Well, sad news from Saint Louis. The Tivoli theater on the Delmar Loop has not only closed its doors but has been bought by a church.

This would be sad news on its own, but the Tivoli is where generations of kids participated in the midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

If the Riverfront Times still existed I am sure they would have already recommended a list of Audience Participation props and activities for that church.

When someone says or sings “Hallelujah”: shout “It’s raining men.”

Sign of Peace: thrust your pelvis into your fellow congregants’ pelvises.

Offering: throw wadded-up dollar bills at the ushers.

Doxology: sing “In just seven days I can make you a ma-a-a-a–an” instead.

If anyone brings up “Transmogrifi…cation” yell “say it!”

First, the Christian radio station bought KDHX, now a church buys the Tivoli. Next they’ll be having prayer meetings at the Ethical Society.

So this is the previous …

This is the progress …

And this is the goal.

More contrast on the flowers and I am done.

Martin Scorcese said that Casino was “all story, no plot.”

I liked Casino a lot, though, I think because I didn’t need to hear the “why” behind any of the narrative. I just assumed that life in the Mafia is violent and chaotic and random.

Life in table tennis is violent and chaotic too, who knew, and exhausting to watch. Just exhausting. And so long. Was the plot meant to mimic table tennis itself, just a relentless back-and-forth effort?

Of course, props to Timothee for becoming a really good table tennis player. And the orange ball visual was lovely. But it all comes down to the ending, which was baffling. Baffling to me, anyway.

Summary: did not like , no thank you, I rooted for the dog more than the human.

8:00 pm Monday night: I am watching the credits to the 2025 recorded version of Merrily We Roll Along and I am astonished to see it was based on a 1934 play by Kaufman and Hart. And then I am gobsmacked to read that K&H’s 1934 version was told with the same backward narration.

6:00 pm Monday night: I pick up the musical where I left off, about thirty minutes in.

3:30 Sunday afternoon: I think, “I’ve got to stop watching this and finish it tomorrow if I’m going to get the gardening done. But I liked that ‘Franklin Shepard Inc.’ song because it had a tune.”

2:55 Sunday afternoon: I decide to watch the Merrily We Roll Along movie on Netflix because I vaguely remembered it was the rare Sondheim failure that inspired the documentary The Best Worst Thing to Ever Could Have Happened. One of the difficulties was that the musical was told in reverse chronological order.

June 17, 2024: I watch the opera Galileo Galilei.

1957: Stephen Sondheim debuts on Broadway with West Side Story, including the song “Something’s Coming,” which could just as well be the last (yet chronologically first) song of Merrily We Roll Along, “Our Time.”

How is it that a mystery play can essentially reveal events in reverse, and it doesn’t trouble me, and an opera can do the same and I think it’s fine, but not this? I suppose part of it is that you get invested in a character, and if the character is revealed to be originally different from what you were told then you feel cheated? Galileo doesn’t change from end to beginning. Good guys are revealed to be evil killers, and that’s delightful, because they were evil all along. But this musical gives you someone damaged who was better before, so you have to watch as they get more appealing but then you know that’s the beginning, not the ending.

So I suppose ultimately I didn’t like it. I didn’t like a Kaufman and Hart play, surprising, I know.