Thomas Besler, Erica Bigelow, Shelley Walljasper, Brad Hauskins, Tristan Tapscott, Ashley Becher, Quinn Cason, and Natalie Carrera in “Disaster!" at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse - July 20 through September 10.
Wednesday, July 20, through Saturday, September 10
Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, 1828 Third Avenue, Rock Island IL
A 2016 Tony Award nominee and a tune-filled farce that the New York Daily News named one of its year's top-10 must-see musicals, the heady and hysterical Disaster! enjoys a July 20 through September 10 run at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, this jukebox delight inspiring Time Out New York's Adam Feldman to rave, "I can’t remember the last time I laughed out loud at the theatre as often as I did at Disaster!"
As this crowd-pleasing musical opens, it’s 1979, and New York’s hottest A-listers are lining up for the opening of a floating casino and discotheque. Also attending is a faded disco star, a sexy nightclub singer with her 11-year-old twins; a disaster expert; a feminist reporter; an older couple with a secret; a pair of young guys on the lookout for ladies; an untrustworthy businessman; and a nun with a gambling addiction. What begins as a night of boogie fever, however, quickly changes to panic as the ship succumbs to multiple disasters such as earthquakes, tidal waves, and infernos. And as Disaster!'s night turns into day, everyone struggles to survive and perhaps repair the loves that they’ve lost – or at least escape the killer rats – in this cheeky stage entertainment boasting such iconic era hits as ‘"Knock on Wood," "Hooked on a Feeling," "Sky High," "I Am Woman," and "Hot Stuff."
Serving as Disaster!'s director/choreographer and music director are the respective team of Amy McCleary and Ron May, who previously collaborated at Circa '21 on last summer's musical smash Saturday Night Fever. With Kendall McKasson acting as stage manager and props designer, the show's creative team includes assistant stage manager Emmett Boedeker; scenic designer Joe Klug; costume designer Bradley Jensen; lighting designer Heather Hauskins; production manager Jeremy Littlejohn; technical director Nicholas Divarco; and scenic artist Becky Meissen.
The musical's cast, meanwhile, boasts a collection of 14 gifted professional performers. And for perhaps the first time with an ensemble of this size, every one of them is a Circa '21 veteran, with Disaster's crew of misbegotten travelers including actors from recent productions of Saturday Night Fever (Ashley Becher, Natalie Carrera, and Brad Hauskins); Just Desserts (Bobby Becher and Shelley Walljasper); The Church Basement Ladies in You Smell Barn (Thomas J. Besler and Erica Bigelow); The Play That Goes Wrong (Savannah Bay Strandin and Tristan Tapscott); Beehive: The '60s Musical (Kira Rangel); Freaky Friday (Michaela Moore); and Disney's Beauty & the Beast (Jack Carslake, Quinn Cason, and Colin Stansky).
Disaster! will be performed July 20 through September 10, with performances on Fridays, Saturdays, and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 5:30 p.m.; and Wednesday afternoons at 1:15 p.m. All shows will be preceded by plated meals and pre-show entertainment by the theatre's performing wait staff of Circa '21 Bootleggers, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)786-7733 extension 2 and visiting Circa21.com.
