Here are the weekend calendar picks from KC Studio editor Alice Thorson for Mother’s Day weekend! This is your last weekend to see I’m gonna Pray For You So hard at Unicorn Theatre. Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre also premieres their production of 9 to 5 the Musical, running through May 21st. Tonight, see the Branford Marsalis Quarter at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. On Saturday, NAVO presents an evening of chamber music at Atonement Luthern Church. And on Sunday, the Kansas City Chorale performs the music of Michael McGlynn at Visitation Catholic Church. For more ideas, visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard
through May 14
Unicorn Theatre
Ella is an up-and-coming actress who wants nothing more than to make her famous playwright father proud. Over the course of a boozy, drug-fueled evening, things begin to unravel when they read the reviews of her Off-Broadway debut. This probing and darkly funny play sheds new light on the fight to overcome a parent’s legacy, starring Kansas City favorites Theodore Swetz (“Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo”) and Dina Thomas (“Bad Jews”).
9 to 5 The Musical
May 11 – May 21
Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre
“Parton’s songs are, like most of the prolific tunesmith’s efforts, eminently catchy and listenable.”
– The Hollywood Reporter
Branford Marsalis Quartet
May 11 @ 7:30 pm
Kauffman Foundation Conference Center
The Branford Marsalis Quartet will be joined by guest vocalist Kurt Elling in a singular collaboration of musical forces. The tight-knit working band features Marsalis on saxophones, Joey Calderazzo on piano, Eric Revis on bass and Justin Faulkner on drums. Adding Elling’s deep jazz vocabulary, technical versatility and outstanding intonation, Elling will enable the band to perform a variety of material in new ways. Looking beyond the Great American Songbook, the band members are energized to perform a collaboration between one of the most intense jazz bands and one of the most foremost singers delivering a performance that’s anything but standard.
NAVO presents: Intimate Moments with Schubert, an evening of chamber music
May 13 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm | Free
Atonement Lutheran Church
NAVO will perform a program dedicated to the works of Austrian composer Franz Schubert. The performance will be at the Atonement Lutheran Church (9948 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS) on Saturday May 13, 2017 at 7:30pm and will present soprano Sarah Anderson-Tannehill on songs for voice, clarinet, horn, and piano. The program will also include the celebrated A Major piano quintet (Trout quintet), and the Arpeggione sonata. In addition, musicologist Paul Laird will introduce the repertoire in a pre-concert talk. Admission is free, and seats can be reserved online at www.navoarts.com.
An exceptional group of international artists will share the stage for these concerts: sopranos Sarah Anderson-Tannehill (USA); cellist Daniel Veis (Czech Republic); clarinetist Elena Lence Talley (USA); hornist Paul Stevens (USA); bassist Erik Higgins (USA); pianist Jasmin Arakawa (Japan); violinist Véronique Mathieu (Canada); violist Shah Sadikov (Uzbekistan). In addition, NAVO is proud to introduce a promising young artist, cellist Dana Rath.
Founded by conductor/violist Shah Sadikov and violinist Véronique Mathieu, NAVO is a non-for-profit arts organization comprised of internationally recognized artists. NAVO’s mission is to establish and foster world-class level of performances in the Midwest region by bringing together artists from the area with those who have performed around the globe.
THE MUSIC OF MICHAEL MCGLYNN
May 14 @ 2:00 pm
Visitation Catholic Church
An entire concert featuring the magical arrangements of contemporary Irish composer Michael McGlynn. Get a preview of the Chorale’s next award-winning recording!
