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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

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Kansas City Repertory Theatre 
The Glass Menagerie
by Tennessee Williams
Directed by David Cromer
Runs January 9 through February 15 - EXTENDED RUN
Copaken Stage
13th and Walnut, Downtown Kansas City, MO

Tennessee Williams' enduring classic is an award-winning portrayal of a disintegrating family during the depression of the 1930s. Vulnerable and tragic, The Glass Menagerie is one of Williams' most intimate and heartrending dramas and introduced him as one of the preeminent American playwrights of the 20th century.  The Rep has restaged this classic play with fantastic designs by Jeffery Cady (lights), Collette Pollard (set) and David Cromer's direction.  Using multimedia features and incorporating the entire Copaken space - on stage and in the house - this play is most assuredly something worth seeing.  Our own Steve Shapiro said The Glass Menagerie is a "haunting new production...like an intricately threaded quilt...the plays depth of pain emerges..." 

Cromer makes his KC Rep debut with The Glass Menagerie. His home base is Chicago where his productions have garnered a total of 16 Joseph Jefferson Awards including Best Production and Best Director for The Cider House Rules, The Price and Angels in America. His critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Adding Machine: A Musical recently won an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Musical and a Lucille Lortel award and an Obie award for outstanding direction.

For tickets call 816-235-2700 or online at www.kcrep.org

American Heartland Theatre 
Murder By the Book
By Duncan Greenwood and Robert King 
A Kansas City Premiere
Runs January 9  through February 22
Crown Center - 3rd Level
2450 Grand Blvd, Kansas City, MO

Witty barbs exchanged between master thriller writer, Selwyn, and his estranged wife, Imogen, turn fatal...or do they? When the writer is found dead by his loyal secretary and the amateur detective neighbor insists on solving the crime, the twists and turns begin. Crisp and funny, this light-hearted and inventive thriller unfolds with a series of deadly games.

For tickets call 816-842-9999 or online at www.ahtkc.com.

The Coterie Theatre
Our Town
By Thornton Wilder
Runs January 27 through February 20
Crown Center (lower level), Grand & Pershing

Continuing their 30th anniversary, The Coterie plunges forward with their season by presenting the full length version of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize winning play Our Town.  A timeless classic about a girl's time in Grover's Corners, the audience will come away with asking if they are aware of life while living it; one of the plays many themes.  

Originally performed at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey on January 22, 1932, Our Town was Wilder's attempt to steer theatre away from the inadequate and evasive style he felt it had become.  By making the actors mime their props and performing on a set made up of only tables, chairs and ladders, he forced the audience to see the play's theme without distraction of the spectacle theatre tended to produce.  Another first was having the role of Stage Manager, completely aware of his relationship to the audience and the actors on stage, break the ever present fourth-wall that theatre was known for using.  (The fourth-wall is the idea that the audience is looking in on the lives of other people as if looking through a wall.)  Tied to a curriculum focusing on communication, arts, literature, social studies, psychology and philosophy, this play is suitable for an elementary age child and adults alike.  

Unicorn Theatre
The Velvet Rut 
By James Still
Runs January 30 through February 22
3828 Main Street

Having appeared in Unicorn Theatre's 2007-2008 In-Progress New Play Reading Series, James Still's The Velvet Rut moves onto the main stage in its first metropolis performance at the Unicorn.  A high school teacher who loves his students, adores his wife, and is passionate about his poetry, goes on a soul searching camping trip after he meets Virgil, a seemingly mysterious young man.  What they both discover are the tools they will need to survive.  This two actor play stars veteran Kansas City actor Jim Korinke and Unicorn newcomer Matthew Jayson Weiss with direction from Joseph Price.  Still, a native of Kansas, also has two other plays premiering at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. and Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis, IN.

One more thing: Talk back performances will be on February 3, 8 & 10 to discuss the play with the cast and director.  On February 5th at 6:30 the Unicorn host Play Before the Play Party, visit their website for more details. 

For tickets call 816.531.7529 or online at www.unicorntheatre.org

Kansas City Repertory Theatre 
The Arabian Nights
Written and directed by Mary Zimmerman 
Runs January 30 through February 22
Spencer Theatre
James C. Olsen Performing Arts Center
4949 Cherry Street, on UMKC campus, Kansas City, MO

Mary Zimmerman, creator of the Broadway and Kansas City phenomenal hit Metamorphoses, reprises her genius in Kansas City Repertory Theatre's newest production: The Arabian Nights.  A carefully woven series of stories surrounds princess Scheherezade's attempt to save her own life by telling the king magical stories filled with love, valor, and heroism, this play reveals the profound passion and mystery of the country now known as Iraq.  

Zimmerman, with her uncanny staging, lively sets and theatrical story telling, highlights why she is the recipient of the 1998 MacArthur "Genius" Grant, the 2002 Tony Award for Best Director, and ten Joseph Jefferson Awards, including ones for best production and best direction.  "If you want theatre at its most unpretentiously poetic, most fetchingly stylish, as humane as it is elegant," said New York Magazine, "I commend to you The Arabian Nights. [It] sails as smoothly and magically as the caliph's boat on the moonlit waves of the Tigris"      

For tickets call 816-235-2700 or online at www.kcrep.org

InPlay Productions
Collected Stories
By David Margolies 
Runs February 2 through February 8
Just Off Broadway Theatre, 
3051 Central in Penn Valley Park

A runner up for the Pulitzer Prize, David Margolies' Collected Stories is a play about how sometimes a teacher-student relationship can turn from friendship to peer to rival.  A well-respected short-story writer, Ruth Steiner, becomes the mentor of a struggling author, Lisa Morrison.  Giving Morrison an education on the craft of writing and life, Steiner and Morrison become battling contemporaries that ultimately changes their lives.  It has been a while since we have seen something from InPlay Productions and it will be exciting to see what kind of show they present to the metropolis.     

For tickets call 816.765.5767 or online at www.justoffbroadway.org
 

Theatre for Young America (TYA)
Africa's Daughters
Runs February 3 through February 21
Union Station's City Stage
30 West Pershing Road

Appropriate for children in 2nd grade and beyond, this play celebrates the struggles and triumphs of the African-American people.  Understanding that African-American heritage is celebrated through out the year, TYA brings forth this production during the month where we are reminded of the importance of being a melting-pot nation and how it has benefited us as a community of people.   "A young girl named Makeda takes an amazing journey through 4 millennia of African and African-American history, seen through the eyes of women ranging from the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba to modern playwright Lorraine Hansberry.  In between ancient times and modern times Makeda joins the struggles and shares the triumphs of this historical pageant, and the experience changes her forever."  

This play has ties in curriculum areas of drama, biography, African and African-American history, U.S. history, Civil War studies, women's studies, civil rights, and the Underground Railroad.    

For tickets call 816.460.2020 or online at www.unionstation.org

The New Theatre Restaurant
Hats! The Musical
Book & Lyrics By Marcia Milgrom & Tony Dodge
Runs February 4 through April 12 
9229 Foster, Overland Park, KS.  

It is often said that 30 is the new 20, 40 is the new 30, and 50 is the new 40, but regardless of your age, the number of your years is still measured by the actual years you've been alive.  Hats! The Musical is New Theatre's newest production to rise from the floors and celebrates life once you hit the big FIVE - ZERO.  Written by Grammy, Golden Globe and Tony Award winning songwriters, and inspired by the Red Hat Society, this fun filled, laugh till you tinkle show will make anyone who is, knows or plans to be 50 roll on the floor in hysterics.  

The Chicago Tribune said "This fast paced, funny musical revue flat out makes you feel great!  It beats the support hose off the musical MENOPAUSE!" Joyce Dewit (Three's Company fame) stars as a woman who is "49.9999" years old and edging on the brink of 50.  Dreading this unavoidable turn of events a group of women help her discover that with friends, fierce attitude and ferocious vigor anyone can surpass anything.  This musical is for any woman of every age and the men who love them.       

For tickets call 913-649-SHOW or online at www.newtheatre.com

Urban Culture Project
The Coppelia Project: A Clown Ballet in Three Acts 
Created and directed by Heidi Van
Runs February 6 through February 23 
La Esquina
1000 West 25th Street, in the Crossroads, Kansas City, MO  

From the Urban Culture Project: "Urban Culture Project is thrilled to present The Coppelia Project... This original production, created and directed by Heidi Van, was originally presented at the Kansas City Fringe Festival, where it debuted to rave reviews in the summer of 2008. It returns, in a new incarnation adapted specifically for La Esquina, including a site-specific video installation by Kansas City visual artist Susan White."

If you are looking for something, new, fresh and innovative then this production is worth seeing.  A story about a doll-maker's desire to make the perfect doll, Coppelia explores how our flaws can be our strength for freedom.  Van's insight, staging, and theatrical sense captivated audiences this summer and will undoubtedly do the same this time around.  

One more thing:  The production kicks off with a First Friday event on February 6 from 7pm - 10pm featuring performance previews and a live performance from BOOM, an experimental ensemble group.  
Another thing: A new original work conceived by Heidi Van will also be performed on February 13, 20, 21 and 22.  

Tickets available at the door; for more information visit Urban Culture Project atwww.urbancultureproject.orgCOMING UP SOON...

Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre (MET)
No Way to Treat a Lady
Book, Lyrics & Music by Douglas J. Cohen
Runs February 12 through March 1  
METspace, 
3614 Main St., Kansas City, MO

Mass murder may not be what you would consider to be a bowl full of laughs and an evening of hilarity, but when you mix together four comedy actors playing multiple characters, a murderer with the panache for disguise, and a Jewish cop who chases him, you come up with MET's newest production.  First a best-selling novel by William Goldman turned into a film in 1968 starring Rod Steiger and George Segal.  

Then in 1996, the book-turned-film played Off-Broadway as a musical written by Douglas Cohen, and this Damn Yankees meets Sweeney Todd story never looked back.  Involving a down-and-out actor trying to win approval for his recently deceased Broadway diva mother, and the detective eager to solve an unsolvable case, move out of his own mother's house and into a relationship with a woman, Cohen weaves an entertaining, dark web full of strong song and impeccable narrative.  A mix of modern musical with classical melody, No Way to Treat a Lady is sure to bring out the guffaws and giggles in everyone.  

For tickets call 816-569-3226 or online at www.metkc.org

The Barn Players
Side Show
Music by Henry Krieger
Book & Lyrics by Bill Russell
Runs February 13 through March 1 
6219 Martway; Misison, KS  

Based on the lives of conjoined twins Violet and Daisey Hilton, Side Show follows the lives of these two sisters who journey from England to America.  Making their way through the vaudeville circuit and on to Hollywood for an appearance in the 1932 movie "Freaks," this musical is tragic and funny and told almost entirely in song.  

The original show opened on Broadway October 16, 1997, and despite much critical acclaim, the show only lasted for 91 performances at the Richard Rogers Theatre, closing on January 4. 1998.  It was nominated for four Tony Awards and was the first time two actress had been nominated for the same award as a team - Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner for Best Actress in a Musical.  If they would have won, both would have received the award.  

The Barn Players, illustrating just how they are more than a community theatre, once again showcases challenging works to inspire their audiences and will undoubtedly  do the same with this production.   

For tickets call 913-432-9100 or online at www.thebarnplayers.org