250 stories from The Kansas City Star
Anyone for tea?
Every time I see "Aida," the Elton John-Tim Rice musical about doomed lovers in ancient Egypt, I'm struck by what an odd duck the show is.
Summer theater: Move fast, work hard, and if you're lucky you might get a chance to catch your breath before opening night.
Funny thing about KC Fringe -- even when it's over, it's not over.
Let's face it: Katie Gilchrist is a rock star. She certainly carries herself like one, and by putting the cap on Ry Kincaid's "Pilgrimage" with a soulful anthem, she closed his ambitious sho…
David Gaines is an exceptionally skilled clown who creates vivid images on stage with nothing more than his own body, a couple of masks and vocalized sound effects and faux dialogue.
There's something highly amusing about seeing somebody get hit on the head with a frying pan. That particular brand of comic violence is central to Pete Bakely's "Skillet Tag," which satiriz…
How nice it would be to see every single KC Fringe performance. Alas, that would be impossible unless your humble theater critic could be cloned three times over.
Playwright Vicki Vodrey combines element of farce, satire and classical tragedy in "Thank You Notes: Headed to Heaven With Flat Jimmy Fallon," an entry in the KC Fringe Festival that stands …
Talia and Natalie Liccardello, sister playwrights, have made the most of a comic premise that was too good to fail: A family intervention deteriorates into name-calling, guilt-tripping, Xana…
KC Fringe is all about audacity, and the Friday night audience assembled at the Off Center Theatre to see a new play called "Tack Driver" witnessed a remarkable example.
The KC Fringe Festival is a place where artists can do the thing they dread the most: fail.
To put it plainly, a musical about women obsessed with competitive bingo is an idea so bad that it's almost good.
It must be a nice feeling to go two-for-two. Starlight Theatre, after last week's splendid touring production of "The Addams Family," follows up with the outstanding national tour of "Memphi…
For nine days in June, theatergoers in Kansas City had a unique opportunity: They could see three plays in a row that came from the pen of William Shakespeare.
The production of "The Addams Family" that opened Tuesday at Starlight Theatre is first class. Skilled actors, clever choreography, witty lyrics, an amusing script and quirky design work all…
"Hairspray" is a musical with heart and a sense of humor that never wears out its welcome, and the New Theatre production captures all the show's strengths.
Twenty-one down, 12 to go.
"Once Upon a Mattress," playing through Aug. 5 at the Coterie Theatre, is a trippy, colorful and acerbically comic piece. Artistic director Jeff Church has condensed it to a one-act running …
There is much to admire in the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival's first-ever production of "Antony and Cleopatra," a story of love, seduction, conquest and folly in the turbulent years …
Lauretta Pope is back.
The kitsch-loving creators of "Pete 'n' Keely" invite the audience back to the 1960s and the artistically dreary world of Las Vegas lounge acts and television variety specials that may have …
William Shakespeare could do it all: He could write potboilers and farces, low comedy and high drama. He could write sweeping historical dramas, perceptive psychological profiles, lyrical st…
Once again it's time for theater freaks to settle into comfortable chairs in front of their TV screens and take in the parade of laughter and tears known as the Tony Awards.
The rock musical "Next to Normal," which runs through Sunday at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, offers us an utterly contemporary portrait of a middle-class family that might be…
