Cinema St. Louis proudly presents the 18th Annual QFest St. Louis, a vibrant celebration of LGBTQ+ film and queer culture. Scheduled from May 27 to June 1, 2025, at the historic Hi-Pointe Theatre, QFest showcases a diverse lineup of contemporary gay cinema, including narrative features, documentaries, and shorts that spotlight the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals…
Culture
Review: Tony Winner: Maybe Happy Ending
Never has an intellectual exercise had such heart. The allegory is clear: two adults, deep into the routine of their second act, fighting to remain independent, resisting nostalgia, and yet slowly, inevitably, slipping into the patterns we all recognize. That’s where the play begins. It is the story of two robots trying desperately not to…
Review: Death Becomes Her Is Gorgeously Performed, Wryly Camp, and Strangely Trapped in the Mirror
I had the great good fortune to see Death Becomes Her from the best seat in the house: front row, dead center. It’s my favorite perch because that’s where you get to see the work. The microbeats. The breath work. The sweat, spit, and precision that make up the muscle of live performance. Yes, I…
Supporting Our Supporters: The Missouri Historical Society and LGBTQ+ History
In 1994, the editor of the quarterly magazine of the Missouri Historical Society (MHS), then called Gateway Heritage, had to push hard to bring to publication an article I had written about Rev. Carol Cureton, the Metropolitan Community Church of Greater St. Louis, and the impact the twenty-seven-year-old out lesbian and the nascent “homosexual church”…
Review: Tony-Winning Sunset Boulevard on Broadway Is Electrifying, Unnerving, and Might Be Lloyd Webber’s Best Work
I didn’t expect to come out of Sunset Boulevard thinking it might be my favorite Lloyd Webber score. But here we are. In Jamie Lloyd’s stark new Broadway revival, the music is the emotional architecture. With the sets stripped down to almost nothing,just black walls, projections, and a few brutalist gestures the score becomes the…
Editor-at-Large, Culture, Cuisine & Curtain Calls: Adam Josephs
I first met Adam Josephs in San Francisco during the summer of 2013, and I said then—and stand by it now—that he was the most cosmopolitan man I’d ever known. In my book Delusions of Grandeur, I wrote that Adam had visited more countries than most people can find on a map, and managed to…
Vanessa Frost and Zodiacx Balmain Lead The Wicked Ball
St. Louis is preparing for a vibrant ballroom weekend as newly crowned Miss Pride St. Louis, Vanessa Frost, teams up with newly deemed American Runway Legend Zodiac Balmain to present The Wicked Ball, set for May 4. Part of a blockbuster weekend, the festivities begin May 3 with the St. Louis Awards Ball, culminating in…
314 Day: Notable LGBTQ St. Louisans Share What They Love About the City
We are St. Louis. A city at the confluence of the continent’s two mightiest rivers. A city that rose from land covered in mysterious manmade mounds. Land that was the site of the largest Native American city north of present-day Mexico—larger than London in 1100 AD. We were French and Spanish before we were American,…
Blue Max Celebrates 50 Years With Mayoral Proclamation, Saturday Party at Bastille
Blue Max will celebrate 50 years of brotherhood, inclusivity, and community at Bastille on Saturday evening beginning at 9:00 pm, and the entire community is invited. This afternoon, Mayor Tishaura Jones issued a Proclamation that March 8, 2025 is “Blue Max CC 50th Anniversary Day” in the City of St. Louis. For 50 years, Blue…
All-Star Cast (and Some Filler) to Roast Grey Fox Pub (and One Another) on March 29
Grey Fox Pub. Photo by Justin Lehman Some 25 years ago, Tumara Mahorning and fellow Grey Fox show director Michelle McCausland performed a really long number. I mean crazy long. All to distract everyone from noticing that tons of wigs, gowns and jewelry were being schlepped down the back stairs to waiting vehicles (thieves did…