250 stories from The Kansas City Star
Welcome to the biggest, loudest dysfunctional family you’ve ever encountered. “August: Osage County,” the acclaimed three-act play by Tracy Letts, claimed mu…
Not long before the star-studded inaugural event at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts got under way, Mayor Sly James had this to say about the gleaming new facility: "This is …
Ray Cooney, the master British farceur, has been a favorite of of our venerable dinner theater impresarios through the years. Director Dennis Hennessy and his design team have done something…
On the weekend we celebrate the spirit of labor union, Ke$ha’s Get $leazy Tour strutted into Kansas City. If the opposite of work is play, then her show is a garish anti-labor celeb…
The recent grand opening of the Kansas City Ballet’s new home near Union Station was a festive affair as dignitaries gathered with hundreds of artists and arts administrators bene…
The Just Off Broadway Theatre, the intimate playhouse in Penn Valley Park that just received a major face-lift, will have its grand reopening Sept. 8. “Generation Why: A Rock Opere…
Kansas City Actors Theatre’s production of three one-act plays by Harold Pinter doesn’t offer the same level of excitement as its remarkable production of Pinter&#x…
Kansas City Actors Theatre's production of three one-act plays by Harold Pinter doesn't offer the same level of excitement as its remarkable production of Pinter's "The Birt…
Stanley Clarke announced to an excited Midland Theater crowd that this latest version of Return to Forever wasn’t like all those other reunion bands declaring this was their last ti…
The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts wil host a number of impressive performances. But those are complemented by many high-quality local dance productions. Here is an overview of comi…
If you're an arts lover in Kansas City, you might as well dismantle your rearview mirror and throw it away. You won’t need it, because this town is on the cusp of change that seems cert…
Heavy, heavy, heavy. The fall theater season gets off to a dramatically weighty start with shows that may deliver laughs — potent laughs, in some cases — but are concerned …
This is a historic time for the <strong>Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater</strong>. Sporting the most famous brand name in the concert dance world, the troupe is changing artist…
Harold Pinter's "The Birthday Party," first staged in 1958, has kept up with the times, judging by the absorbing and often very funny Kansas City Actors Theatre production.
Walter Coppage, one of our most respected Kansas City-based actors, has been cast in an adaptation of Carson McCullers’ “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” at the prest…
Try as they may, the creators of the stage musical “Xanadu,” which runs through Sunday at Starlight Theatre, just can’t capture the unique awfulness of the 1980 mo…
As Melinda McCrary and her Kansas City Actors Theatre colleagues know, a close examination of the subject matter — sex, betrayal, mystery, fear of the unknown — shows us Ha…
You knew it would be a weird night at Starlight Theater when the electronic keyboards and amplified guitar of the “orchestra” accompanied the traditional singing of &#x…
The three musicals Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice wrote together share a simple theme - anybody, regardless of their humble origins, can become a star. That's the idea that drives…
The Musical Theatre Heritage concert production of "Evita" — arguably the best show Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice wrote together — is a musically electric af…
Musical Theater Heritage opens its concert production of “Evita” tonight at the Off Center Theatre at Crown Center. Katie Karel stars in the title role, along with Tim Scot…
The exhausted Kansas City cliche says we're known only for jazz and barbecue, but signs are pointing to a very different identity for a city that is too seldom on the national radar.
Even as a young boy, Kansas City native Brian Stanton questioned the mystery of his existence. Adopted as an infant, he wondered who his birth parents were and where he really came from.
Here's my advice: If you trek to New York and shell out for a ticket to "Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark," grab a seat in the dress circle.
It’s a safe bet that KC’s downtown area has more live theater than you’re used to.
