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

For complete Theatre listings through 2011, click here to visit the KC Events calendar.

 American Heartland Theatre
No Way To Treat A Lady
Runs March 4 through April 17
For tickets call 816-842-9999 or online at www.ahtkc.com
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

Based on the best selling novel by William Goldman (The Princess Bride, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and adapted as a movie of the same name, this uproarious, sexy musical gives new meaning to the phrase “knock ‘em dead.” A serial killer is on the prowl, and Detective Morris Brummell is on the case. Can he find the killer, get the girl, and pacify his disgruntled mother—all before the next chorus? It’s a devilish blend of humor, romance, murder and music with four amazing actors playing seventeen roles. This winner of a 1987 Richard Rodgers grant was nominated for Best Revival by the New York Outer Critics Circle.  

Quality Hill Playhouse
Look to the Rainbow: The Lyrics of Yip Harburg
Runs March 11 through April 10
For tickets call 816-421-1700 or online at  www.qualityhillplayhouse.com
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

Working with a variety of composers, E.Y. "Yip" Harburg wrote a number of quintessential American songs: “Over the Rainbow,” “It's Only a Paper Moon” and the Great Depression anthem “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” Through his songs, learn about the successes (The Wizard of Oz, Finian's Rainbow) and struggles (becoming placed on the infamous “Hollywood blacklist”) of this fascinating man.

Read the KCM review here.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre
Cabaret
Spencer Theatre
Runs March 18 through April 10
For tickets call 816-235-2700 or online at www.kcrep.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

1931 Berlin, and the fragile Weimar Republic is being torn apart by radical politics on the right and left. But inside the cabaret, the world is alive with seedy glamour and a kind of freedom never known before -- for now. A young, broke American finds himself entangled by the dreams of the unforgettable Sally Bowles, who initiates him to the pleasures and dangers of the cabaret. One of the great musicals of the last century is brought to passionate, vibrant, imaginative life by Artistic Director Eric Rosen (Venice, A Christmas Story, Winesburg, Ohio). Kansas City native and legend John Kander, along with Fred Ebb, created one of the most powerful theatrical scores ever.

Read the KCM review here.

Spinning Tree Theatre
Make Me A Song: The Music of William Finn
Runs April 1 through April 10, at Off Center Theatre, Crown Center
For tickets call 816-842-9999 or online at www.spinningtreetheatre.com
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

Spinning Tree Theatre debuts with the Midwest premiere of Off-Broadway’s hit revue celebrating the music of Tony Award-winner William Finn. The composer of Falsettos and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Finn’s songs are passionate, funny, always personal, and soar with intelligence and beauty. A fully-staged, 90-minute, intermission-less revue, Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn plays only eight memorable performances.

The Coterie Theatre
Ben Franklin’s Apprentice
Runs April 4 through May 7
For tickets call 816-474-6552 or online at www.coterietheatre.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

"I dare you lightning strike! I am not afraid!" Dazzling special effects highlight this tale of an American hero's struggle to tame Heaven's own power- electricity. Long before the Declaration of Independence, Ben Franklin was a scientist obsessed with the mastry of "electrical fire" in the face of opposition from church and family. When he rescues a wounded boy from a cruel apprenticeship, together they confront ignorance with the power of the questioning minds. Blending historical fiction with science, this thrilling play for familys culminates on a story night with a crack of thunder, a blinding light, and an experiment that changed the world! 

Peters Theatre @ William Jewell College
The Misanthrope
Runs April 7 through April 9
For tickets call 816-415-7590 or online at www.jewell.edu
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

William Jewell Theatre presents its spring production of Moliere’s classic.

Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre
Enchanted April
Runs April 7 through April 24 at MET Space
For tickets call 816-569-3226 or online at www.metkc.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

The enticement and allure of an Italian vacation captivates the hearts of two British housewives caught in disintegrating marriages. With the company of a proper old Englishwoman and a beautiful, mysterious socialite, they set out for a holiday that will change their worlds forever.

Unicorn Theatre
Ruined
Runs April 13 through May 1
For tickets call 816-531-7529 x10 or online at www.unicorntheatre.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

Entertainment and escape await at Mama Nadi’s bar and brothel in civil-war-torn Congo. But is she protecting or profiting from the women she shelters? Inspired by her interviews with Congo refugees, Nottage has crafted an uncommonly human story with humor and song served alongside postcolonial and feminist politics. Ruined was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

For complete Theatre listings through 2011, click here to visit the KC Events calendar.

By Victor Wishna

Senior Editor, Theatre; Theatre and Features Contributor
Victor Wishna is a writer, editor, and author, among other things. A graduate of Stanford University and the New School's creative writing MFA program, he has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Baltimore Sun, the Miami Herald, the Kansas City Star, Humanities, and other major magazines and newspapers. He contributes a weekly real estate feature to the New York Post and his column “Letter from New York” is syndicated nationally.

With photographer Ken Collins, he published In Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights (Umbrage Editions, 2006), for which he conducted and edited interviews with 61 prominent stage writers including Edward Albee, August Wilson, Tony Kushner, Wendy Wasserstein, and many others. The book won a 2007 Independent Publisher Book Awards Silver Medal (www.intheircompany.com).

He has always maintained a love for theatre, as a writer, an audience member, and even an actor, appearing in several community and semi-professional productions. As an undergraduate, he studied acting and playwriting with Anna Deavere Smith, in addition to journalism and psychology (and not engineering or medicine).

After nearly 12 years in New York City, Victor recently returned to his hometown with his wife, Annie, also a K.C. native. When not writing for publication or pleasure, Victor is honing his stand-up routine, which he has performed at numerous clubs and special events around New York, the Midwest, and elsewhere. In June 2010, he was named New York’s second-funniest amateur Jewish comedian by The Jewish Week. Seriously.