Night & Day Events
26 Thursday
On September 17, 1964, Charles O. Finley, owner of the Kansas City A’s baseball team, paid $150,000 for The Beatles to play at Municipal Stadium. At 7 tonight, and again at 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday, The Beatles return — at least to the extent that’s possible — when the Kansas City Symphony presents Classical Mystery Tour — A Tribute to The Beatles at the Music Hall, 13th and Central. The second concert in the symphony’s American Century NightLights Pops Series, Classical Mystery Tour casts the original members of the Broadway hit Beatlemania in a re-creation of the first Beatles appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The ticket prices, however, are being re-created only for those who might have seen the Fab Four live the first time: Seniors get a discount, and for the youngsters this trip runs $26 to $51. For information, call 816-471-0400.
27 Friday
“Perhaps you can say that the paintings are ‘abstract pictures,’ because they use the means of abstraction in order to engage in the picture plane as just that — a plane for picturing to happen.” That’s what Jonathan Lasker has said of his work; elsewhere it’s been described as “fueled by luscious brushstrokes, crazily meandering lines, jarring color combinations, and intent geometric arrangements.” A New York- and California-educated artist whose work has been exhibited internationally — it’s currently on view at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris — Lasker will do more of his own explaining when he presents a free lecture at 7 tonight at Johnson County Community College’s Carlsen Center, 12345 College Boulevard in Overland Park. For more information, call the college at 913-469-8500.
In commemoration of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the 2nd Annual Domestic Violence Survivors Rally takes place at 5 p.m. at Mill Creek Park on the Plaza. Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes and Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison are both scheduled to give speeches, but more compelling than the political platitudes undoubtedly will be testimony from two women, Kim and Shari, who’ll testify on how they survived. The area’s six domestic violence shelters sponsor the event, and they’ll have plenty of information available for women who need it. For more information, call 913-432-9300, ext. 19.
28 Saturday
René Heredia loved his guitar so much as a child that the two were inseparable. His gypsy father taught him the rudiments of flamenco at an early age, and their house was always full of famous performers, such as Carlos Montoya and Sabicas; by the age of 13, Heredia and his five siblings were Los Heredia, doing concerts, television shows, and supper-club performances. Spain’s great dancer Carmen Amaya discovered Heredia when he was 17 and made him her lead guitarist, which set his international, award-winning career in motion. Accompanied by the 10 lavishly costumed dancers in his Flamenco Fantasy Dance Theatre Company, Heredia makes a rare appearance in Kansas City tonight at 8 at the Community Christian Church, 4601 Main. Tickets, $17, are available at the door or through Ticketmaster, 816-931-3330.
This is from the folks who brought you the Martini Making class. Since 1970 Communiversity has offered a low-cost, alternative education to the people of Kansas City. Housed on the upper floors of the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s University News house, at 5327 Holmes, Communiversity has rounded up local experts to teach classes on everything from tango to tax preparation. Now Communiversity and UMKC want to thank Kansas Citians for their support at a celebration from noon to 4:30 p.m. with live music by the Traditional Music Society, the folk group Crosscurrents, and jazz from Dave Stephens as well as belly dancing and other appropriately eclectic presentations. The free events take place at Pierson Auditorium inside the University Center at 50th and Rockhill; for more information, call 816-235-1448
29 Sunday
The Writers Place, the stately mansion at 3607 Pennsylvania, is said to be occupied by a mischievous ghost. All of those rattling chains and strange thuds might just be the sounds of tortured, creative minds at work — the place is, after all, a frequent haunt for many of Kansas City’s litterateurs. We’ll know more for sure after tonight’s The Haunting, a candlelit séance led by noted psychic David Schneider (former host of TV’s Psychic Voyages). If the ghost doesn’t show, so what? The $10 donation benefits the Writers Place, where patrons have sufficiently vivid imaginations that they’ll probably conjure up something scary anyway. The psychic voyage begins at 8; for more information, call 816-753-1090
30 Monday
It’s a bit of a haul up to Atchison, Kansas, but since this is one of the most beautiful times of the year for a drive in the country, it just might be worth it for one of tonight’s trolley tours through what is allegedly “the most haunted town in Kansas.” The narrated rides depart from the Santa Fe Depot, 200 S. 10th Street, at 9, 10, and 11:30 p.m.; there’s popcorn, hot apple cider, and bags of Halloween treats for the kids. For information — and directions — call 800-234-1854.
31 Tuesday
How I Learned to Drive, Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about family dysfunctions — including incest — continues tonight at the Inge Theatre in Murphy Hall at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Though the play is disturbing, it somehow manages to be funny as well — “One of the most troubling aspects of the play is that Vogel makes us laugh as she tells the unsettling story of a young woman’s first sexual experiences in the front seat of her uncle’s car,” says Leslie Atkins Durham, a KU doctoral student in theater. The play continues through November 4; for tickets ($12 for the public, $11 for seniors, and $6 for students), call Murphy Hall at 785-864-3982, the Lied Center at 785-864-ARTS, or SUA at 785-864-3477, or log onto www.kutheatre.com.
1 Wednesday
Although it’s hard to imagine much from the 1940s that would have been “fun-filled,” that’s what the American Heartland Theatre promises when The 1940’s Radio Hour crackles onto the stage tonight at 8. Part play and part musical revue, the production is set on December 21, 1942, during an era that lives in infamy but still manages to evoke plenty of warm, nostalgic emotions, especially when someone sings “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” or “I’ll Be Seeing You.” The show runs through January 7; for tickets, $15 to $28.50, call the American Heartland box office at 816-842-9999.
