Jeff Adamson, clearly delighted by the room’s laughter on its opening-night performance, leaned into the humor with visible enthusiasm, which only seemed to widen the gap between the show’s tone and my own reaction to it.
Kitty: There’s something magical about experiencing theatre from a child’s perspective. Saturday’s audience was full of very eager young theatregoers who were clearly delighted by the show.
Mischa: It was especially interesting to see which moments they particularly reacted to.
What do you get when four young adults’ lives are entangled with one another, yet the full picture doesn’t come into focus until the final moments? You get word play, written by fellow Reader reviewer Alexander Richardson: a tightly woven one-act that asks its audience to lean in, listen closely, and trust the unraveling.
Kitty: In keeping with the feminist theme, the women were the ones driving this show.
Mischa: The three main actresses are all blessed with tremendous singing voices, and each one alternately becomes the center of attention in a series of impressive numbers.
Director/choreographer Ashley Becher and musical director Ethan Hayward, alongside their wonderful crew and energetic, talented crème de la crème cast, elevate the solid script and score into the realm of delight.
The Playcrafters Barn Theatre closes out its 2025 season with Cheaper by the Dozen, adapted for the stage by Christopher Sergel and directed by Emma Terronez. It offers family-friendly entertainment … if also entertainment devoid of yuletide cheer for the particularly Christmas-adverse.
1. Subscribe to free weekly e-mail content updates.
You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities. (Did you know we publish a new Real Astrology and RCR Crossword every week?)
2. Get 12 monthly issues mailed first class for $48
Get the printed Reader edition mailed to you (or anyone you want) first-class for 12 months for $48. $24 goes to postage and handling, $24 goes to keeping the doors open!