Why doesn't the Midland Theater get the recog it deserves (Kansas City: layoffs, to live in)

[lovekcmo]

The Midland is as beautiful and fab. as the Fox Theater in St Louis, but no one outside of KC knows about the Midland and even a lot of KC people don't know about the Midland. In the Missouri travel guide book put out by the state-there's no mention of the Midland thad I could find, but a large write up about the "Fab Fox" in St Louis. I'm just curious as why people all over the state, even the rural areas know The Fox but no one knows the Midland. It seems that Kansas City could and should do a better job of promoting The Midland than it does.

[aragx6]

I'd imagine a big part of the reason is that the Midland was only restored within the last half decade whereas the Fox has been a destination since restoration in the '80s. Additionally, the Fox is a considerably larger venue and the Midland has recently made its name mostly in concerts not the Broadway musicals that the Fox seems to bring in.

It's a gorgeous venue though. We've been to a few concerts there and it's a showstopping piece of architecture to be sure.

[xenokc]

The new PAC (Kaufman Center) gets far more attention since it is new and is one of most acoustically advanced in world (they spent a year just on acoustics). KC has a lot of great venues of various sizes, Midland is one of many so doesn't stand out as much. But like Fox, it's a great looking venue. Fox is somewhere between Midland (architecture) and Starlight (size/shows it attracts). The Kaufmann Center is hard to top otherwise.

[kcmo]

Why doesn't the XXX get the recog it deserves...

You can say this about just about any attraction in metro KC, including the new performing arts center. Yes, I know it's been reviewed in many world wide publications etc, but trust me, few outside of kc know it exist and few ever will. If that building were in LA, Chicago, NYC, DC, or even Atlanta, Dallas or Denver etc, it would have gotten a LOT more media attention and would have become a more well known national building and possibly even an identifying structure for whatever city it might have been built in.

Same lack of recognition can be said for other kc attractions that I personally think would be huge well known attractions if they were not in KC (WWI Museum, Nelson etc). Either of those would be huge attractions in DC (or philly, or boston or atlanta) and draw millions each.

But nope, KC will never be known for world class architecture (or museums) outside of a very small architectural community and the KC area. Outside of KC, the city is known for bbq and well, that's about it besides those Cops re-runs from the 90's that really make KC look sophisticated lol. 90% of the country doesn't even know the core of the city is in Missouri. I personally think most people imagine KC to be a little bigger version of Topeka (just a little bigger, though, not much). Unless people have been to KC, most view it as some smallish, rurallish, crimish, ugly, run down city on flat land with no trees deep in Kansas somewhere that nobody really would "choose" to live in and a couple of really bad sports teams. Dead serious. And even connecting at KCI without leaving the airport would somewhat help confirm those stereotypes.

It would help if KC's sports teams got a little bit more national air time which gives the city as a whole national exposure. Even similar sized cities have had some nice national airtime which really show off a city. Cleveland when they opened Jacobs and went to the world series, same in Seattle and StLoius. Pittsburgh just because their new stadiums are downtown. OKC is now more well known than KC is with most younger people because of the NBA team there doing so well and they have actually seen the city's downtown on national TV. Most people under 30 don't even know who the Royals are and wonder why KC even has a team. They have been going nuts in Baltimore saying there are people that are in their teens that don't know what it's like to watch the O's in the playoffs. I just laugh. Try 27 years people. You have no idea.

As far as the Midland. Most cities have something similar and it's a pretty good notch below the FOX I think. It's a fantastic historic theater, but it's not even used for broadway plays etc like FOX is. It's just not in the same league I don't think, but yea, it's definatinly an underrated venue.

[lovekcmo]

The Midland, Kauffman Center, Nelson Atkins and Liberty Memorial are four things the city should do better to promote any way it can.