Robert Trussell, Author at KC STUDIO

Robert Trussell

Robert Trussell is a veteran journalist who has covered news, arts and theater in Kansas City for almost four decades.

“Hamilton” at Last: A Musical Like No Other

I asked myself two questions as I collected my thoughts on “Hamilton,” the commercial mega-hit that finally made its way to Kansas City this week: First, how would the production strike me if by some miracle I was oblivious to the award-winning show’s river of hype? Second, how would I enjoy this historical epic set […]

June 20, 2019
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Lively ‘Shakespeare in Love’ evokes an Oscar-winning movie about the Bard

Let us begin with a confession. As I drove home from the lively opening-night performance of “Shakespeare in Love” at the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, I found myself contemplating a basic question: Why, exactly, did there need to be a stage version of the 1998 Oscar-winning movie co-written by Marc Norman and playwright Tom […]

June 15, 2019
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A Gifted Director and Four Stellar Performers Get the Most From ‘The Revolutionists’

Good actors. Good director. Interesting play with a self-indulgent sense of humor and a salient point to make. The Unicorn Theatre closes its 2018-19 season with a lively production of Lauren Gunderson’s “The Revolutionists,” a two-act piece that could be described, more or less, as a feminist meta-comedy set in 18th-century France — a time […]

June 10, 2019
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Aging in Place: KCAT’s “Morning’s at Seven” Showcases Fine Comic Performances

Kansas City Actors Theatre brings together an ensemble of gifted stage veterans for its thoughtful production of Paul Osborn’s gentle 1939 comedy “Morning’s at Seven.” And the results are what you might expect: detailed character work, great timing and a level of commitment that actually elevates the material. A show like this makes perfect sense […]

May 27, 2019
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Arts News: Spinning Tree Finds a Home

Spinning Tree Theatre, a not-for-profit company known for quality work and staging shows new to Kansas City audiences, has found a new home: the Johnson County Arts and Heritage Center.The center, which houses a small theater as well as the Johnson County Museum, is where the theater company founded by Andrew Grayman-Parkhurst and Michael Grayman-Parkhurst will stage its ninth season.

May 8, 2019
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An Actress, an Artist and a Mystical Quest: ‘Frida’ at KC Rep

Vanessa Severo has assigned herself a next-to-impossible task in the one-woman show, “Frida . . . A Self Portrait” — to tell a compressed version of the life of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo while weaving the actress/playwright’s own story into a kaleidoscopic narrative. Clocking in at about 75 minutes, the show whips along at such […]

May 6, 2019
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