FIRST ACT THEATRE ARTS

by Alan Portner - May 11, 2026

It is not often that Kansas City audiences get the chance to see the “World Premiere” engagement of a new comedy from an award-winning Broadway performer and playwright. This month Unicorn Theatre presents “Don’t Touch My Hair,” by Douglas Lyons....

by Andrew Burrill - May 11, 2026

Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s THE WIZARD OF OZ does not attempt to recreate nostalgia in its simplest form. Instead, this production interrogates why the story has endured for generations and reframes it through a distinctly theatrical lens rooted in American folk tradition, musical intimacy, an...

by Andrew Burrill - May 06, 2026

They keep people alive. They keep people moving. And sometimes, they keep people from realizing how impossible their lives have truly become. Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s production of OF MICE AND MEN does not treat John Steinbeck’s story as distant Americana or dusty literary nostalgia....

by Alan Portner - May 04, 2026

The air at New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park is thick with the scent of high-end buffet favorites and the electric hum of a sold-out crowd. The curtain has risen on a revival of the 1960s Broadway classic Cactus Flower, and if the opening week's standing ovations are any indication, Kansas Ci...

by Alan Portner - April 27, 2026

A full auditorium of just over a hundred patrons filed into the newly renovated Warwick Theater for a re-imagination of Stephen King’s “The Shawshank Redemption.” This theatrical adaptation is written by Irish playwrights Owen O’Neill and Dave Johns, an unlikely yet inspired pairing. Both m...

by Alan Portner - April 09, 2026

Think of the greatest songs you’ve never heard - the soaring melodies, the unexpected anthems, the driving beats, the lyrics that speak to a feeling you didn’t know could be expressed in words. Unlike most straight plays, this opus has its own musical score, and good one by Will Butler. And tha...

by Alan Portner - March 30, 2026

MTH’s World Premiere production of “Moby Dick a sea shanty” should not be missed. This “Moby Dick” is a remarkable, boiled-down, reinterpretation of Herman Melville’s massive dark 1851 tome. MTH manages to somehow transform this dark mid-nineteenth century novel into an engaging and engr...

by Alan Portner - March 18, 2026

If Broadway’s Great Gatsby trades in spectacle, the first national North American Tour proves that its success on the road depends on something more grounded: a cast capable of sustaining the illusion night after night, city after city.  This performance is pretty much flawless top to bottom.  �...

by Alan Portner - March 16, 2026

Producing The Play That Goes Wrong at a community-theater level is an act of courage.  And the Silver Star with two oak leaf enhancements goes to the White Theatre inside the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park.  Seldom before have I seen such an active sold-out crowd in this venue who eviden...

by Andrew Burrill - March 15, 2026

What did our critic think of TROJAN WOMEN MCI at Unicorn Theatre?...