theater

Frankie and Johnnie in the Claire De Lune Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre, the most welcome addition to the local stage since the debut of the Kansas City Actors Theatre, was recently chucked from its homey garage space. For this mounting of Terrence McNally's hard-edged romance, the company has secured temporary shelter at 36th Street and Main. There's good news, though: Director Karen Paisley has wrangled Jan Chapman and James Wright for her leads, which might just be enough to wash away the stink of Laverne & Shirley creator Garry Marshall's senseless film version. Through Feb. 24 at 3604 Main, 816-536-9464. (Alan Scherstuhl)

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change The comely young things in Steven Eubank and Daniel Doss' crisp, exciting production of this shticky musical manage a kinda-sorta triumph over a script they outclass. This is one of those revues packed with songs and sketches on a theme — in this case, dating and marriage. The numbers are jaunty but predictable; most climax with a spoken joke just before the razzle-dazzle final notes. The singing is strong, the choral passages stirring, and the piano accompaniment by musical director Doss wholly satisfying. It's the American Heartland Theatre with a sex life. Through Feb. 23 at Just Off Broadway Theatre, 3051 Central, 800-838-3006. (Alan Scherstuhl) (Reviewed in our February 7 issue.)

9 Parts of Desire The Unicorn inaugurates its new Jerome Stage, one door north of the theater's established entrance, with a production that's typically atypical. Heater Raffo's 9 Parts of Desire examines the lives of disparate Iraqi women — wives and daughters, artists and radicals, the traditional and the modern — and explores how selves can flourish in infinite varieties even amid great hardship. Promisingly, Cheryl Weaver and Jennifer Aguilar star, with Artistic Director Cynthia Levin directing. Through March 2 at the Unicorn Theatre, 3828 Main, 816-531-7529. (Alan Scherstuhl)

Quindaro Here's something interesting. With a script commissioned from playwright Kathleen McGhee-Anderson, UMKC's top-notch theater department sets its young artists on one of the most remarkable — and hopeful — moments in local or American history: the story of Quindaro, Kansas, a river town turned Underground Railroad safehouse. McGhee-Anderson examines how, for five years starting in 1856, whites, blacks and American Indians united to accomplish dangerous, indisputable goods — all just miles from downtown KC. This production, directed by Ricardo Khan and featuring I'll Fly Away regular Bill Cobbs, runs through Feb. 24 at Union Station's City Stage, 18 W. Pershing, 816-460-2020. (Alan Scherstuhl)