The truth is out there — and it’s hard to swallow for anyone who doesn’t wear crimson and blue and worship a mythical blue bird. The truth is that the Kansas Jayhawks this month clinched a 12th straight regular-season conference championship. The truth is that this was supposed to be the year when KU’s decade-plus of dominance maybe met its…
Kansas City has had mixed luck over the years with restaurants that focus on a single dish (as long as that dish isn’t pizza). The seeming simplicity of limited menus (crepes, baked potatoes, hot dogs) is the very thing that ultimately makes them tiresome. But a good idea, well-executed, can transcend novelty. It remains to be seen whether restaurateur Kal…
In an unassuming strip mall in Overland Park, next to a Chipotle, you’ll find eight recent collages by artist Stephanie Summers, each a separate testament to her strong compositional instincts — and her restless eye. Summers has produced cut-paper collages for about a decade, she tells me when I meet her at her home and temporary studio in the River…
“That’s the way the cookie crumbles” isn’t really about baked goods. It means something akin to the Spanish que sera sera (what will be, will be) or, simply, “that’s life.” The better the cookie, however, the sweeter the that’s-life crumble. That’s what I came away thinking this past week after visiting three distinctive downtown bakeries that have changed hands in…
Musical Theater Heritage goes rogue with its latest show, veering away from its usual semi-staged, line-of-mics platform into what looks like a jazz club — or, perhaps, a penthouse — with sofas and lamps, and musicians in view. We feel like part of the party as cast members sing, dance, carouse and converse their way through An Evening With Cole…
The sentiment is so common, it hardly bears repeating: Good theater depends on good design. But never has one designer’s vision seemed so critical to a play’s success than it does in Roof of the World, the Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s world-premiere production of playwright D. Tucker Smith’s script. The play begins in New Delhi in 1967, with a young…
%{}% There was a brief period when Kathryn Golden thought that PorchFestKC — the sprawling, free, daytime acoustic-music festival she organized in 2014 and 2015, which took over the porches of West Plaza homeowners — might not have a future. Last September, the West Plaza Neighborhood Association voted against sponsoring PorchFestKC for another year. Golden was disappointed, but she understood…
Not so long ago, the sleek storefront at 1520 Grand Boulevard housed the short-lived nightclub One, and the hallmarks of that previous tenant remain: gleaming, reflective exterior walls and polished, dark-tinted windows. (On the opposite side of the street, reflected in those shiny surfaces: the Cigar Box’s forest-green awning and Temptations’ salacious “totally nude” sign.) It doesn’t bear even the…
The downstairs jazz club in the Majestic thrived as a speakeasy during Prohibition, a favorite place for politicians to imbibe. An atmosphere of illicit elegance remains. On Friday and Saturday nights, that room is energized with the barrelhouse piano of Bram Wijnands, recalling the days when booze, jazz and sin put Kansas City on the map as the “Paris of…
Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen Thursday night at the Uptown, Grammy Award–winning artist Lyle Lovett co-headlines with fellow Texas singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen: two master storytellers with a long history of mutual admiration. For this show — one of just a few on this special spring tour — Lovett and Keen swap tales and songs onstage, armed with acoustic…
Missouri Republicans aren’t known for their self-awareness. After all, wasn’t it their super-majorities in the House and Senate that were supposed to reform ethics among lawmakers, only to have one of their own sent home for good for carrying on an affair that may have occurred at various points in the state capitol? Maybe Missouri lawmakers were too busy watering…
Just ahead of The Pitch’s 2016 Sugar Rush, we reported that Funnel Cake Truck owner Michael Bradbury was pulling out all the fried-goodie stops to win the night, having come close two years ago. It worked: Funnel Cake Truck took the contest, edging out serious competition from gelato shop Paciugo (which drew a steady line of eaters all night) and…
It’s been a month since the Summit Grill & Bar in Waldo (500 West 75th Street) introduced “Tuesday Ramen Night,” featuring a $13 bowl of ramen noodles in a fragrant, long-simmered broth and an $8 Asian-inspired appetizer. Both dishes are the creations of chefs Po Wang and Thomas Paradise. That culinary duo are already full-time employees of the two Summit Grill…
The folks at Up-Down want to find out who is the best arcade gamer in Kansas City. On Sunday, March 20, Up-Down will hold the first King of Cade competition. Thirty-two competitors will be assigned randomly to games — arcade games, pinball, skee-ball and Nintendo 64 — throughout Up-Down until the King of Cade is crowned in this double-elimination tournament. The…
Funk and soul will take over the Crossroads on Thursday, May 12, when Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings — along with Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue — stop at CrossroadsKC. No word yet on whether or not the powerhouse singer and her band are getting ready to release a follow-up to the Grammy-nominated 2014 album Give the People What They…
In June, just a month after his 75th birthday, Bob Dylan will be going back out on the road in support of a new album called Fallen Angels. This will be a follow-up to last year’s Shadows in the Night, which featured Frank Sinatra covers. Dylan stops at Starlight on Tuesday, June 21. Mavis Staples — who performs on Sunday at the…
The Kansas City Roller Warriors’ new season begins Saturday, March 5, at Memorial Hall (600 North Seventh Street, Kansas City, Kansas). Get there when doors open at 5 p.m. to get a good seat. The action starts at 6, so get ready for the Dreadnaught Dorothys, the Victory Vixens, the Knockouts and the Black Eye Susans to throw down on…
Some of my political contacts scoff at the notion that Roy Blunt could lose his Senate seat. National pundits seem to agree. The often reliable Charlie Cook Political Report rates Blunt’s seat as a likely hold for the 2016 elections. Missouri has sent Blunt to Washington, D.C., since 1997. He started as a House member in the year that the…
The No. 1-ranked Kansas Jayhawks (26-4) have won 10 straight games and have secured the Big-12 regular season championship. Led by Perry Ellis, Frank Mason III, and Wayne Selden, the Jayhawks are versatile and prove to be a tough matchup for any team. Kansas has just one regular season game remaining, a tilt against No. 21-ranked Iowa State on March…
Bad Company and Joe Walsh are calling their new co-headlining tour One Hell of A Night, which seems like one big promise we can be sure the classic rockers will deliver on. In a press release, we’ve already been promised certain classics: There will be “Rocky Mountain Way,” “Life’s Been Good To Me So Far” and “Life In The Fast Lane”…
Elmer “Lee” Fields grew up in North Carolina, singing along to the country, soul and pop music that came through on his transistor radio. He knew he had talent, and at just 17 years old he boarded a bus for New York City, never looking back. His nearly 50-year career in soul includes collaborations with artists as varied as Kool…
