Backstage And Beyond
![IN REVIEW: Lyric’s ‘West Side Story’ shines light on the show’s real star](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/DJ-Petrosino-and-Sharks.jpeg)
West Side Story remains a bit of a conundrum. More than 60 years after its first appearance, it continues to fascinate for its mixture of conventional musical theater with ballet, witty lyrics on a Gilbert-and-Sullivan level, and a healthy dose of “opera.” Francesca Zambello’s high-end production, which opened at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City on […]
Read More![FORMULATING THE DREAM: Coterie marks 40th anniversary with new play by prominent KU author](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Kevin-Willmott_Courtesy-The-Coterie-copy.jpg)
If there was one thing that 15-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr., knew for certain when he enrolled at Atlanta’s Morehouse College in 1944, it was that he did not want to become a minister like his father. As headstrong as he was precocious, the eager teenager felt that life as a church pastor could never […]
Read More![LYRIC OPERA STEPS OUT: Landmark of American musical theater pricks our collective conscience more than ever](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Tony-Maria_Photo-by-Lynn-Lane-copy.jpg)
It’s hard to imagine a more apt time to be reviving West Side Story. For not only does 2018 mark the birth-centenaries of composer Leonard Bernstein and choreographer Jerome Robbins, whose contributions to this revolutionary work helped redefine American musical theater, but the themes of this path-forging “choreographed musical” are as relevant today as they were […]
Read More![SPREADING OUR WINGS: ‘Open Spaces’ charts international course for KC arts](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Bang-on-a-Can-All-Stars_Photo-by-Peter-Serling.jpg)
If you haven’t heard of Open Spaces yet, chances are you’ll be getting an earful in the coming weeks. This sprawling, nine-week celebration of the visual and performing arts, which runs from August 25th to October 28th, will be dominating the city’s cultural scene this Fall with dozens of exhibits around Town (showing the work of […]
Read More![NEW WIGS ON OLD MUSIC: Local Baroque ensemble explores Versailles’ fresh excesses](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Trilla-and-Monty-Carter_Courtesy-KCBC-copy-2.jpg)
At least once a year, some enterprising Kansas Citian comes up with an idea for an arts organization that has us slapping our foreheads saying, Why didn’t we think of that? Our Town has certainly seen no shortage of visiting early-music groups (thanks to the efforts of several well-established arts presenters), and smaller groups have […]
Read More![HEY, LET’S PUT ON A SHOW: KCDF is fulfilling early promise, and then some](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/KCDF-2017_Photo-by-Philip-Koenig-copy-2.jpg)
When Anthony Krutzkamp and Logan Pachciarz welcomed the audience to the Kansas City Dance Festival’s inaugural performance in June 2013, some doubted that such an endeavor could thrive in KC’s previously uneventful summer months. But these two former Kansas City Ballet dancers made it crystal-clear that KCDF was here to stay. “In our first curtain […]
Read More![MYTH AS MUSICAL: Re-envisioned Persephone story embodies Fringe Festival’s adventurous spirit](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Arts-Asylum_Courtesy-the-Arts-Asylum-300x196.jpg)
When stories linger in our collective imagination for thousands of years, told and retold in ever-evolving versions, it’s generally because they’ve touched a nerve. In theater, tales from myth and historical antiquity continue to crop up largely because writers find they contain ever-current truths about the human condition. From Jean Anouilh’s Antigone to Cole Porter’s […]
Read More![PIPES ALL AROUND: International musicians to descend on KC](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Community-of-Christ-Aeolian-Skinner.jpg)
If you think you’re up-to-date about music in Kansas City but have ignored the world of the pipe organ, you aren’t really seeing the whole picture. Our city now boasts three of the most prominent pipe organs in the country (those at the Community of Christ Auditorium and Temple in Independence, and the new Casavant […]
Read More![NAME-CALLING AS ART FORM: HASF presents comedy of strong women, quirky men](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Stage-Shot_Courtesy-HASF.jpg)
It’s such common fodder for literature, stage and screen that it’s become almost cliché: two people who spend so much time exchanging verbal barbs that eventually their cohorts have to step in and help them realize they’re “made for each other.” From Pride and Prejudice to Bridget Jones’s Diary (not to mention Leia and Han, or […]
Read More![LIBERTY & MUSIC FOR ALL: Choral ensembles stand up for tolerance, justice, artistry](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Full-Chorus-Full-Res-Original-File-1076-copy.jpg)
It’s largely by coincidence that the Kansas City Women’s Chorus and the Heartland Men’s Chorus have scheduled their Summer Concerts on adjacent weekends. But it’s win-win for Kansas Citians who care about the intersection of music and social justice: Each of these programs addresses broader issues that can often only be expressed through music. On […]
Read More![IN REVIEW: Lyric sings lovely Barber, splashing color and silliness into the mix](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Figaro-on-Bike.-Ott-copy.jpg)
Is opera music, or is it theater? That the best answer to that question is “yes” is part of what makes this art form so intriguing: The struggle over whether “la musica” or “la parola” (the word) should prevail in opera has raged since its inception around 1600. As I watched the Lyric Opera’s production […]
Read More![LOVE STORY AS SOCIAL CRITIQUE: KC Actors Theatre presents starkly relevant classic](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Katie-Karel-1_Photo-by-Aaron-Rumley-copy-2.jpg)
Theater about economic disparities will always be current. From the master-servant dynamics of Shakespeare’s plays to close-to-the-bone American tales such as Death of a Salesman or even Stephen Karam’s recent The Humans, most of us can relate to plays in which the struggle to survive forms the very core of the drama. When Darren Sextro […]
Read More![IN REVIEW: KC Rep produces fine ‘Sweeney,’ but is it time to discuss the ‘Sondheim problem’?](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Sweeney-Todd.jpg)
If you like Stephen Sondheim’s musicals, chances are you’ll enjoy the Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s finely outfitted production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which runs through April 15th at Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus. Rep Artistic Director Eric Rosen, who directed the show, has a keen intuitive sense for staging […]
Read More![CHORAL COMMITMENT: Festival Singers of KC marks 20 years of great music](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/WB-Festival-Singers-at-Helzberg_Courtesy-Choral-Foundation.jpg)
In many ways it seemed inevitable that William Baker should become a choral director. Early in life two of the main strands of his existence, faith and music, began to merge through a series of unexpected events. When he was in his middle teens, a wise pastor coaxed the young Atlanta native back to the […]
Read More![BOLD STEPS: Ballet celebrates 60 years by challenging itself to new heights](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Petite-Mort_Photo-by-Kenny-Johnson-copy-2.jpg)
The Kansas City Ballet is about to embark on an artistic voyage as challenging as any it has navigated. As part of its 60th anniversary “Diamond Jubilee” season it will present six big, demanding works of contemporary ballet, all brand-new to the company and all to be performed within a two-weekend period at the Kauffman […]
Read More![BOTH ART AND CRAFT: Lyric Opera to show off new Resident Artists in ‘American Voices’ program](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/09_Lyric-RAs-plus-Vinson_Photo-Aaron-Lindberg-copy.jpg)
People seldom become opera singers willy-nilly. It’s a step-by-step process not unlike the acquisition of any other professional skill. It’s also an art-form, and thus success can be more elusive. But these days there’s a fairly fixed course of action for a career on the opera stage, and at the center of this process is […]
Read More![IN REVIEW: Lyric stages workaday ‘Rigoletto’](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Gilda-in-Rigolettos-arms-Nicole-Haslett-Leo-An-copy.jpg)
That Rigoletto is regarded as one of Verdi’s most beloved operas might seem surprising considering what an ugly story it recounts. First performed in 1851 but based on a tawdry Victor Hugo play from 1832 (which was banned from the French stage for half a century), it tells of a mean-spirited jester who serves in […]
Read More![IN REVIEW: KCB dancers, plus others, create New Moves](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/FractalsDisplay.jpg)
The Kansas City Ballet’s New Moves is gradually coming into its own. The project that Artistic Director Devon Carney launched shortly after arriving in 2013 (an outgrowth of a previous series consisting chiefly of works by Company members) mixes works by aspiring KCB choreographers with dances by prominent visiting artists whose professionalism has at times […]
Read More![CLASSY COMEBACK: Storied soprano returns, in glorious voice, with powerful message](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Kathleen-Battle-at-the-Met-2016_Photo-by-Ken-Howard_Metropolitan-Opera.jpg)
If you still think of Kathleen Battle as an opera singer, you haven’t been paying attention for the last 40 years. It’s true that the soprano, who possesses one of the most naturally beautiful voices of modern times, first made her mark on the world’s opera stages, in Handel, Mozart and bel canto roles for […]
Read More![BLURRING THE LINES: Violin-piano duo brings cross-cultural program to JCCC series](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/GOlden-hour-1-copy.jpg)
Classical music has proven itself to be one of the last bastions of “high-brow” art, but even its stubborn notions of the superiority of cultivated European tradition are giving way. It’s about time, many will say. Violinist Lara St. John is one of a growing number of strictly trained musicians who have, in recent years, […]
Read More![LENNY’S WORLD: Stern to take KC Symphony audiences through joyous, intimate centennial celebration](https://kcindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/KCS20110924B-579-copy.jpg)
For Michael Stern the centenary celebration of musical icon Leonard Bernstein is a personal journey. The Kansas City Symphony Music Director not only grew up around the enormously gifted conductor-composer-pianist, who would have turned 100 this August 25th, but as a child he regularly attended the New York Philharmonic’s legendary Young People’s Concerts. As a […]
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