Review: AN OLD-FASHIONED FAMILY MURDER at New Theatre & Restaurant
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 ...
Review: DIAL M FOR MURDER at City Stage At Union Station
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....
Review: TREE OF LIFE at White Theatre
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....
Review: TROUBLE IN MIND at Kansas City Actors Theatre
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...
Review: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES at Music Theater Heritage
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...
Review: MOULIN ROUGE THE MUSICAL at American Theatre Guild
by Alan Portner - July 26, 2024
MOULIN ROUGE The Musical Is something entirely new to the wave of Juke Box musicals overwhelming the Great White Way. It is big, bold, brassy, and projects an altogether sexy sumptuousness while maintaining a sense of humor about itself. The audience leaves the theater on a massive sugar high, full...
Review: DISNEY'S NEWSIES at New Theatre & Restaurant
by Alan Portner - July 16, 2024
This production of NEWSIES, directed and choreographed by Jerry Jay Cranford and assisted by Christina Burton, features a cast of twenty-two dancers and singers, plus constantly in motion LED backdrops, a bridge flown high off the stage floor, combined with three matching stair/tower units strategic...