"You know, it's been interesting," says Christina Myatt, president of the board of directors for the Eldridge-based Countryside Community Theatre (CCT). "Because we wanted to do something big for our 30th anniversary, and this is definitely something big. But when people hear what we're actually doing, they either say, 'That's really great!' or they say, 'You people are insane.'"
Odd as it may seem now, there actually was a period in the Harrison Hilltop Theatre's history - a run of 12 shows, to be precise - in which the company didn't produce any musicals whatsoever. Yet after staging a dozen plays between June 2008 and May 2009, co-founders Tristan Tapscott and Chris Walljasper chose to open the theatre's second season with a production of Jonathan Larson's rock musical tick ... tick ... BOOM!
The Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's production of It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play has several things going for it. One, it's nostalgically familiar - who hasn't seen the It's a Wonderful Life movie at least once? Two, it's a holiday show for an audience that's more than likely in a Christmas spirit, and already jolly when sitting down to watch the play. And three, it's short, running one hour without an intermission. However, there's one major element missing from the Showboat's show that would make it really good: melodrama.
There's one thing that appears missing from Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's Sunday in the Park with George: adequate rehearsal time. Actually, there are a number of things partially absent in this offering - polished performances, accurate notes, emotion - but they all stem from what seems to have been not enough time to adequately prepare the piece. To quote lyrics from the show, "art isn't easy," but it's certainly easier than prepping a Stephen Sondheim production in two weeks.Subscribe & Listen to Reader Podcasts
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