WESTERN PLAYHOUSE - MISSOURI WESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY

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.”  ...

by Alan Portner - July 28, 2024

What did our critic think of THE LITTLE MERMAID at White Theatre?...