Alan Portner - Page 13

Features show built for the huge stage with many local talents

Designed as a very funny screed against Jim Crowe and political corruption, Rainbow continues to shine on its audiences after 70 years.

2013's 'Motown, The Musical' opened Tuesday night for a week's run through August 27 at Starlight Theatre inside Swope Park to a responsive, handclapping, music-swaying, delighted audience. 'Motown' is what old films might call a biopic with music. It tells the story of 'Motown' founder and owner Berry Gordy Junior and his business and personal journey through popular music based in the black experience of mid-20th Century Detroit Michigan.

Well performed but a little academic and study in how styles have changed

Holding an audience on a stage by yourself for a whole hour is no small task, but it is one accomplished by Buffalo Grove Illinois' Tim Mooney in his remarkably cogent performance of 'Breakneck Julius Caesar' at the Unicorn Theatre's Jerome Stage as his contribution to the 2017 Fringe. Tim Mooney is a repeat offender at Fringe and he is always excellent.

Value expressed as mystery and state of being

As part of the 2017 KC Fringe, 'Yiddish With Dick And Jane' is worth seeing at the Arts Asylum close to downtown. Although just about anyone can enjoy this one, it says something about age when one realizes his own education falls after the McGuffey Reader period and smack in the middle of 'Reading with Dick and Jane' years.

Five man magic show provides professional and enjoyable hour

Misguided attempt at film noir style misses the target

Dust off your willing suspension of disbelief. Starlight Theatre transforms into Elizabethan London in the year 1595. The play is 'Something Rotten.' William Shakespeare has not authored his 38 famous plays and 150 sonnets. By masquerading as patron to the struggling Bottom Brothers from Cornwall, the Bard has purloined their ideas and most of their dialog lock, stock, and couplet.

Props and Costumes are the high points. The playwright should reread Huck Finn

Now spreading like a virus with a lifespan of only ten days, the annual Kansas City Fringe Festival has once again exploded across Kansas City entertainment venues for the thirteenth July in a row. It is an entertainment stew chock full of short plays, musical performances, dance, comedy, storytellers, clowns, puppeteers, improv groups, one man shows, magicians, and visual artists.

Crucible reminds us of the good old bad old days of church extremism and Congressional blacklists along with a warning for today.

Imagine transitional rock superstars Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis hanging out together for an impromptu recording session early in their musical careers. This is the unlikely, but mostly true tale told by the new production of the 2010 Broadway musical 'Million Dollar Quartet' now opened at the New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park. This is one entertaining evening.

One you transport back to the late 50s and 60s this one is a lot of fun.

'Crazy For You,' now playing at the Theatre In The Park in Shawnee Mission Park, is the theatrical equivalent of the 'Little Engine That Could.' It represents the fifth generation of musical shows based on George and Ira Gershwin's 1930 'Girl Crazy' score. Even though the original version kicked off the careers of Ethel Merman and Ginger Rogers, none of these shows remotely resembles any of its siblings.

Gershwin 1992 reboot of 1930's Girl Crazy features songs and dances in the Nevada Desert... A true backstage romantic comedy.

Several hours spent with Kent Barnhart and friends at Quality Hill Playhouse are never time wasted if you love the great American songbook. The current sold out program features two hours of music celebrating tunes music of Carole King, James Taylor, and a few others of similar genre from the 1960s and 1970s.

Excellent production kicks off Black Box theater history

Excellent production of a very complex piece of Musical Theater