KCMETROPOLIS.org
Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

For complete Theatre listings through 2010, click here to visit the KC Events calendar

Theatre for Young America
Junie B. Jones and A Little Monkey Business
By Barbara Park
Runs March 2 through April 16 at H&R Block Stage at Union Station
For tickets call 816-460-2020 or online at www.unionstation.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.

Barbara Park's wildly popular Junie B. Jones character comes to life onstage in this musical adaptation of the book Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business.  Junie finds out from her parents that she is getting a present.  She is so excited until she finds out it is a "P. U." baby brother!  At first jealous, when she hears that her new baby brother is "cute as a monkey", she gets the school kids to give her their snack treats and other gifts in exchange for a peek at the monkey!  Songs and words are by Joan Cushing, the same playwright who adapted TYA's Miss Nelson series of musicals.




American Heartland Theatre
I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change
Book & Lyrics by Joe DiPietro
Music by Jimmy Roberts
Runs March 12 through April 25 at Crown Center
For tickets call 816-842-9999 or online at www.ahtkc.com
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change celebrates the universal theme of love and pokes fun at the life experiences we've all either gone through or will go through. I Love You explores every aspect of relationships- the joys of dating, romance, marriage, lovers, babies, husbands, wives...and in-laws. Always funny and fresh, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change is well suited for the new couple looking to see what life's going to be like or for the husband and wife that have been through it all and still say "I love, you're perfect, don't change." When the off-Broadway run of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change closed in the summer of 2008, it had played 5,003 performances and 20 previews, an astonishingly long run by any measure, but downright historic for an off-Broadway musical (and second only to the run of "The Fantasticks"). If its 12 year run isn't a testament to the enduring charm, wit and wonder of this musical, we don't know what is! Returning to the American Heartland Theatre 12 years after its Kansas City premiere, I Love You is back and better than ever.



The Coterie Theatre Elementary/Family Series
Frindle
Runs April 6 through May 23 at the Coterie Theatre, Crown Center Lower Level
For tickets call 816-474-6552 or online at www.coterietheatre.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.

Nicholas is ingenious.  In Mrs. Granger's language arts class, Nick gets his best idea ever when his teacher explains how words end up in the dictionary.  Nick decides to create his own word... frindle, and he gets other kids in the class to use the word.  Before long Nick's word creates a buzz well beyond his school and town.  But his teacher loves the dictionary, so a fierce power struggle ensues over a made-up word! 

Read the KCMetropolis review here. 



Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre
Mappa Mundi
Runs April 8 through at METspace
For tickets call 816-569-3226  or online at www.metkc.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.

Midwest premiere directed by Bob Paisley at the MET, Mappa Mundi treads the edge of dangerous waters. Jack is a grouchy, terminally ill patriarch who is staying with his well-to-do daughter, Anna. She is the apple of his eye but he's nursing bigoted attitudes about her black fiancé, Sholto. Jack's questionable fascination with a map-drawing, plantation-owning ancestor is tied up with his yearning for another life and a dark incident in his past.

Read the KCMetropolis review here.



Kansas City Repertory Theatre
Venice
By Matt Sax & Eric Rosen
A co-production with Center Theatre Group
Runs April 9 through May 9 at the Copaken Stage, H&R Block Building
For tickets call 816-235-2700 or online at www.kcrep.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.

Matt Sax and Eric Rosen, creators of the phenomenal Clay, join forces once again to tell an explosive new story of struggle and redemption. Set in the not-too-distant future, Venice is the tale of two brothers who must lead a city out of a terrorist war. Though both are haunted by the memory of their mother, a leader of Venice whose call for peace was silenced in a massive attack on the city, one brother chooses to follow in his mother's footsteps and the other sets out to see his brother's plans undone.

An operatic story of war, love, treachery and the quest for peace, Venice boasts a powerful and highly original score of hip-hop, R & B, art song and opera that will make your heart pound. A cooperative effort with Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group, which originally commissioned Venice, this world premiere will rock Kansas City before heading west to its L.A. premiere. (Contains strong language & adult themes.)

New Theatre Restaurant
Becky's New Car
By Steven Dietz
Starring John Davidson
Runs April 15 through June 20 at New Theatre Restaurant
For tickets call 913-649-SHOW (7469) or online at www.newtheatre.com/home.html
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.

To call John Davidson "a man of many talents" is to utter the understatement of the year. He has made a very successful career out of excelling in just about every form of entertainment there is. From Broadway to TV to movies and a dozen or so solo albums. John's talents prove him to be much more than just an incredibly nice, handsome man. And in BECKY'S NEW CAR, he's also very funny!

Becky Foster has a pretty good job, a pretty good husband and a pretty good life so when a charming, bumbling billionaire starts flirting with her, Becky is surprised that she allows him to believe that she is widowed.

 Theatre for Young America
The Monarchs of KC
Runs April 20 through May 15 at City Stage at Union Station
For tickets call 816-460-2083 or online at www.tya.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.

Two of Kansas City's nationally known performers, Lonnie McFadden and Danny Cox, will appear together in Theatre for Young America's The Monarchs of KC.

Baseballs were bouncing and jazz was jumping in the 1930's and 40's in Kansas City.  Step back to the glory days at 18th and Vine when every baseball player wanted to play bass and every bass player wanted to play ball!  This musical is produced to honor the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.  

Quality Hill Playhouse
Lullaby of 42nd Street
Runs April 23 through May 23 at Quality Hill Playhouse
For tickets call 816-421-1700 or online at www.qualityhillplayhouse.com
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.

Harry Warren gave us the music for the show 42nd Street; we'll explore those songs plus others he wrote including "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby", "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo" and more. Featuring Lauren Braton, Molly Hammer, Julie O'Rourke and James Wright, with J. Kent Barnhart at the piano, Steve Lenhert on bass and Ken Remmert on drums.

The Coterie Theatre
Young Playwrights' Festival
Wednesday, April 28 & Thursday, April 29
Coterie Theatre, Crown Center Lower Level
Free admission. For more information visit www.coterietheatre.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.

The Coterie's Young Playwrights Roundtable features a collection of new work by the city's best young writers.  The rich and varied theatrical writings which emerge from a year-long process are forged into an ambitious festival of script-in-hand stagings utilizing professional actors.

Unicorn Theatre
And Her Hair Went With Her
Directed by Jacqueline L. Gafford
Runs April 30 through May 23 at the Unicorn Theatre
For tickets call  816.531.PLAY or online at www.unicorntheatre.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.

Wigs, weaves, and pop culture! Salon owner Jasmine and her radical assistant Angie dish the dirt on a salon of eccentric clients and discover how self-image affects us all. A wild range of women, personalities, hairstyles and trends emerge in this funny, poignant blowout of African-American sisterhood and identity. Another BOLDNEWPLAY from our In-Progress New Play Reading Series.


For complete Theatre listings through 2010, click here to visit the KC Events calendar.

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