Katerina McCrimmon and the company of the Muny’s Meet Me in St. Louis. Photo by Phillip Hamer.
And now for an oldie but a goodie: Meet Me in St. Louis. The quintessential St. Louis musical is back at The Muny by popular demand. This is their ninth production of the beloved show. The very first was in 1960, created by and for The Muny, and they played it again as the finale for their 100th season in 2018. The show was retro when it first premiered as a film in 1944, offering a loving and nostalgic look back at the early 1900s—when “gaslighting” just meant keeping your house warm and bright, and you’d have to place a long-distance call to reach faraway St. Charles. It’s a story curiously out of time, which is precisely what makes it timeless.
Meet Me in St. Louis has a history that stretches back at least eighty-five years. It started as a series of short stories in The New Yorker titled “5135 Kensington,” an address that should be familiar to any fan of the sentimental favorite, “The Boy Next Door.” It was reworked into a big-budget MGM musical in 1944, capitalizing on the popularity of Americana musicals like Oklahoma! The film version featured Judy Garland in the role of Esther—her second biggest role after Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz—and the child star phenom Margaret O’Brien as Tootie. Interestingly, the movie indirectly led to the birth of Liza Minnelli: Garland fell for the brilliant yet awkward director Vincente Minnelli during the filming of Meet Me in St. Louis, saying he was the first man to make her truly look beautiful. Their marriage was notoriously difficult and short-lived—Minnelli was one of several gay men whom Garland hopelessly pursued—but at least they made one hell of a movie first.
The narrative follows the adventures of the Smith family in 1903, a few months before the opening of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, better known as the World’s Fair. To turn-of-the-century St. Louis, the Fair was the beginning of a new era. Their city was the talk of the nation; it even inspired a pop song that serves as the show’s theme. Of course, St. Louis was also the site of intense racial conflict, but nothing controversial or upsetting about the past is explored here. The show is pure entertainment, and it succeeds tremendously on those terms.
The plot revolves around Esther Smith (Katerina McCrimmon), the second oldest of the four Smith girls. She’s got it bad for John Truitt (Andrew Poston), that dreamy “boy next door.” The two have a meet-cute at the most wholesome teenage house party imaginable—featuring square dances, cakewalks, and not a single Solo cup in sight. But Esther doesn’t realize that her father, Alonzo (Colin Donnell), has accepted a job at a law firm in New York City and plans to move the family out there by the end of the year. His wife Anna (Patti Murin) and their sassy housekeeper Katie (Beth Leavel) do their best to keep the family’s spirits up and enjoy their last months in St. Louis. When Esther, her older sister Rose (Kyla Stone), and her grandfather (Stan Brown) learn the truth, they work together to change Mr. Smith’s mind—or, at the very least, to make their last Christmas in St. Louis a merry little one.
This contemporary stage version sticks close to the plot of the 1944 film, although it does make a few refreshing updates. The most notable change is Katie, who now has a much bigger role. In the film, she was a stern taskmaster who kept the other family members grounded with her sarcastic quips and deadpan humor. She’s still got some of the best one-liners in the family, but now she has her own musical number, “That’s Enough of That.” The song gives Katie a little backstory, recounting her youth in Dublin, and also gives Rose and Esther a valuable lesson in self-respect. Unfortunately, the musical significantly trims down the Halloween scene from the original film—admittedly, it would be hard to capture on stage and a little disturbing to modern audiences. Reminding us that not everything from the past was so squeaky clean and wholesome, the film’s “Devil’s Night” sequence follows the two youngest Smiths, Agnes and Tootie, as they join a gang of local kids, roam the neighborhood at night with zero adult supervision, throw flour in their neighbors’ faces, and commit various acts of vandalism. It’s surprisingly gothic and one of the best parts of the original film.
Meet Me in St. Louis has a book full of toe-tapping delights that have become staples of American pop culture. Chances are you’ll recognize a few even if you haven’t seen the musical before. There’s the title song that will get everyone dancing the hoochie-coochie with their tootsie-wootsie. The house party scene features an adorable rendition of “Under the Bamboo Tree,” where Esther dances with the mischievous, morbid, and scene-stealing Agnes (Jaylin Bass) and Tootie (Lilah Levinson). But the highlight of act one is “The Trolley Song,” one of the most propulsive and thrilling numbers from the Golden Age of musicals. Along with “Over the Rainbow,” it remains an iconic Garland moment. It’s hard to match the delirious joy and beauty of the original, but The Muny comes close with their swiveling stage design. A prop trolley is wheeled into the center of the stage, then rotates while streetlamps, trees, and houses flash across the screens on either side of the stage. It cleverly creates a feeling of forward momentum, which is essential for such a rhythmic, onomatopoeia-filled song.
“The Trolley Song” is the most technically complex sequence, but there are many “wow” moments throughout the show. The 5135 Kensington set is cleverly divided into cross-sections. As it rotates on the stage, audiences get a full view of the exquisitely detailed parlor and dining room, with gorgeous period wallpaper, carpets, and curtains. Falling leaves and digital snow appear on the screens to signal the changing seasons, and the stage is transformed into a grand ballroom for the romantic climax. When the World’s Fair backdrop appears at the end of the show—with its Ferris wheel and other turn-of-the-century feats of architecture—audiences are briefly transported back 120 years to when the beautiful Forest Park first opened to the public. The joy and optimism of the Smith family is infectious, and it leaves one with the hope that St. Louis families will still enjoy such lovely memories 120 years from now. | Rob Von Nordheim
The 2026 Muny season closes with Something Rotten, which runs August 17–23. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit muny.org.
