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 […]
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 […]
Actor/playwright Logan Black’s “Bond” is, among other things, a tale of service, bravery, fear and endurance in a time of war. But beyond that, this extended monologue is a love story. And like any good love story should, it packs a punch. Black and a smart yellow lab named Diego served together in Iraq as […]
Virtually every emotional trauma and competitive humiliation we associate with high school is on full display in Jocelyn Bioh’s “School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play,” now running at Copaken Stage, Kansas City Rep’s downtown venue. Precisely directed by Chip Miller, the production showcases superior work by a gifted cast. Bioh’s tight, 75-minute one-act […]
Even in early twentieth century Russia, raw capitalism was destroying natural beauty and remaking the landscape. But it was doing more than that. It was transforming a class system, forcing the landed gentry to scrounge for money to keep up mortgage payments while merchants descended from serfs had the cash to buy ancestral estates out […]
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 Hammerstein II. Director Jeff Church assembles a talented company to bring the story to life and George Harter, MTH founder, serves as emcee and history […]
