Stage Capsule Reviews
The BFG As entertaining as it might be, The BFG isn’t about Badass Fearful Gangstas. The acronym stands for Big Friendly Ghost, the affable colossus who delivers dreams to children by blowing through their windows. In this children’s story by Roald Dahl, the BFG is a runt among the behemoths ruling the land, and if that doesn’t set him apart, the big lug has an equally big heart — as opposed to other giants, who dine on “human beans.” Through May 16 at Crown Center, 2450 Grand, 816-474-6552. (Michael Vennard)
Henry V With its themes — an undue war to divert attention from domestic affairs, disdain for the French — Shakespeare’s history play Henry V couldn’t be more topical if Condoleezza Rice played the female lead. Usurping the Missouri Repertory Theatre’s main house, the production features UMKC Theatre Department grad and undergrad students; at the helm of this tale of royal privilege and its resulting carnage is the department’s newest professor, Barry Kyle. His heady résumé includes shows at London’s Globe Theatre and an all-female take on Richard III for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Through April 18 at UMKC’s Performing Arts Center, 4949 Cherry, 816-235-2700.
The Killings at Kamp Tittekaka Late Night Theatre has put aside its gender-bending interpretations of movies like Carrie for an original Ron Megee script about a serial killer terrorizing a group of horny pubescent kids at a summer camp in the late 1950s. Employing a workable blend of Late Night veterans and newcomers, Killings at Kamp Tittekaka contains such alternative-theater staples as raunchy double entendres and gratuitous scenes of the cast in its underwear. And it’s no surprise that the funniest bits are the meanest and most socially inappropriate, including the thrashing of “the boy with polio” and a dig at The Passion of the Christ that would really piss off Mel Gibson. Through April 17 at Late Night Theatre, 1531 Grand Ave., 816-235-6222.
Late Night Catechism II Ruling her audience with a velvet mallet, the twisted sister of the Theater League’s Late Night Catechism is reloaded and back at Union Station’s City Stage for a sequel. As if all of those parochially trained people didn’t get enough old-school discipline in their youth, now they pay for the privilege; it’s a tad reminiscent of pleading johns and one omnipotent call girl. As in the first alternately funny and redundant go-around, the penguiny taskmaster is played with frightening but unshakable verisimilitude by Kimberly Richards. The rest of the cast is composed of those who are queuing up for tickets. Through May 2 at Union Station’s City Stage, 30 W. Pershing Rd., 816-460-2020.
Marx Madness Having staged the Marx Brothers’ vehicle Coconuts and a musical salute to their patented silliness called A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, the Martin City Melodrama & Vaudeville Co. returns to the well. Marx Madness samples classic bits from movies such as Duck Soup and adds original music to a story about three middle-aged actors who rediscover their comic edge at the bottom of vaudeville trunk. Tim Cormack, who has tackled Groucho before from more of an actor’s sensibility than that of an impersonator, returns as the bespectacled hysteric. Through June 3 at the Metcalf South Shopping Center, 9635 Metcalf Ave., Overland Park, 913-642-7576. (S.W.)
Menopause the Musical Until the last twenty minutes of what is essentially a musical-comedy salute to hot flashes, the jokes in this production are stale or stolen outright. And reading between the lines reveals not-so-funny insight into such social embarrassments as water retention and marital infidelity. So it is without warning that the show later takes a measurable turn into the joys of self-pleasure. The cast, especially Chavez Ravine, is pardonable, managing to reheat these leftovers. With her tangy, delicious Tina Turner take-off, Ravine — a terrific singer with mammoth stage presence — steals the show without an ounce of regret. Through May 2 at American Heartland Theatre, 2450 Grand, 816-842-9999.
