ILLEANA KIRVEN News

What did our critic think of CHICAGO at Hershey Theatre?

State Theatre New Jersey presents Chicago the Musical for four performances on Saturday, November 18 at 2pm and 8pm and Sunday, November 19 at 1pm and 6:30pm. Tickets range from $40-$105.  

Actors Theatre of Indiana has announced casting for the first show in their 2022-2023 season – NUNSENSE: A musical. 

freeFall Theatre's all-new holiday offering is a world-premiere musical comedy written by Michael Raabe and Matthew McGee. There's no place like home for the holidays. It's snowing in sunny Florida when a group of friends and a surly house cat named Stephen Sondheim gather around the piano for a night of fun, music and games.

freeFall Theatre Company announces their 2021/2022 season. The 6 mainstage shows are Dames at Sea, The Night Before, Fatboy, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, A Skeptic and a Bruja and a summer production to be announced very soon.

Spinning Tree Theatre has announced their 2020-21 season.

Spinning Tree Theatre announces the 10th anniversary season of plays and musicals, featuring 3 Kansas City premieres and the local-cast premiere of a hit Off-Broadway musical. Onstage headliners include Vanessa Severo, Nedra Dixon and Illeana Kirven. Directors Heidi Van and Jeff Church make their Spinning Tree debuts in the new season, which includes recent works by Quiara Alegría Hudes (In the Heights; Pulitzer Prize for Water by the Spoonful) and Terrence McNally (Tony Awards for Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class).

The Hippodrome Theatre is proud to bring MARIE AND ROSETTA to the stage! After a successful run at freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg, this incredible production moves up to Gainesville, FL to run February 28 through March 22.

The time is 1946, the place a showroom in a modest funeral home. Let me reitterate; the time is 1946, a time where Racism is alive and well. 2 actresses take the stage and for the next 95 uninterrupted minutes we are strapped in for a ride unlike any other through faith, Gospel, love, family, and coming to grips with who you are, 1946 feels a lot like today in a show so resonating and moving if you blinked you'd miss everything. A modest funeral home amongst the casket sits an upright piano, a guitar case, an amplifier, a podium adorned with sheet music and numerous suitcases with clothes strewn about. This sets the scene for the pivotal and moving story laid before us. Eric Davis Artistic Director of freeFall in his opening curtain speech informed the audience that an immediate replacement was needed for the role of Rosetta Tharpe and within 4 rehearsals the replacement took the stage in front of a sold-out crowd on opening night. Now in times like these you sit and wonder about the forthcoming endeavor, but all worry subsided when the ladies playing Rosetta Tharpe and Marie Knight graced us with their presence and incapsulating beautiful vocals that rendered the room speechless with every note.

There's just one final week to submit votes for the 2019 BroadwayWorld St. Louis Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! Vote today to make sure your favorite local theatre's achievements and performers are recognized!

We're heading into the final week of voting for the 2019 BroadwayWorld St. Louis Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! Vote today to make sure your favorite local theatre's achievements and performers are recognized!

There's just two weeks left to vote for the 2019 BroadwayWorld St. Louis Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! The people have spoken nominations are set, and now you can vote to make sure your favorite local theatre's achievements and performers are recognized!

There's just a few weeks left to make your voice heard and submit your votes for the 2019 BroadwayWorld St. Louis Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! The people have spoken nominations are set, and now you can vote to make sure your favorite local theatre's achievements and performers are recognized!

If your washer and dryer sing to you it may be a bad reaction to medication or you may be at the wonderfully humorous and thought-provoking musical production of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, which opened Saturday night November 9 at the Johnson County Arts and Heritage Center in Overland Park. The Spinning Tree Theatres Kansas City premiere, with book and lyrics by Tony Kushner and music by Jeanine Tesori, runs through November 24. Spinning Tree Artistic Director Michael Grayman-Parkhurst directs this musical incorporating blues, Motown, Jewish melodies, and folk music.

Spinning Tree Theatre continues the 2019-20 season November 8-24 with Caroline, or Change. This Kansas City premiere, with book and lyrics by Tony Kushner (Angels in America) and music by Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home), premiered at New York City's Off-Broadway Public Theater in 2003, with a Broadway run in 2004. The subsequent London production won The Olivier Award for Best New Musical; a successful West End revival will transfer to Broadway in 2020.

Ozark Actors Theatre is thrilled to announce the full cast and creative team for this summer's production of Mary Poppins. The production will be directed by Lee Anne Mathews, and will star Pauline Parkhurst as the practically perfect, titular nanny. Quinn Cason will take on the role of Bert, and St. Louis legend John Contini will play the role of Admiral Boom.

Avenue Q, winner of the 2004 Tony awards for Best Book, Best Musical, and Best Score, makes its Playhouse at Westport Plaza debut, and, although I've seen other fine productions of this musical, Westport is the perfect venue-intimate and cozy-for this beloved brazen show.

The 2017 awards honor productions which opened between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Nominations were completely reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended October 31, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors.

The 2017 awards honor productions which opened between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Nominations were completely reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended October 31, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors.

The 2017 awards honor productions which opened between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Nominations were completely reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended October 31, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors.