Alan Portner - Page 10

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.

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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.

BWW Review: WIZARD OF OZ at Theatre In The Park

August 5, 2019

This very week, eighty years ago, preview showings of the film a?oeThe Wizard of Oza?? opened on silver screens in Wisconsin and Massachusetts.

BWW Review: A BRONX TALE at Starlight Theatre

July 31, 2019

'A Bronx Tale,' playing this week at Starlight Theatre, is one of those hidden gems of a show that enjoyed a fairly limited Broadway run.

BWW Review: KISS ME KATE at Leawood Stage Company

July 15, 2019

Leawood Stage Company, the mainly city supported suburban, community theater program under the Leawood (KS) Park and Recreation District operates in several city controlled locations including the outdoor Ironwoods Amphitheatre.

BWW Review: MUSIC MAN at Theatre In The Park

July 11, 2019

Meredith Willson's 'Music Man' at 'Theatre In The Park' could not be a more iconic community theater rendition of early twentieth century Iowa and Americana unless the entire forty-six member cast entered by running through a framed newsprint mock-up of Grant Wood's 'American Gothic.

BWW Review: CATS at Starlight Theatre

July 10, 2019

A superb touring production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's classical-dance-musical opera 'Cats' from 1982 opened Tuesday evening at Starlight Theatre inside Swope Park for a week long run.

BWW Review: BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL at Starlight Theatre

June 26, 2019

Jukebox musicals have become a too dominant form both on Broadway and for its touring cousins.

BWW Review: THE REVOLUTIONISTS at Unicorn Theatre

June 10, 2019

The Queen of France, an assassin, and a freed slave woman run into each other at an artist's loft in 1790s Paris.

BWW Review: ANNIE at Theatre In The Park

June 8, 2019

TTIP's Annie' is a solid, Tim Bair, community theatre production of a show that has inspired thousands of little girls to get up on a stage for the first time and belt 'The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow.

BWW Review: ROCK OF AGES at Starlight Theatre

June 1, 2019

Starlight Theatre's opening offering for the 2019 summer season 'Rock Of Ages' was the single most disagreeable theatrical experience in more than fifty years spent attending live theater.

BWW Review: MORNINGS AT SEVEN at Kansas City Actors Theatre

May 26, 2019

For audiences feeling the need for a pleasant, two-hour sojourn into a gentler time, Paul Osborn's 1939 comedy of manners 'Mornings at Seven' at Kansas City Actors Theatre inside Union Station will fill their collective nostalgia voids.

BWW Previews: TONI STONE at Laura Pels Theatre

May 22, 2019

Toni Stone was the first female to play professional baseball in a major American baseball league and she happened to be African American.

BWW Review: UNRELIABLE at Kansas City Repertory Theatre

May 4, 2019

The annual ORIGINKC Festival of new plays presented by the Kansas City Repertory Theatre kicked off Friday, May 3 with a baffling yet engrossing piece titled 'Unreliable' by playwright Dipka Guha.

BWW Review: BUDDY...THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY at New Theatre Restaurant

May 3, 2019

Most Midwesterners older than a certain age have heard the name and may even know how young Buddy Holly died.

BWW Review: RENT - THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR at Broadway Across America

May 1, 2019

The 20th Anniversary Tour of 'Rent' has roared onto the stage at the Kansas City Music Hall for a week-long residency through Sunday, May 5.

BWW Review: FOREVER PLAID at Theatre In The Park

April 29, 2019

'Forever Plaid,' now playing at Theatre In The Park's indoor facility at the Johnson County Arts and Heritage Center, is a very pleasant excuse to spend an evening stepping through a gentle time warp and into an entirely different musical experience.

BWW Review: INHERIT THE WIND at White Theatre

March 18, 2019

“Inherit the Wind” is a fictional construction inspired by the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial and as a screed against the “Red Scare” activities of Wisconsin Senator (R) Joseph McCarthy during the early 1950s.

BWW Review: ANASTASIA at American Theatre Guild

March 13, 2019

Opening night Kansas City audiences for 'Anastasia the New Broadway Musical' were treated to a tremendously well performed, visually dazzling, homage to the classic musical theater form.

BWW Feature: TTIP AUDITIONS at Theatre In The Park

March 11, 2019

Community Theater is alive and well in Johnson County Kansas for all Kansas City metropolitan audiences and actors.

BWW Review: BILOXI BLUES REDUX at New Theatre Restaurant

March 6, 2019

Veteran character actor Peter Scolari stars in a featured role in the New Theatre production of Neil Simon's "Biloxi Blues.

BWW Review: BILOXI BLUES at New Theatre Restaurant

March 4, 2019

New Theatre and Restaurant's production of Neil Simon's 'Biloxi Blues' transports its 2019 audience back to Army boot camp during the closing days of World War II.

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