Birds of a Feather
The members of Late Night Theatre have earned an enthusiastic following with shows such as their all-male salutes to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and Brian De Palma’s Carrie. But despite their remarkable ability to impersonate women, they’ve been unable to play a part in Mayor Kay Barnes‘ vision for a more exciting downtown.
Not for lack of trying. First, the actors put on several shows at the Old Chelsea, a former porn emporium in the River Market that they had to vacate when it was razed to make way for an eventual development. Then they mounted The Stepford Wives in the West Bottoms’ Hobbs Building. So Late Night’s artistic director Ron Megee was ablaze with happiness last year when he signed a lease on a marbled former bank building at 1531 Grand. Though shows there are frequently sold out, Late Night has been daunted by unexpected construction woes — and city code inspectors who seem to hold grudges against guys in dresses.
“Right now we’re barely making out, and I’m always thinking of ways to save this theater,” Megee says.
Now he’s close to consummating an unorthodox partnership. Theater League president Mark Edelman — the guy who first brought Beauty and the Beast to Kansas City — is about to embrace some beauties with deeper voices.
Edelman, who brings touring Broadway shows to the Music Hall, says he’s invited Megee “to consider coming under our umbrella.”
The relationship started when the Theater League recently bestowed a four-figure grant upon Late Night. “Not only because it’s theater and not only because it’s downtown,” Edelman says, but (memo to Kay) “because people like Ron deserve a lot of community support. A talent like that should be nurtured.”
Besides, Edelman says, “If Ron has to sell the tickets, lay out the ads and write the checks, that’s too much. He could benefit from our people on the business side refining what he’s doing so he can be free to be an artist.”
Megee, currently wearing blond ponytails in the new show The Importance of Being Three’s Company, hints that he’s almost certain to jump into bed with the Theater League — a coupling that would take Late Night far beyond the lights of donwntown Kansas City.
Edelman’s organization has theaters across the country — a handful in the Los Angeles area as well as in Phoenix, Tucson, Toledo and Wichita. Edelman thinks Late Night could fill an entertainment void in some of those locales. “[Late Night’s] is a season you could do in Phoenix or in L.A.,” he says. “Maybe not Toledo.”
“I totally love that,” Megee says. “Maybe we’ll find that Kansas City audiences are just twisted and Phoenix audiences aren’t.”
