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Alan Portner

Alan Portner

Al Portner is regional editor for Broadway World – Kansas City.  He is a retired career journalist and media executive who has written for publication over more than 40 years. Portner has published daily newspapers in venues as far east as Washington DC, as far west as Honolulu HI.




LEARN MORE ABOUT Alan Portner

First Show:

The first musical I saw on Broadway was 1776 with the original cast.

Favorite Show:

My favorite show current recent show is Phantom Of The Opera

Favorite Stories:

  • BWW Review: AN EVENING WITH SIERRA BOGGESS at Musical Theater Heritage - Because of the presence of Ms. Boggess' parents in a small space environment, I felt like the veil dropped and we saw a glimpse of who this excellent performer really is as a person. I was able to feel the relationship of this family in relation to my own children.
  • BWW Review: BETWEEN THE LINES at Kansas City Repertory Theatre - BETWEEN THE LINES was a Pre-Broadway tryout production performed in front of the Broadway creative team. The show has yet to open in New York, but it remains clever and engaging. It also generated Broadway World reads at a rate four or five times what would normally be expected in a market of about two million.
  • The Last Romance at New Theatre Restaurant - THE LAST ROMANCE marked the final teaming of Charley Robinson and Michael Learned. Both were charming in a super venue.
  • Review: HADESTOWN at Kansas City Music Hall - The touring company of HADESTOWN featured a complex and thoughtful exploration of an ancient myth transported into another, but indefinite point in time. It was early in the run and a super cast was still extremely excited about performing something new. I personally enjoyed sharing uncommon background material that hoped to enhance the audience experience.
  • BWW Review: CATS at Musical Theater Heritage - CATS is not a favorite musical play. This particular production, however, featured a director who disassembled the entire show and rebuilt it with young, talented actors for a small theater and limited costume/makeup. It was an especially involving experience.


MOST POPULAR ARTICLES


Review: AN OLD-FASHIONED FAMILY MURDER at New Theatre & Restaurant
Review: AN OLD-FASHIONED FAMILY MURDER at New Theatre & Restaurant
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 an uproarious new farce. 

Interview: Joe DiPietro of AN OLD-FASHIONED FAMILY MURDER at New Theatre & Restaurant
Interview: Joe DiPietro of AN OLD-FASHIONED FAMILY MURDER at New Theatre & Restaurant
September 21, 2024

Kansas City audiences do not often get the opportunity to see World Premiere productions of plays by Tony Award winning playwrights.  This makes the current New Theatre & Restaurant production of Joe DiPietra’s new play “An Old-Fashioned Family Murder” starring “All In The Family’s” Sally Strothers exceptional.

Review: DIAL M FOR MURDER at City Stage At Union Station
Review: DIAL M FOR MURDER at City Stage At Union Station
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
Review: TREE OF LIFE at White Theatre
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.

Feature: TREE OF LIFE at White Theatre
Feature: TREE OF LIFE at White Theatre
September 12, 2024

The White Theatre presents a world premiere production of “Tree of Life,” a new two-act play, by Kansas City career writer and playwright Victor Wishna.  “Tree of Life” documents the journey of a sacred “Torah” that has rested in the arc of a small-town Iowa synagogue over more than a century.

Feature: CIRQUE'S TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE... at KC Music Hall
Feature: CIRQUE'S TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE... at KC Music Hall
September 10, 2024

One suggestion for guests on is a trip down to the Kansas City Music Hall to witness a new production by Montreal’s famous Cirque Du Soleil.   The new show is called “Twas the Night Before…”  It is the first ever holiday themed Cirque in the almost fifty-year history of the company.

Review: TROUBLE IN MIND at Kansas City Actors Theatre
Review: TROUBLE IN MIND at Kansas City Actors Theatre
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 of view. I was struck by how much our country has matured (mostly for the better) over eighty years.

Review: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES at Music Theater Heritage
Review: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES at Music Theater Heritage
August 4, 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-deprecating, six-time Tony Winning, best musical of 1984, “La Cage aux Folles.”

Review: SISTER ACT THE MUSICAL At Theatre In The Park
Review: SISTER ACT THE MUSICAL At Theatre In The Park
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.” 

Review: THE LITTLE MERMAID at White Theatre
Review: THE LITTLE MERMAID at White Theatre
July 28, 2024

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

Review: MOULIN ROUGE THE MUSICAL at American Theatre Guild
Review: MOULIN ROUGE THE MUSICAL at American Theatre Guild
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, fully entertained. The dancing, vocals, lighting, sets, and orchestrations are all “par excellence.”   It may not be challenging  theater, but MOULIN ROUGE is great entertainment. 

Review: DISNEY'S NEWSIES at New Theatre & Restaurant
Review: DISNEY'S NEWSIES at New Theatre & Restaurant
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 strategically moving about the stage, and an eleven-piece orchestra. 

Review: BIG TROUBLE AT LITTLE YALTA at Central Standard Theatre
Review: BIG TROUBLE AT LITTLE YALTA at Central Standard Theatre
July 6, 2024

It is not often an audience gets the chance to participate in the developmental process of making significant art that also qualifies as fun. BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE YALTA by Neal Salvage may be that rare opportunity when parody, satire, and history can come together.

Feature: BIG TROUBLE AT LITTLE YALTA at Just Off Broadway Theatre
Feature: BIG TROUBLE AT LITTLE YALTA at Just Off Broadway Theatre
July 1, 2024

BIG TROUBLE AT LITTLE YALTA is a comedic take by Neil Salvage on a not very well remembered, but extremely important meeting of world leaders during the waning days of the World War II in Europe.  Almost all of what you see in our play is fiction, but a little understanding of what really transpired may help you understand and appreciate the comedy playing out in front of you.

Previews: BIG TROUBLE AT LITTLE YALTA at Central Standard Theatre
Previews: BIG TROUBLE AT LITTLE YALTA at Central Standard Theatre
June 25, 2024

Recently, I watched and chuckled at an early rehearsal of a show called BIG TROUBLE AT LITTLE YALTA.  Bob Paisley's Central Standard Theatre presents the World Premiere of YALTA scheduled for July 3 through July 7 at the Just Off-Broadway Theatre at 3051 Central in Kansas City.

Review: ANASTASIA THE MUSICAL at Theatre In The Park
Review: ANASTASIA THE MUSICAL at Theatre In The Park
June 18, 2024

Second show this spring at the Shawnee Mission Park Theatre In The Park, is ANASTASIA, a 2017 fairy tale based on a wished-for result concerning the Russian Grand Duchess Anatasia. This, in turn, was based on an earlier 1997 animated film and an even earlier imagining in a 1956 film. ANASTASIA the Musical is fortunate to have found some super voices for all its lead roles.

Review: PORGY AND BESS at Music Theater Heritage
Review: PORGY AND BESS at Music Theater Heritage
June 10, 2024

Now playing in the Grand Theater at Crown Center is Music Theater Heritage’s production of Gershwin’s “PORGY AND BESS.”  This is an example of MTH going “all in” on a very challenging show and producing an extremely credible final product. 

Review: THE LEHMAN TRILOGY at Kansas City Actors Theatre
Review: THE LEHMAN TRILOGY at Kansas City Actors Theatre
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: HOT THE MUSICAL at Unicorn Theatre
Review: HOT THE MUSICAL at Unicorn Theatre
May 17, 2024

In performance now through June 2 is HOT THE MUSICAL, an entertaining and original new take on the Greek Mythology surrounding Helen of Troy and the Trojan Wars. The show is staged at Unicorn Theatre on Main Street. This one is definitely worth your time.

Review: MJ THE MUSICAL at KC Music Hall
Review: MJ THE MUSICAL at KC Music Hall
May 8, 2024

Michael is Roman Banks with a spot-on almost miraculous personification of the Ing of Pop.  The dancing, the voice, the persona.  They are all there.  Banks offers a remarkable performance.  



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