Alan Portner - Page 5

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

The final show of Theater In The Park’s 2024 outdoor season is a musical version of the 1992 film comedy “SISTER ACT.” 

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

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.  

For 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. 

Wandering 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.

I 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.