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.

Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre
The Seagull
Runs January 11 through 29 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 

This Russian classic adapted for stage by Tom Stoppard and directed by Karen Paisley, features an ensemble of veteran actors including, Robert Gibby Brand, Cheryl Weaver, Forrest Attaway, Richard Alan Nichols, Alan Tilson and Nancy Marcy, Chris Roady, Coleman Crenshaw, Ashley Lapine, Jessica Franz, Donovan Kidd and Sarah Stites. When a hush descends on Chekhov’s restless country estate dwellers—as it often does, abrupt and unbidden—the air remains alive with crosscurrents of thought, clashing chords of longing and the steady thrum of time passing. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to experience this nineteenth-century masterpiece. The play elegantly displays the poetry of everyday life; The silences, cliches, stammerings and attempts at high expression by his characters are a mirror to our own improvised lives. The Seagull contains, as Chekov put it, “5 tons of love.”

Kansas City Repertory Theatre
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Spencer Theatre
Runs January 20 through February 12
For tickets call 816-235-2700 or online at www.kcrep.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

Labeled “Sassy, ingeniously staged and deeply affecting” by the New York Times this is a new adaptation of Mark Twain’s American literary narrative The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by acclaimed playwright Laura Eason and veteran director Jeremy Cohen. Together they have created a work that is full of imagination and fresh theatrical style. Growing up in a small Missouri town on the banks of the Mississippi River, young Tom spends his days making mischief, avoiding school and famously tricking others into doing his chores.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a classic coming-of-age story that will fire the imaginations of young and old alike. This production ofTom Sawyer is produced through special arrangement with Hartford Stage and in collaboration with Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.

Quality Hill Playhouse
My Romance
Runs January 20 through February 19
For tickets call 816-421-1700 or online at www.qualityhillplayhouse.com
Call or visit the website for performance days and times 

The lush melodies of Richard Rodgers combined with the clever lyrics of Lorenz Hart have made their partnership one of the greatest in the Great American Songbook, producing songs that are at times frivolous and playful, at times sad and wistful. This cabaret tribute celebrates the best of the best, with soul-stirring renditions of timeless classics “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “Blue Moon,” “Isn’t It Romantic?” and, of course, “My Romance.” Starring Lauren Braton, Jon Daugharthy, Stephanie Laws and J. Kent Barnhart at the piano, with Ken Remmert on drums and Brian Wilson on bass.

The Coterie Theatre
The Wrestling Season
Runs January 24 through February 19
For tickets call 816-474-6552 or online at www.coterietheatre.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times 

With only a wrestling mat and a referee, eight teenagers struggle with how others see them and the destructive power of rumors. Commissioned and premiered by the Coterie in 2000, it is one of the most important plays in the Coterie's history and more significant today than ever. After each performance, the referee guides the audience through a post-show Forum. As the actors, in character, discuss their actions with us, we rank their behavior from most to least objectionable.

Paul Mesner Puppets
Strega Nona
Runs January 25 through February 19
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.paulmesnerpuppets.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times 

In this hilarious Italian folk tale, Big Anthony is left alone with Strega Nona's magic bubbling pasta pot. He is warned not to touch it, but he can't resist. But before you can say "Fetuccini Alfredo," pasta is pouring out of the pot into the entire village! Holy Cannoli! To restore order before Strega Nona returns, Big Anthony tries to eat his way through town and winds up with a belly-full of problems.

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

KCMetropolis only previews and reviews events that are posted on the KC Events Calendar.  If you would like to list your event on the KC Events Calendar to be considered for coverage, click here for instructions.

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.