KANSAS CITY, KS. COMM. COLLEGE

by Alan Portner - November 25, 2024

Cirque Du Soleil’s excellent new Christmas Show, TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE… opens at the Kansas City Music Hall for eight performances beginning THE NIGHT BEFORE…Thanksgiving Day and continues through Sunday, December 1....

by Steve Wilson - November 01, 2024

What did our critic think of BUBBLE BOY, A MUSICAL ABOUT BURSTING OUT at Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center?...

by Alan Portner - October 28, 2024

Meredith Willson’s THE MUSIC MAN opened this week at The White Theatre to an almost full house standing ovation. THE MUSIC MAN is a tribute to small town America around the turn of the twentieth century. The location is River City, Iowa on the Iowa/Illinois border in 1912....

by Steve Wilson - October 12, 2024

Forty-nine years after Richard O’Brien wrote the book, lyrics, and music for THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW it remains a cult classic, and it has risen to a new level as Padgett Productions opens THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW LIVE in the Grand Theatre at Crown Center in Kansas City. The show opened to a raucous audi...

by Alan Portner - September 23, 2024

Imagine a very funny stage comedy hidden behind a locked door, puzzler of a 1940s mystery movie and you’ve got AN OLD-FASHIONED FAMILY MURDER now playing at New Theatre and Restaurant. It is a World Premiere production. Double Tony-winning playwright Joe DiPietro has cleverly developed a recipe for ...

by Alan Portner - September 17, 2024

It is a quest to commit the perfect murder, and it almost works. “Dial M For Murder” is the twisted story of a failed novelist who has married an heiress and has decided to do her in to inherit her millions....

by Alan Portner - September 17, 2024

Victor Wishna’s new play “Tree of Life” deserves an audience beyond its current World Premiere production ending on September 22.   It is a blessing (a bracha) to those fortunate enough to see the premiere engagement. This unusual and original new play is directed by Jonah Greene....

by Alan Portner - August 14, 2024

It is funny. It is a slice of life. It is a literal peek behind the curtain. Kansas City Actors Theatre production of Alice Childress’s TROUBLE IN MIND allows audiences a long-delayed opportunity to vision America (and its theatrical community) as it appeared in 1955 from an African American point o...

by Alan Portner - August 04, 2024

Looking for a little relief from the ongoing political season? If so, I should like to recommend the outrageous, belly-laugh of a show now playing in the Music Theatre Heritage Grand Theater on the fourth floor of Crown Center described by another audience member as “awesome.” It is the self-depreca...

by Alan Portner - July 29, 2024

The final show of Theater In The Park’s 2024 outdoor season is a musical version of the 1992 film comedy “SISTER ACT.”  ...