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

The Oil Boiler Collective
The Boiler Oil
Runs May 7- 9 at The Living Room in the Pearl (1818 McGee Street, KCMO)
For tickets visit www.theoilboiler.com or https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/108058.

In a secret nightclub run by assassins, who lives? Who dies? And what does God have to say about that?  Welcome to The Oil Boiler, the twisted tale of Leon Nesrac, neurotic hitman who has lost his mind and possibly his nerve.  In the moments after killing his lover, Leon converses with God about the nature of free will and his attempt to come to terms with the person he was, is, and will remain.

The Oil Boiler is a new one-act play with original music debuting in Kansas City at First Fridays in the Crossroads district.  Written by Tyson Schroeder and Christian Hankel with music by Hankel and Jeff Freling, it is the collaborative creation of local professional artists across the disciplines of theatre, music, and the visual arts. Staged on a set designed by award-winning architect James Pastine and visual artist Tyson Schroeder, the actors interact with and around a live jazz combo, puppets, a side show emcee and the omnipresent voice of GOD.

Showtimes: May 7 and 8 at 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. and May 9 at 7:00 p.m. for a special Service Industry Night performance.




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. 



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.)

Read the KCMetropolis review here

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.

Read the KCMetropolis review here

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.

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.


American Heartland Theatre
Dixie Swim Club
Runs May 7 through June 27 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.

American Heartland Theatre presents the Kansas City Premiere of The Dixie Swim Club, May 7^th through June 27^th, 2010. Five Southern women, who were teammates in college swimming, reunite each year at the same beach cottage in North Carolina.  Free from men, children, and jobs, they laugh, catch-up, and meddle in each other's lives. As their lives unfold and the years pass, these women increasingly rely on one another, through advice and raucous repartee, to get through the challenges (men, sex, marriage, parenting, divorce, and aging) that life flings at them.  

The Dixie Swim Club is the newest "girl-friend" show to sweep the nation, playing in more than 45 theatres this spring alone.  "This play is easily the hottest show in the country right now," proclaims the Danville News.

American Heartland Theatre brings this hilarious and touching comedy, about friendships that last forever, to life with five great women of Kansas City theatre: Starring Cathy Barnett, Debra Bluford, Missy Koonce Jennifer Mays and Cheryl Weaver



Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre
The Light in the Piazza
Runs May 20 through June 6 at METspace
For tickets call 816-569-3226  or online at www.metkc.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times.

Kansas City Musical Premiere!  Directed by John Staniunas - based on the celebrated novella by Elizabeth Spencer and set in the romantic cities of Florence and Rome, A Light on the Piazza tells the story of Clara Johnson, an American tourist who, in the summer of 1953 meets and falls for a young Italian man.  When Clara's mother learns of the affair, she vigorously opposes it for reasons which only gradually become known.  Lush, beautiful and courageous, A Light on the Piazza considers love as a many flavored thing.



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

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