Archive Search Results
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Studies in Crap
The Old Slow News Day
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: June 18, 2009
Title: Sports, classified and TV sections of the Kansas City Kansan Date: Sunday, May 7, 1967 Discovered at: Fairway estate sale Representative quotes: “Proud...
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Stage
The Unicorn’s Speech & Debate team has something to say, as do Ron Simonian’s potty-mouthed characters
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: June 18, 2009
Although we're in the traditional dead weeks of early summer, fresh work is flourishing on Kansas City stages. That's a problem in which to luxuriate. At the Unicorn Theatre,...
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Stage
The audience zooms in on Hamlet’s existential dread
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: June 11, 2009
A sign outside UMKC's Studio 116 warns that the urgent, intimate Hamlet inside "contains adult themes and may cause motion sickness." This isn't a joke. Just a couple of...
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Studies in Crap
Blast From the Past
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: June 4, 2009
Title: Coronet magazine Date: September 1947 Discovered at: North Kansas City estate sale The cover promises: “The tragic failure of America’s women: a shocking...
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Stage
It’s Frank’s world — the singers at Quality Hill Playhouse just live in it
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: June 4, 2009
Less than five minutes into All Sinatra, Quality Hill Playhouse's rousing but overstuffed cabaret tribute to the greatest pop singer of the 20th century, Jon Daugharthy set my...
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Night & Day
Wordy Woman
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: May 28, 2009
As the title of her one-woman show In Conclusive Woman implies, Julie Rae Pratt is, like most, a whole host of things at once — not only friend, lover, sister and mother,...
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Night & Day
New Laughs
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: May 28, 2009
Despite the half-filled bars and the departure of Stanford and Sons, comedy flourishes in Westport. Better still, it's of the low-price, off-the-cuff variety, with ComedyCity...
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Studies in Crap
That Was Entertainment
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: May 28, 2009
Once framed and hung in a Prairie Village kitchen, this single column of yellowed 1910 Kansas City Star newsprint heralds last century's theatrical amusements and serves as a...
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Critic's Choice
Sugarland
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: May 28, 2009
It's no insult to point out that country music radio confectioners Sugarland are about as pop as country comes. That's pop as it used to be: melodically unfussy, equal parts...
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Stage
After seeing the Rep’s A Flea in Her Ear, the critic is buzzed
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: May 28, 2009
At the Kansas City Repertory Theatre's dizzy, lavish A Flea in Her Ear, there's only one problem most audience members might face: They might be glutted. So generous is...
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Studies in Crap
G-mail
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: May 21, 2009
Title: E-mail From God for Teens Author: Claire and Curt Cloninger Publisher: RiverOak Publishing Date: 1999 Discovered at: Goodwill, Olathe The cover promises: Can God craft a...
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Critic's Choice
They Might Be Giants
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: May 21, 2009
The world could stand to be in love again, and the ocean levels are damn sure rising up, so here's to revisiting Flood, They Might Be Giants' brand-new record of 1990, that...
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Stage
MET’s Kiss of the Spider Woman can’t quite escape its confines
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: May 21, 2009
Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre's courageous production of Terrence McNally's Kiss of the Spider Woman (music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebbs) isn't quite what I would...
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Studies in Crap
Back in Time
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: May 14, 2009
Title: HBO & ZZ99 Present Starlight ’84 Summer Spectacular Publisher: New West and Contemporary Productions Date: 1984 Discovered at: Waldo Antiques The cover promises:...
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Stage
Improv troupes kill in Westport; The Taffetas is a sugar rush
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: May 14, 2009
Westport seemed slow on a Saturday night. As I scarfed a slice between comedy shows, the guy at Joe's Pizza confirmed it. "Yesterday was slow, too," he said to paramedics on a...
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Stage
Bare at the Unicorn and The Witches at the Coterie: See ’em both in all their glory.
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: May 7, 2009
Bare, the potent new musical at the Unicorn, tells a familiar story — Catholic-school boys struggling with their sexuality — in a familiar form. What's surprising...
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Studies in Crap
Hope Heads South
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: May 7, 2009
Title: Indian Creek Pathfinder Authors: The yearbook staff (and autograph givers) of Indian Creek Junior High School Date: 1971-72 school year Discovered at: 2nd Chance...
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Studies in Crap
Cheer Up, Fatty
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: April 30, 2009
Title: CHEERLEADING! Authors: Pauline Finberg and Peter Filichia Publisher: Scholastic Date: 1983 Discovered at: Used book store in Winnipeg, Manitoba The cover promises:...
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Stage
Bare at the Unicorn and The Witches at the Coterie: See ’em both in all their glory
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: April 30, 2009
Bare, the potent new musical at the Unicorn, tells a familiar story — Catholic-school boys struggling with their sexuality — in a familiar form. What's surprising...
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Night & Day
Truly Masterful
By Alan Scherstuhl
Published: April 23, 2009
We're anticipating that The Master and Margarita is going to be an event. It's the latest KC play to be directed by Barry Kyle, of the Royal goddamn Shakespeare Company (and...
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