KC’s Broadway presents “Hadestown” at the Concert Hall from January 17-22. (Right) Chibuyese Iuoma (Orpheus) and company on the “Hadestown” tour of North America (KC Broadway/Kevin Bern)
Most theater companies in Kansas City put on seasons from early fall to late spring, although some productions run year-round, and the Kansas City Shakespeare Festival usually includes a midsummer show. This means that most theater companies are getting ready for the autumn opening.
The Kansas City Repertory Theatre, the region’s premier non-profit theater company, is offering a varied and challenging 2022-2023 season, starting with William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, which will run September 6-25 at the Spencer Theatre. Deputy Artistic Director Nelson T. Eusebio III will direct. Written in 1601–1602, the play is Shakespeare’s enduring comedy that involves gender mixing and dressing up. It can be a lot of fun if done well.
A continuation of “Christmas Song” released by Rep every year from November 18th to December. On the 24th at Spencer, the season continues with Mashuk Mushtag Dean’s The Flood, which the spokesperson describes as Dean’s first full-length production of a drama. The show will take place on the Copaken Stage in the city center. (The show was originally scheduled to take place in Kansas City in 2021, but was canceled due to COVID-19.) Set in a 19th-floor apartment, the show is slowly but surely in danger of flooding. The show runs from January 31 to February. January 19, 2023
From March 14 to April 2, 2023, acclaimed playwright Christina Anderson, a native of Kansas City, Kansas, returns to the House of Representatives with the song “Ripple Bring Me Home.” The play will be directed by Kanisha Foster of Copaken Stage. A spokesperson described the article as “a touching exploration of the family’s response to injustice and the daughter’s retribution for her legacy.” Personal note: Rep. Anderson’s 2017 production of Men in Love, a unique and compelling portrayal of a fictional Midwestern urban serial killer, is an amazing drama.
At the end of the season, the representative presents a new take on classic children’s literature: Peter Pan and Wendy by Lauren Gunderson, May 2-21, 2023. The show will be directed by Stuart Carden, artistic director of Rep. Gunderson’s website describes the production as “reimagined as a vibrant, exciting, feminist, anti-colonial, all-ages inspirational play for a new generation of theatergoers.”
Representative’s annual outdoor production of “Ghost Lights: A Ghost Night of Songs and Stories at KC’s Cultural Crossroads” will be held at Roanoke Park October 21-22. Free admission. For more information, visit www.kcrep.org.
Like Rep., Unicorn Theater is preparing a lineup focused on diversity and social value. The season will kick off with a performance by Lydia R. Diamond’s “Tony Stone” from September 7-25. Stone was the first female professional in baseball when she signed with the Indianapolis Black League Clowns. She later played for the Kansas City Monarchs. The show is not a musical, but includes dance elements. The play runs off-Broadway and in several regional theaters.
The Sound Within by Adam Rapp continues the unicorn season, which runs from October 19 to November. 6. This production, also in New York, is a two-character drama about the relationship between a middle-aged writing teacher and her talented 18-year-old student. “(T) It’s a novel within a novel, an integral part of the Hall of Mirrors,” wrote one reviewer. “The result is not so much a play as a novel… that has been adapted for the stage.”
Unicorn season continues with a quirky comedy from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Knotage. Clyde’s Restaurant is set in a small restaurant on a Pennsylvania highway where the owner and her cooking team have been in prison. As you might expect, their dream of a better life is related to food, which becomes a telling metaphor. The show runs from November 30 to December. eighteen.
“Refuge” by Satya Jnani Chavez and Andrew Rosendorf (January 25 – February 12) is also part of the unicorn season. The show, developed by the Denver Curiosity Theater Company, combines music and puppetry and depicts a young woman’s journey from Honduras to Texas.
What follows is Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Mary Seacole, which runs from March 15 to April 2 and is based on the life of a Jamaican-Scottish nurse and businesswoman whose 1857 autobiography Lady Seacole’s Whimsical Adventures chronicles her travels around the world. many lands. ”
The season ends with the Lightweights from May 10 to May 28. British playwright Duncan MacMillan’s critically acclaimed series depicts a couple’s insecurities as they bring their children into a world facing climate change. For more information visit www.unicorn.org.
The KC Melting Pot Theater will present a season spanning autumn and spring from September 15 to 22, featuring Mother/Son, the third installment in the Lewis Morrow trilogy directed by the company’s artistic director Nicole Hodges Pursley, and August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. , December 1-10, directed by Melonnie Walker, Jackie Sibblies Drury, February 9-23, 2023 Fairview, directed by Lynn King and Zora Howard, May 11-20, 2023, Stew, directed by Il, directed by Isle Huggins. Learn more at kcmeltingpot.com.
The Metropolitan Ensemble Theater is gearing up for an ambitious season that will include a contemporary costumed exploration of the relationship between Henry VIII and his ex-wife Katherine Parr by Canadian playwright Kate Hening. Purple, a Broadway hit based on the novel by Alice Walker and the film version by Steven Spielberg; Eugene O’Neill’s epic pub tragedy Here Comes the Iceman; Once Upon a Time, a popular indie film stage version tells the story of an eventual romance between an Irish busker and a young pianist, and That Day in Tucson, a play by Guillermo Reyes, a fact-based play by young Daniel Hernandez Jr., in which a congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head. attacker, she rushed to help. Reyes is now a member of the Arizona Legislature. Visit www.metkc.org.
Actors Theater in Kansas City continues the season that began in May with Colman Domingo’s “The Point” from September 7 to 18. The show, which premiered at the Actors Theater in Louisville, portrays the matriarch’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis with humor and empathy. The season ends with “Smart People” by Lydia R. Diamond. The series sees four educated friends come together to discuss issues of race and prejudice ahead of Barack Obama’s 2008 election. The show will run from 18 to 29 January 2023. Visit kcactors.org for more information.
The Kansas City Black Repertory Theater opened in October with “After Midnight,” dubbed the Cotton Club musical. Angry, Loud and Shamelessly Gorgeous, about a famous black actress who returns home in November after years of touring Europe; Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play A Raisin in the Sun, produced in association with the White Theater of the Jewish Community Center, March 2023 and the playwright’s new series in May 2023. Find out more at BRTKC.org.
The musical theater heritage of the Crown Center continues with its major productions as well as smaller performances at other venues. The classic Man of La Mancha will continue this season in collaboration with Ensemble Ibérica on the main stage on the third floor of the Crown Center from October 6 to 23. From December 8 to 23, the company returned to the main stage of the annual “Exciting Christmas”. The company also has a special show for its intimate Ruby Room. Visit www.musictheatheritage.com for more information.
KC’s Broadway will present a series of touring musicals and concerts, starting with Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” at the Kaufman Theater November 15-16; “Pretty Woman, Musical” December 6-11 at the Concert Hall; Nine to Five at the Kaufman Hotel January 3-8; Hadestown at the Concert Hall January 17-22; Ladies, February 7-12, 2023, Kaufman Hotel; Six, February 28-5 March 2023, Concert Hall; Hamilton, March 21-3, 2023; April 2, Concert Hall; Les Misérables, May 2-7, 2023, Concert Hall; and Disney’s Aladdin, 30 May – June 4, 2023 Concert Hall For more information, visit kansascity.broadway.com/shows.
The 2022-2023 Coterie season kicks off with Cheryl L. West’s Akeelah and the Bee, written by Doug Atchison and running from September 20 to October. 16. Akeelah, a kid growing up on the South Side of Chicago, had a hidden talent: she was an outstanding speller, which she only showed when she was encouraged to enroll in the National Spelling Bee. This season continues with a new edition of “Tell-Tale Electric Poe” featuring the music of Rex Hobart and R. H. Wilhoit reading Edgar Allan Poe. The exhibition runs from 20 to 30 October. Next up will be A Charlie Brown Christmas with piano arrangements for Vince Geraldi’s original TV show running from November 15th to December 15th. 31.
The theater presents the play “Don’t let the pigeons drive the bus! The Musical” from April 4 to May 21, 2023 based on the book by Mo Willems to the music of Deborah Wicks La Puma. The show combines actors, puppets and live music. Followed by “Dr. Dolittle” written by Leslie Bricusse, June 27-August. June 6, 2023 www.thecoterie.org
American Youth Theater Union Station had not announced a season at the time of publication. www.tya.org
Robert Trussell is an experienced reporter covering news, arts and theater in Kansas City for nearly 4 years.
KC Studio Magazine highlights the performing, visual, film, and literary arts, as well as the artists, organizations, and patrons that make Kansas City a vibrant center of arts and culture.
Post time: Aug-31-2022