Stage Capsule Reviews

 Bye Bye Birdie Not only will we leave "humming and cheering" and "amazed at these kids and their spirit," but we'll probably wind up proclaiming this run at Johnson County's Theatre in the Park our highest achievement as a civilization. (At least, that's the word we're getting from a couple of shmoes with free Yahoo accounts.) We'll grant that the songs are good, the kids are almost always committed little dynamos, director Jay Coombes knows his way around a musical, and grabbing your crew and spreading a blanket on the grass at Shawnee Mission Park is a pleasant way to spend your summer evening. But the anonymous Yahoo hype leaves one wondering: How the hell does anyone hum and cheer at the same time? What does that even sound like? Through Aug. 6 at Shawnee Mission Park, 17501 Midland Dr. in Lenexa, 913-312-8841.

Europe One Night Stand has a continent's worth of ground to cover in just one evening. Born from UMKC's graduate theater department, the new production company is dedicated to one-and-done events. Plays would be enough, coming from the daring bunch behind The Maid's Tragedy, The Circus Show and Black Snow. But they also promise enough music, food and drink to warrant the label "gala." At this, the outfit's first event, the show is Australian playwright Michael Gow's Europe, the allusive story of an Australian man searching the titular continent for an actress for whom he has fallen. The rest: an auction, plus music from Valery Price (winner of the Bar Natasha Idol contest). A Sunday night preview eschews all but the play. Aug. 7 at UMKC's Grant Hall, Room 306, 5228 Charlotte. Reservations are recommended; see http://www.davidfehr.net/ europe.htm.

Fiddler on the Roof We've heard great things about Neal Benari's Tevye in this New Theatre import of the Broadway revival. The show that brought the shtetl to American pop, Fiddler deserves to be reclaimed from high schools and kitsch; it's the rare musical that means something to people who don't care about theater. I've heard "Sunrise, Sunset" reduce everyone to quivering lumps at more than one wedding. We won't even complain about having to shell out for dinner — buffets were huge back in the homeland, right? Through Aug. 27 at New Theatre Restaurant, 9229 Foster, Overland Park, 913-649-7469.

The Fifth of July and Talley's Folly We met the Talley family of Lebanon, Missouri, in the stirring Talley's Folly, the moondrunk romance that kicks off Lanford Wilson's great trilogy and is running all summer long, so get out there, people. Set 30 years later, Fifth of July gives us the Talleys in the '70s, coping with adulthood, Vietnam and what had become of American life. Good as Folly is, July is even more promising: a richer script, starring the bulk of the Kansas City Actors Theatre's best and directed by Mark Robbins, a man so skilled, he could direct the Royals to victory. Through Sept. 3 at Union Station's City Stage, 18 W. Pershing Rd., 816-235-6222.