WESTERN PLAYHOUSE - MISSOURI WESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY

by Steve Wilson - December 09, 2024

Ho...Ho...Ho, Cindy Lou Who, that’s who returned to Kansas City on Friday, December 6, in WHO’S HOLIDAY A NEW COMEDY WITH A TWIST OF RHYME. Padgett Productions’ Christmas delight opened on the stage of the Ruby Room inside Crown Center. The Ruby Room is the perfect venue for WHO’S HOLIDAY, as the sh...

by Alan Portner - December 04, 2024

FUNNY GIRL is one of the crown gems of the American Musical Theater. Kansas City audiences will be treated to a first-class production of a show that many theater buffs know about but have never seen. Tuesday night’s performance starred Leah Platt in the lead role of Fanny Brice. Leah has a gangbus...

by Alan Portner - December 03, 2024

Heating up the boards at New Theatre Restaurant now through February 2, 2025 is a new production of a reliable Off-Broadway Musical Review called NUNSENSE featuring a very funny quintet of comedy Sisters from the “Little Sisters of Olathe.”...

by Steve Wilson - December 02, 2024

Spoiler alert: What did the iconic Maxine from MAXINE’S CHRISTMAS CAROL learn on opening night? The answer: She learned that Padget Productions has another holiday treat on its hands. MAXINE’S CHRISTMAS CAROL opened on Friday, November 29, at the City Stage inside Union Station. The musical comedy w...

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....