“Colorblind casting” has come under fire as a buzzword for more diverse theater. The Actors’ Equity Association prefers “nontraditional casting,” a term with its own ontological baggage. Whatever you call it, it can’t come soon enough. That was one thought left in my mind after I watched Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre’s latest production. During the show, I kept asking myself: Why…
Erik Borger has a crash pad. And when he’s there, he seriously crashes. The chef-owner of St. Joseph’s Il Lazzarone pizzeria has been putting in long days and long nights renovating the storefront at 412 Delaware (the former Cup and Saucer) for its March 14 grand opening as the second location of Il Lazzarone. “I couldn’t make the drive back…
The King Khan & BBQ Show In 2010, the King Khan & BBQ Show infamously called it quits following an onstage dispute. Five years later, Arish “King” Khan and Mark “BBQ” Sultan have mended the broken fence that was their friendship, and they have let the healing spill over, into a brand-new album called Bad News Boys. In fact, the…
Few in the audience knew Stephanie Moore’s name before she took the stage with the Jazz Disciples at last fall’s Prairie Village Jazz Festival. But she immediately captured the crowd with her dynamic voice, commanding stage presence, and the sultriest version you’ll ever hear of “Take the ‘A’ Train.” She wraps jazz standards in her own personality, interpreting them with…
If I’m going to have a girl come over, I have to clear a pathway in my room,” Clinton Martens tells me. “There’s just boxes of records everywhere. It looks a little horde-y.” “Horde-y” might be an understatement. Martens counts about 10,000 records in his collection. At least it’s his job: Martens, 33, is a professional disc jockey — known…
The Blackbird Revue’s Jacob and Danielle Prestidge are making their own ambience. Danielle stands in front of her keyboard, her gaze level with Jacob’s face. Eyes clamped shut, fingers sharp on his guitar strings, he begins to sing the first verse of “The Devil’s Hand.” His tenor cuts into the song’s desolate melody like a diamond on glass. Danielle comes…
Tame Impala has just announced a new, as-yet-untitled forthcoming album, and with it, a slew of tour dates. The Australian quintet stops at the Uptown Theater on Sunday, May 31. The band released its latest single, “Let It Happen,” earlier today. At nearly eight minutes long, the track is an epic power pop play. If this is a teaser of…
The former home of the Quarterage Hotel (and, more recently, the Q Hotel + Spa) today reopened as AC Hotel, a joint venture between Marriott and the Spanish hotelier Antonio Catalan. It’s the second such hotel that Marriott has opened in the United States (the first was in New Orleans), and the result of its multimillion-dollar renovation is four floors…
Last August, restaurateur Anton Kotar, of Anton’s Taproom, announced that he was opening a venture at 3906 Waddell, best known as the former home of 24-hour diner Nichols Lunch. Kotar said he was turning the restaurant into Estelle’s Diner, named for his 3-year-old daughter. Seven months later, Kotar is out. Instead, the long-MIA Sosa’s 39th Street Diner is about to…
If you’ve been fortunate enough to see A.J. Gaither live, you know well what a hard-working, hard-playing musician he is. The one-man band puts an astounding amount of energy into every performance, accomplishing his sound with a variety of instruments that he makes himself. But even the most DIY of artists need a little help sometimes. Recently, Gaither’s tour van…
Several area retailers breathed a collective sigh of relief last week, following the apprehension of a 50-year-old man who has allegedly been raiding their stores of delicious treats and libations for many months. Steven White has been charged with several counts of Class D felony for stealing. Why’d he do it? Why does anybody do anything in this world? Bacon,…
The beer cooler of BD’s Mongolian Grill’s in Independence is stocked with more than 150 different craft beers and 50 dedicated craft-beer taps. This was Chris Cozzi’s plan when he opened the Beer Growler Taproom (19750 E. Valley View Pkwy., Independence) inside his BD’s franchise in 2013. When I stop in at the end of February, Cozzi has just tapped…
The Big 12 Tournament is set to kick off on Wednesday at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. The tournament will span just five sessions until March 14. Each session will feature two games, except for the Final on Saturday. On the secondary market, 2015 Big 12 Tournament tickets on TiqIQ have an overall average price of $187.07. The average…
We’re officially getting into beer-festival season. It starts this weekend with the sold-out KC Brew Fest at Union Station (Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m.). If you miss out there, you could always spend an hour at Grains & Taps’ Blarney Brew off. From 11 a.m. to noon Saturday, you can sample homebrews (tickets cost $8) in the parking lot of…
The president of the De Soto School District Board of Education asked to have its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday moved to an auditorium that can hold a larger-than-expected crowd. The meeting will take place at the De Soto High School auditorium, where a group of parents is expected to air grievances against board member Scott Hancock. Some may call…
About halfway through Sunday evening’s Sporting Kansas City match, defender Ike Opara lay on the ground, writhing in pain from a hard tackle. It took him awhile to get up, long enough to cause concern among the Sporting KC faithful. While Matt Besler is the name-brand player on Sporting KC’s defensive back line, Opara plays a crucial role for the…
On Saturday, the Replay Lounge is hosting a triple force of local hip-hop talent. Approach leads the bill, along with Milkdrop and our music feature this week, Barrel Maker. Each of these emcees has a sound entirely their own, and getting to see them back to back is, like, paralyzing us with joy. We profiled Barrel Maker – who released…
It wouldn’t feel quite like summer in Kansas City without an outdoor Avett Brothers show. The anthemic Americana act has reliably stopped in KC for the past several summers, going back to when Wakarusa Music Festival was still a Kansas event. They’re doing something right. This summer’s show will be at Starlight on Thursday, June 4. Old Crow Medicine Show…
