BWW Preview: Quality Hill Playhouse in Kansas City Announces the 2015-2016 Season

Quality Hill Playhouse in Kansas City, Missouri announced their 2015-2016 season. Century of the Songbook explores 100 years of music. Producing Artistic Director J. Kent Barnhart has programmed four original cabaret revues and one Broadway revue, each highlighting songs of the musical tradition called the Great American Songbook. The Playhouse season focuses on contributions to the Songbook by first Americans, big band leaders, women songwriters, Broadway musicals, and folk singer-songwriters.

TIN PAN ALLEY runs October 2 - November 1, 2015. American popular song took root in Tin Pan Alley, a Manhattan block on West 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue. Here, first generation Americans such as Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael and their successors crafted the unique art form that became the foundation of the Great American Songbook. The season's inaugural show pays homage to the birthplace of this pop culture treasure through classic songs such as "Come Rain or Come Shine," "Always," "That Old Black Magic" and "Alexander's Ragtime Band."

CHRISTMAS IN SONG from November 19 - December 24, 2015. This Kansas City holiday tradition will delight audiences for another season. Featuring beloved songs and carols in styles varying from gospel to classical to pop, there is something for the whole family in this musical celebration.

IN THE MOOD: SONGS OF THE GREAT BAND LEADERS running from January 22 - February 21, 2016. In the 1930s, Americans went wild for the swing music craze, and Big Band leaders such as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, and Tommy Dorsey took the reins of the music industry, setting the course of American popular music for over a decade. Whether sweet or hot, tunes such as "It Don't Mean a Thing," "Sentimental Journey," "Route 66" and "Tuxedo Junction" made stars of vocalists like Louis Armstrong, Rosemary Clooney and Ella Fitzgerald, and they still keep people swinging today.

SING OUT, SISTER! opening March 4 - April 3, 2016. Women composers and lyricists have made significant contributions to American popular music since the Songbook's inception. Dorothy Fields, Betty Comden and Billie Holiday wrote such timeless classics as "The Way You Look Tonight," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," "Just In Time" and "God Bless The Child." Contemporary songwriters such as Julie Gold, Carly Simon and Carole King have continued to add hits like "From a Distance," "Anticipation" and "Natural Woman." This high-spirited cabaret revue will celebrate these songwriters and more in this salute to women in music.

A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING conceived by Walter Bobbie runs April 22 - May 22, 2016. Some of the most romantic music in the Great American Songbook came from the Broadway stage. This enchanted revue features songs by two of the theatre's greatest songwriters - Rodgers and Hammerstein. Behind the plots, characters, carnivals, and surreys with the fringe on top are beautiful stories about people falling in - and out - of love. Audiences will enjoy a fresh take on these beloved songs, making for a grand night of singing indeed.

THE DAWNING OF AQUARIUS running July 8 - August 7, 2016. The exploration of the evolution of American popular song continues into the 1960s and 70s when the singer-songwriter rose to the top of the Billboard charts. Baby Boomers searching for personal meaning in an era of turbulent change resonated with the stories of Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, James Taylor, and The Beatles, including songs like "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Respect," "Mockingbird," "Monday, Monday," and "Yesterday." This revue will focus on the impact on both pop culture and American history by the folk singer-songwriter and their songs. Photo by Steve Wilson.

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