Walter Coppage’s deep, resonant voice is one key to his strong stage presence. The Pitch awarded him Best Actor in 2009 for his role of Stage Manager in the Coterie’s production of Our Town, and Best Portrayal of an Icon in 2013 for his “gracious and playful” performance as Martin Luther King Jr. in the Unicorn Theatre’s The Mountaintop. Among…
If you picked up the script today, A Number, a nimble one-act by English playwright and reigning dialogue queen Caryl Churchill, might feel dated. The play’s conceit, human cloning, has cooled somewhat from its early aughts firestorm (Dolly the sheep! Eve the hoax baby!). But the Kansas City Actors Theatre, directed by Mark Robbins, finds universal appeal in a well-acted…
There are moments on Gumption, the debut full-length album (released January 29 on Domino Records) from Lawrence’s Taryn Miller — who performs as Your Friend — that seem suspended in space and time. Only one of the album’s eight songs clocks in under the four-minute mark (the wordless “To Live With”), and it evaporates thinly into the dark, inky “Desired…
Flowers die. Lingerie fades. But songs — songs last forever. La Guerre’s Katlyn Conroy and the Get Up Kids’ Matt Pryor are each offering your love romantic immortality through their songwriting and singing talents with custom, made-to-order songs. For Conroy, it’s a Valentine’s Day tradition, and she says Cupid’s day fits with her natural songwriting approach. “Primarily, I usually end…
Strings of lights hang just inside 1118 McGee, and I hear a few strands clink together like crystals as I brush past them into the handsome space. To my right, a long bar stretches nearly to the center of the room, stopping at a spacious dance floor filled with tables and littered with debris from New Year’s Eve. Colored strobe…
Prohibition Hall, in downtown’s Louis Curtiss Building, bears the perfect name for a jazz club, and jazz gets featured billing Wednesday nights. It starts with drummer Jim Lower’s Broadway Jazz Orchestra — named for the now-defunct jazz club where the band launched — followed by the Prohibition Hall Jazz Quartet, featuring Ryan Thielman and friends. Thielman is a dynamic young…
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats Everybody likes a good underdog story, and Nathaniel Rateliff has one for the books. Last August, the Hermann, Missouri, native — along with his band, the Night Sweats — released a self-titled record, featuring lead single “S.O.B.” Something about that song and the spirited, rough-voiced way Rateliff yells his chorus — Son of a…
On January 12, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback ordered the state to discontinue any future Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. Brownback justified this decision in his annual State of the State speech by referencing claims that Planned Parenthood sells parts of aborted fetuses for profit. “Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of baby body parts is antithetical to our belief in human dignity,” Brownback…
Westend Recording Presents: “Amplify KC” Vol. 1 by Westend Studios
A little over a year ago, I stumbled on a little restaurant in North Kansas — Tay’s Burger Shack, at 1019 Armour — with a menu happily concentrated on the basics: burgers, hot dogs, chili dogs, Frito chili pie and hand-cut french fries. There’s no drive-thru window in this 66-year-old building, which is so unassuming that you might pass it…
If you missed Modest Mouse at Liberty Hall in September, good news: The Washington State six-piece is coming back to town in July, this time at Cricket Wireless Amphitheater. This tour continues in support of the band’s most recent album, Strangers to Ourselves (the first Modest Mouse album since 2007’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank). The band co-headlines with…
If you missed John Mellencamp when he came through in February at the Midland, you’ve got a second chance to hear the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer as he continues to promote his most recent album, Plain Spoken. Mellencamp stops at the Lied Center in Lawrence on Saturday, April 9. Carlene Carter will be opening. Tickets are on sale…
QC Holdings’ presence in Overland Park is one reason why Kansas City is often seen as a geographic nerve center for the world of payday lending. QC Holdings runs nearly 400 retail payday, title and installment loan shops around the country. But as regulators take a closer look at the practices employed by payday lenders, and as lawsuits against those…
I’ve never thought one could ever have too many oysters, but my beliefs — along with the stomachs of a few other brave eaters — might be challenged in February, when Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar holds its second annual oyster eating competition on Saturday, February 27. The competition is part of a full-scale oyster celebration put on by…
People at City Hall in Kansas City, Missouri, get jittery when they talk about April. It’s that month when voters get to decide on whether to renew the one percent earnings tax on income and business profits for people who live or work in Kansas City, or phase it out over 10 years. Without the largest single source of revenue…
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has leveraged his newly-awarded prosecutorial powers for a second time in the last six months, having charged three people with crimes related to election misconduct on Friday. Among those charged is Shawnee resident Michael Hannum, accused by Kobach’s office of double-voting in the November 6, 2012 general election. Hannum also faces charges of voting…
There are some people for whom the Dave Matthews Band will never go out of style. If you are in that crowd, mark your calendar for Wednesday, June 29, when the jam band celebrates its 25th anniversary with a tour stop at Cricket Wireless Amphitheater. Tickets go on sale Friday, February 19, at noon. Details here. Categories: Music, News Tags: cricket…
Local fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race will have the chance to root for their favorites from all the seasons when the Battle of the Seasons 2016 Extravaganza Tour stops at the Midland on Wednesday, June 8. Lineup varies by city and is subject to change, but you can expect the Midland date to feature Bendelacreme, Ivy Winters, Jinkx Monsoon, Ginger Minj, Violet…
