Review: MJ THE MUSICAL at KC Music HallMay 8, 2024Michael 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.
Review: SQUABBLES at New Theatre RestaurantMay 5, 2024For those of you who feel the need for a light, fun evening of laugh out loud comedy and a delightful meal, let me recommend “SQUABBLES” a live comedy play that has Just opened at New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park. “SQUABBLES” is a light comedy with an unusually tight and experienced cast featuring Donny Most (from the old “Happy Days” sitcom) and an excellent group of mostly local actors.
Feature: THE OTHER PLACE at FOX THEATRE/SpringfieldApril 29, 2024Wandering a bit outside the Kansas City Metro, Broadway World had the opportunity to explore a current production running at the Fox Theatre in downtown Springfield as a co-production of Springfield Contemporary Theatre and Resident Artist Ensemble.
The play is 2013’s THE OTHER PLACE by Sharr White, a fascinating, four actor study of one woman’s journey of discovery as she experiences unexplained changes in what should be the prime of her life.
Interview: J. Daughtry of MJ THE MUSICAL at Broadway Across AmericaApril 17, 2024I remember seeing a remarkable, ten-year-old Michael Jackson with his brothers on Sunday’s Ed Sullivan Show in the late 1960s. He was a heck of a performer even then. It seems remarkable that the man that little boy became passed away more than fifteen years ago. More unbelievably, Michael would be eligible this year for Social Security and Medicare.
Review: ROCKY THE MUSICAL at MTKC ProApril 15, 2024The Music Theatre Kansas City – (Pro) KC Premiere production of the 2014’s Broadway version of “Rocky the Musical” is surprisingly worth your time. It is hard to have avoided Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky Franchise” beginning as a sleeper, low budget film hit in 1976. So far there have been six “Rocky” movies plus several follow-on films based on the career of the son of Apollo Creed, Rocky’s original opponent and eventual friend.
Review: CLUE at Kauffman CenterApril 4, 2024Three quarters of a century following its first North American game release, a top-quality touring play version of “Clue, A New Comedy” has appeared set in a mansion located in suburban Washington, D.C. At the risk of sounding like a bad horror novel or even worse “B” movie, all the action takes place in a spooky mansion on a dark and stormy night. This is not the first attempt to leverage the popular game into other venues.
Review: SHOUT! THE MOD MUSICAL at Black Box TheaterMarch 12, 2024Shout! The Mod Musical” is more of a loose musical revue, than a musical play. It is costumed and set for London during the period I was emerging from my teenage cocoon years into young adulthood. I clearly remember the performers who introduced the music from this show into the canon.
Review: MAMMA MIA! at Kansas City Music HallMarch 6, 2024Plain old feel-good musicals are rare. The “Dancing Queen” of this limited genre is “Mamma Mia!” The 25th Anniversary tour of this truly enjoyable evening out at the theatre plays through Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Kansas City Music Hall in downtown Kansas City.
Feature: MAMMA MIA at Kansas City Music HallMarch 1, 2024Opening March 5 at the Music Hall in downtown Kansas City is the 25th Anniversary tour of “Mamma Mia.” This touring production is presented by Broadway Across America, Kansas City based largest presenter of Broadway tours across the nation.
Review: ALOHA FROM VEGAS at New Theatre & RestaurantFebruary 17, 2024Victor Trevino, Jr. as Elvis Presley is brilliant in New Theatre & Restaurant’s new Tribute Concert to the “King” called “Aloha from Vegas.” To get much closer to Elvis, you need a time machine.
Review: THE PROM at White TheatreJanuary 30, 2024What did our critic think of THE PROM at White Theatre? Running now at the White Theatre inside the Jewish Community Center is a production of a new musical dealing with the serious subjects of celebrity, gender identity and social intolerance run wild that somehow still offers the audience a real feel-good experience.
Review: GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY at Kauffman CenterJanuary 24, 2024Connor McPherson’s “Girl from the North Country” enjoyed the Kansas City opening of its first national tour at the Kauffman Center on Tuesday night for a one week residency. McPherson has written and directed a “slice of life” show and filled in the blank spaces with songs from Bob Dylan’s career.
“Girl” might be categorized as a “Juke Box” musical like “Jersey Boys” or “Mama Mia,” but this is certainly not that. This is not a musical play about Bob Dylan.
Review: GASLIGHT at Union StationJanuary 20, 2024They 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: JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG at MET's Warwick TheatreJanuary 13, 2024“Judgement at Nuremberg” at Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre’s (MET) Warwick Theatre is a fictional rendering of the 1947 Judge’s War Crime Trial held at Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. “Judgement at Nuremberg” is a painful remembrance of an attempt to both punish those accountable for the barbarisms committed in the name of the German state and to be consciously impartial in the administration of an accused’s trial rights.
Eighteen million people died at the hands of the Third Reich and its National Socialist (NAZI) leaders. Six and a half million of the dead comprised two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population. It was a determined and deliberate stated goal of genocide of a people.
Post war, many of Europe’s surviving Jews fled places they had lived for millenniums in favor of reestablishing a sovereign state in their ancestral homeland where they could finally feel safe. It is ironic that this play opened in Kansas City on the very day that South Africa brought an accusation of genocide against the descendants of the survivors, today’s Israelis, at the International Court of Justice.
The play centers on three main characters. One is Dan Heyward, a retired American District Court Judge called to lead a panel of three non-biased jurists in the trial of three NAZI era judicial officials. The second is a renowned German Judge named Ernst Janning. Janning had once sat in the chair similar to America’s Attorney General during pre-NAZI days. The third character is a youngish defense attorney named Oscar Rolfe, a volunteer defender of the estimable Ernst Janning. Janning initially refuses to recognize the authority of the court.
It is two years since the end of the war in Europe. The scope of the evil that was done has become clear. The question facing the court is how far down into the German Bureaucracy must consequences for the German people reach?
Usual suspects have already been tried, convicted, jailed, executed, or committed suicide. What is left to adjudicate are those who have allowed the worst to happen and why they allowed it. Were they true believers? Were they people who went along in hopes the system would self-correct? Is there any defense for crimes against humanity? Judge Heyward is our eyes as we attempt to understand how this monstrosity that was the Third Reich could have ever happened.
“Judgement at Nuremberg” by Abby Mann is sixty-three years-old, yet it mirrors the Donald Trump era in exquisite detail. The arguments put forward in the staged court and from Judge Heyward’s investigation are heard in today’s legal briefs almost word for word. This makes “Judgement” frightening and important for 2024 audiences to see. When you see this play, you will recognize modern, living associates of the past administration mouthing dialog written before they reached their majority.
MET has done an excellent job of casting. Director Karen Paisley has choreographed an exquisite twenty-four scene, two-act play in precise detail using minimal, yet effective set pieces. The few conceits adopted for this production work exceptionally well. Most acting is restrained and understated; except for two or three explosions from wholly appropriate characters when needed. Ms. Paisley has incorporated vintage documentary film from the era and what almost seems like a motion picture score backing up the action.
“Judgement” is the third iteration of this story by Abby Mann, born Abraham Goodman, a son of Russian Jewish immigrants to the United States. The story first appeared as a television episode of Playhouse 90 in 1957, a feature film in 1961, and this version, a Broadway play in 2001. The Broadway version of “Judgement” was performed a total of fifty-six times. The expanded filmed version recently became available on “Prime Video.”
The leading cast members in the MET production are John Clancy as Judge Dan Heywood, Tim Ahlenius as Ernst Janning, and Michael Dragen as Oscar Rolfe. They are backed up by a fine supporting cast.
All the characters in this play are products of the playwright’s imagination. They are inspired by similar, real life people. True, historic situations influenced the plot and the legal arguments.
“Judgement at Nuremberg” continues at the Warwick Theatre through January 21. Tickets are available at https://www.warwickkc.org/ or by telephone at (816) 569-3226.
Review: TINA at Kansas City Music HallDecember 7, 2023The sheer spectacle of “Tina” is amazing. Emphasizing the fact that Tina Turner was one of a kind, the gravely-voiced, sexy, full out singing style of Tina is so stressful on the performer’s voices, this show uses two actresses to play her on alternate evenings.
Feature: BRITISH INVASION 2024 at Central Standard TheatreDecember 4, 2023Since 2010 Central Standard Theatre has been producing thought inducing, innovative theatre. Based in Kansas City, CST offers an international angle to the local theatre scene. With productions touring Britain, Ireland, Canada and Australia, CST offers the world a unique view of who we are in the Heartland by showcasing our culture at theatre festivals around the world. CST also brings the world to Kansas City. Annually, The Invasion features the best solo work from International theatre artists.
Review: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN at New Theatre & RestaurantDecember 2, 2023“Catch Me If You Can” at New Theatre Restaurant is a comedic turn on the Murder Mystery genre. It will keep you guessing from the opening curtain until the big reveal at the end of the show.
San Francisco Marketing Consultant Daniel Corbin (Ross Hellwig) has sneaked away for a holiday weekend with his new bride. Following a honeymoon spat, Bride Elizabeth mysteriously vanishes.
Who done it? And what did they do?
Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Kansas City Repertory TheatreNovember 22, 2023Last night, November 21, 2023, a Kansas City tradition, the 42rd annual (almost) Kansas City Repertory Theatre production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” opened at the Spencer Theater on the UMKC campus for an extended run through Christmas Eve. Except for the Covid year when the live production was replaced by a video version, audiences have gathered for “A Christmas Carol” since 1980.
The house lights dim and a cast of Victorian holiday carolers appear complete with an onstage costumed orchestra. Our Storyteller (Nedra Dixon) also dressed in stunning early Victorian garb, welcomes us. Ms. Dixon is elegant and charming in this her first stint as the Storyteller.