Music Theatre Kansas City presents Musical Version Of Classic Holiday Film IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Music Theatre Kansas City (MTKC) is well known around town for offering steady, top-quality musicals performed by the city's best youth talent. Last year, MTKC introduced its first paid-professional production with The Last Five Years and the start of the longtime local theater company's expansion into professional-level performances. This spring, they presented a sell-out production of Avenue Q as the Kansas City professional premiere.

This holiday season, MTKC Pro, as the professional division is called, will present the classic musical

A Wonderful Life December 8th-9th and again December 14th-17th. All performances will be in MTKC's brand new theater, B&B Live inside the B&B Shawnee Movie Complex. Tickets are $10 for children 10 and under, $15 for students and $25 for adults and are available online at www.mtkc.org.

MTKC's Artistic Director, Julie Danielson will direct the production. She served on the music team for a special one-night-only Broadway benefit production of the show in 2005 that starred David Hyde Pierce, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Phylicia Rashad. "That was my first big gig in New York, so I've always had a soft-spot in my heart for this show. The music is incredibly charming and the story is so timeless. I've been waiting for the right time to bring this show to the MTKC stage."

MTKC Alumni Tanner Rose and Elizabeth Reese will be leading the cast as George Bailey and Mary Hatch respectively, with theater education legend Max Brown as the lovable angel, Clarence. This production will feature 30 local actors and 15 musicians.

A Wonderful Life will be the first production in MTKC's new theater, B&B Live. The Grand Opening Celebration will be held December 8th with a special pre-show reception and red carpet event at 6 p.m. before the opening night performance commences at 7:30 p.m.

About A Wonderful Life (a musical written by Sheldon Harnick and Joe Raposo)

Frank Capra's classic film has been brought to vibrant theatrical life through the remarkable collaboration of Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winner Sheldon Harnick and Grammy and Emmy Award-winner Joe Raposo. This is the beloved tale of George Bailey from Bedford Falls, whose dreams of escape and adventure have been squashed by family obligations and civic duty, and whose guardian angel has to descend on Christmas Eve to save him from despair, and to remind him - by showing him what the world would have been like had he never been born - that he has had, after all, a wonderful life.

About Music Theater Kansas City

Cary Danielson's passion for Youth Theater started in Wichita, Kansas in 1984 when she started her first theater company, Music Theatre for Young People. That program still remains an active and vibrant component of the Wichita arts scene today. Then in 1991, Cary moved to Overland Park and started a similar theater company. In 2014, the organization changed its name to Music Theatre Kansas City and remains dedicated to bringing quality musical theater and preparatory training to the Kansas City community. MTKC performs on a variety of Kansas City area stages and partners with a number of local schools, universities, theater companies and musical organizations. Formally only for youth theater, MTKC now offers MTKC Pro, a professional division committed to bringing professional-level performances to Kansas City. This fall, they completed construction on their own theater inside the B&B Shawnee Movie Complex, B&B Live.

For more information, please visit www.mtkc.org or call (913) 341-8156.

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