Starlight Theatre (Kansas City, Missouri)
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| Location | 4600 Starlight Road Kansas City, Missouri 64132 |
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| Coordinates | 39°00′28″N 94°32′05″W / 39.007813°N 94.5348°WCoordinates: 39°00′28″N 94°32′05″W / 39.007813°N 94.5348°W |
| Owner | City of Kansas City, Missouri |
| Operator | Starlight Theatre Association Live Nation (concert booking) |
| Capacity | Starlight: 7,958 Cohen: 1,200 |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1925 |
| Opened | June 25, 1951 |
| Construction cost | $1.5 million |
| Architect | Edward Buehler Delk |
| Tenants | |
| Broadway Shows Concerts Starlight Indoors Theatre Education Programming |
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| Website | |
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Starlight Theatre is a 7,958-seat outdoor theatre in Kansas City, Missouri, United States that presents Broadway shows and concerts. It is one of the two major remaining self-producing outdoor theatres in the U.S. and Starlight's Cohen stagehouse also permits them to present any major national Broadway tour as well.
Starlight Theatre’s story dates back to 1925, the year Romania’s Queen Marie paid a visit to Kansas City. To celebrate her arrival, the Kansas City Federation of Music organized a showcase of local talent for the Queen that was also open to the public. While Kansas Citians had toyed with the idea of building an outdoor theatre before, the $7,000 that the showcase raised made it clear that Kansas City had an audience for such performances and that outdoor theatre could one day become a Kansas City tradition.
Profits from the showcase were then placed in the city trust and proposals for the location of Kansas City’s outdoor theatre began. One suggested site was where Kansas City Art Institute now stands, but area residents disapproved of building such a large structure in their neighborhood. Another possible location was just north of University of Missouri–Kansas City, although these plans were also shelved because officials feared the theatre would give the newly completed Municipal Auditorium (Kansas City) too much competition.
After 15 years of proposals, the need for a venue to house celebrations commemorating Kansas City’s 100th birthday sped up the process. A committee was quickly chosen, Swope Park was deemed the location, and construction began on a cold December day in 1949. While the theatre was still unfinished for the city’s 1950 centennial anniversary, the show went on, and thousands of Kansas Citians flocked to see the historical revue of their city, Thrills of a Century. The show’s success then proved to be the perfect spark of motivation for completing Starlight and beginning the tradition of bringing Broadway to Kansas City. Community volunteers helped raise money and establish theatre policy; local craftsmen donated their time to finishing construction, and Starlight Theatre as we know it was born.
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