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Serious notes go down easy in New Theatre’s ‘Golden Pond’

Feb 3, 8:38 PM

“On Golden Pond” is one of the New Theatre’s most requested titles and it’s easy to see why: It’s serious enough to deal with real issues but never serious enough to depress anybody. The drama is kept light and digestible in this production starring Mike Farrell and Dodie Brown, which is littered with potent laugh lines.

Holocaust drama ‘Number the Stars’ is earnest, but a little dull

Jan 28, 12:28 AM

“Number the Stars,” based on Lois Lowry’s novel, tells the inspiring story of the Danish resistance and its efforts to smuggle Jews to Sweden during the German occupation. It’s supposed to be a high-stakes nail-biter, but the Coterie Theatre’s production, which runs through Feb. 21, seems curiously bloodless.

Art and theater production pays homage to the private William Inge

Jan 30, 8:38 PM

“An Otherwise Hopeless Evening of Very Gay and Extremely Grim Short Plays by William Inge,” a unique production that includes visual art and the performances of four obscure one-act plays by Inge, will mark the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer-winning playwright's birth.

‘BlackTop Sky’ is experimental, poetic and remote

Jan 27, 7:04 PM

At times in “Blacktop Sky,” which had its world premiere at the Unicorn Theatre, Christina Anderson’s writing is vivid and compelling. Sometimes the fragmentary narrative makes sense, sometimes it doesn’t. But Anderson deserves props for her willingness to write a play in the style of a free-verse poet.

KC Repertory Theatre tackles ‘Death of a Salesman’

Jan 26, 10:13 PM

Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” is rightly considered a classic, but it has been criticized roundly through the years. The Kansas City Repertory Theatre produced the show once in the ’90s and now is tackling it again. Artistic director Eric Rosen is staging it for the first time. He considers it a great American play that has been on his bucket list a long time.

Mayor Sly James solicits ideas about Kansas City's cultural future

Jan 28, 12:55 PM

We've been hearing it and feeling it for years: Kansas City is emerging as a vibrant place for the arts and culture. Now, the newly formed Mayor's Task Force for the Arts is launching a series of community meetings this week aimed at finding ways to bolster the city's growing image as a center for arts and culture.

Arts groups use personal sponsorships to build bridges

Jan 28, 4:34 PM

Performing arts organizations in Kansas City are largely funded by our local equivalent of the Medici banking dynasty of Renaissance Italy — foundations, corporations and wealthy private donors — but there’s another option available to people with means and an urge to help the arts: personal sponsorships.

KC Rep’s seamless ‘Death of a Salesman’ is timely, exceptional

Feb 1, 3:57 PM

If you’re inclined to see Arthur Miller’s iconic play “Death of a Salesman” again, you’re unlikely to be disappointed by Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s seamless production. Superior performances across the board bring this play to life, despite Miller’s sometimes ham-handed dramaturgy and his pretentious effort to transform Willy’s tawdry betrayals and ordinary failings into high tragedy.

‘War Horse’ leads Theater League’s new season

Jan 26, 9:42 PM

“War Horse,” the poignant World War I drama that ran for years in London and in New York, will be the chief item of interest on the 2013-14 season just announced by Theater League and Broadway Across America.

Dancing cuts through the clutter of ‘Billy Elliot’

Jan 23, 1:40 AM

“Billy Elliot the Musical,” which opened Tuesday at the Music Hall, did what it had to do to earn a standing ovation: It softened us up with easy laughs, tugged at our heartstrings with sentimentality, pumped us full of high-octane arrangements of generally forgettable Elton John melodies and dazzled us with some exceptional choreography.

KCK native comes home to premiere her new play

Jan 23, 8:54 PM

World premieres aren’t so unusual at the Unicorn Theatre, but “BlackTop Sky,” runs through Feb. 10 on the Jerome Stage, is in a special category. The extended one-act is by Christina Anderson, a native of Kansas City, Kan., who began to write plays in her teens and never stopped.

‘Hound’ actors revel in over-the-top comedy

Jan 19, 10:46 PM

Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic mystery-horror tale, “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” has been recast by writers Steven Canny and John Nicholson as a strictly-for-laughs romp that owes more to vaudeville than the traditions of detective fiction. The play was written to be performed by three actors playing multiple roles.

Casting director constantly in search of the next ‘Billy Elliot’

Jan 19, 9:59 PM

A small army is employed to make “Billy Elliot the Musical” happen. That’s true of most big touring musicals, but in the case of “Billy Elliot,” which opens Tuesday and runs through Jan. 27 at the Music Hall, the army is a little bigger than it might be for other shows.

Vivid, musical Shen Yun production is largely silent about its founders

Jan 23, 8:17 PM

It seemed like a simple assignment: Explain to readers what — or who — is Shen Yun. The short answer is, well, short. Shen Yun Performing Arts is the umbrella name for three companies of musicians, dancers, singers and acrobats reflecting “5,000 years of Chinese culture.” One company is based in New York, another in Europe and a third tours the U.S.

‘Hound’ unleashes mayhem at the Heartland theater

Jan 16, 6:59 PM

The American Heartland Theatre returns to the less-is-more school of theater with “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” a farcical retelling of Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1902 Sherlock Holmes novel in which three actors play all 16 characters, male and female, young and old.

MET’s ‘Housebreaking’ is dark, comical and disturbing

Jan 23, 8:17 PM

“Housebreaking,” Jakob Holder’s meditation on family relationships and identity, certainly takes the audience on a journey and viewers can never really predict the twists and turns in this piece. The play is fascinating, often funny and ultimately unsettling.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre changes its schedule to polish a play

Jan 12, 9:38 PM

Kansas City Repertory Theatre has altered its spring performance schedule, recasting what had been billed as a world premiere to a “work in progress.” The piece — “Waiting for You on the Corner of (13th and Walnut)” — now will be performed Feb. 8-17 and has been folded into a program called First Page, designed to develop plays.

‘Housebreaking’ finds a home at Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre

Jan 9, 8:41 PM

Jakob Holder’s “Housebreaking,” which begins previews tonight at the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre, is a family drama. Sort of. It’s a contemporary comedy. Sort of. It’s definitely a reflection on what it takes to survive on the streets. Or in a family. Or both. But it’s also a play that may be greater than the sum of its parts.