KC Ballet "Hey-Hay, Goin to Kansas City" review by Alexia Lang

The Kansas City Ballet’s 55^th season is going out with a bang. The final program features three distinct sections that are very different, but have a uniting theme of jazz and sass. 

more at the Vignette

KC Ballet "Hey-Hay, Going to Kansas City" review by kellyluck

Leave The Tutus At Home; KC Ballet Ends Season In A Decidedly Modernist Trip Rating: 4


Hey-Hay, Going to Kansas City
Kansas City Ballet

The Kansas City Ballet is wrapping up another season at the Kauffman, and in grand style. These last couple of years at the new venue have been ones of experiment, and the season closers have been time for the troupe to step out of the ordinary, to present new and interesting ideas. For the programs on display Friday night, they have gone with three fascinating and nicely executed pieces.

First on the program is Energy Made Visible, a performance in six movements by Karole Armitage with music by Bobby Watson. Mr Watson is a busy man just of late, having just come off of a short run of "Kansas City Swing" at the UMKC Theater. There as here he provides the music onstage, accompanying himself in his own compositions. He plays in full jazzman kit, a porkpied piper whose music sends the dancers through their frenzied movements. The transmutation of jazz into other mediums is a tricky business, and one fraught with hazards. Fortunately, there is confident skill at the helm, and the dancers move with the improvised music, seemingly letting it pull them along.

Some interesting business throughout the performance involves a giant "canvas" at which the dancers hurl imaginary "paint", slowly recreating some of the works of Jackson Pollock. The effect was quite interesting, albeit the animated splatter didn't always line up with the throwing movements, hurting the illusion. Nevertheless, it was an interesting experiment and sound and visualization with excellent small and large group choreographies and of course Mr. Watson's wonderful score.

After the first intermission, the mood changed significantly with Common People, Margo Sappington's tour through William Shatner & Ben Folds' 2004 collaboration "Has Been" (this is the same ballet that was featured in the 2009 documentary "William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet", which is entirely recommended). Taking us through seven of the featured songs, Sappington gives us an interesting if occasionally uneven experience, with choreography that matches the eccentric, offbeat yet strangely engrossing nature of the material. Highlights are the title track at the beginning, the surprisingly dreamlike "Together", and the final two parts: a frenzied interpretation of "I Can't Get Behind That" and "Has Been", in both of which the choreography was seasoned with just the right amount of wit, making a good solid finish to the set.

Finally, we had Donald McKayle's Hey-Hay, Going to Kansas City, in which some of the great jazz classics that shaped this city are brought to life. We start off with Euday Bowman's "12th Street Rag" and proceed through the works of Jesse Stone, Charlie Parker, Count Basie and other memorable performers. The dancing here is interesting; something about the looseness of the movement put this reviewer in mind of a Hart Benton painting come to life. Vintage recordings were used of the originals, adding more to the atmosphere and bringing us back to a time and place that looms almost legendary in the annals of our city. Here dancing as storytelling was given its strongest push, each song a vignette. The dancers performed strongly as indeed they had all through the night, and all in all it was a decidedly enjoyable performance.

A few months ago, announcements were made regarding the upcoming 2013-14 season. It will be a solid return to the classics, starting with Jerome Robbins and finishing with Prokofiev's "Cinderella". It should be a good season, but the experimentation of the ballet's first two Kauffman seasons will lie long in this reviewer's memory. And dance aficionados wishing to see and hear something truly creative and interesting are highly recommended to catch this show before its closing night on the 12th.

Spencer Museum of Art Spring Arts and Culture Festival review by Meagan Thomas

The weather may have been dreary, but the inside of Spencer Museum of Art was lively with music, dance and art during the annual Spring Arts and Culture Festival on Saturday.

more at the Lawrence Journal World

KC Ballet "Hey-Hay, Going to Kansas City" review by Libby Hanssen

Kansas City Ballet ended its 55th season with a celebration of American dance, music and hometown talent in “Hey-Hay, Going to Kansas City.” This vibrant company offered an exhilarating trio of pieces on Friday night, including the world premiere of Karole Armitage’s “Energy Made Visible.”

more at the KC Star

Quality Hill "You've Got a Friend" review by Kellie Houx

A standing ovation is the form of applause where members of a seated audience stand up while applauding after an extraordinary performance of acclaim. The collaborative voices and musicians at Quality Hill Playhouse for the current show, You’ve Got a Friend: Music That Raised the Baby Boomers, deserved every round of applause and the standing ovations.

more at KC Studio

Chestnut Fine Arts "It's a Small World" review by BobEvans

Small World on small stage nets big results Rating: 5


It's A Small World
Chestnut Fine Arts Theatre

Kansas City audiences expect entertainment, smiles, laughs, and familiar melodies every time they attend a custom-built musical review at Olathe's Chestnut Fine Arts Theater, and the current show delivers the music from the Disney legacy from the 1930s through the balance of the decade.

Quality Hill "You've Got a Friend" review by BobEvans

Quality reigns supreme with Carole King and James Taylor music Rating: 5


You've Got a Friend: Music That Raised the Baby Boomers
Quality Hill Playhouse

Carole King and James Taylor's music sets the tone for the current show through May 19th at Quality Hill Playhouse in Kansas City where musical reviews and cabaret shows set the tone and bring audiences to their feet more times than not.

Unicorn "My Name is Asher Lev" review by Deborah Hirsch

Art is Asher Lev's passion, his language, his way of interacting with everything around him. He can't remember a time when he didn't paint or draw. But this need clashes with his ultra–Orthodox Jewish faith and upbringing. It's narishkeit (foolishness), time stolen from studying and serving God. And Asher's subject matter goes against his religious teachings — surely driven, he's told, by the Sitra Achra, the forces of evil.

more at the Pitch

UMKC "Spring Dance Concert" review by Joey Hill

The UMKC School of Dance last Thursday presented the Spring Dance Concert, a collection of performances choreographed by the Conservatory’s DeeAnna Hiett, Bernard Gaddis, Paula Webber, Sabrina Madison-Cannon, Ronn Tice, Ming Xia, and Gary Abbott.

more at the University News

KC Repertory "American Buffalo" review by Frank Siraguso

The Rep’s production of David Mamet’s American Buffalo features a gorgeously dingy set where three actors combine fast-paced dialog with intensely crowded, frenetic action.

more at Infozine

UMKC Conservatory "Night in a Museum" review by Joey Hill

The UMKC Conservatory last Friday at Union Station’s City Stage presented “Night in a Museum,” an expertly crafted selection of scenes from various operas chosen by the performers. It was directed by Marciem Bazell, with light piano accompaniment by students Richard Jeric and Jonathan Young.

more at the University News

KC Repertory "American Buffalo" review by Alexia Lang

When life gives you lemons, just make lemonade and curse about it. The Kansas City Repertory Theatre is closing its amazing season with “American Buffalo,” a tale that touches on that old catch phrase that tells us to make the best of what we’ve got.

more at the Vignette

Graham Dechter Quartet review by Check Berg

In a season of not-to-be forgotten performances, the high voltage Graham Dechter Quartet lit up the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center, 420 S.E. 6th, with a luminescence surely observable from galaxies far, far away.

more at the Topeka Capital Journal

Living Room "Burn This" review by Robert Trussell

A play can be less than a great dramatic work and still provide the material for vivid theater. So it is Lanford Wilson's “Burn This,” a 1987 drama that invites an audience to dive headlong into a world of raw emotion, insoluble grief and explosive passion. The characters are a cock-eyed quartet of downtown New Yorkers: A dancer/choreographer who feels, a gay advertising executive who quips, a wealthy screenwriter who waffles and a volatile restaurant manager who rages.

more at the KC Star

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/04/28/4207087/burn-this-shows-its-age-but-you.html?utm_source=feedly#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/04/28/4207087/burn-this-shows-its-age-but-you.html?utm_source=feedly#storylink=cpy

KC Repertory "American Buffalo" review by Bob Evans

It’s all about money. It’s always about money. Take any situation. Take any product or cause, and it’s still about the money, the bottom line–and even friendships are for sale. Welcome to Capitalism and the underlying tenner of American Buffalo, by David Mamet and produced by the Kansas City Repertory Theater April 19-May 19.

more at examiner.com

KC Repertory "American Buffalo" review by Robert Trussell

The early plays of David Mamet are never classified as comedies, but the fine Kansas City Repertory Theatre production of “American Buffalo” poses an obvious question: Why not?

more at kansascity.com

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/04/27/4205600/kc-rep-find-the-gritty-humor-in.html?utm_source=feedly#storylink=cpy

Bach Aria Soloists "Night of Tango" review by Libby Hanssen

The most striking element of the Kauffman Center’s “A Night of Tango” was not necessarily the superb talent of the musicians on stage, but the sense of a community eager for the passion and connection inherent to tango.

more at the KC Star

newEar, Owen/Cox "Darwin" review by John Heuertz

Charles Darwin, born six hours before Abraham Lincoln, is a seminal figure in modern intellectual history. And Friday evening, a chamber opera that considers him as a man received its successful world premiere at Union Station’s H&R Block City Stage Theatre.

more at the KC Star

Bobby McFerrin, Harriman-Jewell review by Libby Hanssen

Every empty seat in Helzberg Hall on Friday night (though there were few) signified someone’s missed opportunity to witness one of the most uplifting, rewarding and musically satisfying performances in Kansas City this year. Bobby McFerrin, whose vocal ability transcends the “my voice is my instrument” concept, melds scat-singing, vocalise, beat-box and an encyclopedic catalogue of melodic knowledge into a performance style that’s very physics is boggling.

more at the KC Star

KC Repertory "American Buffalo" review by Steve Wilson

The critically acclaimed play, “American Buffalo” written by David Mamet, directed by Jerry Genochio and produced by the Kansas City Repertory Theatre opened Friday night April 26 at the Copaken Stage in Kansas City. The play first took the stage in Chicago in 1975 at the Goodman Theatre Stage Two. In 1977 it opened on Broadway, with Robert Duvall as Teach, and was nominated for two Tony Awards and four Drama Desk Awards. In 1983 Al Pacino under took the role of Teach, and with the direction of Arvin Brown made the character less violent and frightening to the audience.

more at examiner.com