Starlight Theatre (Kansas City)

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Starlight Theatre is a 8,105-seat^[1] outdoor theatre in Kansas City, Missouri.

The theatre is located in a hillside in Swope Park used for Broadway shows and concerts.

The unfinished theatre opened in 1950 with a production of Thrills of a Century which celebrated the 100th anniversary of Kansas City. It officially opened on June 25, 1951, with The Desert Song with composer Sigmund Romberg making a cameo appearance directing the orchestra and telling the crowd:

I’ve seen theaters all over the country and I’ve never seen one more beautiful than this.

The cost was $1.5 million. ^[2]

Plans for an outdoor theatre had been considered in various places since 1925 when Romania's Queen Marie attended an ad hoc outdoor concert in the city. Among the considerations were the area by the Kansas City Art Institute and parkland just north of the University of Missouri - Kansas City.

The stage was legendary for being subject to the whims of weather, train whistles and animal noises from the nearby Kansas City Zoological Park. In 1956 Jeanette MacDonald collapsed in a production of The King and I. Initial reports said it was heat prostration in the 90-degree heat but it was later determined to be a heart seizure. ^[3] A passing freight on nearby tracks blows about 9:20 p.m. each night ^[4]In 2000 the stage itself was enclosed in the 10-story, climate controlled Jeannette and Jerome Cohen Community Stage.

In 1964 President Harry S. Truman made a cameo appearance in Mr. President on opening night although he had to leave by ambulance at intermission because of an appendicitis attack.^[5]