Kansas City News Blog

UMKC's production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia closes this Sunday, before our next issue goes to press. Because it's a fine production of a play touched with greatness, we're running a review here, now. Also, the review doesn't mention lights or sound or costumes, which all were fine, because, Christ, have you ever tried to summarize Arcadia?

Kristi Lewczenko

Zachary M. Andrews and Anna Safar

​ Just a year or so back, when UMKC's Graduate Theatre Department often outdid the Repertory Theatre with which it shares a building, no theater event would get me worked up as much as the department's annual visit of faintly notorious director Barry Kyle of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

These days, the Rep is at last boxing in its weight class, but a Kyle show remains an event, a rousing education not just for his grad students but for anyone who appreciates ambitious theater.

Taking on Arcadia, Tom Stoppard's heady stab at a theory of everything, Kyle forgos his grand flourishes and instead contents himself with setting in motion a little galaxy. His cast circles about debating truth and beauty, thought and feeling, order and chaos, sometimes reckless and human but by the end waltzing along like the spheres of the ancients.

For all his daring and the relative lavishness of his productions, Kyle distinguishes this show by force and clarity of movement, by the way each stride or pause is a small revelation.

If you missed Willie Aames' turn on VH1's Broke & Famous last night, clips are now online, including footage of Aames' Johnson County garage sale (see it below and read about it here and here). The show airs again today at 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on VH1.

Also, if you need financial advice, who better to advise you than a guy who's squandered his fortune and is on the rebound, right?

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Workers will be putting in long hours in the next few days preparing the Independence Events Center for its opening weekend.

The building holds 5,800 for hockey. Its principal tenant is the Missouri Mavericks, who are 2-5 in Central Hockey League play. The team practices in an adjacent rink that's open to the public when large, skilled Canadians are off the ice.

In addition to hockey, the events center is vying for concerts too big for the Uptown but not quite worthy of the Sprint Center. The Zac Brown Band and Tech N9ne perform this month.

A ribbon cutting and open house take place on Saturday. At 2 p.m. on Sunday, varsity high school teams representing Independence and Rockhurst will play in the main arena. (The game is free.)

The road-weary Mavericks play their first home game on Friday, November 13, at 7:05 p.m.

Click here or on the photo for a slideshow.

Yeah, Halloween's over. But this video by T2 is too sweet not to share.

The video was "written, produced and executed by T2" and shot October 2 at Studio Dan Meiners.


There's also an extended cut. Just wait for the drill. It's pretty gruesome.

Via Hallmark's Cre.A.Tiv.I.Ty blog.

Willie "Bibleman" Aames' new and humbling television show, Broke and Famous, airs on VH1 Thursday night, and according to Entertainment Tonight, the former Charles in Charge star's Johnson County garage sale -- filmed for the VH1 show in March -- will be featured on the show.


I was there with the Pitch Action News Team -- read about it here and here -- and it was really uncomfortable. Fawning housewives picked over the former Eight is Enough star's possessions and sang the Charles in Charge theme. Aames just sat there haggled over prices for mounted animal heads, DVDs and a Teen Beat, which the Crap Archivist bought for $3 (read all about the transaction in Studies in Crap and see Aames reminisce about touring with Hall & Oates after the jump). And here's the day in photos. 

I knew it was bad, but I didn't know how low Aames had sunk -- until Rugg asked to use the restroom.

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Pitch photographer Scott Spychalski survived Halloween night at downtown's Power & Light District. As to the fate of the folks in his photos ... we're not so sure. Click the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man for a slideshow (and look out for Luke Skywalker riding a tauntaun).

28 days after Zombieland, "zombie" is hardly even a noun anymore. It's gone adjective, especially when it comes to costume time: the Coterie at Night's show Maul of the Dead boasts a zombie nun, a zombie Girl Scout, a zombie ballerina, and Cody Wyoming as a zombie punk-rock guitar hero whose riffs will shred your brains before he even has a chance to eat 'em.

Up against such awesomeness, who in their right mind will dress up this weekend as a mere plain-jane, vanilla-yogurt, one-size-fits-all zombie?

For zombie advice, we turned to Ron Megee, the director of Maul of the Dead and a world-class wrangler of the undead.


Megee's Maul of the Dead is a splattery blast. It runs through Halloween night at Crown Center's Off-Center Theatre (Friday and Saturday at 7, 9 and 11 p.m.).

See our review here, and visit the Coterie Theatre's Web site for tickets.

Author and minor television personality John Hodgman might best be known to your mom and dad as the charming portrayer of PC in Apple's funny, iconic Mac/PC advertisements, but you probably know him as The Daily Show's "Resident Expert" and the author of two totally unresearched, totally untrue almanacs of fake trivia: The Areas of My Expertise and its direct continuation (as proven by the page numbering), More Information Than You Require.

Hodgman also contributes to McSweeney's and edits the humor section of the New York Times Magazine. He played minor parts in Tina Fey's Baby Mama, Ricky Gervais' The Invention of Lying and Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Battlestar Galactica. Hodgman will be in town for a reading at Unity Temple on the Plaza on November 6, and The Pitch spoke with him by phone this week. After the jump, MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE about John Hodgman:

On Friday night, the Folly Theater was full of men and women in tuxedos and ball gowns, sipping wine and greeting each other with kisses on the cheek. The audience for Ailey II was a who's who of city elite: Congressman Emanuel Cleaver; Tom McDonnell, CEO of DST Systems; Kansas City City Manager Wayne Cauthen.

Photo by Nicole Reinertson

​But those weren't the VIPs at this performance.

Up in the balcony, the back rows of the renovated venue were packed with kids in jeans and parkas, all students in the Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey dance programs. Because of KCFAA's unique ties to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City, local kids get an unprecedented chance to see and study with some of the nation's most talented young dancers. While the slate of Ailey II performances, which raised more than $180,000 for local youth programming, started on Thursday, the professionals spent plenty of time off stage and in the community.

Tyrone Aiken, KCFAA's executive director, says the dancers visited not only area schools, like Cristo Rey, but also traveled to Lansing Correctional Facility to perform for the prisoners. Later in the week, more than 3,000 children packed into the Folly for mini-performances that, Aiken says, had students dancing in their seats. On Friday, the show had a similar effect, bringing the audience of movers and shakers -- and wide-eyed students -- to their feet for a standing ovation.

Click here for a slideshow of the stunning performance.

Chris Seferyn

​ The Velvet Dog, Martini Corner's flagship establishment, will celebrate its crystal anniversary this weekend. I sat down with Chris Seferyn, owner of the VD (400 East 31st St.) and Mint Ultra Lounge (334 East 31st St.), to discuss what it takes to keep things rollin' in Midtown for 5,475 days.

​The Pitch: So what's been your secret to keeping the business going for 15 years?

Chris Seferyn: I believe that a good bar is a community service and every town needs good bars. And it's up to people like myself to pay attention to what's going on, listen to people and figure out how to design something that people will enjoy so when they go out, they have places to go.

I noticed you don't book any bands or have any regularly scheduled entertainment. Is there a reason for that?

The Velvet Dog is a lounge. A lounge could be a lot of things. It could be a torch singer. It could be a jazz band. It could be a DJ. Anything. The Dog was never really about live music, per se. The first five to seven years we were open, all the other people that played music at all the other places, hung out here when they weren't performing. It's just a chill spot with really good music, eclectic vibe, retro feel. It's not necessarily about entertainment, although we do have some DJs, and I'm going to start expanding the flow and make the Dog more of a DJ lounge. Part of this anniversary party is kind of the end of the old Dog and the beginning of the new Dog.

After some complaints from groups such as the United Farm Workers, Target and Toys R Us have stopped selling this "illegal alien" costume.

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The United Farm Workers' Web site says:

The extra terrestrial creature perpetuates racism and discrimination in an already hostile environment and during a period of time when the debate on immigration reform is increasingly hateful and divisive.

Apparently Amazon doesn't see a problem with it; you can buy the costume -- if you want to take your chances on getting popped in the face -- for $68.95. (Walgreens is offering the same one for $39.99.) But that's not all. Amazon is also selling a "Sexy Border Patrol costume" ...

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and this illegal alien mask ...

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and this "Mexican costume" ...

​and this "Hey Amigo costume."

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Is this all just hyper-sensitive political correctness rum amok? Or are these truly offensive? Cast your vote now.

Comedian/singer Stephen Lynch was supposed to be at the Midland on Thursday night but the show has been "postponed due to a personal emergency."

A make-up date has already been announced for Saturday, December 12. So hang on to your tickets. And if you want a refund, you gotta go back to where you bought your tix.

Here's something to tie you over (and in the spirit of the season).

The Next American Dream

​Part history lesson, part infomerical, a 60-minute program about downtown Kansas City's rebirth aired for the first time on KCPT-TV last night.

The Next American Dream is essentially a story about suburban sprawl, peppered with pretty images of the Sprint Center and First Fridays. Funded by the Greater Kansas City Area Development Council, Dream paints a portrait of a city a bit more dynamic and progressive than it really is. But by the end credits, even cynics of the way business gets done in Kansas City will feel excited by what's taken place over the last five to 10 years.

The program is beautifully photographed and uses an interesting mix of experts. In addition to the ghosts of Kansas City CEOs past (Gary Forsee, Mark Ernst, Peter Brown), the filmmakers interviewed Bob Berkebile, the environmentally conscious architect, and Christopher Leinberger, an urban land strategist affiliated with the Brookings Institute. Leinberger does an excellent job of explaining the postwar suburban flight that left urban centers in decay. At one point, Leinberger chides the U.S. politicians and planners for throwing out the knowledge ("what the ancients knew instinctively") accrued over 8,000 years of city building.

Pitch theater critic Alan Scherstuhl tells me that "Into the Woods" is the best show he's ever seen at the Kansas City Rep. So if you're a public service employee and you're free Wednesday at 7 p.m., the Kansas City Repertory Theatre has a great deal. You can see the show for free.

Here's the full details: If you're a solider, police officer, firefighter, EMT, ambulance driver or a city or county worker in Jackson, Johnson, Wyandotte, Clay or Platte counties, then you're eligible for free tickets to the show at the Spencer Theatre in the James C. Olson Performing Arts Center on the campus of the University of Missouri-Kansas City. There is a limit: Four tickets per family.

For tickets, call the Rep's box office at 816-235-2700 or e-mail your request to info@kcrep.org (don't forget the promo code "thankyou"). Include your name, address, phone number and the number of tickets you want to reserve.  Also, don't forget to bring your employment ID when you pick up your tix.

Not sold? Check out this preview:

Chris Stigall

​KCMO 710's flaming conservative pundit Chris Stigall apparently interned for David Letterman.

Check out this interview with Bottom Line Communications for stories of working for Dave, but don't expect any tawdry details.

Stigall didn't see a thing.

"It isn't as though he's running around the office like Benny Hill," Stigall told Bottom Line. "There are literally just four to five people in a staff of dozens that have any regular contact with him. Most people who work for that show seldom ever speak to or see him."

Last night, Letterman admitted affairs with staff members.

Today, prosecutors charged Robert J. Halderman, a CBS employee, with trying to extort $2 million from the late night talk show host.

"Sacred Heart" by Trenton Matthews

Tonight, an art show at Mood Swings Salon asks "What the Fuck is Wrong With this Kid?"

​ 1. Do the art thing. It's already First Friday again. (While you're in the Crossroads, head over to Union Station, for the opening night of Andy Warhol Portfolios: Life and Legends. Get a free beverage if you arrive between 5 and 9 p.m.)

2. Get some culture in Lee's Summit. Today and Saturday, the Longview Campus of Metropolitan Community Campus is holding a literary festival with workshops, readings and lectures. Nearby, today through Sunday, there's also the Longview Art and World Music Festival.

3. Shop for unexpected treasures. Urban Mining Homewares -- which is open every First Friday, Saturday and Sunday -- is celebrating its fifth anniversary.

4. Ogle some hot cars. KCI Cruise Night is a car show (that actually happens during the day on Saturday, from 3 to 8 p.m.) near Kansas City International Airport.

5. Pick out a pumpkin! It being October and all, there are now would-be-jack-o-lanterns aplenty at City Market. The pu kin patch is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

6. Root on the Chiefs. KC's underdog football team takes on the New York Giants this Sunday.

For more ways to spend your weekend, see The Pitch calendar.

​You won't be able to catch an Atlas Cab between 5 a.m. October 20 and midnight October 29. Regulated Industries suspended Atlas' permits for 10 days. So Atlas' cabs won't be running for 10 days.

The city's press release said that the suspension was due to "violations of multiple City ordinances, including operation of illegal taxicab vehicles in Kansas City, Mo."

Illegal taxicabs?

Jim Ready, assistant manager of the Regulated Industries Division, explains that an illegal cab is one that isn't properly permitted in KC. Maybe it's missing a required sticker in the window or the lettering on the side of the cab isn't the right size. Or maybe the cab is permitted for KCK, not KCMO.

Whatever the case, Regulated Industries' investigators busted Atlas for running the illegal cabs.

​David Cross hasn't been to Kansas City since suffering the drunken mindfuck he describes at length on his Grammy-nominated first album, 2003's Shut Up, You Fucking Baby. Launching into his tale of how he came to be undone by booze and the medium-lousy band Harlow, he says he started the night alone because he had no friends in Kansas City. "And good for my friends," he says.

That cheap shot hasn't stopped Cross fans here from quoting lines from that bit most of this decade. If you're reading this, you probably know someone who has affected a low, nasal voice and told you to "answer your telephone" -- or you've done it yourself.

Still, knowing that all the liquor in Westport wasn't enough to endear KC to the comedy hero of Mr. Show, Arrested Development and the upcoming Channel 4 show The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret -- well, that's disappointing. Cross is showing a segment of that new show, which he has co-written, to some audiences on his new tour, which stops tonight at the Midland downtown. (The show's at 8; Todd Glass opens.) He won't run into any acts from VH1's Bands on the Run, so the way seems clear for him to like us this time.

The occasion for Cross' tour is I Drink for a Reason, his new book of short essays, lists and tangents. It's his first book, and at this writing, it's holding at No. 32 on the New York Times hardcover best-seller list.

I talked to Cross for a few minutes last week as his tour got under way. I blame the flop-sweat inferiority complex induced by a quick refresher with the Harlow-Kansas City track from Shut Up for some weak questions. So if Cross still thinks KC is lame, it's probably all my fault.

So, uh, you're coming back to Kansas City ...

I'm sorry. I can only apologize so many times. No, seriously, I just remembered that the airline lost my luggage coming into Kansas City for that show, so I had to wing around 20 minutes that I normally would have had stuff.

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The Kansas City Renaissance Festival celebrates the gaiety of Anglo civilization's rebirth with more than 500 costumed characters on 13 stages and 16 acres of shaded lanes in Bonner Springs. Pitch Clubs Editor Berry Anderson caught some of the hot, dusty action, which continues through October 18. Click the photo for a slideshow.

Flickr: Britt Selvitelle

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1. Take back the streets -- on a Schwinn! It's the last Friday of the month, and that means it's time for Critical Mass. Bicyclists gather at the Sun Fresh Market in Westport at 6 p.m.

2. See a black and white war in color. A new exhibit at the National World War One Museum presents the bright uniforms and other eye-catching elements of the Great War, which could not be captured in photographs from the period.

3. Laugh it up with comedienne Jennie McNulty, who's performing Saturday night at a benefit/poker tournament to support local women's sports teams.

4. Check out a goalie. The Kansas City Wizards take on the Colorado Rapids on Saturday at Community America Ballpark.

5. Get your face painted. That's one of the many activities offered during the Western Wyandotte Arts Festival on Sunday at Hollis Renewal Center in KCK.

For more ways to spend your weekend, see The Pitch calendar.

Flickr: 0595

​ 1. Ogle some very buff, mostly naked men. Chippendales dance at VooDoo Lounge tonight.

2. Sniff out a good-for-nothin' train robber. Hold Up on Dead Man's Creek is an interactive murder mystery in production at the Hollywood Room downtown every Thursday, Friday and Saturday through Halloween.

3. Experience the steampunk version of Alice in Wonderland. Bellenwhissle Productions has put a trendy twist on its theatrical production of the Lewis Carroll classic, opening tonight at the Off Center Theatre in Crown Center.

4. Witness the percussive mastery of Tool drummer Danny Carey. He's participating in a drum clinic sponsored by Explorers Percussion at Shawnee Mission South High School on Saturday afternoon.



5. Take in an old movie. Gary Cooper stars in Sergeant York, screening for free at the National World War One Museum at 1 p.m. Saturday.

6. Appreciate the prettiest insects. There's butterfly festival happening at the Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Schlagle Environmental Library all weekend.

7. Get hot for burlesque dancers. The Kansas City Society of Burlesque performs Saturday night at West Bottoms bar Korruption.

8. Be a big spender -- for a good cause. Plaza Pzazz, the annual fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House features food, music and evening wear at Country Club Plaza on Sunday from 6 to 10 p.m. Tickets are $75.

For more ways to spend your weekend, see the online Pitch calendar.

Matt Damon in The Informant!

​In Steven Soderbergh's new movie The Informant!, Matt Damon plays Mark Whitacre, a bio-chemist at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) who sets off an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation into allegations of price-fixing at the agricultural industry giant. Whitacre suffers from delusions of grandeur (among other things) and is all too eager to make the feds' case by recording insider conversations. He imagines that when it's all over, his grateful bosses will promote him to the top of ADM. The movie is based on a true story, in which local FBI agent Bob Herndon is played by actor Joel McHale (most recognizable as the host of E!'s "The Soup").

After the jump, nine questions with Special Agent Herndon, a 23-year veteran of the FBI who works in the FBI's Kansas City Division. Warning: spoilers ahead!

custompapertoys.com

See Matt Hawkins' crazy custom toys at the Emerald Space.

​ 1. Appreciate art in the West Bottoms. Tonight, the Emerald Space hosts The Proper Assortment, a group show by Phil Shafer, Tyler Coey and Matt Hawkins.

2. Contemplate rape, society and victimhood. Those are the themes of Extremities, the heavy show opening tonight the Just Off Broadway Theater The production is presented by Minds Eye Theatre company.

3. Laugh your ass off. The Kansas City Improv Festival continues tonight and Saturday at the Off Center Theater.

4. Walk for your health -- and someone else's. On Saturday, Theis Park is the setting for Kansas City's Walk for PKD, which stands for the terrifying and deadly phrase "polycystic kidney disease."



5. Watch a movie that was made in KC. On Saturday, the Lawrence Arts Center is screening Fight Night, a movie about a chick with mad mixed martial arts ability.

6. Support local music. The Crossroads Music Festival brings some 25 KC-area bands to various Crossroads stages on Saturday.

For more ways to use up the weekend, see The Pitch calendar.

Edgar Allan Poe

​West Bottoms haunted houses The Beast and Edge of Hell opened last weekend. But Full Moon Productions, the organization behind the frights, needs volunteers for a pair of charity spook houses -- The Macabre Cinema and the Chambers of Edgar Allan Poe -- that raise money for The Dream Factory.

Auditions and interviews take place today and tomorrow (September 10) and September 16 and 17 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at The Beast (1401 W. 13th St. in Kansas City, Missouri). You gotta be 16 or older to work in the theater or house of Poe and you'll need a couple forms of ID.

If you're interested, call 816-842-4280.

Ryan Gross celebrated Santa-Cali-Gon Days in Independence last week.

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Santa-Cali-Gon Days, Independence's annual festival celebrating its place in history as the starting point for the Santa Fe, California and Oregon trails, was last week. Pitch Clubs Editor Berry Anderson was there to capture it all and put it in this slideshow, which includes a mohawk-sporting 3-year-old, foul-mouthed clowns and fried Pepsi.

A scary monster hangs out with Tara Fay Hansen at Greaserama.

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Last weekend was Greaserama at the Boulevard Drive-In and photographer Scott Spychalski was there to capture it all. Here's Scott Spy's shots in a slideshow.

America's raunchiest comic Bob Saget is coming to the AMC Midland on November 19, and it's not going to be all G-rated golf-ball-to-the-nuts humor. If you've never seen him do stand-up, here's what you're in for (NSFW and all that):



Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. For good measure, here's Saget's Aristocrats joke (again, NSFW).

See art like this piece by Deng Wushu on display in the Crossroads.

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1. Meander all over the Crossroads because it's First Friday, yo.

2. Party down in Independence Square, where the Santa Cali Gon Days Festival kicks off today.

3. Party downtown, where the Kansas City Irish Festival starts today.

4. Get ready for some football -- Australian style. On Saturday, local Australian rules football teams square off in Gillham Park.

5. Get greasy. The two-day rockabilly car/art/movie/drinking fest known as Greaserama happens Saturday and Sunday at Boulevard Drive-In.

6. Go swimming for the last time. Jackson County beaches close for swimming on Monday, which happens to be Labor Day.

I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but the reviews for this week's video game release ​Batman: Arkham Asylum have convinced me the game's worth shelling out $60 to be the Dark Knight. The game's undeniably cool conceit -- you have to fight your way through Batman's rogues gallery and escape a booby-trapped Arkham Asylum- - is alone enough to get me interested. And now that I know Commissioner Gordon is voiced by a metro native, maybe I can write it off as a work expense? Just in case any of my bosses are reading this.

1. Do the time warp. Rocky Horror Picture Show is screening for free at City Market Friday night.

2. Cut it out. Comedian Dave Coulier (aka Uncle Joey to Full House fans) shares the laughs at Stanford's Comedy Club Friday night and Saturday.

3. Walk the dog. On Saturday morning, there's a charity dog-walking event called Too Cool to Drool happening at Frontier Park.

4. Embrace your inner geek. Lenexa Community Center is hosting the MO-KAN Comic Con all day Saturday and Sunday.

5. Breathe in the bacon. The salty smell of it, plus culinary and musical adoration of it will permeate the West Bottoms during Bacon-Fest on Saturday.

6. Eat for cheap in the Power & Light District. Sunday is the final day of District Restaurant Week, during which diners get discounted meals and go home with gift cards at the end of their meal.