KANSAS CITY THEATER REVIEWS

Guys and Dolls, featuring a number of the finest Guys and Dolls in Kansas City performing arts, opened on Saturday night at the Musical Theater Heritage of Crown Center. Sarah Crawford directs the musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, and a pre-show ta...

The Cat in the Hat now playing at the Coterie Theatre in Crown Center is a purr-fect entertainment package for the whole family. Heidi Van directs the Coterie production based on the book by Dr. Seuss. Katie Mitchell adapted and directed the original production by the National Theatre of Great Br...

Peter and the Starcatcher, presented by the Theater League of Kansas City, opened on Tuesday night at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Mo. The production not only provides limited sets, costuming, special effects, but also limited appeal....

The rock musical Hair has been produced many times over the years in Kansas City, but never has it been presented the way the Kansas City Repertory Theatre brought it to the Spencer Theatre on opening night March 27. Artistic Director Eric Rosen directs Hair: Retrospective, which runs through April...

Eerie, enchanting, and hauntingly beautiful Giselle continues at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts through March 22. Kansas City Ballet Artistic Director Devon Carney choreographed the full-length two act classic ballet. Jean Corrali, Jules Perrot, and Marius Petipa inspired the choreogr...

The Unicorn Theatre production of Women Playing Hamlet currently runs on the Jerome Stage at the theater located at 3828 Main in Kansas City, Mo. William Missouri Downs wrote the Rolling World Premiere directed by Producing Artistic Director Cynthia Levin. Women Playing Hamlet is the second Rolling...

A line from the play best describes Black Pearl Sings when Susannah Mullally says, "Pearl is a pearl." Black Pearl Sings opened on Saturday March 7 at the Just Off Broadway Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. The production marks two firsts for Spinning Tree Theatre, the production of a local playwr...

Crimes of the Heart the Kansas City Actors Theatre production of the tragic comedy classic continues at the Polsky Theatre in the Carlsen Center at the Johnson County Community College. Darren Sextro directs Crimes of the Heart written by Beth Henley. Edward Matthew Walter designs the realistic se...

The cult classic, The Rocky Horror Show opened on Wednesday March 4 at Grant Hall on the campus of the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Richard O'Brien wrote the music, lyrics, and book for the tribute to B horror movies and science fiction. The show opened in London running 2,960 performance...

Broadway and Back, which highlights the quality in Quality Hill Playhouse, runs through March 29 at the Playhouse in Kansas City, Missouri. Producing Artistic Director J. Kent Barnhart selected the songs and directs the magnificent production. Broadway and Back is a celebration of movies that inspi...

A must catch it if you can, Catch It If You Can The Musical! opened on Friday February 27 at the Barn Players in Mission, Kansas. Guy Gardner directs and choreographs the Barn Players production with music direction by James Levy. Catch Me If You Can The Musical! is music with libretto by Terrence...

A celebration of social media is presented in Self-Ease at the Fishtank Performance Studio in the Crossroads District of Kansas City, Mo. From creator Andy Perkins and his creative team of marvelously talented actors comes a hilarious look at technology in today's age of Facebook, Instagram, and Tw...

Like a group of Jehovah's Witnesses on steroids, The Book of Mormon is currently playing at the Music Hall in Kansas City. The Broadway Across America satire musical with book, lyrics, and music by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone runs through March 8. The creators of South Park, Stone, and...

The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) continues at the Olathe Civic Theatre Association through March 1 at the theater located in Olathe, Kansas. Written by Joanne Bogart and Eric Rockwell the musical is a parody of five musical theater composers, all dealing with the same plot, 'I can't pay the r...

The first offering for 2015 of Musical Monday and Tuesday opened Monday night February 16 at the Musical Theater Heritage in Crown Center. Musical Monday has always been an audience favorite and for 2015, Musical Theater Heritage added Tuesdays to the performance schedule. Hosted by Tim Scott the pr...

From Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill made its journey to the Kansas City theater scene with the opening Saturday night February 14 at the White Theatre located at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park. The White Theatre celebrates two first on their stage with Paul Hough directing the deb...

A Night on the Town quickly turned into a fabulous night on the town as Kansas City crooner Molly Hammer took the stage. Tim Scott directed the new series from Musical Theatre Heritage, which is sold-out through the end of the production. A Night on the Town named to honor the "A Night on the Town...

The train whistle blows signaling the opening night of The Art of Murder presented by The Mystery Train, Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre. Wendy Thompson directs Philip blue owl Hooser's play, set on a train headed for Kansas City in 1975. Hooser has written The Legend of the Spooky Switchman, Mighty...

Eurydice, the story of love lost, found, and lost again currently plays at the Living Room Theatre in Kansas City, MO. Written by Sarah Ruhl and directed by Natalie Liccardello it is the retelling from Greek mythology of Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus and her travels into the Underworld following an...

Astonishing best describes The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, which opened Friday January 23 at the Coterie Theatre in Crown Center. David P. Saar directs a production that begins as just another children's story and quickly transforms into one of the most charming, enchanting, heartwarming, ...

Lasso of Truth, a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, opened on Saturday night January 31 at the Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. Johnny Wolfe directs this multimedia experience, which looks at the life of William Moulton Marston, the inventor of the lie detector and creator ...

That's Entertainment: The MGM Years the current production of the Quality Hill Playhouse continues through February 15 at the theatre in Kansas City, MO. The show highlights the songs from the movie studio MGM, but in the case of Quality Hill MGM stands for Music Glorious Music and that is exactly...

The windy city blew into the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts with gale force on Tuesday night as the Theater League presented the opening of Chicago the Musical. Barry and Fran Weissler present the Tony Award winning musical with book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander, and lyr...

Footloose opened to a packed house on Friday January 16 at the Barn Players Theater. Directed and choreographed by Guy Gardner, presented by the Barn Juniors, Footloose features middle school and high school students. Based on the screenplay by Dean Pitchford the stage adaption is by Dean Pitchfor...

The Tale of the Allergist's Wife opened Saturday January 10 at the White Theatre located in the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park. Barb Nichols directs the play by Charles Busch, which opened on Broadway in November of 2000 running for 777 performances. The Tale of the Allergist's Wife won ...