Alan Portner - Page 12

Lyric Opera of Kansas City opened its excellent production of Verdi's 'Rigoletto' this weekend to appreciative audiences.  The voices are excellent, the orchestra is sublime, and the sets are both massive and ornate. 

Broadway Across America's "Finding Neverland" opens as a wonderful possibility, yet refuses to soar as we dare to hope it might.   "Neverland" is a pretty darn good show imbued with magical moments, yet somehow falls short of the special experience it might have been.

New Theatre Restaurant's 'Barefoot in the Park' is a charming, time warp that points up how much attitudes in America have shifted over 55 years.  A romantic comedy in the best 'Doc' Simon tradition. 

This community theatre production co-directed by Zach Faust and Steven Eubank both cooks and works. The actors have made these characters their own.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre's re-imagined production of Simon Stephen's 2013 award winning "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" is funny, inventive, touching, and deeply engaging for its audience.

"Project Dawn," Karen Hartman's new play at the Unicorn Theatre, is powerfully heart-rending, often slyly funny, and serendipitously timely during a national conversation over drug abuse and sex trafficking.

That Old Black Magic," runs now through February 18th at Quality Hill Playhouse in downtown Kansas City. A superior cast and outstanding backup musicians make for a typically professional evening of classic tunes this time by Harold Arlen.

Musical Theater Heritage at Crown Center offers its tenth-annual original Spectacular Christmas Show. Locally written and produced holiday shows are sometimes times prone to hyperbole. This particular performance is SPECTACULAR in almost every way a show can be outstanding. The 2017 MTH Spectacular Christmas Show shines.

Music Theatre - Kansas City Pro opens its new auditorium integrated inside the B&B 18 screen multiplex on Midland Drive in Shawnee. The show is 'A Wonderful Life - The Musical' with book and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. Ironically, this musical adaption of the classic 1946 Christmas film with James Stewart and Donna Reed is brought to us by the same mind that delivered 'Fiddler on the Roof.'

Inspired silliness. Now playing at the New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park through February 11, 2018 is the 1994 British farce 'Funny Money' starring Jim O'Heir. It is an Olivier Award nominated, misbegotten tale of misdirection, accident, flight, and comic mistaken identities.

'Do you hear the people sing?' You will if you attend the 25th Anniversary edition of the 'Les Miserables' now on stage at the Kansas City Music Hall through Sunday, December 9. This is an absolutely credible recreation of the show that first hit London's West End theater district way back in 1985 and journeyed across the pond two years later. It has been running pretty much at full steam ever since.

New Les Miz tour features new lighting, new energy, new orchestrations, and new backdrops by Victor Hugo himself with a young cast excited to perform a more personal Les Miz.

Faithful to the original text, what is 175 years old is new again

What you may not have known about Charles Dickens and The Christmas Carol

New version by Director Eric Rosen stresses original Dickens text and humor

Bright, bouncy, expertly produced, and just a tad naughty through Sunday, November 19

The famous animated classic comes to life on stage at The Coterie for children of all ages.

Retells the death of 15 climbers in 1996 as they attempt to summit Mt. Everest.

Mel Brooks would be proud of this rendering of his most complete comic piece.

Musical version of the hit movie satisfies and expands the legend. Allison Jones as Deloris is a new force to be noticed.