"Top Rated Shows of 2010" by Angie Fiedler

This article appeared in the February 2011 issue of KC Stage

Top-Rated Shows (20 vote minimum)

1. Women of Rock - The Barn Players, Inc. (4.50)
2. Our Town - Olathe Community Theatre (3.95)
3. Guys & Dolls - Leawood Stage Company (3.71)
4. My Girdle is Killing Me - KC Fringe Festival (3.63)
5. All Shook Up - The Theatre in the Park (3.62)
6. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - American Heartland Theatre (3.60)
7. You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown - She&Her Productions (3.56)
8. Death and the Publican - Tara Lane Productions (3.47)
9. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - The Barn Players, Inc. (3.40)
10. Khan! the Musical - KC Fringe Festival (3.40)

Cathy Barnett in Grey Gardens. Photo by Cynthia Levin

Top-Rated Equity Shows (7 vote minimum)

1. Grey Gardens - Unicorn Theatre (4.29)
2. Lucky Duck - The Coterie Theatre (4.00)
3. Marion Bridge - Kansas City Actors Theatre (3.86)
4. Bus Stop - Kansas City Repertory Theatre (3.67)
5. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - American Heartland Theatre (3.60)
6. [title of show] - Unicorn Theatre (3.45)
7. Broke-ology - Kansas City Repertory Theatre (3.25)
8. Glorious! - American Heartland Theatre (3.14)
9. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - The Coterie Theatre (2.43)
10. Harriet Jacobs - Kansas City Repertory Theatre (2.29)

Top-Rated Professional Shows (5 vote minimum)

1. Valhalla - Egads Theatre Company (4.17)
2. The US & THEM Reunion - KC Fringe Festival (3.80)
3. Say You Love Satan - Egads Theatre Company (3.67)
4. Dark Play or Stories for Boys - Relevance Productions (3.67)
5. Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story - KC Fringe Festival (3.64)
6. My Girdle is Killing Me - KC Fringe Festival (3.63)
7. Breaking the Trust - Tara Lane Productions (3.54)
8. Morphotic - KC Fringe Festival (3.54)
9. Death and the Publican - KC Fringe Festival (3.47)
10. The Event - KC Fringe Festival (3.43)

Aurelie Roque in Women of Rock. Photo by Vida Bikales

Top-Rated Community Shows (20 vote minimum)

1. Women of Rock - The Barn Players, Inc. (4.50)
2. Our Town - Olathe Community Theatre (3.95)
3. Guys & Dolls - Leawood Stage Company (3.71)
4. All Shook Up - The Theatre in the Park (3.62)
5. You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown - She&Her Productions (3.56)
6. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - The Barn Players, Inc. (3.40)
7. Chicago - City Theatre of Independence (3.32)
8. Rent - The Barn Players, Inc. (3.15)
9. Annie - The Theatre in the Park (2.95)
10. Jesus Christ Superstar - The Theatre in the Park (2.82)

Zachary Andrews, and Andrea Morales in The King Stag. Photo by Kristi Lewczenko

Top-Rated Academic Shows (2 vote minimum)

1. The King Stag - UMKC Theatre (4.75)
2. A Midsummer Night’s Dream - UMKC Theatre (4.50)
3. Slammed: KC Speaks Out on the Recession - UMKC Theatre (4.50)
4. Big River - Shawnee Mission Northwest Theatre (4.25)
5. Miss Julie - UMKC Theatre (3.50)
6. Black Comedy/The White Liars - UMKC Theatre (3.34)
7. Hedda Gabler - Emporia State University Theatre (3.00)
8. The Drowsy Chaperone - Music Theatre for Young People (3.00)
9. The Laramie Project - Shawnee Mission South (2.86)
10. Annie - ACT One of Kansas City (2.67)

And the audiences have spoken. The Barn Players’ musical benefit Women of Rock won not only the top rated show overall, but also the top rated community show. “I thought it would be just a rock concert but it was much more than that,” wrote reviewer Mhull. “The entire production from the ladies on stage, to the costuming and lighting, a rocking band and the delightful Mistress of Ceremonies Shelly Stewart, was flawless, energetic, moving, and captivating,” wrote reviewer brn2act1969.

We also asked some of our top reviewers for their input as to their favorite show.
Nicole Hall wrote, “I went to see Head at this year’s Fringe Festival, and I thought that show was, by far, one of the more risky, yet successful, productions done this year. Each individual cast member was strong in their own right, the director’s vision was clear, and it was just plain entertaining to take in. Kyle Hatley really showed me what it was to thoroughly enjoy a production instead of just analyze it.”

The reviewer known as Guildenstern wrote, “There were a handful of little-seen shows this year that really stood out for me. The best was perhaps Egads Theatre’s Valhalla [winner of top rated professional show], a complex comedy set in two different time periods that were nicely intertwined. While Steven Eubank’s stable of performers are well-known for their song-and-dance camp, they dove into this piece and made it as substantial and effective as any drama, anchored by Matt Weiss’ strong performance and balanced by Doogin Brown’s versatile comic abilities.

“Another great play with a smattering of audience was Relevance Production’s Dark Play, or Stories for Boys at Fringe Central. It seemed like just another story admonishing the dangers of online dating, but went far deeper as a character study and offered some real revelations. I kept trying to second guess where the play was going and was surprised. The staging was sparse but effective and the performances rough but sincere.

“UMKC’s King Stag [winner of top rated academic show] was an absolute delight that left me pleading for a better ending, or else it would have been my favorite play of the year. The Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre did a nice job with Eugene O’Neill’s Moon for the Misbegotten, finding a lot of much-needed humor that I’d never seen in prior productions.

“I caught a few great shows at the KC Fringe Festival, including Kyle Hatley’s Head, which was impressively presented but the script needed to be further developed. Morphotic was a remarkable staging of Franz Kafka’s life by Butcher Block Productions from Las Vegas, and I was also impressed with Bob Paisley’s hilarious and thought-provoking one man show The Event.

“Unfortunately I seem to have missed all the great shows by the big professional houses, because nothing I went to see really interested me much. In fact, some of the worst shows I saw were at the big professional houses. Is all the great theatre in this town really being done in ragtag Crossroads buildings on a shoestring?”

As for me, as I wrote in my blog Stage Savvy (angiefsutton.wordpress.com), “My overall favorite performance I saw in 2010 was Boston Court Performing Arts Center’s performance of The Twentieth Century Way, which was the last performance I saw in LA [for my fellowship]. This show moved me in a way I’ve not felt with regards to a show in a very long time (and not just because it ended with two nude men expressing their interest in each other). The acting was superb, especially as the story involved the two actors playing a vast array of characters, and I got chills as the show reached its climax.

“On the local KC side, my favorite performance of the year is a close tie between two shows that couldn’t be more different. On one hand, there was the Barstow’s Fringe production of Not Just For the Birds. As my review stated, this was good edutainment, and while it had a few bumps in the production I saw, it had a great energy to it. Great energy also applies to my other favorite show, the Unicorn Theatre’s A Very Joan Crawford Christmas. This show was just fucked up enough (phraseology definitely intended) to make me remember why I love theatre.”

KC Stage listed over 450 performances in 2010, and the “Annie Award” (for most produced show of the year) actually goes to the five companies who produced Annie this year - ACT One of Kansas City, Gardner Community Theatre, Inc., Raytown Arts Council, River City Community Players, and The Theatre in the Park.

Everyone’s a critic – especially in the world of Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and other forms of social networking. KC Stage’s top rated shows are based on the ratings and review system on our website. Anyone can rate and/or review any of the shows listed on kcstage.com. The more votes a show has, the more likely it will be included in the top rated show listings. If you really want to speak your mind, write a review as well — sharing your thoughts and opinions. You do need to register with KC Stage to become a reviewer, but it’s fast and free.

Don’t forget to encourage your audience members as often as you can - online, at the box office, even in the curtain speech — to go online to kcstage.com to rate your shows.

We’d also love to hear from you. Write to editor@kcstage.com with your thoughts on our Top Rated Shows.