Raise The Roof News

Ready to raise the roof and need some showtunes to help you do it? Turn up the volume with 100 songs for any Broadway-loving party. Enjoy seven hours of music perfect for keeping the tempo up and scream belting with your closest friends.

Rotary Rocks Raue Center will present “Night Fever” a BeeGees Tribute. This fundraising event will raise the roof with rockin’ music sure to give us all “Night Fever”. Everyone in the region will “Wish You Were Here” and we will learn “How Deep Is Your Love” for the community as we raise funds to help those in need.

Catching a show under the stars at Starlight has been a Kansas City tradition for more than 70 years. With crowd-pleasing musicals and hit stage favorites, Starlight has announced another fantastic line up of productions coming straight from Broadway to Kansas City in 2022.

Meet the Kentwood Players cast of Christopher Durang's hilarious comedy VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, opening at the newly refurbished Westchester Playhouse on Friday, September 17 to Sunday, October 10. The cast features (from left) Isabella Petrini (Nina), Chris Morrison (Vanya), Valerie Sullivan (Sonia), Jeff Dewitt (Spike), Sarilee Kahn (Masha), Giovanni Navarro (Spike) and Susan Stangl (Cassandra). .Photo by Shari Barrett

One can never be sure in this uncertain world - especially in show business - of how an acting career will look in hindsight; fortunately, along with all the power as a performer she packs into her slight 5’4” frame, this lady (as it turns out) is also a gifted from the gods songwriter. With more than half her show consisting of her own compositions, Kristolyn Lloyd showed all that she can combine her own poetry with beautiful notes and make songs that soar.

Bonnie Milligan is what Broadway used to sound like: brassy, belted, and funny. Thank God, there are still women around who know how to do it. There is a huge difference between selling a song with some charm in a big voice, and 'screlting' at the top of your lungs. Ethel Merman knew the difference. So does Bonnie Milligan. She made one of the most talked-about Broadway debuts in seasons as the deliciously vain Princess Pamela in Head Over Heels. She confessed that it’s been 3 years since she last did a solo show. Tonight at Feinstein’s 54 Below, she made up for lost time, delivering a stellar, and surprisingly vulnerable self-titled show.

Herring Cove came out a year ago, but John Minnock and his gang are still celebrating, and Thursday night was one heck of a party at 54 Below.

Key Chorale, the Suncoast's premier symphonic chorus, announces its 37th season with a mix of dynamic collaborations and unique programming that have become their hallmarks under the guidance of Artistic Director Joseph Caulkins.

The production will run at Wolverhampton Grand from Saturday 4 December 2021 – Sunday 9 January 2022. Learn more about the show and how to purchase tickets here!

Jami Bartlett as Jordan and Shawn 'Lefty' Plunkett as Avery are featured in this funny and touching account of two people who meet at a surprise birthday party on Zoom. The only problem is they are the only ones invited! 

Kentwood Players latest Virtual Theater Series production, CASTLES IN THE ZOOM by John Mabey, directed by Susan Goldman Weisbarth, premieres on Sunday, July 25 at 8pm and will stream through Sunday, August 22. Jami Bartlett as Jordan and Shawn 'Lefty' Plunkett as Avery are featured in this funny and touching account of two people who meet at a surprise birthday party on Zoom. The only problem is they are the only ones invited!

Producers Dale A. Mott of Edgewood (Broadway’s The Lifespan of a Fact and the upcoming Thoughts of a Colored Man) and NEWorks Productions have announced two industry presentations for GRACE, to be held on August 24, 2021, at Alvin Ailey Studios (405 West 55th Street).

Ford’s Theatre Director Paul R. Tetreault announced performance and on-sale dates for its season of in-person productions that explore Civil Rights icons including Marian Anderson and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the anticipated premiere of D.C. composer Nolan Williams, Jr.,’s musical Grace and the joyful holiday return of A Christmas Carol.

42nd Street Moon is concluding its online Moonbeams series on a rather deliciously demented high note with Don’t Touch That Dial: DC & Peter’s Glorious Romp through the Golden Age of TV Theme Songs. Just like the timeworn sitcoms that generated most of its songs, Don’t Touch That Dial wants nothing more than to entertain, packing in dozens of catchy tunes you maybe didn’t even know you knew in a fast-moving hourlong fantasia of fizzy humor and gimlet-eyed nostalgia. Although Moon’s remit is normally to revisit stage musicals, rather than television shows, this enterprise isn’t quite as far afield for them as you might imagine. It, too, comes wrapped in affectionate homage to times past.

If you’re looking for something to help fill that show tunes void, look no further than Lyric Opera’s THE NEW CLASSICS streaming concert.

It's been quite a year and our new Board of Directors looks forward to an exciting 2021-22 Season with our continuing YouTube Channel programming including KP Live Interviews, Special Events and our Virtual Theater Series. And most importantly, the re-launch of our home theater, THE WESTCHESTER PLAYHOUSE, this Fall.

The Dramatists Guild of America has announced they will present the 2021 Horton Foote Playwriting Award to five amazing playwrights – Carla Ching, Kia Corthron, Aleshea Harris, Donja R. Love, and Mfoniso Udofia - at the Dramatists Guild’s awards presentations later this summer. 

During the past year's pandemic shutdown, Kentwood Players has been working on very necessary upgrades to their home, the Westchester Playhouse, so that when the time is right to reopen it will be totally up-to-date and compliant with all necessary safety protocols to ensure the enjoyment of live indoor theatre again! To assist in raising funds for the ongoing and much-needed major renovations, the public is invited to attend A NIGHT WITH GILBERT & SULLIVAN, a very special online benefit event of music and entertainment written by the Kings of Patter, presented on the Kentwood Players You Tube channel on Friday, May 28 at 7pm at youtube.com/kentwoodplayers

Performances are set to return for Les Misérables -The Staged Concert at the Sondheim Theatre on 20 May 2021, booking until 5 September 2021.   

Along with a full schedule of classic cinema screenings, West-End screenings, theatre tours, fitness and dance sessions and heritage workshops, Darlington Hippodrome’s stage will once again host live theatre with a fabulous mix of block-buster musicals, stand-up comedy, tribute acts and household names.