Quad City Music Guild's "Disaster!" at the Prospect Park Auditorium -- April 1 through 10.
Friday, April 1, through Sunday, April 10
Prospect Park Auditorium, 1583 34th Avenue, Moline 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! opens Quad City Music Guild's 2022 season with an April 1 through 10 run at Moline's Prospect Park Auditorium, 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 Disaster! begins, 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 the 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."
Directing Disaster! is Dave Blakey, the music director for such previous Music Guild productions as Children of Eden and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, with this show's musical-director positions filled by Mitchell Carter and Amy Trimble. Longtime area favorite Marcia Renaud serves as assistant music director, with additional members of the Disaster! creative team including assistant director Deb Shippy; stage manager Megan Winchell; choreographer Christina Myatt; set designer Luke Vermeire; costume designer Carol Moon; lighting designer Robert Crist; sound designer Sam Maynard; props designer Jenny Williams; makeup designer Sue Cates; and producer Troy Stark.
A collection of 11 gifted stage artists make up Disaster!'s main ensemble, with the doomed ship's comedians and potential victims including Jack Carslake, Melissa Anderson Clark, Tim Dominicus, Abbey Donohoe, Stevie Gillum, Brian McKenrick, Mark McGinn, Stephanie Moeller, Brant Peitersen, Kevin Pieper, Valeree Pieper. And joining this team for Disaster!'s musical misadventures are 14 additional area-theatre talents: Matt Collier, Denise Durbin, Konnie Fry, Emily Hansen, Paul Hansen, Tyler Henning, Julie Hummel, Emijah Jones, Mark Kulhavy, Shana Kulhavy, Jill Matherly, Kelly Thompson, Mitzy Vasquez, and Joe Wren.
Disaster! runs at Moline's Prospect Park Auditorium April 1 through 10, with performances Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Admission is $11-16, and more information and tickets are available by visiting QCMusicGuild.com.
