Coming Soon to The Barn Players
Our 57th Season
July 20 — August 5
By Kathy Najimy & Mo Gaffney
Directed by Tiffany Garrison-Schweigert
In the opening scene, two Supreme Beings plan the beginning of the world with the relish of two slightly sadistic suburban wives decorating a living room. Once they've decided on the color scheme of the races, a little concerned that white people will feel slighted being such a boring color, they create sex and the sexes. Afraid women will have too many advantages, the Beings decide to make childbirth painful and to give men enormous egos as compensation. From this moment, the audience is whisked through the outrageous universe of Kathy and Mo, where talented actresses play men and women struggling through the common rituals of modern life: teenagers on a date, sisters at their grandmother's funeral, a man and a woman together in a country-western bar. With boundless humor, PARALLEL LIVES reexamines the ongoing quest to find parity and love in a contest handicapped by capricious gods—or in this case, goddesses.
A Barn Kids Production
Session 1: June 19 — 21
Session 2: July 24 - 26
Music and Lyrics by Mel Leven, Randy Rogel, Richard Gibbs, Brian Smith, Martin Lee Fuller & Dan Root
Book adaptation and additional lyrics by Marcy Heisler
Music adapted and arranged by Bryan Louiselle
Directed by Jason Coats
In a loving home in the city of London, Dalmatian parents Pongo and Perdita happily raise their Dalmatian puppies, until the monstrous Cruella De Vil plots to steal them for her new fur coat! Join all the dogs of London as they daringly rescue the puppies from Cruella and her bumbling henchmen. This stage adaptation will charm and delight with a wonderfully fun score, lovable characters, and one of the most deliciously evil villains in the Disney canon. This year, our summer Barn Kids program will stage this production twice, with a different group of young performers each time, giving twice as many kids the opportunity to enjoy the learning and performing experience our Barn Kids program provides.
August 10 - 12
Our 2012 Fundraiser
Directed by Eric Van Horn
(Creator/Director of 2010's "Women Of Rock")
Musical Direction by Bill Welch
September 14 - 30
Music, Lyrics and Book by Willy Russell
Directed by Eric Magnus
Musical Direction by J. Preston Schell
Blood Brothers, by the author of the plays Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine, is a haunting rags to riches tragedy of our times. A woman with numerous children to support surrenders one of her new born twins to the childless woman for whom she cleans house. The boys grow up streets apart, never learning the truth. They become firm friends and fall in love with the same girl. One prospers while the other falls on hard times. A narrator warns that a price has to be paid for separating twins. One of the longest running shows in London's West End history (22 years), Blood Brothers is a cautionary tale for the ages. A Kansas City community theatre premiere.
November 2 - 18
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Freb Ebb, John Kander & Rupert Holmes
Book by Rupert Holmes
Directed by Kipp Simmons
Musical Direction by Martha Risser
It's the brassy, bright and promising year of 1959. Boston's Colonial Theatre is host to the opening night performance of a new musical. When the leading lady mysteriously dies on stage the entire cast & crew are suspects. Enter a local detective, who just happens to be a musical theatre fan! Curtains is a brash, energetic and hilarious musical comedy, featuring a score by John Kander and Fred Ebb (creators of Kiss of the Spider Woman, Cabaret and Chicago), with a book and additional lyrics by the Tony Award winning writer of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Rupert Holmes. Don't miss this Kansas City community theatre premiere to close out The Barn Players 57th season!
December 7 — 9
Directors and Scripts to be chosen Summer 2012
2013 - Our 58th Season
ALL SHOOK UP
- A Barn Junior Production
- January 11 - 20
- Book by Joe DiPetro
- Inpired by and featuring the songs of Elvis Presley
Into a square little town in a square little state rides a guitar-playing roustabout who changes everything and everyone he meets in this hip-swiveling, lip-curling musical fantasy that’ll have you jumpin’ out of your blue suede shoes with such classics as “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Jailhouse Rock,” and “Don't Be Cruel.”
9 to 5
- February 22 – March 10
- Music & Lyrics by Dolly Parton
- Book by Patricia Resnick
- Based on the 1980 feature film
9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL is a hilarious story of friendship and revenge in the Rolodex™ era. 9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL tells the story of three unlikely friends who conspire to take control of their company and learn there's nothing they can't do—even in a man's world. Outrageous, thought-provoking and even a little romantic, 9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL is about teaming up and taking care of business... it's about getting credit and getting even…featuring a complete musical score by country music legend and star of the original film, Dolly Parton!
CHESS
- April 12 - 28
- Music by Björn Ulvaeus & Benny Andersson
- Lyrics by Tim Rice
- Book by Richard Nelson
The collaborators on Chess (Music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of the pop group ABBA and lyrics by Tim Rice of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita) have created a complex rock opera that played to full Broadway houses and standing ovations. Here, the ancient game becomes a metaphor for romantic rivalries, competitive gamesmanship, super power politics and international intrigues. The pawns in this drama form a love triangle: the loutish American chess star, the earnest Russian champion and a Hungarian American female assistant who arrives at the international chess match in Bangkok with the American but falls for the Russian. From Bangkok to Budapest the players, lovers, politicians, and spies manipulate and are manipulated to the pulse of a monumental rock score that includes "One Night in Bangkok" and "Heaven Help My Heart."
SORDID LIVES
- May 31 – June 16
- By Del Shores
A black comedy about white trash! The author of Daddy’s Dyin’…Who’s Got the Will? brings you a comedy that was nominated for over thirty awards during its long run in Los Angeles. When Peggy, a good Christian woman, hits her head on the sink and bleeds to death after tripping over her lover's wooden legs in a motel room, chaos erupts in Winters, Texas. We become intimate with the "sordid lives" of a family in a small Texas town preparing for the funeral of the mother. Among the characters are the grandson trying to find his identity in West Hollywood, the son who has spent the past twenty-three years dressed as Tammy Wynette, the sister and her best friend (who live in delightfully kitschy homes), and the two daughters (one strait-laced and one quite a bit looser).
DANGEROUS LIAISONS (Les Liaisons Dangeruses)
- July 19 – August 4
- By Christopher Hampton
Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a play by Christopher Hampton adapted from the 1782 novel of the same title by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. The plot focuses on the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, rivals who amuse themselves by using sex as a weapon of humiliation and degradation, all the while enjoying their cruel games. Their targets are the virtuous (and married) Madame de Tourvel and Cécile de Volanges, a young girl who has fallen in love with her music tutor, the Chevalier Danceny. In order to gain their trust, Merteuil and Valmont pretend to help the secret lovers so they can use them later in their own treacherous schemes.
WINNIE-THE-POOH, KIDS
- A Barn Kids Production
- Session 1: June 18 - 20
- Session 2: July 23 - 25
- Music and Lyrics By Robert B. Sherman, Richard M. Sherman, Robert Lopez & Kristen Anderson-Lopez
- Music adapted and arranged / Additional Music by Will Van Dyke
- Book by Cheryl Davis
- Based on the stories of A. A. Milne and the 2011 Disney Animated feature film.
Welcome to the Hundred Acre Wood, where Winnie the Pooh is once again in search of honey. Along the way, he meets his pals Tigger, Piglet, Rabbit and Owl, but soon discovers that Christopher Robin has been captured by the Backson! As they prepare for a rescue operation, the animals learn about teamwork, friendship, and sharing snacks! Based on the beloved characters of A.A. Milne and the 2011 Disney animated feature film.
BARN BENEFIT CONCERT 2013
- August 16 - 18
SPRING AWAKENING
- September 20 – October 6
- Music by Duncan Sheik
- Lyrics & Book by Steven Sater
- Based on the play by Frank Wedekind
Winner of 8 TONY Awards, including BEST MUSICAL, SPRING AWAKENING is a rock musical that celebrates the unforgettable journey from youth to adulthood with a power, poignancy, and passion that you will never forget. Adapted from Frank Wedekind's 1891 expressionist play about the trials, tears, and exhilaration of the teen years, it has been hailed as the “Best Musical of the Year” by the New York Times, New York Post, Star Ledger, Journal News, New York Observer and USA Today. Featuring music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater, it concerns teenagers who are discovering the inner and outer tumult of sexuality.
THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD (Drood)
- November 8 - 24
- Music, Lyric and Book by Rupert Holmes
- Based on the unfinished novel by Charles Dickens
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a musical based on Charles Dickens' unfinished novel. The show, performed by members of London’s Music Hall Royale, tells the story of the upstanding young Edwin Drood who mysteriously disappears and is presumably murdered. But who did it? Was it his drug-addicted, romantic rival John Jasper? The infamous Princess Puffer? Reverend Mr. Crisparkle? Helena or Neville Landless, immigrants from Ceylon? Someone else? In the end, the audience gets to vote to decide who done it!
THE 6TH ANNUAL 6 X 10 Original Ten-Minute Play Festival
- December 13 - 15
