Alan Portner

Marilu Henner is currently starring as Stephanie Dickinson in Cactus Flower at The New Theatre & Restaurant in Overland Park, Kansas. Best known for her work on Taxi and for her Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) - Henner remains one of the most dynamic and wide-ranging performers working today.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Moments before the world premiere of “Don’t Touch My Hair” at the Unicorn Theatre, playwright Douglas Lyons sits relaxed, thoughtful and unmistakably energized. The new play, opening May 8, 2026, marks the latest chapter in what he calls the “Deep Breath Trilogy,” a body of work dedicated to centering Black women not only in struggle, but in joy.

It is not often that Kansas City audiences get the chance to see the “World Premiere” engagement of a new comedy from an award-winning Broadway performer and playwright. This month Unicorn Theatre presents “Don’t Touch My Hair,” by Douglas Lyons.

The air at New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park is thick with the scent of high-end buffet favorites and the electric hum of a sold-out crowd. The curtain has risen on a revival of the 1960s Broadway classic Cactus Flower, and if the opening week's standing ovations are any indication, Kansas City has another bona fide hit on its hands.

A full auditorium of just over a hundred patrons filed into the newly renovated Warwick Theater for a re-imagination of Stephen King’s “The Shawshank Redemption.” This theatrical adaptation is written by Irish playwrights Owen O’Neill and Dave Johns, an unlikely yet inspired pairing. Both men came to prominence as stand-up comedians before turning their attention to drama. Owen O’Neil is present for this Saturday evening performance.  

Think of the greatest songs you’ve never heard - the soaring melodies, the unexpected anthems, the driving beats, the lyrics that speak to a feeling you didn’t know could be expressed in words. Unlike most straight plays, this opus has its own musical score, and good one by Will Butler. And that is the projected end-product taking shape at the hoped for conclusion/finale of “Stereophonic,” now playing in the gorgeous Muriel Kauffman Opera House through Sunday April 11.

MTH’s World Premiere production of “Moby Dick a sea shanty” should not be missed. This “Moby Dick” is a remarkable, boiled-down, reinterpretation of Herman Melville’s massive dark 1851 tome. MTH manages to somehow transform this dark mid-nineteenth century novel into an engaging and engrossing musical entertainment. 

If Broadway’s Great Gatsby trades in spectacle, the first national North American Tour proves that its success on the road depends on something more grounded: a cast capable of sustaining the illusion night after night, city after city.  This performance is pretty much flawless top to bottom.   

Producing The Play That Goes Wrong at a community-theater level is an act of courage.  And the Silver Star with two oak leaf enhancements goes to the White Theatre inside the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park.  Seldom before have I seen such an active sold-out crowd in this venue who evidently got exactly what they were looking for with this wacky production.

I had the pleasure of meeting by telephone with Joshua Grosso who plays Nick Carraway in “The Great Gatsby.” Nick is the character through whose eyes the audience sees Gatsby and the other characters from the Fitzgerald book and in this retelling. Josh is one of the most positive and thoughtful people it has ever been my pleasure to spend time with.

The new Kansas City Actors Theater production of “Everybody” is a sly meditation on the human condition. It is a riff on the oldest known surviving play in English called “Everyman.”

“Elvis and Elton Together” rates a big five stars.  Victor Trevino Jr. as Elvis is back and is as good as ever. Sean McGibbben becomes the incredible Elton John.   Victor and Sean wisely introduce themselves as tribute artists rather than impersonators.

When the musical juggernaut titled “Hamilton” stormed into Kansas City’s gilded Music Hall this week, it arrives not as a relic of mid-2010s hype, but as a living, breathing re-invention of America’s founding fathers. A decade after its Broadway debut, the touring production proves that the show’s central thesis — that history is urgent, messy and deeply human — still lands with force. Somehow, the national political atmosphere cross-pollinated with the this most special 250th anniversary of the United States.

Now “playing” at Music Theatre Heritage inside Crown Center through February 22 is the latest iteration of the most produced modern musical play in history. It is called “The Fantasticks.” If “Fantasticks” is new to you, you are past due for a treat. If you are one of the thousands of performers who have slipped into one of these character’s costumes, revel in the warm memory. If you have witnessed “Fantasticks” as an audience member, enjoy the pleasure of revisiting an old friend. hat did our critic think of THE FANTASTICKS at Music Theater Heritage?

BroadwayWorld.com is today privileged to chat with American Theatre Guild’s Senior Director of Presenting Operations Craig Aikman. Mr. Aikman announces the Guild’s 2026-2027 schedule of eight incredible touring productions.  Six of the eight productions are Kansas City premiere appearances.  The remaining two shows are among the most requested

A new production of Jonathan Larson’s 1996 Pulitzer Prize Winner RENT, itself a re-interpretation of Puccini’s “La Boheme,” arrives like a time capsule that refuses to stay shut as a first ever co-production of the White Theatre (inside the Jewish Community Center) and Kansas City’s venerable Melting Pot Theatre. Picture a time, not so long ago, when a diagnosis of HIV was a sentence of death.

“Kimberly Akimbo” is a tiny, idiosyncratic musical with a cast of only nine actors that somehow manages to share the full Broadway experience with its opening night audience at Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. 

ENext up in PNC Bank’s Broadway in Kansas City series is the 2023 winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical, Kimberly Akimbo. Kimberly Akimbo is a fascinating newer show enjoying its first North American tour. It opens at KC’s Kauffman Center For the Performing Arts on January 20 for eight performances through Sunday, January 25.

Overland Park, KS — The New Theatre & Restaurant has built its reputation on polished, crowd-pleasing comedies, and its latest production of Nobody’s Perfect keeps that tradition humming along with bright energy and old-fashioned farce. This show is a four-hander with a super cast starring Jim O’Heir (familiar to audiences from TV’s Parks and Recreation) as Leonard Loftus. Backing up O’Heir are New Theatre veterans Kelly Felthous, Victor Raider-Wexler and rookie KyLee Hennes.

Titanic… An Immersive Experience. The Exhibit has opened at Union Station for a multi-month run through April of 2026.   The key word is “Immersive.”  “Immersion” means that audience members are meant to feel like they are part of the experience.  The Titanic Immersion Voyage is the next logical step towards achieving what it must have been like to have been aboard the RMS Titanic on that cold April night in back 1912, 400 miles east of Newfoundland when she struck an iceberg, foundered, and lost 1500 of her passengers and crew to the icy north Atlantic while on her maiden voyage to New York.