It’s a tangled, twisting tale Maja Godlewska tells in the paintings of her exhibition at Rockhurst University’s Greenlease Gallery. Punctuated with bursts of tropical heat and eruptions of fire, water,
With the spontaneity of a spirit moved, the Soweto Gospel Choir honored the centenary of Nelson Mandela with songs of hope and resistance, songs born of struggle, during its finely
MTH Theater at Crown Center offers up lively entertainment packaged around a history lesson in a spirited, scaled-down production of “Show Boat,” the 1927 classic by Jerome Kern and Oscar
It’s been six years since Lyric Opera of Kansas City last staged Giacomo Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” its 10th production of the 1904 opera in the company’s 61 year history. The
Strong performances elevate the Spinning Tree production of “The Nance,” Douglas Carter Beane’s 2013 comic drama that offers a sobering look at what it meant to be a gay man
At the galleries, the fall season’s most important exhibition may very well be “Cultural Legacy: What’s Going On,” curated by artist Sonié Joi Thompson-Ruffin at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center. The title of the show derives from Marvin Gaye’s 1971 hit song “What’s Going On,” inspired by a police brutality incident witnessed by one of Gaye’s […]
If you wonder why some members of the working class became Trump supporters, then check out the Unicorn Theatre’s production of “Sweat,” a drama that won playwright Lynn Nottage her second Pulitzer Prize. Nottage depicts racial animosity, class resentment and economic disparity as friendships are destroyed and lives forever altered in this carefully constructed play. […]
No composer lightly undertakes the writing of a requiem. Alexander Kastalsky, one of the leading voices of Russian sacred music, was devastated by the results of World War I. Within the first few months of the war, thousands of Russian soldiers were dead, along with tens of thousands of Allied forces, and Kastalasky began to […]
Kansas City Ballet’s world premiere of “The Wizard of Oz” shows us just what can be accomplished with $1 million: A visually spectacular, elegantly choreographed, expertly designed, surprisingly poignant retelling of the L. Frank Baum classic book — all set to an evocative score by composer Matthew Pierce. In other words, this joint production with […]
Angela Dufresne is an unabashed painter. Undaunted by the aesthetic ebbs and flows of her medium she instead has immersed herself in its rich and varied history. In “covering” moments of visual culture, like a band covering a classic tune, the artist seeks to renew and recontextualize painting for a contemporary culture drowning in its […]
Sid Garrison normally avoids generic labels for his images. But when one recent viewer described them as “Colored-Pencil Paintings,” Garrison accepted the description. Even though the word “painting” for most of us usually denotes brushes and the application of pigments, Garrison’s use of pencils is perfectly appropriate. He uses them to apply their hues to […]
