[chesterfield]
Want to see the cast of The Full Monty, the upcoming Stages show? (Sorry, they’ll all have their clothes on. Mostly.) OK … for you would-be voyeurs, there’ll be a short meet-and-greet session after the first three evening shows, Sept. 4 through 6, where you can maybe have a poster signed. Our town’s Zoe Vonder Haar is one of the female leads. But let’s admit it, theater-goers: What many people love about this fun and just a little edgy play is the beefcake. It’s like Chippendales, but with cheeky humor (no pun intended, honest). Based on the 1997 comedy film, the show depicts six unemployed steelworkers who come up with a brash way to get cash. The setting was changed from Sheffield, England, to Buffalo, N.Y., to ‘Americanize’ the show. Stages is based in Chesterfield; the show will be staged at the Robert G. Reim Theatre in Kirkwood.
[creve coeur]
In a $1 million upgrade, Northwestern Mutual-St. Louis has gone all uptown. Well, west of the Inner Belt, anyhow, and more central to clients throughout the metro. The Fortune 100 financial services firm has relocated its regional headquarters offices from Market Street downtown to Creve Coeur, into 25,000 square feet at 622 Emerson Road, Ste. 400. Company officials say the room has a more efficient design that will offer the room needed for its recruiting and growth objectives. The network office oversees district offices in Glen Carbon, Illinois, and Columbia, Missouri, and recently added 25 full-time financial representatives to serve all three offices. Meanwhile, it has plans for expansion to Sunset Hills and St. Charles. ISC Contracting provided the construction and The Lawrence Group created the interior design.
[kirkwood]
The Magic House intends to work wonders with a $20,000 grant from Monsanto Fund. It will use the grant to create Wonder Works, a permanent exhibit focusing on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). It was inspired by a popular recent exhibit, Sid the Science Kid, based on PBS’s educational children’s series. Sid and the Super Duper stuff may have left the building, but Sid’s influence will live on … and then some. The earlychildhood learning environment will take up 2,000 square feet on two levels, with a grand opening in December. Youngsters won’t be confronted by quantum physics, but they will face age-appropriate experiences for those in second grade and younger. The exhibit will feature educational content and complementary programming that aligns with state and national standards and will promote 21st-century skills such as creativity, critical thinking and collaboration— components largely absent from endeavors such as, say, the 2016 presidential campaign.
[saint louis]
A long-lost image of what St. Louis was like before the turn of the 20th century now hangs in the perfect spot: Where people are always coming and going. Commerce on the Landing, the 1942 mural by Chicago artist Louis Grell now graces the wall behind the registration desk at St. Louis Union Station Hotel by DoubleTree. A vintage steam choo-choo with distinctive smokestack and cow-catcher is in the foreground, the Eads Bridge behind it, with plumes of black smoke rising from paddle wheelers on the river. (Way before Earth Day and the EPA, the Lou was a dirty, industrial town.) Commerce disappeared decades ago— right inside the station—but was rediscovered behind a false wall in March 2014 and painstakingly restored. Many period photos of the work in black and white show the mural on a curved surface above the ticket counter. (Why some doofus in charge way back when would have allowed it to be walled off is simply beyond us.) Commerce never did go very far, although its absence baffled art historians for decades. Today it’s close to where it first hung, near the station’s breathtaking Grand Hall, depicting the hustle and bustle on Laclede’s Landing during the Age of Steam. There’s a lot going on in the three-panel painting, which would have been perfect for World War II-era St. Louis, when Union Station was one of the busiest terminals in the country for U.S. service members. At lower left in the triptych is a group of riverfront workers that evokes the style of 19th-century artist George Caleb Bingham, whose Luminist paintings created high drama from everyday life on the river. As luck would have it, Bingham’s work mainly languished in obscurity until it was rediscovered in the 1930s. Go figure. (Pictured, above)
[saint charles]
Talk about snagging your 15 minutes of fame, although today it’s a little different than Andy Warhol envisioned it in the 1960s. Brittany Creech went all viral after a few tweets. The teen had most of her senior pictures shot at a Taco Bell in St. Charles. Yes, there also are dreamy shots taken in grassy areas, but she seems to be having the most fun at the restaurant, as most any high-school kid is wont to do. Brittany reportedly would like to star in a commercial for the fast-food restaurant. Hey … isn’t this sort of how uber-model Karlie Kloss got out of Webster Groves and into NYC, the cover of Glamour, a friendship with Taylor Swift and a video for the singer’s Bad Blood pop single? No? OK. Well, this girl is all dimples. Wouldn’t put it past her. You go, Ms. Creech. The marketing folks at Taco Bell must have noticed by now.
[university city]
If you think you’ll have trouble parking in The Loop during trolley construction, you might want to think again. A trip for dinner on a recent Sunday night was no problem, although the lanes for metered parking are mostly absent to accommodate two-way traffic east and west on Delmar. The Loop garage across from the Tivoli had plenty of spaces available at dinnertime (6:30 p.m.). Who knew? But do drive in and around the construction area with care, as there are plenty of detours and narrow sections, and expect the DeBaliviere Bridge to be out of commission for a while. We can’t say firsthand what things are like Friday and Saturday nights, so don’t sue us if you have to scout awhile for a space, but the Sunday night we were there was a breeze.
[maryland heights]
In Westport Plaza, at I-270 and Page, in the lot of the Westport Sheraton (you know, the chalet-looking one), an awesome display took place last week. It focused on classics from an era when twotone cars were everyday conveyances. Remember the Hawk, the not-so-everyday family car? Maybe not. The Avanti? This futuristic model actually was produced until about 2007 in Mexico. The 51st International Meeting of the Antique Studebaker Club, the Studebaker Drivers Club and the Avanti Owners Association International were here with hundreds of these amazing-looking cars, some that could have rolled right out of American Graffiti, others from 1950s or 1960s science-fiction movies. Their owners were busy in swap meets and other stuff gearheads do. The ’50s and ’60s were the glory years for these cars, and collectors crave them. Well, at least collectors of Studebakers do.
