Julia Cervantes
Baseball gets started this month and the spring theater season offers up some home runs on area stages. Check out these shows—unlike a Royals game, you always get to enjoy a winner:
The following list was graciously compiled by Mark Edelman, the founder and president of Theater League. Mark is a playwright who loves writing about theater.
DIARY OF A WIMPY KID | Now thru April 18 | City Stage at Union Station
It’s middle school, where wimpy kids find themselves thrust into a world where they must share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner, and already shaving. Navigating that world can be painful and a test of friendships, as this Theatre for Young America makes clear. Based on the award-winning young adult book series. Tickets at www.tya.org
STEREOPHONIC | April 7-12 | Kauffman Center
The Tony® Award-winning Best Play of the year tells the tortured tale of an up-and-coming rock band—loosely based on Fleetwood Mac—and the pressure and pain they face in coming up with a follow-up hit—loosely based on the multi-platinum Rumors. Arcade Fire’s Will Butler wrote a terrific score, though it’s not a musical. It’s a play about making music and art told with fly-on-the-wall intimacy by the musicians who birthed it. Tickets at www.kansascity.broadway.com
HARE AND TORTOISE | Saturday, April 11 | Starlight Theatre
The classic tale of persistence over speed comes to Starlight indoors for kids from five to nine. Tickets at www.kcstarlight.com
LILLY AND THE PIRATES | Now thru May 3 | Coterie in Crown Center
Another show for the young at heart, this one about a kid who’s afraid of the water yet must chase her scientist parents around the globe, aquatic and otherwise. Will she outsmart the treasure-hungry pirates to save her parents? Time will tell. Tickets at www.thecoterie.org.
MOBY DICK: A SEA SHANTY | Now thru April 19 | Music Theater Heritage in Crown Center
Obsession and the unrelenting power of the sea shape the images and songs—many of them authentic folk music and sea shanties—in this bold new work about that big white fish. Tickets at www.musictheaterheritage.com
JIM THE WONDER DOG | Now thru April 12 | Englewood Arts in Independence
Martin City Melodrama moves over to the Englewood Arts Center in Independence for more great theater for the family. This show stars Jim, a canine wunderkind who predicts the future and can tell the difference between license plates. All this and a slice of pizza included with every $15 ticket, Tickets at www.englewoodarts.art
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