How Tony's readers can finally get laid: Bring your date to see Next to Normal, at Crown Center's Musical Theater Heritage, part 2

Most movies and most live theater suck.  The scripts and productions just never get you to the emotional arc that is the whole point.  Same with sports or games or even relationships and families.  If it's not close, if there is no drama, no moment that opens your heart, then you've just wasted another day of your life.

Which is why I recommend you pay $17 and go see Next to Normal.  (read previous post for details.)

Now I've been to lots and lots of live theatre.  I saw 13 plays in 10 days of KC Fringe Festival.  And I see at least one movie per week.   At Glenwood Arts, or the National Theatre Live events at Tivoli--God bless Jerry Harrington for booking those.

Been to Broadway many times.  And when I went to London, I saw 9 plays in 7 days, besides sightseeing etc.  Saw Cate Blanchett.

But until I saw operatic tenor Ben Gulley play the husband opposite Ashley Pankow in Next to Normal, I've never seen an actor actually cry real tears.

Operatic tenor Ben Gulley made me cry.  You will too.

MTH imports the best singer/actors in the country.  Ben Gulley performs nationally, and is half of the tenor duo Gulley/Granner.  {As in the equally sensationally talented, heart-rending Nathan Granner, a KC home boy who, FYI, used to be a regular on Mike Murphy's radio program, and who sang at Cathy Murphy's funeral.  He's not in this show.}

So I've seen good and great singers.  But never one who when he was done singing about his mentally ill wife leaving him, went back to his seat, pulled out his hankie and continued to weep.

THAT is drama.  THAT is the power of a Pulitzer-winning script.    THAT is why you should take your date to Musical Theater Heritage.  

If you can't get laid after that, well, there might not be hope for your relationship.
In which case, maybe bring your shrink.  They need to see this musical about therapy too.

One more thing:
To those who ask, "Why do I want to see a musical about a bi-polar Mom and her dead son and dysfunctional family? And whether or not to get ECT, shock therapy????" Well, leave it to George Harter, in his theatrical travelogue, to remind you that from Shakespeare right up to Sweeney Todd, MOST great musical theater surrounds a rather dark story.  That's the whole point.  What's it gonna take to pry open your heart?

There are many light moments as well.  One of the songs is Who's Crazy//My Psychopharmacologist and I.  They list off drugs, from A/Adderal to Z/Zoloft, and with a nod to The Sound of Music, sing, "These are a few of my favorite PILLS!"

This is not a show for kids.  But it's fine to bring your friends, including the 5 1/2% of all Americans who suffer from bi-polar disorder.  Who knew?

Musical Theater Heritage
816/221-6987
mthkc.com
This show ends Aug. 21.
Bring kleenex.
And get there early.
The night I went, I got the last homemade giant $3 brownie.  Just sayin...

And don't forget to grab tix to Cabaret in November, as it should sell out.  Once again, Nazis in Germany--killing Jews and gays--another dark story and another incredible musical play.

Note, for more info, log onto www.kcmopost.com and www.jocopost.com

Tracy Thomas

Forget playing dangerous Pokemon Go. This week's staycation: Instead of flying to NYC, see Next to Normal at Crown Center's Musical Theater Heritage. Three Tony's and a Pulitzer prize.

Warning: Playing Pokemon Go is low class, dangerous entertainment.  It makes you look like a Donald Trump Duck-Dynasty crazoid.   If you want to watch crazy dysfunctional people, instead make sure they are high-level, not running for office--and can sing.  As in the ones portrayed in NEXT TO NORMAL, the very award-winning musical at Crown Center's Musical Theater Heritage.

I saw it Friday night. (After having seen it on Broadway in 2009, the year it won three Tony's including best score and best actress (Alice Ripley).  I paid $140 for that ticket, but tickets here start at $17.)  Sensational singers with a story that touches your heart.  Who else sings about living with a Mom who is losing her mind?

Listen here as the Mom explains how it feels to be depressed

This is one of the best shows of this season at George Harter's famed MTH concert series.  PS, I've already paid for and booked my seats for Cabaret in November.   (I'll be in the audience, wearing my top hat and fishnet stockings and too much mascara, channeling my inner Liza Minelli.)  That show may sell out soon.  Book now.

Here's the cool thing about MTH:
1.  In August, it's cool as in icy air conditioning.  Totally unlike Starlight Theatre where you melt faster than their overpriced lukewarm beer can cool you.  So cool is it, that if you sit in the seats on the LH side, where the vents pour out chilled air like Niagara Falls, they even keep a supply of blankets for those women who show up in a sleeveless dress, not knowing this secret.

2.  All the seats are CLOSE!!!  You can see the singers' tonsils and whether or not they use Botox.  It's intimate.  Getting seats that close in NYC would cost you well over $225.  Or $800 if it's Hamilton, version 2 without Lin Manuel Miranda.  That's the other major drawback at other local venues like Starlight, where you are sitting a football field away, with some stupid binoculars messing up your mascara.  (Well, not for guys like Tony.  He doesn't wear mascara except to go to The Edge of Hell Friday and Saturday nights in September.)

3.  At MTH, it's a semi-musical. All the best features, without the big drawback. They hire MUCH better singers--the best in town or imported.  They wear costumes and makeup and they deliver their lines--but there's no bad dancing!  It's like going to the prom and getting the goodnight kiss or whatever--without having to watch people do the frug or the waltz or twerking--whatever--badly.  See, producers George Harter and Chad Gerlt figured out a better formula.  It's like cheesecake light.  All the flavor, with half the calories.

In KC, at Musical Theatre Heritage's production, Ashley Pankow is
every bit as good at singing and acting as Broadway's Alice Ripley.

Next to Normal is an unconventional modern musical about a family pulling together to support a depressed family member.  Instead of head mikes that never capture the lyrics, at MTH, their singers step up to the row of concert style big boy microphone stands in the changing spotlights--and belt it out bigger than Ethel Merman.  (Millenials will need to google that.)  You never miss a line--which is great with a 'book' (story and score) like NEXT TO NORMAL.

4.  George Harter gives a fact-laden talk right before the curtain.  He's like the Rick Steves travel guide of musical theatre in the U.S.   Sharing secrets and factoid tidbits it took him a lifetime to learn.

George's talks always set you up to then notice for yourself what is great.  Strong mixed drinks and tasty munchies in the lobby you may take to your seat.  Excellent brownies.  (No pot.  This is Mizzurah, not Colo.)

5.  And, at the end of the show, I've never seen this done ANYWHERE ELSE, and it is GENIUS: the entire cast lines up in the lobby like a wedding reception line, and you get to talk with any or all of them as you walk out!     No going backstage, or queing up for 45 minutes, like I once did for my niece to meet Whoopi Goldberg in NYC.  At MTH, you can't exit without at least the chance to go thru the line.  At the last show, Big River, about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, one superb singer shared with me where he also sings in a black church every Sunday, because Lordy, Lordy, he had the pipes, the voice of God.

The 'buh-bye' line is GREAT when you bring a shy friend or date who secretly wants to tell a singer, "You were my favorite" and get a hug.  Yep: FREE HUGS FROM THE CAST.  For $17 a ticket, you will be a hero for making that happen.

MusicalTheaterHeritage.com
816/221-6987
Crown Center Shops
third level (orange) at the very end doors
Free parking on weekends

Next To Normal:  Aug. 4-21

Staycation alert! Best singers in town, coldest A/C, former 8 Tony award blockbuster BIG RIVER, at Crown Center's Musical Theater Heritage thru Sunday! Kids attend free. Plus free movie night on First Fri.

Do you and your date--or entire family--need a great night out, a "staycation"?  Something that gives you goosebumps?  And not just because their A/C is set at 67??  My playwright/Hollywood promoter friend Bill Doty is my guru for music and theatre and film.  When it's good, he sees performances multiple times.  We agree: "KC is remarkable for its talent for singers and actors.  Much better than Denver, rivaled in the Midwest only by Chicago."  

Note: Kids come free, if you sit in the more affordable side seats, which are great: I know from experience.  You are close to the action!   Get tix here.  Today.  Since you won't be seeing Hamilton till 2018, for $1200 a ticket, LOL.

Doty's latest pick?  He writes, "Go see BIG RIVER, at Crown Center's Musical Theater Heritage, on the 3rd floor of Crown Center Shops.  Their concert-style performance is THE best performed piece of  exciting, fast-paced theatre I’ve seen in years (or ever).  

BIG RIVER is an absolute killer – in which every single song is a show stopper.  

Concert-style performances allow the Director to choose fantastic voices – not having to worry about “selling” the tune, marching back and forth to use the entire stage, using props, painted sets and so forth.  

These performers, including Kip Niven, are absolute virtuoso’s – the likes of which we’d like to see on Broadway.  Incidentally, this show could be picked up and put on Broadway, as it stands, without changing a word.

BIG RIVER is a musical that I had seen once before by the national company, based on Mark Twain’s 1884 book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”   It's the first musical the late Roger Miller ever wrote and, he said at the time, the most difficult music he ever wrote.  Musical Theater Heritage Founder and Executive Producer George Harter said that the first production won 7 Tony Awards and then the revival garnered another 9 nominations and won another Tony for Excellence in Theatre.  So that's as many nominations as Hamilton got.

'Big River' is described as one of the few, if not the only American musical in the Eighties to rise above a failing Broadway, invaded by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s smash hits, the “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Evita,” “Phantom...,” “Joseph/Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “CATS” phenomena and the venerable “Les Miserables” (Schonberg-Boubil).  {Doty should know.  He spent a dinner in London seated next to Andrew Lloyd Webber, and was offered house seats to CATS.}

I will be going again.  “Big River” will play through this Sunday, June 26 on Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun’s.  If you like theatre and haven’t seen this one – you haven’t seen what theatre can be... The Best!" 

MTHKC.com

816/221-6987

Tell 'em Tracy and Tony sent you..you must call box office to get the free kid deal.

==
Plus, now Musical Theater Heritage has a FREE event on First Fridays, including July 1:
Since you'll already be in the Crossroads, hot and thirsty since the galleries are very chintzy with the wine any more, enjoy the free parking at Crown Center, find the 3rd floor of Crown Center SHOPS, buy a drink and sit down and watch free movies--the shorts.  Perfect for your attention span!  And remember to bring a scarf or wrap or jacket, because the A/C is incredible.  Did you see Snowpiercer, where Tilda Swinton put the man's arm out the hole in the ice train for 7 minutes???  Freezing cold like that!!....MTHKC even keeps blankies on a shelf, if you forget.

First Friday Film Festival - Kansas City - 2016 is the inaugural season of the FIRST FRIDAY FILM FESTIVAL. FREE TO THE PUBLIC, short film festival recurring every first Friday, after most of the galleries have closed. The doors to the venue and bar open at 8:30pm, the screening begins at 9:30 and runs until 11pm. Admission is always FREE. Seating is first come, first served.  You may reserve a free seat in advance...at MTHKC.com.  Ha, much better than fighting the downtown rowdies for a seat in a noisy bar.