Shawnee Dispatch

In honor of its one-year anniversary at B&B Live, Music Theatre Kansas City is presenting two musicals for the upcoming holiday season.

First, MTKC Pro will present the Kansas City premiere of “All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914” from Dec. 7-16 at the B&B Live Theatre inside the B&B Shawnee theater complex.

To celebrate its anniversary, MTKC will hold a small reception following the Dec. 8 performance.

The newly released musical tells the true story of Christmas Eve night 1914 during World War I. Out of the violence first comes silence, then a song. A German soldier steps into No Man’s Land singing “Stille Nacht.” Thus begins an extraordinary night of camaraderie, music and peace.

The MTKC Pro Kansas City production will feature an all-male cast of 8 professional actors and singers.

The script is taken directly from letters and journal entries written by soldiers who were fighting on the Western Front on Christmas Eve in 1914. The soldiers from Germany, England, Scotland and France all declared a truce for one night and, instead, celebrated Christmas together.

During the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s, MTKC will premiere another new show called “Music of the Night: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.”

This is a brand new concert celebration of Webber’s music that has just been released.

MTKC’s production will feature 35 talented students from its preparatory training program, as well as a 15-piece children’s choir and 12-piece live orchestra, with performances on Dec. 28, 29 and 30 in the B&B Live theatre.

For all performance times and ticket information, please visit mtkc.org.