KC Confidential

Menopause the Musical

Let’s get real for a minute…

Understandably, theater critic Robert Trussell has been doing a bit of handwringing over the impending demise of the 26 year-old American Heartland Theatre in Crown Center. After all, losing a high profile, 400-plus capacity theater venue is news and I’m sure there will be more stories to come.

However, dollar signs aside, does American Heartland closing really matter on the city’s pop culture landscape? And why, after 26 years in which the for-profit company supposedly never made a dime, kill it off now? Twenty years ago would seem to have made more sense.

Let’s take a look… Continue reading →

Last one out, turn out the…

Once upon a time, something called “stability” existed within the ranks of the newsroom at the Kansas City Star.

No mas.

These days it’s every man, woman and child for him or herself, as a six year gallows march continues with news staffers locked in a quarterly ranks thinning vice, resulting in those who can find work outside the newspaper sending out resumes and job feelers lickety-split.

The latest local casualty of the uncertain times in print journalism:

Features head Laurie Mansfield. Continue reading →

Imagine Dragons

Turnabout is fair play…

After months of insisting otherwise, the powers that be at the music fest known as Kanrocksas have done an about face and  made single day tickets available to the two day fest on June 28th and 29th at the Kansas Speedway.

The $64 million question being why? Continue reading →

Don’t look now but comedy could be returning to Midtown…

Stanford’s is looking at opening a second comedy club in the Uptown Theater‘s Conspiracy Room.

“I’ve always thought that it was a cool room and I still do,” says Stanford’s Craig Glazer. “I think it can work.”

For two years Stanford’s has been checking out locations in KCMO, the most recent being the Beaumont Club in Westport. Continue reading →

Maybe it’s me, but this seems a little lame…

The Kansas City Star goes out of its way every Sunday to tell readers which famous or infamous people died that week. Anybody can play, from Amy Winehouse to Methuselah, and without fail, it’s an interesting mix of people who invented crazy gizmos, wrote or played in a one hit wonder bands or even gave sex advice, like Dr. Joyce Brothers, who died earlier this week.

The Star messed up though when it missed the passing of concert promoter Barry Fey. Continue reading →

This just in from the Kansas City Royals…

Former Royals broadcaster Fred White has passed away, reportedly from melanoma.

“They are keeping everything very private,” says a source familiar with White’s situation.

Kansas Association of Broadcasters president Ken Cornish issued the following statement at 3:35 pm this afternoon: Continue reading →

It’s been a long, hard slog for beloved Royals broadcaster Fred White…

According to sources, esophageal cancer is to blame for the surprise announcement by White that his days with the team are over. White, who is not expected to make it for long, wasn’t quoted in today’s newspaper account of his departure. An account which pointed only to “recent health issues.”

“I always thought Fred was a good guy,” says former Entercom chieftain Bob Zuroweste. “He was bitter about being fired, which I can understand, because the Royals were his life. But he was always a gentleman and was well respected.”

Speaking of which…

It was on Zuroweste’s watch in 1998 that White was canned after 25 years in the broadcast booth. Continue reading →

Stop the madness…

Not since prohibition has the consumption of alcohol in this country drawn this much fire. That after word that the National Transportation Safety Board is recommending that all 50 states lower the legal limit for driver’s blood alcohol content to .05 percent, down from .08 percent.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” says Stanford’s main man Craig Glazer. “That would be devastating. I mean, it’s bad enough at .08.”

Here’s why.

“I did those tests where you take two drinks in a short period, then wait 20 minutes and they test your blood alcohol level,” Glazer says. “One time I came in at .04 and the second at .06. But here’s the thing, I could have gone out and flown an airplane – I wasn’t even mildly affected – but some of the girls who had the two drinks registered .07 and .08. This was when the limit was 0.1.”

The consequences of going to .05  would be epic, Glazer says. Continue reading →