Arts & Entertainment >>

• Best Free Entertainment
  The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
  For sheer entertainment value, the Kemper Museum wins hands down. The art exhibitions are always free -- as are the "see and be seen" opening-night parties and the museum's many cultural events, ranging from the Sunday Cinema Series (the dates vary) to classical guitar concerts to preview... More >>
• Best Public Art Project
  Avenue of the Arts
  This summer's Avenue of the Arts project was everything next summer's controversial Cows on Parade project will not be -- thought-provoking, original artwork that generated well-deserved exposure for the local scene. From Dan Younger's large, colorful fiberglass spheres at 16th and Central to... More >>
• Best Temporary Public Art Piece
  Toss, Nate Fors
  Oh sure, everybody was talking about the underwear hanging out in front of the Folly Theater, but the real highlight of the summer's Avenue of the Arts Intersection Art Project was Nate Fors' Toss. In principle, it was real simple: a bunch of innertubes stacked up around some light poles. But it... More >>
• Best Thing Brewing in the River Market
  Late Night Theatre
  After years of a nomadic existence, Ron Megee, Missy Koonce, and the entire Late Night Theatre menagerie found a most appropriate home -- the former porn palace, the Old Chelsea. A benefit party in September gave a raucous preview of the evenings to come, complete with tours of the pornographic... More >>
• Best Car Wreck
  Light/Damage
  It's not infrequent that the set, sound, and lighting design is better than the play -- and the Unicorn's Light/Damage was a perfect example. A car wreck early in act one was staged with a slight pivot of the turntable and meticulous light cues, while the actors made themselves look injured in a... More >>
• Best Diva
  Cathy Barnett in Broadway Divas
  Cathy Barnett had worked the comedy clubs of New York, played On Golden Pond against Don Knotts, and performed Forbidden Broadway literally around the world. Yet nothing prepared us for her exhilarating cabaret debut at Quality Hill. Her "Ladies Who Lunch" from Stephen Sondheim's Company shook... More >>
• Best "Screw You" to the Kansas State Board of Education
  Inherit the Wind, Missouri Repertory Theatre
  Missouri Rep's last-minute substitution of Inherit the Wind, Robert E. Lee and Jerome Lawrence's fictionalized version of the Scopes monkey trial, was marred by a couple of feeble leads. But it got teenagers into the theater and made its point in spades -- it might have even helped push the... More >>
• Best Reason to Go to Union Station
  After Hours
  In the tourist mecca that never materialized, the McFadden Brothers and Dr. Ronnell Bright head a cast of African-American performers who, in After Hours, re-create what made Kansas City famous. The production gives the city its most rousing salute since the Royals beat the Cardinals in the... More >>
• Best Revival of a Revival
  The Rio Theatre
  Brett and Brian Mossman are some kind of angels. Their support of old films and old film houses is nonpareil in this town and, in their latest rehab in downtown Overland Park, there's an unpredictability to the programming that's making it a major player. Sunshine, a three-hour drama spanning... More >>
• Best Place to See Rock and Roll Up Close
  Replay Lounge
  With no stage to speak of, the Replay Lounge places musicians on equal footing with their fans. When relatively popular acts, such as the Murder City Devils, come to town, the club gets cramped, and band members can expect to have devil-horn hands thrust into their faces and, occasionally,... More >>
• Best Place to See a Platinum-Selling Act (Relatively) Up Close
  Liberty Hall
  Except during their stage-diving ventures, such magazine cover boys as the Deftones' Chino Moreno and the Wu-Tang Clan's Method Man weren't actually close enough to touch during their appearances at Liberty Hall this year. Still, it's rare that audiences can even see the facial expressions of... More >>
• Best Place to Get Your Pyrotechnics Fix at a Concert
  Sandstone Amphitheatre
  From Kiss' shooting balls of flame out of instruments to Iron Maiden's using fire in various and sundry ways to Britney Spears' punctuating her costume changes with colorful explosions, Sandstone's summer concert schedule provided the best thrills for those who believe a good concert should be... More >>
• Best All-Ages Club
  El Torreon
  All-ages venues have traditionally had a tough time surviving within Kansas City's limits, but El Torreon, formerly both a concert hall and a roller rink, is thriving a year after appearing on the scene. An excellent place for young fans to see local talent, including groups such as Parlay that... More >>
• Best Permanent Public Art Piece
  Modern Communication, Terry Allen
  Terry Allen's brilliant statue, Modern Communication, stands heroically between police headquarters and the municipal court building downtown, a monument to the plight of the common man. It's head and shoulders above all those forgettable bronze odes to war heroes and so-called civic leaders... More >>
• Best Place to Mosh Once a Year
  America's Pub (Battle of the Bands)
  Plenty of venues offer premium headbanging on a nearly nightly basis, chief among them Niener's (815 N. Noland Road), but America's Pub, which usually blasts 93.3 fare from Nelly, Jay Z, and Britney Spears, opens its doors on an annual basis to some of the city's finest headbanging acts. Groups... More >>
• Best Place to Hear Blues
  Grand Emporium
  Even if this was the "Best of the U.S.A." issue, the Grand Emporium would still rank among the top contenders; it's been named the premier blues club in the country on several occasions. The quality remains the same from night to night, but the styles change because club owner Roger Naber books... More >>
• Best Place to Dance Outdoors Until 3 a.m. Without Getting Arrested
  The Hurricane
  Unfortunately, raves keep getting busted, even when organizers do their best to keep the bad apples out of their scene. But The Hurricane features a DJ seven nights a week, so would-be ravers above the age of 21 who are looking to sweat on hot summer nights can boogie on the club's open-air... More >>
• Best Place to Hear Country
  Davey's Uptown
  Nothing communicates the message of a forlorn country singer better than a song delivered in a dim bar far removed from the bells and whistles of the suburbs and the jolly revelry of the entertainment district. Davey's Uptown might be just a few blocks from Westport, but that's far enough to... More >>
• Best Place to Go to a Random Concert
  The Bottleneck
  Home to the most diverse concert schedule in the region, The Bottleneck's typical week might include a trance DJ, a hip-hop crew, a blues-guitar sensation, a local rockabilly trio, and a pummeling death metal band. The midsize club opens its doors to some of alt-rock's elite (Mr. Bungle,... More >>
• Best Place to Hear Soul Records
  Pauly's on Broadway
  On Friday nights at Pauly's on Broadway, DJs Superwolf and Memphis Black spin sweet, sweet soul. Playing only 45s, the duo favors rare small-label funk records released between 1968 and 1974. Some of the selected artists are local; all are obscure. "We love the quality of the lo-fi production,"... More >>
• Best New Club
  El Torreon
  Plenty of jaded scenesters gave El Torreon little chance of avoiding the curse that seemed to plague all-ages clubs in Kansas City, but this venue weathered a silly anti-dancing ordinance and the shutdown of an after-hours dance club that operated within its walls to become a steady addition to... More >>
• Best Nightclub
  The Bottleneck
  No one books more diverse acts than The Bottleneck, which features an unbeatable assortment of early all-ages concerts and adults-only nightcaps, standout local acts, almost-famous buzz bands, high-volume rock, and subtle singer-songwriter showcases. Whether the sounds emanating from the stage... More >>
• Best New Area for Nightlife
  Downtown Kansas City
  Anchored by the dimly lit, hip dance club Trago (1108 Grand) and the sprawling three-story behemoth Life (21 W. 10th St.), downtown's reputation as a happening place for nightlife received a substantial boost in the past year. Both venues offer top-rate underground DJs, with Life devoting a room... More >>
• Best Local Music-Related Web Site
  The Zone
  Comprehensive in both its concert listings and its roster of featured bands (complete with updated contact information), The Zone is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in local sounds or for up-and-coming musicians looking to leave their calling cards on a high-traffic site. The forum... More >>
• Best Installation
  Cross Cut, James Turrell at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
  Kansas City was graced with a piece by master light sculptor James Turrell early this year. Cross Cut was less an art object than an experience -- a mysterious, otherworldly sensation. To see it, viewers entered a darkened room. After a few moments, as their eyes adjusted to the dearth of light,... More >>
• Best Place to Hear the Red Hot Chili Peppers
  96.5, The Buzz
  Since KLZR switched formats, it's been difficult to hear the kind of mid-'90s alternative rock personified by those adorable frat-funk scamps the Red Hot Chili Peppers anywhere on the dial. Now KRBZ 96.5 has filled the void, spinning grunge-era heroes Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Everclear, Beck, and... More >>
• Best Stage Presence
  Liz Nord, Sister Mary Rotten Crotch
  Sister Mary Rotten Crotch's Liz Nord can immediately captivate audiences with her playful, risqué dance moves and her intense delivery. And movement in the crowd increases noticeably after Nord's customary quip, "It's all right, you all can dance" -- fans seem reluctant to do anything... More >>
• Best Musical Makeover
  The Gadjits
  The Gadjits have come a long way in six years, from their early days as Operation Ivy-worshipping ska-pop sensations who opened their shows with a skankable version of the Inspector Gadget theme song to their present status as mature purveyors of power pop. Not that their old songs were bad --... More >>
• Best Homecoming
  The Get Up Kids at The Bottleneck
  The Get Up Kids sold out shows at venues around the country long before they packed local clubs to capacity, but area scenesters crammed into The Bottleneck on September 1 to give the group an affectionate send-off as it started its U.S. tour. Holding up their end of the bargain, the Kids... More >>
• Best Birthday Bash
  Brody Buster at the Grand Emporium
  Talented local blues players packed the place where Brody Buster hosted his birthday bash on August 22 at the Grand Emporium. It was the rare birthday party that gave a present to all who attended -- namely, the opportunity to see blues-harp wizard Buster jam with plenty of esteemed... More >>
• Best Clean-Up Job
  Tech N9ne at Spirit Fest
  Parents might not have "crumped" in their vocabularies, but once they learn that its synonymn is a none-too-nice word beginning with "f," it's likely they'll appreciate the verbal substitution skills of Kansas City's hip-hop hero Tech N9ne. His "clean" versions of even slightly profane products... More >>
• Best Goodbye Set
  Frogpond
  At the time, no one knew that Frogpond's April gig at the Internet-site-sponsored schmooze-fest Ant Eye Social would be one of its last, but with women in alien costumes lactating liquor from their nipples, a bikini-clad beauty surrounded by food in a "human buffet," and various other oddities... More >>
• Best Cover Song
  "Pussy," Sister Mary Rotten Crotch
  Though respected for its uncompromising street-punk songs, Sister Mary Rotten Crotch has won widespread notoriety for its crowd-pleasing cover of Lords of Acid's naughty rave-up "Pussy." Guitarist Allison Saunders nails the tune's melody, and Sister Mary's rhythm section pounds out the beat with... More >>
• Best Unreleased Song
  "Single Day," Kristie Stremel
  With the release of her six-song Detour EP, Kristie Stremel's faithful fans could finally take such concert standards as "What Gives?" and "Strong" home with them to enjoy. However, the prolific Stremel's finest acheivement remains available only at live appearances. "Single Day," an aching... More >>
• Best Local Release
  Starless, Shiner (Owned and Operated Recordings)
  Now signed to the Colorado-based label Owned and Operated, the always-innovative Kansas City-based quartet Shiner returned to action this spring with an album that ranks among the year's best -- locally and nationally. Relentlessly melodic and stealthily heavy, Starless pairs a steady wall of... More >>
• Best Exhibition Space
  H&R Block ArtSpace at the Kansas City Art Institute
  Hard to believe the H&R Block ArtSpace was once a boring old 1960s office building. Sure, the boxy hull is still intact, but from there all resemblance departs. Inside there's the height of cool modernism -- hard lines, minimalist surfaces and textures. The interior is at once invitingly... More >>
• Best Wizard of Oz Reference
  The Flaming Lips at The Granada
  Kansas residents know how annoying references to The Wizard of Oz can get, but The Flaming Lips paid loving tribute to Judy Garland's Dorothy without any hint of a patronizing tone. Launching into a psychedelic rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" during their mesmerizing April concert at... More >>
• Best Musical Mad Scientist
  Tie: Mark Reynolds/Scott Hobart
  An established and respected member of Kansas City's alt-rock scene for more than a decade, with stints in Cher U.K., Grither, and many, many other bands to his credit, Mark Reynolds remains one of the area's most prolific musicians. His latest trilogy, which consists of droning testaments to... More >>
• Best Denial of Newfound Stardom
  Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids
  Fame is great and all, but even musicians who have played major festivals and appeared on MTV on various occasions like to blend into the crowd when playing for friends and family. The Get Up Kids vocalist Matt Pryor's identity was partially obscured by the scruffy beard he now sports, but... More >>
• Best Local Artist
  Brodie Rush, Be/Non
  Whether he's crooning Prince covers in his skivvies or playing behind a white sheet at the Replay Lounge so that those walking by on the street have a better view of his band than those inside the club, no one delivers the unexpected quite like Brodie Rush. Be/Non's eerily appealing space rock... More >>
• Best 19th Century Artist in the Spencer and Nelson- Atkins Art Museums
  George Inness
  To hell with Claude Monet. The best turn-of-the-century painter was America's own George Inness. A full ocean away from the buzzing salons of Paris, this New Englander quietly worked his way toward some of the most sublime and impressionistic paintings ever created. His aim was to use paint to... More >>
• Best Newspaper Insert
  Slop's Supermarket, Wall-Art & Floor Clutterings, Adriane Herman and Brian Reeves
  For their contribution to the Kansas City Art Institute Faculty show, Adriane Herman and Brian Reeves affixed a newspaper dispenser to the wall with a sign on the front imploring one and all to "Take one! It's free!" Inside was Slop's Supermarket, Wall-Art & Floor Clutterings, a stack of what... More >>
• Best Play
  Wit, Unicorn Theatre
  Margaret Edson's play about an English poetry professor dying of ovarian cancer was a hard sell; the words "poetry," "professor," "dying," and "cancer" weighed rather heavily on the palate. Even Wit's Pulitzer Prize win prior to the Unicorn engagement didn't work in its favor -- that particular... More >>
• Best Musical
  Really Rosie, Coterie Theatre
  A musical about a day in the life of several poor and neglected kids? With music by Carole King, who hasn't exactly burned up the charts since the '70s, and an entire cast still young enough to use a nightlight, Really Rosie was fraught with a potential case of hypoglycemia. Yet less than... More >>
• Best 2000-01 Season
  Unicorn Theatre
  Its closest competition is Missouri Repertory Theatre, whose one yet-to-be-announced show could be a surprise or a yawn. But the Unicorn Theatre works very hard at snagging those shows that people talk about even during their initial runs 1,200 miles away -- shows such as Hedwig and the Angry... More >>
• Best Tour
  Rent at the Music Hall
  On its second swing through Kansas City, a less-committed cast might have been inclined to fake it. But Rent's opening 10 minutes still generated a surge of adrenaline that consistently reappeared. Seeing teenagers who entered the theater knowing little about it yet leave with Rent CDs and... More >>
• Best Actor
  Jim Korinke in The Music Man
  Jim Korinke's built a career on playing beleaguered straight guys caught in sticky situations. That may sound bland, but remember that it was Jimmy Stewart's career as well. And it was the perfect foundation for his Professor Harold Hill in The New Theatre's The Music Man. Here was a man who... More >>
• Best Actress
  Peggy Friesen in Wit
  Peggy Friesen has always been interesting playing that kind of fragile woman whose eccentricities stamp her as a nut. Who can forget her as Bananas in House of Blue Leaves, where she whimpered like a homesick dog while her husband choked the life out of her, or in Woman in Mind, where her own... More >>
• Best Supporting Actor
  Chad Jason Scheppner in As You Like It and King Lear
  Even sharing the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival stage with a blustery King, Chad Jason Scheppner stole every scene he was in. He demonstrated that a swagger that works from the inside out chemically produces the kind of charisma that can't be bottled. If he sticks around Kansas City after... More >>
• Best Supporting Actress
  Annemarie DesLaurias in The Coterie's Really Rosie
  Every day someone had to drive Annemarie DesLaurias into the city from Topeka, but the young actress made theatergoers grateful for every turnpike toll. In The Coterie's Really Rosie, she took the archetypal role of the lead female's best friend -- think Eve Arden or, lately, Janeane Garafolo --... More >>
• Best Ensemble
  The cast of Side Man at the Unicorn
  With Cheryl Weaver as the booze-swilling Mad Hatter, David Fritts as the preoccupied March Hare, and Scott Cordes and Kyle Mowrey having a THC (instead of tea) party, the cast of the Unicorn's Side Man imparted a palpable case of how misery loves a good company. More >>
• Best Troupers
  Stasha Case and David Reed
  As Peter Pan, Stasha Case sprinkled pixie dust over Theatre in the Park patrons this summer, much to a nephew's delight. But the preferred Case studies are the bimbos, drag kings, and politically incorrect ethnics she's donned in Late Night Theatre shows. Her Hop Sing in Bonanza a couple of... More >>
• Best Dawson's Creek Knockoff
  The Wrestling Season at The Coterie
  While the boy-to-boy kiss on the WB network's Dawson's Creek came off with hardly a twitter, the deplorable treatment of the gay teenager at the core of The Coterie's The Wrestling Season elicited a great deal of empathy from school groups all over town. In postplay discussions, nobody excused... More >>
• Best Underwear
  Gross Indecency: The Trials of Oscar Wilde
  At the trials depicted in Gross Indecency: The Trials of Oscar Wilde, where Wilde glibly defended his love of trashy rent boys, the boys themselves gave testimony in those one-piece Victorian undergarments that were akin to long johns cut off above the elbows and knees. Yeah, like they were... More >>