Alan Portner - Page 7

The Musical Parody of TV's THE OFFICE is for those who are devoted fans of the 2005 a?' 2013 NBC comedy series. This is an unauthorized version, but it is probable that the best audience members for the parody are those most steeped in the developmental history of how the source show came to be.

FUN HOME (the musical) is, according to KC Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Stuart Carden, a?oethe most important new musical theater piecea?oe of the last decade. 2015 American Theatre Wing voters agreed by rewarding FUN HOME with Tony awards for Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book, Best Lead Actor, and Best Director.

The World Premier engagement of Jacqueline Goldfinger's BABEL (as part of the National New Play Network) is enjoying its first, fully realized production at Kansas City's Unicorn Theatre in Midtown. BABEL is a fascinating, at times funny, and at times terrifying vision of a future that may not be very far off. The questions it poses do not unreasonably stretch technology and human impacts.

PROOF is an interesting, four person, theatrical enterprise that explores the nexus between genius and profound mental illness. This 2001 Pulitzer Prize winner by David Auburn is currently completing its extended run at Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre's Warwick Theatre in midtown this Saturday February 25.

DIXIE LONGATE'S TUPPERWARE PARTY on the Starlight Stage Indoors is a hoot.  Playing in Kansas City until January 19, Dixie is the outrageous drag stage personae of performer and playwright Kris Andersson.  It is a 90 minute, multimedia, comic presentation and an actual Tupperware Party.

Stopping only for one night on December 17, Johnson County Community College presented a new Broadway style musical called BANDSTAND in Yardley Hall. All told, BANDSTAND is a very good show and worth seeing should it come through again. It is one of those shows that aspires to be great, but doesn't quite get there.

A strong cast presents an excellent Unicorn production of a very new play, Bernhardt/Hamlet, A Woman Unbounda by Theresa Rebeck. Bernhardt/Hamlet is a smart, comedic, reasonably accurate portrait of a middle-aged, financially strapped, giant of the nineteenth century French stage still with her powers intact, but with a paucity of mountains she still desires to climb.

December 6, 2019 marks the inaugural presentation of Kansas City's new Forge Repertory Theatre. The first production is TV writer Eric Overmyer's 1985 comic fantasy “On The Verge or The Geography of Yearning” performed at the Black Box Theatre in the West Bottoms area of Kansas City.

Kansas City Ballet's annual production of Tchaikovsky's a?oeNutcrackera?? remains a first class interpretation of this classic holiday work.  This a?oeNutcrackera?? with its lush and extravagant technical accoutrements has been performed to super reviews. This year it returns for a three week run at the Kauffman Center through Christmas Eve. As a theatrical enterprise, this 'Nutcracker' is unlikely to be surpassed by any other production of this beloved work.

What is it that goes into the process of making art? That is the question that the five founding members of the Forge Repertory Theatre hope to answer with their re-invented approach to funding and transparency as a professional startup project here in Kansas City.

The Barn Players Community Theater, now located at the Arts Asylum, finishes up their 2019 main stage schedule with a good production of Blake Edwards'Victor/Victoria based on the 1982 smash hit film of the same name. Victoria complains that she is disadvantaged as a performer because she is a woman. This amuses Toddy and hatches the germ of an idea. Instead of presenting Victoria as pretty young soprano of excellent ability, he will present her as Victor, a Polish nobleman and the world's greatest female impersonator. The ruse succeeds and Victor becomes a star with Toddy as her producer.

Need an evening that stretches your G-rated mind with a fun, supremely entertaining, ninety minute rib-tickling exercise? How about an evening free from national politics? Oddly, it is available in a show about the nation's founders and others. You will enjoy Spamilton, an American Parody literally on the stage at Starlight Theatre's reformatted Cohen Stage through Sunday November 17.

MY MOTHER IS ITALIAN, MY FATHER IS JEWISH, & I'M IN THERAPY is a long-running off Broadway comedy show that has landed in Musical Theatre's main room for a three week long run.

Dear Evan Hansen was the winner of six 2017 Tony awards including Best Musical and Best Performance by an actor. The first national tour of a Dear Evan Hansen has set up shop at the Kansas City Music Hall for a one week run.

Sensatia the Cirque Cabaret, is an incredible journey through multiple entertainment genres . The adult, ninety-minute presentation is immersive, erotic, surprising, and unlike any other experiential performance you are likely to enjoy.

a?oeRagtimea?? at Musical Theatre Heritage is more than just a great show. It has harnessed extraordinary power to move its audience and remind us of the idea that is America.

An evening at the theater does not get much better than New Theatre's “The Last Romance.” Joe DiPietro's “The Last Romance” is a rare example of a charming, tiny, four-person comedy-drama that rises to be an extraordinary production through the talent force of its actors and the care of its director.

Opening this past Friday was the Theatre In The Park, indoor, community theater production of 1966's 'Sweet Charity' The show is best known for several Cy Coleman/Dorothy Field songs that have long survived the play's original run and several revivals. The most well-known tunes are 'Big Spender,' 'If My Friends Could See Me Now,' and 'There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This.'

Opening on Friday night at The Coterie Theatre inside Crown Center is a?oeRise Up,a?? a four person, seventy five minute play written by British playwright Lisa Evans. The subject is the 1961 a?oeFreedom Ridersa?? project designed by James Farmer's CORE (Congress of Racial Equality). The premise is a group of four contemporary secondary students recount a conflict in the struggle for racial equality in the U.S. for a school age audience.

'Gross Indecency; The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde' is a fascinating, well-acted, and well-directed construct of the playwright's final years seen through the lenses of Wilde himself, his lovers, his accusers, and his defenders.