The Liberty Bell rang on July 8, 1776, to signal the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence — the document that began the long struggle for independence from England and helped shape America’s future. Showcasing this monumental occasion and the personalities involved is 1776, a Tony Award-winning musical given a casting twist by Musical Theater Heritage. “We sought…
This annual event is a block party style, family friendly celebaration of lowriding culture. Last year was a huge success with over 160 car entries and an estimated 800+ spectators in attendance. Cars and car clubs will be in attendance from locally to nationwide to show off their custom styles and meet other enthusiasts. Cars are judged by paint, interior,…
The tiny Fishtank Performance Studio (1715 Wyandotte) lends itself to one-actor shows, of which Mask of the Broken Heart is the latest. But the room might feel a little more crowded this time because Stephanie Roberts plays 13 characters. Roberts also wrote the film-noir-style script, set in Kansas City. Directing is Fishtank founder Heidi Van, whom The Pitch dubbed a…
Laura Ingalls Wilder lived it, and anyone who has read her memoirs knows it: A settler’s life on the Kansas prairie was often tempered by hardship and heartache. Pioneers, homesteaders and fortune seekers around these here parts faced locust storms, fever and ague, and lost love. On the plus side of such adversity: Hardship and heartache often made for compelling…
Seeing afternoon movies at the well-grimed rock spot the Brick (1727 McGee, 816-421-1634) feels a little like when your parents let you have breakfast for dinner because they were poor or fighting or something. Today’s absurdist afternoon treats begin at 2 p.m. with the comedic videos of Stuck in a Straightjacket, the local troop credited with having coined the term…
Before glamorizing teenage pregnancy in Juno, Ellen Page made her feature-film debut in 2002 with a little Canadian indie called Marion Bridge. The film was based on a play of the same name by Daniel MacIvor — the same play now taken on by the Kansas City Actors Theatre in a production at the H&R Block City Stage at Union…
Just a couple of months in, Rusty Sneary and Shawnna Journagan’s upstart Living Room at the Pearl theater (1818 McGee, 816-221-4260) has come to rule its own particular niche: brawling, passionate contemporary plays in which the staging is something of its own event. Tonight, the commanding Sneary joins Tosin Morohunfola and Molly Denninghoff in This Is How It Goes, one…
The nightclub Crosstown Station, directly west of the Kansas City Star’s press building, has revamped its second-floor bar, which offers a commanding view of downtown (and includes plenty of cushy couches to rest weary asses). The result is Press Bar, a versatile performance space that can accommodate touring bands, Chiefs parties, bachelorettes who want bottle service, or people who simply…
Alain Resnais’ Wild Grass has plenty of fans. It received an award at Cannes in 2009. But the 87-year-old filmmaker’s latest is an insufferable exercise in cutie-pie modernism, painfully unfunny and precious to a fault. Georges (André Dussollier) finds a bright-red wallet that was stolen from Marguerite (Sabine Azéma). A middle-aged man with a suburban chateau and who’s married to…
The Switch is a loose adaptation of a Jeffrey Eugenides short story called “Baster,” published in The New Yorker in 1996. The Virgin Suicides author carefully drew a distinction between his highbrow literary effort and its Disney-distributed successor. “The fact that the movie has a different title than the story might give you some idea of how close a correspondence…
Remember when whiny frontmen were all the rage? Yes, you do, somewhere back in the cobwebby corners of your memory, between your checkered Vans and emo hair. (Or maybe that’s just my memory.) Something Corporate songwriter and singer Andrew McMahon is the crown prince of plaintive pop-punk. He and the rest of the band broke out with 2001’s Ready ……
In director Susanna White’s sequel to the 2005 Nanny McPhee, the titular ugly nanny (played, under unsightly makeup, by star and writer Emma Thompson) appears in wartime on the doorstep of harried mother Maggie Gyllenhaal, whose efforts to control three unruly kids and their snooty visiting cousins is complicated by her soldier husband’s absence, as well as by the attempts…
If the plot of Middle Men sounds familiar — Luke Wilson gets in bed with James Caan, who just wants to fuck him — that’s because it’s the same plot as Bottle Rocket, Wes Anderson’s 1996 directorial debut, in which Wilson and Caan worked together for the first time. Middle Men is that tale told without the hard-boiled whimsy, though…
Dear Readers: As you read this, my trusty burro, pigtailed chica and I are crisscrossing Aztlán researching Mexican food. So now is as bueno a time as any to do some housecleaning for the columna. Hay que start with a letter from the Mexican’s longtime amigo, William Lobdell. For years one of the most prestigious religion reporters in the United…
Midway through Lottery Ticket, the movie’s hero, Kevin Carson, goes on a spending spree. He’s the holder of a $370 million lottery ticket that he can’t cash in until after the July 4 holiday, so he accepts a $100,000 loan from a local gangster and proceeds to spend it all in one night. Because Kevin is played by the rapper…
NASA’s famous space telescope was carried by shuttle into Earth’s orbit 20 years ago. Within weeks of that launch, it was discovered that this huge and hugely expensive bastard had a flawed optical system. Hubble was a real lemon. Toni Myers’ new IMAX doc about the Hubble is a first-person snapshot of 2009’s final rescue mission, in which seven astronauts…
Fruit Bats has famously been Eric D. Johnson’s other band. The sunshine-infused melodies that he penned for the first few Fruit Bats albums came only between farming out his talents to different groups — Califone, Vetiver, Ugly Casanova or, most recently, the Shins. But the fruit of his Bats labor, Echolocation, Mouthfuls and Spelled in Bones, is a gathering of…
The subject of gay Orthodox Jews isn’t new to film, but it’s typically the stuff of documentaries. So Haim Tabakman’s feature directorial debut Eyes Wide Open deserves not just political points but artistic ones as well: Overused adjectives such as patient and understated are perfectly justified here. This simple story of devout family man and Jerusalem butcher Aaron (Zohar Strauss), who…
Cotton Jones Basket Ride (also known simply as Cotton Jones) was originally a side project of folk-pop luminary Page France, but founder Michael Nau disbanded that group in 2008 to pursue the more comfortable, well-worn warmth of Cotton Jones. Nau teamed up with vocalist Whitney McGraw to produce fuller arrangements of folksy, atmospheric jangle. In the short time since, Nau…
The sound the Budos Band makes would have us think it inhabits a smoky, subterranean lair that quakes like the San Andreas Fault and pumps out enough soul to counterbalance Wall Street. Though membership and size vary, the instrumental Brooklyn band consistently delivers funky, horn-fueled grooves deeper than the Mariana Trench. The Budos Band III alters the formula a bit….
The late Biggie Smalls popularized hip-hop’s twin themes of spiritual darkness and redemption. His two major releases, Ready to Die (darkness) and Life After Death (redemption), are classics of the canon. Consciously or not, Stik Figa has borrowed from Biggie’s spiritual template. Alive & Well, another collaboration with local producer D/Will, is Stik’s decidedly more upbeat sequel to the duo’s…
Slayer has maintained its reputation as one of the monsters of metal for more than 20 years, thanks to its unrelenting force and provocative subject matter. The less tangible element of the band’s success, though, is drummer Dave Lombardo, who spoke with us shortly before the band’s upcoming stop of the American Carnage tour with Megadeth and Testament. The Pitch:…
Ad Astra Arkestra was missing something — someone. Under the bright lights of the Uptown Theater, the band accepted its Best Experimental award at The Pitch Music Awards ceremony Sunday night. There was someone the band members wanted to thank. Where was she? “She’s drunk!” a crowd member volunteered. “That’s the right answer!” Mike Tuley roared into the mic. “We’re…
When Fat Fish Blue — the Louisiana-style restaurant and nightclub — opened a couple of months ago, I met the congenial general manager, Bon-die Fortner. “It’s pronounced Bon-day,” he explained. He’s from Louisiana and has a real affection for that region’s cuisine and music. The next time I went in, the following week, Bon-die had apparently taken a streetcar named…
