RFT 📰

Lady J Huston: Tribute to Billie Holiday 7 p.m.

If you thought the family drama around your wedding planning was bad, just wait until you hear what Anita Blake is dealing with. Set to marry the powerful (and sexy!)

Anita Blake is a badass bitch. The St. Louisan is not only a vampire hunter turned U.S. Marshall who hunts down and executes supernatural creatures on the wrong side of the law, but she's one of the most powerful necromancers in the world.

After outlawing abortion and advancing numerous bills to restrict transgender rights, Missouri Republicans have finally drawn a line in the sand. Now they're saying local governments have no right to control or restrict medicine — veterinary medicine, that is. Yesterday, the Missouri Senate voted to perfect a bill that would nullify ordinances in St. Louis City and St. Louis County that ban cat declawing, St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

No one would have mistaken Sharon Smith for a soccer fan four years ago. Football?

The woman who faked the death of a movie star chimpanzee in Missouri must now pay PETA almost $225,000. The ruling came yesterday in federal court in St. Louis, when Judge Catherine D. Perry said that Tonia Haddix must reimburse the animal rights organization for the legal and transportation costs they incurred in removing Tonka the chimpanzee from Haddix's property in the Lake of the Ozarks.

Spring is finally springing and it’s time to start thinking about where you’re going to spend your warm evenings outdoors. We’re spoiled for good options for this in St. Louis, but there’s a new weekly pop-up event in Tower Grove Park (257 Northeast Drive) that is sure to become a hot spot for city dwellers this summer.

The Moolah Shriners Circus in St. Louis has gone elephant-free — but that hasn't stopped the protests. Saturday's circus performance at the Family Arena was disrupted by an activist who jumped from her seat onto the stage and repeatedly yelled "drop all animal acts." She managed to keep yelling it even while security physically pushed her out of the ring, only stopping when a uniformed guard forced her down, sat on her and cuffed her.

Now Playing is RFT  Theater Critic Tina Farmer's roundup of reviews that you can still catch on stage. #1,000,023: Will Bonfiglio in Every Brilliant Thing at New Jewish Theatre

Date of sighting: March 17 Location: Kingshighway Boulevard, in Forest Park Southeast

My usual routine is marijuana, TV, sleep, but today was different. Today, I was going to get high and try to get something done.

The New Real Stl News is always bringing you the latest from the streets, and today the Facebook group came through with a picture of a goat just hanging out near the corner of Vandeventer Avenue and North Market Street. The photographer didn’t get close enough to find out if the goat was a doe or a buck, but either way, it certainly looked like it was out there waiting for the bus. We’d bet that it was ready to GTFO of there because the poor thing just escaped from Star Packing Company just a block east.

St. Louisans cheering on the Cardinals in Busch Stadium will soon be able to enjoy some new local favorite eats.  Mission Taco Joint, which is known for its laid-back West Coast-style Mexican, will be expanding its taco empire to the big leagues. 

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis closes out its main stage season with an engaging and visually stunning production of Agatha Christie’s classic Murder on the Orient Express. Director Hana S. Sherif and an excellent cast combine Gilded-Age style with the excitement of a noir thriller.

This morning at City Hall, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones announced a lawsuit against Hyundai and Kia manufacturers, saying that the cars' lack of an engine immobilizer has made them so easy to steal "a child could do it," creating a public safety hazard in the city. In filing the lawsuit this morning in federal court, St. Louis joins other cities such as Cleveland, Milwaukee and Seattle in attempting to use the courts to hold the car manufacturers accountable for the rash of auto thefts. While Kia and Hyundai thefts have skyrocketed in the wider metro region as well as nationwide, the spike of thefts in the city has been exceptionally acute.

For St. Louis vegans, those wishing to try veganism and others who just want to eat healthy, St. Louis will soon have a monthly night market that will cater just to you. STL Vegan Market starts Saturday, April 8, and will run from 3 to 7 p.m. It will be in 2 Acre Park located at the corner of Vandeventer Avenue and Forest Park Avenue (near Ikea, where folks can also find overflow parking).

Starting today, grab $7 wing specials from 22 area restaurants for St. Louis Wing Week. Just like with St. Louis Burger Week, you can try to earn rewards by checking in on the app anytime you buy a wing special. If you go to five participating locations, you will be entered to win a special grand prize drawing featuring $250 in gift cards.

MONDAY, MARCH 20 It’s gone from 20 degrees to 55, and we aren’t complaining! What we are complaining about: The Missouri Attorney General is issuing a new rule to restrict gender-affirming care — the better to persuade GOP primary voters that he’s the one and only candidate capable of governing by fiat.

I am not a reality TV kind of gal. I don’t know if love is blind or if you can find it on an island and I definitely can’t name all of the Kardashians.

Remember that scene in the second season of Bridgerton when the lustful tensions between leading lady Kate Sharma and old-school hunk Anthony Bridgerton boil up as the two face off on the croquet (called pall-mall after the Italian word pallamaglio) field? Something about the competitiveness of the game really got the spirits moving. If you try to recreate that moment for yourself during the Gin Room’s 4th Annual Gin & Croquet: A Seersucker & Sundress Summer Kickoff Affair on Sunday, April 2, we can’t promise that you’ll fall head over heels in love with the kind of man you never pictured yourself with (but now know you can’t live without).