Alan Portner - Page 2

BIG TROUBLE AT LITTLE YALTA is a comedic take by Neil Salvage on a not very well remembered, but extremely important meeting of world leaders during the waning days of the World War II in Europe.  Almost all of what you see in our play is fiction, but a little understanding of what really transpired may help you understand and appreciate the comedy playing out in front of you.

Recently, I watched and chuckled at an early rehearsal of a show called BIG TROUBLE AT LITTLE YALTA.  Bob Paisley's Central Standard Theatre presents the World Premiere of YALTA scheduled for July 3 through July 7 at the Just Off-Broadway Theatre at 3051 Central in Kansas City.

Second show this spring at the Shawnee Mission Park Theatre In The Park, is ANASTASIA, a 2017 fairy tale based on a wished-for result concerning the Russian Grand Duchess Anatasia. This, in turn, was based on an earlier 1997 animated film and an even earlier imagining in a 1956 film. ANASTASIA the Musical is fortunate to have found some super voices for all its lead roles.

Now playing in the Grand Theater at Crown Center is Music Theater Heritage’s production of Gershwin’s “PORGY AND BESS.”  This is an example of MTH going “all in” on a very challenging show and producing an extremely credible final product. 

The Lehman Trilogy studies American Dream Mythology as seen through the eyes of Italian playwright and poet Stefano Massini. The English translation by Ben Power transfigures itself into an absorbing and poignant exercise in stellar storytelling as one might imagine it by three brothers around a metaphorical campfire.

In performance now through June 2 is HOT THE MUSICAL, an entertaining and original new take on the Greek Mythology surrounding Helen of Troy and the Trojan Wars. The show is staged at Unicorn Theatre on Main Street. This one is definitely worth your time.

Michael is Roman Banks with a spot-on almost miraculous personification of the Ing of Pop.  The dancing, the voice, the persona.  They are all there.  Banks offers a remarkable performance.  

For those of you who feel the need for a light, fun evening of laugh out loud comedy and a delightful meal, let me recommend “SQUABBLES” a live comedy play that has Just opened at New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park.  “SQUABBLES” is a light comedy with an unusually tight and experienced cast featuring Donny Most (from the old “Happy Days” sitcom) and an excellent group of mostly local actors. 

Wandering a bit outside the Kansas City Metro, Broadway World had the opportunity to explore a current production running at the Fox Theatre in downtown Springfield as a co-production of Springfield Contemporary Theatre and Resident Artist Ensemble. The play is 2013’s THE OTHER PLACE by Sharr White, a fascinating, four actor study of one woman’s journey of discovery as she experiences unexplained changes in what should be the prime of her life.

I remember seeing a remarkable, ten-year-old Michael Jackson with his brothers on Sunday’s Ed Sullivan Show in the late 1960s.  He was a heck of a performer even then.   It seems remarkable that the man that little boy became passed away more than fifteen years ago. More unbelievably, Michael would be eligible this year for Social Security and Medicare.

The Music Theatre Kansas City – (Pro) KC Premiere production of the 2014’s Broadway version of “Rocky the Musical” is surprisingly worth your time.  It is hard to have avoided Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky Franchise” beginning as a sleeper, low budget film hit in 1976.  So far there have been six “Rocky” movies plus several follow-on films based on the career of the son of Apollo Creed, Rocky’s original opponent and eventual friend.

Three quarters of a century following its first North American game release, a top-quality touring play version of “Clue, A New Comedy” has appeared set in a mansion located in suburban Washington, D.C.   At the risk of sounding like a bad horror novel or even worse “B” movie, all the action takes place in a spooky mansion on a dark and stormy night. This is not the first attempt to leverage the popular game into other venues.

“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” is a very funny idea and the 2014 Tony winner for best new Musical.  It is currently playing at the White Theatre inside the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park through March 24.

Shout! The Mod Musical” is more of a loose musical revue, than a musical play. It is costumed and set for London during the period I was emerging from my teenage cocoon years into young adulthood. I clearly remember the performers who introduced the music from this show into the canon.

Plain old feel-good musicals are rare. The “Dancing Queen” of this limited genre is “Mamma Mia!” The 25th Anniversary tour of this truly enjoyable evening out at the theatre plays through Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Kansas City Music Hall in downtown Kansas City.

Opening March 5 at the Music Hall in downtown Kansas City is the 25th Anniversary tour of “Mamma Mia.” This touring production is presented by Broadway Across America, Kansas City based largest presenter of Broadway tours across the nation.

Victor Trevino, Jr. as Elvis Presley is brilliant in New Theatre & Restaurant’s new Tribute Concert to the “King” called “Aloha from Vegas.”  To get much closer to Elvis, you need a time machine. 

What did our critic think of THE PROM at White Theatre? Running now at the White Theatre inside the Jewish Community Center is a production of a new musical dealing with the serious subjects of celebrity, gender identity and social intolerance run wild that somehow still offers the audience a real feel-good experience.  

Connor McPherson’s “Girl from the North Country” enjoyed the Kansas City opening of its first national tour at the Kauffman Center on Tuesday night for a one week residency. McPherson has written and directed a “slice of life” show and filled in the blank spaces with songs from Bob Dylan’s career. “Girl” might be categorized as a “Juke Box” musical like “Jersey Boys” or “Mama Mia,” but this is certainly not that. This is not a musical play about Bob Dylan.

They say you never forget your first.  That was certainly the situation for a former Scotland Yard Police Inspector named Rough (played by John Rensenhouse).  Oddly, Inspector Rough had no known first name. Rough’s first bloody murder case in 1865 remained unsolved fifteen years after the event.