Orchestre Surreal
Music, theatre, visual erts, dance, film and incredible writing flourish in Kansas City. The Warwick is thought of as a live theatre venue, and it is — home to MET, and guest theatres like Padgett Productions, The KC Black Rep and the Moliere Festival, but it has also been home for great live music and poetry events too, like Holmes Street and Orchestre Surreal. In our last full season, the Warwick was booked with live entertainment over 150 nights of the year. Not bad for a venue that opened just a few years ago.
The Feb. 7 fire shut down everything — MET and our sister theatres performances too, plus all the live music and poetry events we had grown to love hosting. On Feb. 7, 2024, not only was MET’s Season suddenly without a venue, but also this summer’s third-party productions. Of course, we miss the earned revenue but we also miss seeing our friends thrive at the Warwick. All the more reason to bring it back as fast as we can. Kansas City is a theatre town, and we love it for that.
When we brought William Saunders on staff in 2022, it was specifically to expand the music programming for The Warwick and bring some of his music knowledge to bear in establishing the venue as a viable concert venue. It started with bringing in his longtime friends and great party band, Holmes Street. This all-woman cover band, with their infectious fun spirit, had a packed house, having their usual fantastic evening dancing and singing along to a powerhouse set list. That was all it took to convince us that the Warwick really could be a Venue for Everyone and that we needed to expand and have a whole month of music programming. William secured the talent for the first year. It was an overwhelming success. We followed that up with a month-long music festival in 2023, building on that success.
The wonderful musicians and their audiences learned what we already knew — the Warwick is just special. We can’t wait to finish our recovery efforts and not only get back to great theatre but also great poetry and great music.
In a few hours from writing this, we review the plans for the rebuild, the first BIG step to getting open again. From there, engineers and permits, then the Rebuild begins in earnest! So… let’s get this party started and get the music playing!
–William Saunders and Karen Paisley, photography by William Saunders and Bob Paisley
