June 4 Get Him to the Greek Jonah Hill plays a record-company intern whose career-making assignment could be considered a music-business rite of passage: escorting a drug-addled rock star (British comic Russell Brand) to a big gig. From the director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Nicholas Stoller. Killers Jen (Katherine Heigl) and Spencer (Ashton Kutcher) are blissful newlyweds until the day…
BadSeed Farmers Market Meet farmers and build a collective consciousness on Fridays from 4 to 9 p.m. through November 19 at 1909 McGee in the Crossroads. Find local organic fruits, veggies, baked goods, eggs and free-range meats. See badseedfarm.com for a list of vendors and events, as well as classes on oyster mushroom cultivation, herbalism and other topics. Briarcliff Village…
Jesus Christ Superstar June 11–13, July 17–20 The rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice focuses on the last week of Jesus’ life and his relationship with Judas Iscariot, who is astonished by Jesus’ claims of divinity and lack of preparation against the Romans. It’s performed in Theatre in the Park in Shawnee Mission Park (7710 Renner Road…
Kansas City Explorers This summer marks the 18th season in which the Explorers bring world-class men’s and women’s singles, doubles and mixed-doubles tennis action to Barney Allis Plaza (12th Street and Wyandotte). Bonus action: player meet-and-greets, on-court coaching, super-tiebreakers and fan theme nights. The World TeamTennis Pro League offers season tickets and group discounts as well as box and grandstand…
Old Shawnee Days June 3–6 This festival marks the beginning of summer in northwest Johnson County with a parade, a night of tribute bands, kids’ games and contests, trained animals, and Saturday-night headliner Starship with Mickey Thomas. It happens in Shawnee Town (11501 West 57th Street in Shawnee). For more details, see oldshawneedays.org. Show Me Pride Week 2010 June 3–6…
On April 27, Janet Napolitano pronounced that the border separating the United States from the Republic of Mexico is more secure than ever. “I say this again as someone who has walked that border,” the former Arizona governor told a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, which she now heads. “I’ve ridden…
After two previous local stops with the Kansas City Symphony, Pink Martini goes it alone tonight, but don’t expect a reduction in sound or ambition. Founded by Thomas Lauderdale and China Forbes (he at the piano, she at the microphone; both write), the Portland, Oregon, 12-piece offers plenty of sweep, sparkle and flam for the buck. The ensemble is touring…
Girls love to feel special, so prom-planning site kansascityproms.com recommends singing songs or offering roses with those prom invitations. (Boys, how about a hair trim a week before the big day and a light splash of a favorite cologne?) The rules for this year’s Punk Rock Formal at the Jackpot Music Hall (943 Massachusetts in Lawrence, 785-832-1085) are a little…
The Soul Providers Crew, a Kansas City hip-hop collective whose members include Les Izmore, Reach, DJ Ataxic, Dutch Newman and others, has been throwing First Friday block parties in the Crossroads for a while now. Soul Providers Block Party, from 7 to 10:30 p.m. at 116 West 18th Street (next to Birdies), is a super-extra-special June Food Drive Edition, a…
Though Richard Russo has set most of his novels in the Northeast, there’s nothing provincial about the small-town tensions, small-time failures of nerve, and uneasy family histories in them. His characters have felt just as rueful in upstate New York as they have in “the Midfuckingwest.” That’s how the protagonists’ parents refer to our part of the country in the…
The Glittered Cocoon is a collaborative show by Kale Van Leeuwen and Kat Allie. Van Leeuwen will be showing Mixed Media Paintings and Allie will be showing encaustic paintings. Fri., June 4; Fri., July 2, 2010 Tags: Kale Van Leeuwen, Kat Allie, Night & Day
Victuals is a ceramics exhibit and installation by Dame Osaurus. The dishes are functional artware, good for serving or decoration. June 4-30, 2010 Tags: 3392, Night & Day
It’s not that you don’t feel patriotic — you’re proud to be an American. It’s the place you love to be. It’s just that you’ve come to expect gallery openings on First Fridays, even the ones that kick off Independence Day weekends. Unfortunately, a lot of galleries delay exhibit openings on this, the hottest, Yankee-Doodliest weekend of the year. Still,…
The sexually-charged works of artist Zac Eubank will be on display — and for sale — at the Slap-n-Tickle Gallery this First Friday. Fri., June 4, 6-11 p.m., 2010 Tags: Night & Day, Zac Eubank
No one mourns the wicked, but everyone toasts the talented. Fifteen years after novelist Gregory Maguire first dished the untold tale of the Wicked Witch of the West, here’s another story that took the world too long to get a chance to discover: that of Stephen Schwartz, that wizard of witches and princesses, the songwriter and lyricist behind the Broadway…
It’s easy to get stuck between Broadway and Walnut on First Friday in the Crossroads, but the district is really a lot bigger than that. Mood Swings Salon (809 West 17th Street, 816-221-0747), for instance, presents an exhibit of paintings — and live acoustic reggae — by Iowa City painter Tony Brown. Brown paints acrylic-on-canvas pieces in a number of…
Speaking of the West Crossroads, Red Star Studios, a longtime ceramic-art destination, is moving to new digs (apologies for using the word digs — won’t happen again). While it awaits the opening of a new facility, the large-hearted Belger Arts Center (2100 Walnut, 816-474-3250) has set up its ground floor as a studio and exhibition space for the Red Star…
Since April, London painter Ryan Mosley has been industriously producing new work in the studios at Grand Arts (1819 Grand, 816-421-6887). The gallery finally presents his exhibition, beginning with a 6 p.m. reception. Mosley’s work reveals itself organically with washes of color and a seemingly spontaneous jumbling of elements and objects. At once sophisticated and unaffected, it conveys an appealing…
Local skateboarders know better than to ride into Barney Allis Plaza (12th Street and Wyandotte). If they trick around the concrete playground, they do so at the risk of being busted by the cops. For one night, though, the energy drink that promises you wings also grants skaters a free pass to tear around on prohibited turf. The city has…
Last year, President Barack Obama declared June to be LGBT Pride Month in the United States. Popular variants of the acronym have added QIA to the end — for queer, intersex and ally — but all can recognize their pride when the popular weekly DJ event Flex Friday celebrates its first anniversary at Crosstown Station (1522 McGee, 816-471-1522) with Flex…
The first season of Egads Theatre is all about corrupting the flesh. In the recent Say You Love Satan, hunky Evan White doffed his clothes to seduce — but he was playing the devil. In October’s much-anticipated Evil Dead: The Musical, the living dead will splatter it. And now, in the bad-taste triumph Eating Raoul: The Musical, the ultimate taboo…
If you didn’t get enough art entertainment at First Friday, head north. The first Liberty arts festival, Liberty Arts Squared, features work from local artists, authors and even kids, and there’s a competitive element: a jury awarding prizes of up to $500. The setting? The Historic Square in downtown Liberty, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The free festival includes…
From a purely visual standpoint, the Farmers Community Market in Brookside (in the parking lot of the Border Star Montessori School at 63rd Street and Wornall) would win points: all those pretty little white canopies in a row, sheltering vendors who are selling local organic vegetables and fruits, fragrant herbs and cut flowers. “When I go there,” says chef and…
Bodies bend and flop and spin inside the building at 1730 Broadway as local breakdancers vie for the chance to pop and lock in the Big Apple. The winner of the B-Boy Massacre Qualifier gets to compete at the nationals in New York City this summer. Spectators are welcome at the local event. The battle commences around 4 p.m. For…
