It was a Friday the 13th like no other. Friday is normally a big day for the performing arts. But this was not a normal Friday. For theater companies and other arts organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly got real. Kansas City Repertory canceled two world-premier productions, one of which was to have opened that night. […]
The stage was awash with lively music, amity, optimism and national pride Tuesday for the opening-night performance of “Come From Away” at the Music Hall. The Tony Award-winning show, set in Newfoundland in far northeastern Canada, celebrates human resiliency on one of the darkest days of the 21st century. This Canadian musical brims with upbeat […]
Kansas City Repertory Theatre offers a handsomely mounted production of “Fun Home,” the musical adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir about growing up in uniquely dysfunctional family in Pennsylvania. The show, adapted by Lisa Kron (book and lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori (music) racked up an array of awards in 2014-15, including five Tonys. While the […]
The Coterie’s production of “The White Rose: We Defied Hitler” by David Meyers hums with relevance. The one-act drama depicting the interrogation of Sophie Scholl, a young resister in Nazi Germany who was tried for treason and executed for distributing anti-Hitler leaflets, will almost certainly bring to mind young people in the here and now. […]
And so once again audiences are invited to bear witness to the spiritual transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge from penny-pinching cynic to warm-hearted benefactor to the poor. And again theatergoers fill virtually every available seat to see Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s annual take on “A Christmas Carol,” the 1843 novella by Charles Dickens, who used his […]
I wasn’t sure what to expect from “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” Lucas Hnath’s inventive sequel to the Henrik Ibsen classic. What surprised me is how funny it is. Director Darren Sextro, who staged his own adaptation of the Ibsen original in August for Kansas City Actors Theatre, now returns to direct Hnath’s compressed follow-up […]
