Kansas City Theater Reviews

Review: ROCKY THE MUSICAL at MTKC Pro
by Alan Portner - April 15, 2024

The 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 “Roc...

Review: STRANGER SINGS, THE PARODY MUSICAL at The Black Box
by Steve Wilson - April 07, 2024

But on the upside, there is always Hawkins, Indiana, nothing strange ever happens there. Unless you are in the upside/down and Hawkins is inside The Black Box, for Padgett Productions' phenomenal Kansas City premiere of STRANGER SINGS, THE PARODY MUSICAL....

Review: CLUE at Kauffman Center
by Alan Portner - April 04, 2024

Three 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 p...

Review: GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER at White Theatre At The JCC
by Alan Portner - March 19, 2024

“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” is a very funny idea and the 2014 Tony winner for best new Musical.  It is currently playing at the White Theatre inside the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park through March 24....

Review: SHOUT! THE MOD MUSICAL at Black Box Theater
by Alan Portner - March 12, 2024

Shout! 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 Hall
by Alan Portner - March 06, 2024

Plain 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....

Review: ALOHA FROM VEGAS at New Theatre & Restaurant
by Alan Portner - February 17, 2024

Victor 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 Theatre
by Alan Portner - January 30, 2024

What 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 f...

Review: GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY at Kauffman Center
by Alan Portner - January 24, 2024

Connor 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. ...

Review: GASLIGHT at Union Station
by Alan Portner - January 20, 2024

They 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 Theatre
by Alan Portner - January 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 comm...

Review: TINA at Kansas City Music Hall
by Alan Portner - December 07, 2023

The 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. ...

Review: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN at New Theatre & Restaurant
by Alan Portner - December 02, 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 ...

Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Kansas City Repertory Theatre
by Alan Portner - November 22, 2023

Last 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 produc...

Review: WE ARE BLOOD at OCTA Theater
by Steve Wilson - November 19, 2023

Thought-provoking, humorous, suspenseful, and not your normal holiday story, are the words that best describe WE ARE BLOOD, now playing at the Olathe Civic Theatre Association in Olathe, Kansas. The 90-minute drama written and directed by Ryan Bernsten runs through November 20 at the theater....

Review: 4000 MILES A Play by Amy Herzog Opens in Kansas City at Warwick Theatre
by Steve Wilson - November 13, 2023

Brilliant, excruciatingly real, warm, and humorous are the best ways to describe seeing 4000 MILES, which may turn out to be one of the best play offerings in Kansas City this year. The Met at the Warwick’s production of 4000 MILES written by Amy Herzog and directed by Karen Paisley continues at The...

Review: THE GRAPES OF WRATH at The Arts Asylum
by Alan Portner - November 11, 2023

A new production of the 1990 award winning stage adaption of “Grapes” by Frank Galati plays now through November 19 at the new Arts Asylum in the lower level theater of their new facility at 824 E Meyer Boulevard in the Brookside neighborhood of Kansas City.  The play won the 1990 Tony Award for Bes...

Review: THE SOUND OF MUSIC at Lyric Opera Of Kansas City
by Alan Portner - November 09, 2023

Now being performed at the Kauffman Center and concluding this weekend is a wonderful rendition by the Lyric Opera of Kansas City of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s final composition together, “The Sound of Music”  This production is as good as it gets. Framed by massive settings by Peter J. Davison and g...

Review: JEKYLL & HYDE at KC Ballet
by Kelly Luck - October 15, 2023

An instant hit for fans of the gothic and the macabre...

Review: THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW Opens at The Black Box
by Steve Wilson - October 09, 2023

Fall has come to Kansas City, the leaves have begun to turn, the haunted houses are preparing for Halloween, and my favorite musical THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW has opened at the Black Box in Kansas City. The cult classic with book, music, and lyrics by Richard O’Brien only gets better with each productio...

Review: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at Theatre In The Park (Indoors)
by Alan Portner - October 08, 2023

Seldom does an entertainment attain a level of fiendish absurdity that affords audiences belly busting hilarity after more than forty years.  The indoor space at Theatre in the Park’s Johnson County Heritage Center offers a super production of 1982’s “Little Shop of Horror.”...

Review: ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID at New Theatre Restaurant
by Alan Portner - September 26, 2023

A new production of a light comedy called “Always a Bridesmaid” is about a week into a three month run at New Theatre Restaurant.   The show (by playwrights Jessie Joes, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten) is a frothy, light, and entertaining look into the lives of three female high school  buddies from...

Review: CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA / PAGLIACCI at Lyric
by Kelly Luck - September 24, 2023

Lyric season opens with a double does of opera vérité...

Review: SKELETON CREW at Kansas City Actors Theatre
by Alan Portner - September 20, 2023

Kansas City Actors Theater last week opened their new production of “Skeleton Crew” a relatively new (2016) play by Dominique Morisseau on the City Stage located on the lower level of Union Station....

Review: TICK, TICK...BOOM! at The Black Box
by Steve Wilson - September 09, 2023

The Barn Players' production of TICK, TICK. . .BOOM! opened Friday, September 8 at the Black Box Theatre inside the Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center in Overland Park. Directed by Kipp Simmons, with vocal arrangements and orchestrations by Stephen Oremus the musical runs at the center through Se...