Review: DIAL M FOR MURDER at City Stage At Union Station
by Alan Portner - Sep 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: TROUBLE IN MIND at Kansas City Actors Theatre
by Alan Portner - Aug 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 of view. I was struck by how much our country has matured (mostly for the better) over eighty years.
Review: THE LEHMAN TRILOGY at Kansas City Actors Theatre
by Alan Portner - May 26, 2024
The Lehman Trilogy studies American Dream Mythology as seen through the eyes of Italian playwright and poet Stefano Massini. The English translation by Ben Power transfigures itself into an absorbing and poignant exercise in stellar storytelling as one might imagine it by three brothers around a metaphorical campfire.
Review: GASLIGHT at Union Station
by Alan Portner - Jan 20, 2024
They say you never forget your first. That was certainly the situation for a former Scotland Yard Police Inspector named Rough (played by John Rensenhouse). Oddly, Inspector Rough had no known first name. Rough’s first bloody murder case in 1865 remained unsolved fifteen years after the event.
Review: SKELETON CREW at Kansas City Actors Theatre
by Alan Portner - Sep 20, 2023
Kansas City Actors Theater last week opened their new production of “Skeleton Crew” a relatively new (2016) play by Dominique Morisseau on the City Stage located on the lower level of Union Station.
Review: GRAND HORIZONS at Kansas City Actors Theatre
by Alan Portner - Aug 20, 2023
“Grand Horizons” is the tongue-in–cheek moniker given the senior development to which the fifty-year, mostly amicable marriage of Bill and Nancy French has recently been downsized.
“Buckle your seat belts… it is going to be a bumpy (and funny) ride.”
Review: PREJUDICE AND PRIDE OPENS IN KANSAS CITY at Musical Theater Heritage
by Steve Wilson - Jul 16, 2022
The heavens are filled with bright, shiny stars and so is the stage at the Musical Theater Heritage theater located in Crown Center. The hilarious world premiere of PREJUDICE AND PRIDE runs through July 24th and then goes to Edinburgh, Scotland in August. Sam Writes and Nicholas Collett Production brings this gender-swapping American folk music to life with a comedy style befitting of a larger audience. What did our critic think of PREJUDICE AND PRIDE OPENS IN KANSAS CITY at Musical Theater Heritage?
BWW Review: SPECTACULAR CHRISTMAS SHOW at Musical Theater Heritage
by Alan Portner - Dec 12, 2021
One of the annual challenges inherent to creating an absolutely new “Spectacular Christmas Show” at Musical l Theater Heritage is how to differentiate this year’s production from the thirteen editions that preceded it. I have been privileged to see eight of the fourteen iterations and can promise you that each production is professional, well performed, entertaining and very different from earlier versions. Sure, you will recognize some of the music, but it is unlikely that the key will be one you are pre-programed to have heard before or that the various harmonies will be hackneyed.
KANSAS CITY: 1924's New Episode Airing Online and On KKFI This Friday
by A.A. Cristi - Dec 10, 2020
After the shocking cliffhanger in the last episode of “Kansas City: 1924,” what seems like a break in the weather may turn out to be just be the eye of the storm. In episode 5, “Baseball Season,” the turf war between Ma Pritchett and Joey Giovanni threatens to spiral out of control as we learn what has become of Rose and George.
Premiere Date and Programming Announcement for Kansas City Actors Radio Theatre
by Chloe Rabinowitz - Sep 4, 2020
The core artistic company of Kansas City Actors Theatre has announced Friday, September 25th at 12 pm (CT) as the premiere of their weekly radio theatre series, Kansas City Actors Radio Theatre (KCART), presented in partnership with radio station 90.1FM KKFI, Kansas City Community Radio.
Premiere Date And Programming Announced For Kansas City Actors Radio Theatre
by A.A. Cristi - Sep 4, 2020
The core artistic company of Kansas City Actors Theatre has announced that Friday, September 25th at 12 pm (CT) as the premiere of their weekly radio theatre series, Kansas City Actors Radio Theatre, presented in partnership with radio station 90.1FM KKFI, Kansas City Community Radio.