Kansas City Theater Reviews
View the latest BroadwayWorld reviews of live + streaming theatre in Kansas City.
BWW Review: THE MUSIC OF MOTOWN at MTH (Virtual)
by Alan Portner - January 18, 2021
“The Music of Motown” is the third original cabaret show in a series of video streamed entertainments from Musical Theater Heritage in the wake of the great Covid-19 pandemic. Covid has eliminated live audience performances for the time being. Each new iteration becomes a little technically better...
BWW Review: THE SPECTACULAR CHRISTMAS SHOW at Musical Theater Heritage
by Alan Portner - December 11, 2020
A KC holiday treasures I always enjoy is the “The Spectacular Christmas Show” at Musical Theater Heritage. Covid-19 has forced the “Christmas Show” off the main stage, but it has has been re-incarnated virtually and not lost much on the “Spectacular” scale and lost nothing in musical performance....
BWW Review: THE SNOWY DAY AND OTHER STORIES BY EZRA JACK KEATS at The Coterie Theatre
by Steve Wilson - December 08, 2020
The Covid 19 pandemic has halted live performances from Kansas City to Broadway, and all around the world. The Coterie Theatre has joined the ever-growing number of theatrical companies that are bringing their performances to their audiences virtually, with their production of THE SNOWY DAY AND OTHE...
BWW Review: VIRTUAL STREAMING OF DEATH OF A DRIVER PRODUCED BY THE UNICORN THEATRE at The Unicorn Theatre
by Steve Wilson - November 16, 2020
The Unicorn Theatre is currently streaming a virtual theatre production of Will Snider’s play DEATH OF A DRIVER. The feature is available through November 29 and when ordered through the box office the purchaser has 48 hours to view the production. The Associate Artistic Director for The Unicorn, Ia...
BWW Review: BROADWAY'S PRINCE at MTH At Crown Center
by Alan Portner - November 06, 2020
MTH’s new virtual Musical Monday “Broadway’s Prince” is a delightful decompression from the all-consuming political drama that engulfs the country. “Broadway’s Prince” is a remembrance of the late, great, Broadway producer and Director Hal Prince. This production is a compendium of sixteen music...
BWW Review: SMILE A FEEL GOOD CABARET - A Virtual Performance By The Heartland Men's Chorus
by Steve Wilson - September 28, 2020
The Heartland Mena??s Chorus presented their first virtual program of their 35th season on Saturday, September 26 with their presentation of SMILE A FEEL GOOD CABARET on Facebook Live. The production presented songs to make the audience happy, with one goal to make the audience smile....
BWW Review: ELECTRIC POE A HAUNTING TALE BY THE COTERIE THEATRE
by Steve Wilson - September 19, 2020
As if 2020 wasna??t scary enough, The Coterie Theater ushers in the haunting season with the opening of ELECTRIC POE on Friday, September 19. The play based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe was conceived, adapted, and directed by Jeff Church, Producing Artistic Director of The Coterie, and runs throu...
BWW Review: AN EVENING WITH RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN at Musical Theater Heritage
by Alan Portner - September 01, 2020
Fans of Musical Theater Heritage are in for a treat with a new, locally conceived and performed streaming remembrance revue featuring the iconic music of a?oeRodgers and Hammerstein.a?? This MTH production uses parts of the finished scenic design from the Covid cancelled production of a?oeCaro...
BWW Review: AMERICAN SON at Unicorn Theatre
by Alan Portner - March 09, 2020
AMERICAN SON is a bold, intense, ninety minute study of race and law enforcement in America during the early twenty-first century. How you interpret what you see depends entirely on who you are and your own preconceptions. ...
BWW Review: THE GOLDEN GIRLS PARODY at Starlight Theatre Indoors
by Alan Portner - March 09, 2020
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BWW Review: LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR at KC Lyric Opera
by Kelly Luck - March 08, 2020
KC Lyric's production a bel canto treat...
BWW Review: THE SECRET IN THE WING Opens at the Black Box in Kansas City
by Steve Wilson - March 06, 2020
The second show of the inaugural season of Forge Repertory Theatre is an ambitious production of Mary Zimmerman's THE SECRET IN THE WINGS. It is hilarious, a generally dark comedy, with moments of violence, masterfully directed by Todd Lanker, but best of all opens Saturday, March 7, at The Black Bo...
BWW Review: PUFFS OR SEVEN INCREASINGLY EVENTFUL YEARS AT A CERTAIN SCHOOL Opens at the Coterie
by Steve Wilson - March 01, 2020
PUFFS is not the Kleenex tissue, though you may need one to wipe away the tears running down your cheeks from the sustained laughter. PUFFS OR SEVEN INCREASINGLY EVENTFUL YEARS AT A CERTAIN SCHOOL OF MAGIC AND MAGIC opened Friday, February 28 at The Coterie Theatre in Crown Center. Matt Cox has writ...
BWW Review: TITANIC (THE MUSICAL) at Barn Players
by Alan Portner - February 18, 2020
Barn Players production of TITANIC (The Musical) opened this past weekend at the Arts Asylum to full and appreciative audiences. TITANIC is a huge (pardon the play on words) Community Theater undertaking in all ways you might imagine it could be. TITANIC (The Musical) was written by Maury Yesto...
BWW Review: SHOW FOR DAYS OPENS AT THE BLACK BOX IN KANSAS CITY
by Steve Wilson - February 17, 2020
Fishtank Theatre opened its first show at their new home, the Black Box, with the hilarious comedy SHOW FOR DAYS. Though several productions by other companies have already been staged at the new theater this is the inaugural show for Heidi Van's Fishtank Theatre. The show runs through February 29 a...
BWW Review: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS at Yardley Hall
by Alan Portner - February 16, 2020
A third evolution of the American classic AN AMERICAN IN PARIS took the stage at Yardley Hall inside the Carlsen Center at Johnson County (KS) Community College to an almost full audience of 1500 souls. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS has been reborn as an ambitious piece of modern musical theater. It firs...
BWW Review: SWAN LAKE at KC Ballet
by Kelly Luck - February 15, 2020
Carney returns SWAN LAKE with a few new touches of his own....
BWW Review: CHURCH BASEMENT LADIES at New Theatre & Restaurant
by Alan Portner - February 15, 2020
It doesn't much matter whether you happen to be Lutheran, Catholic, another flavor of Protestant, Jewish, or Muslim. All places of worship surely have CHURCH BASEMENT LADIES like these....
BWW Review: COME FROM AWAY at Kansas City Broadway Series
by Alan Portner - February 12, 2020
COME FROM AWAY is a 2017 musical play that memorializes the best of how humans can react in the face of the 911 tragedy. It is both a testament and the best new musical in many years....
BWW Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at The White Theatre
by Alan Portner - February 11, 2020
William Shakespeare's 1595 comedy A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM is one of his most often performed light plays. Stripped down, it is a screwball romantic comedy of misdirection written across five acts in verse....
BWW Review: FOREVER PLAID at Musical Theater Heritage
by Alan Portner - February 09, 2020
FOREVER PLAID is a delightful stroll down memory lane for you. This new production designed at Musical Theatre Heritage inside Crown Center is a hoot and one of those “best in kind” experiences....
BWW Review: THE OFFICE; A MUSICAL PARODY at Starlight Theatre Indoors
by Alan Portner - February 05, 2020
The Musical Parody of TV's THE OFFICE is for those who are devoted fans of the 2005 a?' 2013 NBC comedy series. This is an unauthorized version, but it is probable that the best audience members for the parody are those most steeped in the developmental history of how the source show came to be....
BWW Review: FUN HOME at Kansas City Repertory Theatre
by Alan Portner - February 03, 2020
FUN HOME (the musical) is, according to KC Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Stuart Carden, a?oethe most important new musical theater piecea?oe of the last decade. 2015 American Theatre Wing voters agreed by rewarding FUN HOME with Tony awards for Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book, Best Lead A...
BWW Review: The Alternative Rock Musical GIRLFRIEND Opens at Spinning Tree Theatre
by Steve Wilson - January 26, 2020
How sweet it is, GIRLFRIEND, the alternative rock musical written by Todd Almond from the 1991 hit album of Matthew Sweet opened Saturday, January 25 at Spinning Tree Theatre in Kansas City. Directed by Michael Grayman-Parkhurst with Musical Direction by Pamela Baskin-Watson the play based on Sweet'...
BWW Review: BABEL at Unicorn Theatre
by Alan Portner - January 26, 2020
The World Premier engagement of Jacqueline Goldfinger's BABEL (as part of the National New Play Network) is enjoying its first, fully realized production at Kansas City's Unicorn Theatre in Midtown. BABEL is a fascinating, at times funny, and at times terrifying vision of a future that may not be v...
