Ostensibly a local history of the stage in one American city, the reader quickly becomes aware that this book is about more than the origins and the development of theatre in Kansas City. It is a detailed account of how a city established itself artistically, a history of how the American theatre in general evolved from local performers and the occasional travelling acting troupe into Show Business, that national industry. Drawing on an earlier history by D. Austin Latshaw, Londré's somewhat updated study offers in equal parts social history, theatre architecture, portraits of theatrical personalities and the developmental history of a city. Beginning with a sketch of pre-theatre Kansas City, the book moves fluidly (and chronologically) from the building of the first major theatre, the Coates Opera House, to the heyday of the Road (when the stars of the international stage visited the city), to its demise and the eventual decline in the city's theatre scene.

Londré, as theatre historian and native of Kansas City, is both a meticulous researcher with an appreciation for the type of detail that makes a history complete, and a gifted storyteller – one who understands that history is made by living human beings. As a result, her narrative is liberally sprinkled with colourful anecdotes about some of the most famous people in the history of American show business. It is this wider perspective that makes her work so much more than simply a local history.