Innovative shows, return of TV star will mark Music Theatre Heritage’s 2025 KC season

The Music Theatre Heritage’s 2025 season will include some of the classics of musical theater, but with MTH’s own spin.

“That’s kind of how we try to do things,” said artistic director Tim Scott, who released the five-show slate June 30. “We do the greatest musicals of all time, but we try to look at them through a contemporary lens. We try to present them in a way that is innovative and artistic.”

“Guys & Dolls,” for example, will feature a re-creation of the fictitious Hot Box Club — inside the theater, with ticket holders at tables on the stage, and in the lobby.

The show also will mark the return of Nathan Darrow, known for the TV shows “House of Cards,” “Gotham” and “Billions.” The 1994 Shawnee Mission North High School graduate appeared in his first musical, albeit in a non-singing role, in “A Chorus Line” during the 2023 MTH season.

Next year, Darrow will make his singing debut in “Guys & Dolls.” As gambler Sky Masterson (played by Marlon Brando in the 1955 movie), he will have to belt out “Luck Be a Lady,” among other tunes.

Other 2025 MTH highlights will be a unique production of “Carousel” and a provocative version of “Cats” that was a smashing success in 2018.

With “Carousel,” Scott said MTH will “try to evoke a kind of sideshow feel,” using the type of musicians who would have populated 19th century wharfs.

For “Cats,” the theater will revisit an approach that was met with some disdain before it debuted at MTH six years ago. Scott said that some customers wanted refunds when they realized it would not be the traditional production and that fellow directors and theater professionals “kind of mocked us. … ‘Oh, you’re doing “Cats” without cats.’”

“We do it unlike any other production of ‘Cats,’” he said. “The idea is we don’t get out all the yak fur. We don’t costume like the original production. We try to be a little bit more in tune with the story, and the story is about a group of stray cats that meet in a junkyard at midnight.”

The show wound up selling out every performance of its run.

In addition to “Guys & Dolls,” Carousel” and “Cats,” MTH will bring “Little Women” and “Rent” to its stage — both for the first time.

Compared with the other three shows, those two are relatively new. The musical version of the 19th century book “Little Women” is a 21st century creation. It played on Broadway in 2005. “Rent” debuted on Broadway in 1996, winning the Tony Award for best musical.

Season tickets for 2025 are available at a discounted rate through Sept. 1 at 816-221-6987 and musictheaterheritage.com.

MTH still has half its 2024 season remaining: “La Cage aux Folles” (Aug. 10-27), “Sweeney Todd” (Oct. 12-29) and “It’s a Wonderful Life: Live Radio Play” (Dec. 7-23).

MTH 2025 season

▪ “Little Women,” Feb. 13-March 2, Main Stage: Louisa May Alcott’s popular two-volume novel about the March sisters has been turned into seven movies dating back more than 100 years. The Broadway show featured two-time Tony winner Sutton Foster but closed after only four months.

▪ “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel,” April 3-27, Main Stage: The classic Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein II musical will celebrate its 80th anniversary in 2025. It was on MTH’s schedule in 2020, but the pandemic caused its cancellation.

▪ “Guys & Dolls at The Hot Box,” June 5-29, Grand Theater: With familiar songs including “Luck Be a Lady” and “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” the Frank Loesser musical has been a stage favorite for 75 years.

▪ “Cats,” Aug. 7-31, Grand Theater: MTH incorporates hip-hop and street jazz choreography into Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical that won seven Tony Awards and ran on Broadway from 1982 to 2000.

▪ “Rent,” Oct. 2-26, Main Stage: One of only 10 musicals to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama, “Rent” is loosely based on the 1896 opera “La Bohème” by Giacomo Puccini,” but with a pop-rock score.

2025 Ruby Room Series

▪ “Ella & Louis: The Music of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong,” Feb. 6-9

▪ “Bad Moon Rising: The Music of Credence Clearwater Revival,” March 27-30

▪ “Rhythm Nation: The Music of Janet Jackson,” May 22-25

▪ “Brotherly Love: The Music of the Everly Brothers, Righteous Brothers, Doobie Brothers,” July 17-20

▪ “That’s What Friends Are For: The Music of Dionne Warwick and Lionel Richie,” Sept. 11-14

▪ “The Guitar Man: The Music of James Taylor and Jimmy Buffet,” Nov. 6-9