The snow has arrived and KC Studio editor Alice Thorson has a fresh batch of calendar picks to keep you warm this weekend. Tonight, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, see An Octoroon at the Unicorn Theatre (read Robert Trussel’s review here). Tomorrow night, Grammy-nominated singer Jim Brickman performs with the Kansas City Symphony. Saturday, the Kansas City Chorale performs Christmas carols with talented young singers from around the KC metro area (last year’s performance pictured above), and Ensemble Ibérica performs the ethereal Kilmore Carols at St. Paul’s Episcopal. Saturday and Sunday, Owen/Cox Dance Group performs with The People’s Liberation Big Band for a raucous take on The Nutcracker. For more ideas this weekend, visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
An Octoroon
December 8 @ 7:30 pm
December 9 @ 8:00 pm
December 10 @ 8:00 pm
December 11 @ 3:00 pm
Unicorn Theatre
“An Octoroon” transforms a 19th century plantation melodrama with a beautiful maiden, Indians, and slaves into a theatrical event that is equally hilarious and moving, subversive and provocative. Part period satire, part meta-theatrical middle finger, it’s a shocking challenge to the racial pigeonholing of 1859—and of today.
Special Holiday Event: Jim Brickman with the Kansas City Symphony
December 9 @ 8:00 pm
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
Jim Brickman brings us the sounds of the season in a one-of-a-kind concert event filled with lush instrumentals and soaring vocals. Hear new music, holiday favorites and hits like “Valentine,” “If You Believe,” and “Sending You a Little Christmas,” that made him the most charted Billboard® Adult Contemporary artist, earning him two Grammy® nods and four gold albums. With featured musical guests and your Kansas City Symphony, feelings of comfort and joy will remind you of what we cherish during the most wonderful time of year. Tickets start at $40.
A CHORALE FAMILY CHRISTMAS
December 10 @ 1:00 pm
St. Michael Archangel
One of the most heart-warming concerts of the year, A Chorale Family Christmas joins talented young singers from around the Kansas City metro together with Charles Bruffy and the Chorale for a special festival-style program of seasonal favorites. Each choir has an opportunity to share two or three pieces from their holiday repertoire before joining the Chorale in a massed chorus of Christmas carols, culminating in a giant sing-along – and the audience is encouraged to join, too!
Kilmore Carols
December 10 @ 8:00 pm | $25
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Originally composed by an Irish friar living in Spain, the ethereal Kilmore Carols have been performed for over 250 years in the same small chapel within the Kilmore parish of Wexford County, Ireland. This concert features Ensemble Ibérica’s breathtaking soprano, Victoria Botero.
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
December 10 @ 8:00 pm
December 11 @ 2:00 pm
December 11 @ 8:00 pm
Polsky Theatre, JCCC
Back by popular demand! The Owen/Cox Dance Group returns to the original and notably darker E.T.A Hoffman story, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” (1816). This production will feature original music and radical rearrangements of Tchaikovsky melodies created by a host of innovative Kansas City jazz musicians, as well as the award-winning choreography of Jennifer Owen.
