Never Far

Next time you catch yourself bitching about how life in this decade yanks everyone in too many directions at once, consider Unicorn Theatre Artistic Director Cynthia Levin. There she is, chin-deep in rehearsals on one show and in rewrites on two others, and somehow she still conveys instructions to the contractors charged with prepping the Unicorn's Next Stage for its mid-February debut. Maybe that's why she barrels through a conversation when she talks up tonight's 8 p.m. world premiere of Gregg Coffin's musical Rightnextto Me. She exudes the same excitement that has jolted her theater — and Kansas City theater in general — to life for more than 30 years. The show examines the lives of several couples, each played by Teri Adams and Jerry Jay Cranford (pictured below). One marriage is wrenched by war, with the husband serving in Iraq. "She wakes up at 3:45 a.m. every night with a dream that he has died or that she can't get ahold of him," Levin says. "That's the double-edged sword today. When we have that constant communication with e-mail and cell phones and MySpace, there's this immediately terrifying feeling when you don't have that." No such communication anxiety afflicts the production. Levin and her cast have been collaborating closely with Coffin, who has spent months polishing his script and score. "We're just now, today, getting the final song of the show," she says. "I think this is insane. How can I keep this up? Then I think, How can I not keep this up?" The Unicorn Theatre is at 3828 Main. Call 816-531-7529 for ticket information. Unicorn Theatre
Tuesdays-Saturdays. Starts: Nov. 28. Continues through Dec. 30, 2007