The North American Tour Boleyn Company of SIX. (photo by Joan Marcus)
The start of a new year brings new, exciting theater to Kansas City stages. Check out these January/February shows. They’ll take the chill off a long winter night.
COME BLOW YOUR HORN
Now through Feb. 5 | New Theatre Restaurant
TV veterans Hal Linden and Sally Struthers star in Neil Simon’s classic comedy. Based on Simon’s own family, the story of a young man finding his footing away from home and his older brother abandoning a playboy lifestyle in favor of domestic bliss wowed critics and audiences alike. Tickets at www.newtheatre.com.
HADESTOWN
Jan. 17-23 | Music Hall downtown
Winner of eight Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the 2020 Grammy® Award for Best Musical Theater Album, this acclaimed new musical from celebrated singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell intertwines two mythic tales — the young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and King Hades and his wife Persephone — on a journey to the underworld and back. Tickets at www.BroadwayinKC.com.
SMART PEOPLE
Jan. 18-29 | City Stage at Union Station
Winner of the Lorraine Hansberry Award for Best Writing. Smart People deals with race and the stumbles and wrong turns that come with it, reflecting a very sympathetic human foible: the desire to resolve our racial conflicts without messing things up every time we open our mouths. Tickets at www.kcactors.org.
FLY ME TO THE MOON
Jan. 20 – Feb. 12 | Quality Hill Playhouse
An intimate cabaret revue celebrating Tony Bennett, Doris Day and Frank Sinatra. Vocalists Lauren Bradshaw, Joe Carr and Robert Erik Sobbe join J. Kent Barnhart, pianist and emcee, for hits like “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” “Sentimental Journey,” “New York, New York” and two dozen more! Tickets at www.qualityhillplayhouse.com.
REFUGE
Jan. 25 – Feb. 12 | Unicorn Theatre
A teenage migrant crosses the cruel and mystical desert on a quest to find a new life in America in this bilingual production. A National New Play Network world premiere. Tickets at www.unicorntheatre.org.
FLOOD
Jan. 31 – Feb. 19 | Copaken Theatre downtown
KC Rep presents this new play, originally scheduled in 2020 but postponed due to COVID-19. In an apartment on the 19th floor, Esther just wants to sit and have some tea with her husband when he’s finished building his masterpiece. Meanwhile, outside, the waters are rising in this absurdist tragicomedy. Tickets at www.kcrep.org.
ONLY ONE DAY A YEAR
Jan. 3 – March 5 | Coterie Theatre at Crown Center
The Coterie presents the world premiere of this award-winning play inspired by a page from Kansas City history — the last segregated days of KC’s Fairyland amusement park. Tickets at www.thecoterie.org.
DIXIE LONGATE: CHERRY BOMBS and BOTTLE ROCKETS
Feb. 3 and 4 | Starlight Theatre
America’s favorite Tupperware saleswoman is back in her first-ever stand-up comedy show. From Loretta Lynn to alien abductions, pogo-sticking to “safe words,” Dixie’s rapid-fire delivery has made her an international sensation. Tickets at www.kcstarlight.com.
MY FAIR LADY
Feb. 7-12 | Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
Director Bartlett Sher’s glowing production of the celebrated Lerner and Loewe musical. Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower seller meets Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a “proper lady.” But who is really being transformed? Tickets at www.broadwayinkc.com.
THE TOUGHEST KID IN THE WORLD
Feb. 7-11 | City Stage at Union Station
Theatre For Young America presents the adventures of TK, a modern youngster dealing with issues of anger, conflict and violence. TK redefines “tough” for himself and learns personal skills that empower him to reject violence. Recommended for fourth- through eighth-graders. Tickets at www.tya.org.
FAIRVIEW
Feb. 9-18 | Just Off Broadway Theatre
KC Melting Pot Theatre presents the 2019 Pulitzer Prize winner in drama. In the midst of a chaotic evening preparing for the family matriarch’s birthday dinner, hostess Beverly is juggling lots of different personalities as she tries to make the evening picture-perfect. Tickets at www.kcmeltingpottheatre.org.
THE SECOND CITY HITS HOME
Feb. 14-19 | Starlight Theatre
Chicago’s legendary sketch and improv comedy theater company brings its latest to Starlight Indoors, poking fun at everything from Kansas City history to current events and hot-button issues. Tickets at www.kcstarlight.com.
SIX
Feb. 28 – March 5 | Music Hall downtown
From Tudor queens to pop icons, the six wives of Henry VIII take the microphone to remix 500 years of historical heartbreak into a euphoric celebration of 21st-century girl power! The global sensation that everyone is losing their heads over! Tickets at www.broadwayinkc.com.
