Alcott "Much Ado About Nothing" review by Kristen McMillen

At the Alcott Arts Center, Shakespeare’s Theatre in the Parking Lot turned into an indoor event after rain poured near the area. In spite of the rain, “Much Ado About Nothing” shined on.

more at the University News

Shawnee Mission West band invited to London

English dignitaries will be at Shawnee Mission West High School on Wednesday to offer an invitation to the school's marching band to perform in the 2012 London New Year's Day parade.

more at KCTV-5

Trey McIntyre Project review by Paul Horsley

Trey McIntyre’s choreography is all-encompassing — as gorgeous as Tudor, as innovative as Paul Taylor, as audacious as Twyla Tharp, and as inventively detailed as William Forsythe. Yet it is distinctive, with a huge vocabulary that is continually surprising and fun, even when dealing with serious subjects. The appearance of this nine-member company on the Harriman’s opening night (one of whom was missing because of a back injury) was an auspicious start to what promises to be one of the most interesting local performing-arts seasons in years.

more at The Independent 
and even more here

KCKCC Nartan Academy of Dance review by Alan Hoskins

The Nartan Academy of Dance left a near capacity crowd of nearly 300 totally in awe Friday night with a spectacular expression of age old India dances at Kansas City Kansas Community College.

more at the Kansas City Kansan

Lyric Opera "Carmen" scenery to hit the road

Audiences who turn out for the Lyric Opera’s season opener — Bizet’s classic passion-soaked piece about a doomed triangle between a factory girl, a soldier and a matador — will see new sets created by scenic designer R. Keith Brumley and his construction crew.

more at kansascity.com

Trey McIntyre Project review by Nicole English

The Trey McIntyre Project debuted three dance works Saturday, in a Harriman-Jewell Series concert at the Folly Theater, that challenged the typical concept of dance with unexpected changes in pace, tone and texture.

more at kansascity.com

Waterfire review by Hearne Christopher

The bottom line on this year’s WaterFire New Age, smoke-on-the-water extravaganza: “They should have taken the rain date,” Plaza resident Cheryl Gibbs says. “They totally should have taken the rain date.”

more at KC Confidential

Unicorn "[title of show]" review by Mark Edelman

[title of show] charts the real life journey of composer/lyricist Jeff Bowen and book writer Hunter Bell as they write an original musical for the New York Musical Theatre Festival. That very real and somewhat silly show– dubbed [title of show] after the first question on the Festival’s entry blank– is what we get to see unfold over the piece’s 100 or so intermissionless minutes.

more at KC Confidential