and you will once again be fighting for our freedom not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution but from annihilation.
We’re fighting for our right to live, to exist, and should we win today the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American President holiday but is the day when the world declared in one voice,
“We will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We’re going to live on. We’re going to survive. Today we celebrate our Independence Day!”
This epic sci-fi disaster film made $817.4 million and won the Oscar for Best VIsual Effects.
17. Lee Daniels’ “The Butler” (2013) and 18. “White House Down” (2013) These aren’t films of particularly lasting impact but the casting of the presidents is genius.
In “The Butler,” Forest Whitaker plays a White House employee who serves multiple presidents – and this casting is certainly eyebrow-raising:
Robin Williams as Dwight D. Eisenhower, James Marsden as JFK, Liev Shreiber as LBJ, John Cusack as Nixon, and the most brilliant turn by Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan (with Jane Fonda as Nancy!).
Jamie Foxx
Jamie Foxx is the kick-ass president in the action thriller “White House Down,” which came out at the same time as the inferior “Olympus Has Fallen,” all about a terrorist group creating chaos at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He’s terrific and a good match-up with Channing Tatum as a heroic Secret Serviceman.
Honorable Mentions: Oscar nominee Sam Rockwell is pitch-perfect as George W. Bush in “Vice” (2018), but he’s barely a supporting character. In Natalie Portman’s tour de force “Jackie,” Caspar Phillipson and John Carroll Lynch are effective portraying John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Lynn (Zipfel) Venhaus has had a continuous byline in St. Louis metro region publications since 1978. She writes features and news for Belleville News-Democrat and contributes to St. Louis magazine and other publications.
She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, currently reviews films for Webster-Kirkwood Times and KTRS Radio, covers entertainment for PopLifeSTL.com and co-hosts podcast PopLifeSTL.com…Presents.
She is a member of Critics Choice Association, where she serves on the women’s and marketing committees; Alliance of Women Film Journalists; and on the board of the St. Louis Film Critics Association. She is a founding and board member of the St. Louis Theater Circle.
She is retired from teaching journalism/media as an adjunct college instructor.
The Fabulous Fox Theatre announced today that seats in the first rows of the orchestra section will be available for $24 for every performance of RENT, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical. The $24 tickets are available for in-person cash only purchases at the Fox Box Office, located at 531 N. Grand Blvd, on the day of each performance only, two hours prior to the show. The $24 tickets are limited to two tickets per person.
The tradition of these tickets began in 1996 in New York when the show moved to Broadway after a sold-out run in a small downtown theatre. The producers of the show are committed to continuing the tradition of offering these orchestra seats in each city the show will play.
RENT performs at the February 21-23. Performance times are Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2:00 p.m., and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
For general ticket information, visit MetroTix.com or by calling 314-534-1111.
Lynn (Zipfel) Venhaus has had a continuous byline in St. Louis metro region publications since 1978. She writes features and news for Belleville News-Democrat and contributes to St. Louis magazine and other publications.
She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, currently reviews films for Webster-Kirkwood Times and KTRS Radio, covers entertainment for PopLifeSTL.com and co-hosts podcast PopLifeSTL.com…Presents.
She is a member of Critics Choice Association, where she serves on the women’s and marketing committees; Alliance of Women Film Journalists; and on the board of the St. Louis Film Critics Association. She is a founding and board member of the St. Louis Theater Circle.
She is retired from teaching journalism/media as an adjunct college instructor.
A quiet film whose topic speaks volumes, “The Assistant” is a dramatic recreation of something that goes on in countless offices across the U.S. – systemic oppression of women by male bosses.
Written and directed by Kitty Green, the film captures the nuanced points made by the #metoo movement.
Hired by a film production company in New York, Jane (Julia Garner), a recent college graduate and aspiring film producer, is eager to please in her junior assistant job. However, she begins to see shady behaviors and practices in use, learning how sexual predator behavior is accepted as others look the other way.
Julia Garner, who won an Emmy Award for “Ozark,” has a perfectly expressive face for young Jane as she goes through a very long day. It shows the daily drudgery and routine —making coffee, changing paper in the copy machine, ordering lunch, making travel arrangements and getting work shoved on them by colleagues.
The boss is heard but not seen. Jay O. Sanders is the voice actor playing the powerful entertainment mogul on the phone, and he calls her in verbally abusive tirades that chastise her for decisions she has made.
We begin to see how these degradations affect Jane in every aspect of her workday. When she finally decides to take a stand, we discover that the corporate culture is too insidious to do any good for her.
The movie provides an inside look at what is happening, but doesn’t grab the headlines. It’s slow, subtle and chilling.
The languid pacing is an issue because the film makes its points silently, and the office is a rather bland location, so there are those detriments. But if you look at it as an everyday scenario, that’s part of the reason it’s so effective.
And Garner keeps our focus in a mesmerizing less-is-more performance.
Julia Garner as Jane in “The Assistant”
“The Assistant” is a drama written and directed by Kitty Green, starring Julia Garner, Matthew MacFadyen, Kristine Froseth and Jay O. Sanders. It’s rated R for language and is 87 minutes long. Lynn’s Grade: B A version of this review was published in The Times newspapers and discussed on KTRS (The Big 550).
Lynn (Zipfel) Venhaus has had a continuous byline in St. Louis metro region publications since 1978. She writes features and news for Belleville News-Democrat and contributes to St. Louis magazine and other publications.
She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, currently reviews films for Webster-Kirkwood Times and KTRS Radio, covers entertainment for PopLifeSTL.com and co-hosts podcast PopLifeSTL.com…Presents.
She is a member of Critics Choice Association, where she serves on the women’s and marketing committees; Alliance of Women Film Journalists; and on the board of the St. Louis Film Critics Association. She is a founding and board member of the St. Louis Theater Circle.
She is retired from teaching journalism/media as an adjunct college instructor.
Where do I begin To tell the story of how great a love can be — Carl Sigman and Francis Lai, “(Where Do I Begin?) The theme from ‘Love Story’”
We all wanted to be Ali MacGraw.
She was the ‘It’ girl of the late ‘60s, early ‘70s, a model-turned-actress appearing in TV commercials – among them the Polaroid Swinger instant camera. In 1969, she won the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer after the movie “Goodbye, Columbus,” an adaptation of a National Book Award-winning Philip Roth novella.
Ali MacGraw as Jenny
Then she was cast in the role of a lifetime in the movie “Love Story.” As Jenny Cavilleri, the sassy working-class music major who falls head over heels for a rich Harvard hunk, Oliver Barrett IV, she and handsome lead Ryan O’Neal had instant chemistry.
Teenage girls were swept away by this Radcliffe college
girl and her “Preppie.” O’Neal was best known for playing the popular kid
Rodney Harrington on the scandalous nighttime soap opera “Peyton Place” from
1964 to 1969.
The movie, set for a Dec. 16, 1970 premiere, was destined to be a box office smash because a book version had come out first and whetted appetites for the doomed romance.
At Paramount’s suggestion, author Erich Segal had turned his screenplay into a novel, which came out on Valentine’s Day, 1970, and became the top book of the year, spending 41 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List. A portion of it had been published in the Ladies’ Home Journal, gaining even more interest.
“What can you say about a 25-year-old girl who
died? That she was beautiful and brilliant? That she loved Mozart and Bach? The
Beatles? And me?”
The book opened with those memorable words, setting the stage for the tragic tearjerker. Wintry New England never looked so good — on Ivy League campuses and New York City, the romance about a couple from two different worlds falling in love just struck a nerve. Director Arthur Hiller gave us good-looking people in cutesy situations. Oh we fell hard.
At a time when you had to stand in line for tickets, the
movie showtimes sold out, girlfriends had event outings, and many tears were
shed. I was a junior in high school. You can bet we were in line at the Stadium
Cinema 1 downtown St. Louis more than once. Locally, we Belleville kids
had to come to St. Louis for the first-run movie because that’s the way cinema
was back then.
Ali MacGraw
This film was a template for future “chick flicks.” It was also at a time there was a wave of fresh young talent — “The Graduate,” “Easy Rider,” “Five Easy Pieces,” “Summer of ’42.” Baby Boomers were making their presence known.
MacGraw’s timeless fashions created multiple trends, and this classic preppie style is still popular – cashmere coats, chunky knits and those hats! We all had a version of her knit hat those subsequent winters.
For this romantic phenomenon, MacGraw won the Golden Globe the following year and was nominated for an Academy Award as the dying heroine. She also launched thousands of baby namesakes in the 1970s and 1980s – for 14 years, Jennifer was the no. 1 female name.
Music major Jenny Cavilleri
The movie eventually earned $136.4 million at the box office, garnered seven Academy Award nominations – winning for music score, and take its place as the defining romance of its era.
It is #9 on the AFI’s 100 Years…100 Passions list.
That pea coat!
When it made its network television debut on a Sunday night Oct. 1, 1972, two floors of my all-female dormitory at Illinois State University crammed into a lounge to watch the mounted TV set, and the sniffles echoed through the crowd as Jenny succumbed to leukemia.
It became the most watched film on television, surpassing
Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” with a Nielsen rating of 42.3 and an audience share of
62 percent.
In the ensuing years, it would be mocked and parodied
relentlessly.
Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal
Fifty years later, the movie hasn’t exactly aged well.Today it’s sappy, with such iconic lines as “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” a head-scratcher.
But O’Neal and MacGraw’s chemistry is still there.
If you remember what a cultural touchstone it was, and how they made you feel about doomed but intense and true young love, you can see it on the big screen again.
Fathom Events is hosting two screenings of the film on Sunday, Feb. 9 at 1 p.m. and on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. at various local theatres (check listings).
Ali would divorce second husband, producer Robert Evans, with whom she had a son, Josh Evans, and go on to marry macho action superstar Steve McQueen, her co-star in 1972’s “The Getaway,” and take a hiatus from film during her five-year marriage. Her 2003 yoga exercise video is credited with a surge in yoga popularity, Ali MacGraw – Yoga Mind and Body, now available on DVD. She wrote an autobiography, “Moving Pictures.”
O’Neal would have a tempestuous romance and a son, Redmond, with actress Farrah Fawcett, who died in 2009.
His daughter, Tatum O’Neal, still holds the record for
youngest Oscar winner, Best Supporting Actress in “Paper Moon,” which she
starred in with her dad, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, who had a hot streak in
the 1970s with movies often starring O’Neal in comedic roles.
Elizabeth Alice MacGraw is now 80, lives in New Mexico, and hasn’t made a movie since 1999. Charles Patrick Ryan O’Neal is 78 and had a recurring role on the TV show “Bones” in 2016-2017. Long estranged for over 25 years, he and Tatum attempted to reconcile on a docu-drama on the Oprah Winfrey Network in 2011, “Ryan and Tatum: The O’Neals,” which lasted nine episodes.
Forever linked to their iconic roles, MacGraw and O’Neal reunited on state in 2016 in A.R. Gurney’s play, “Love Letters.”
Neither would surpass this all-American romance.But they earned their place in pop culture history.
For more information on the Fathom event, visit this website:
Lynn (Zipfel) Venhaus has had a continuous byline in St. Louis metro region publications since 1978. She writes features and news for Belleville News-Democrat and contributes to St. Louis magazine and other publications.
She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, currently reviews films for Webster-Kirkwood Times and KTRS Radio, covers entertainment for PopLifeSTL.com and co-hosts podcast PopLifeSTL.com…Presents.
She is a member of Critics Choice Association, where she serves on the women’s and marketing committees; Alliance of Women Film Journalists; and on the board of the St. Louis Film Critics Association. She is a founding and board member of the St. Louis Theater Circle.
She is retired from teaching journalism/media as an adjunct college instructor.
