07 Aug 2017

Bootie-Scootin' Boogie: “No Business Like Show Business,” at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse through August 31

By Jeff Ashcraft

I am biased. Because as a former member (1985-86) of our area's performing wait staff of Bootleggers, I watched No Business Like Show Business feeling proud, and even blessed, to experience this stage retrospective – a celebration of the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's 40 years of producing live theatre in the Quad Cities.

07 Aug 2017

At the Corner of Hollywood and Vain: Quad City Music Guild's “Sunset Boulevard,” at the Prospect Park Auditorium through August 13

By Victoria Navarro

The music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton elevate this story of a fading diva to an almost operatic level, and Quad City Music Guild is currently presenting the Sunset Boulevard musical with Broadway-worthy sets, costumes, and performances. Bravo!

07 Aug 2017

Family Ties: The Mississippi Bend Players' “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” at the Brunner Theatre Center through August 13

By Brent Tubbs

I left Friday’s opening-night performance of Brighton Beach Memoirs – the final show in the Mississippi Bend Players' inaugural season – with several thoughts on my mind: (1) How do I review something of this caliber? (2) Everyone should go see this, so they, too, can realize how lucky we are to have such talent in the Quad Cities. (3) This show is so good I wish I was a part of it!

31 Jul 2017

The New Norma: Quad City Music Guild Presents “Sunset Boulevard,” August 4 through 13 at the Prospect Park Auditorium

By Mike Schulz

At the start of Billy Wilder’s film noir classic Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood screenwriter Joe Gillis – the movie’s male lead and narrator – makes his first appearance floating face-down, dead, in an outdoor swimming pool.

Yet Kevin Pieper, the director and set designer for Quad City Music Guild’s new production of the Sunset Boulevard stage musical (running August 4 through 13), has some bad news. “I’ll let the cat out of the bag with you,” he says during our July 20 interview. “We don’t have a swimming pool. We thought about filling the orchestra pit, but that would kind of defeat the purpose.”

25 Jul 2017

Goin' to the Cabin and We're Gonna Get Married: “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse through September 16

By Dee Canfield

Making a silk purse from a sow’s ear. That’s what director/ choreographer Ann Nieman and her talented cast and crew are doing in the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, but why on Earth anyone would try to rehabilitate this porker is quite beyond me. Don’t get me wrong, though: At evening's end, I, along with seemingly every other patron in the house for the July 20 preview, heartily applauded during the curtain call. Even though I think the material is awful, the production itself is very good.

25 Jul 2017

Once More Unto the Bleachers ... : Genesius Guild’s “Henry V,” at Lincoln Park through July 30

By Mike Schulz

Last week, some friends and I got on the topic of uncomfortable theatre experiences in shows we were in, and I shared one from an opening-night performance in which our lead walked on-stage and uttered the play’s very first line, and an elderly voice in the audience demanded, “Speak up!!!” Regardless of that individual’s age and/or hearing, I considered it a rather rude bit of heckling. But on Sunday, I saw Genesius Guild’s production of Henry V, and ... . Well, let’s just say that I now have more sympathy for that clearly frustrated patron.

25 Jul 2017

Blind Ambition: The Mississippi Bend Players' “Wait Until Dark,” at the Brunner Theatre Center through July 30

By Dee Canfield

Have you ever watched an intense horror flick and felt complete frustration as the victim makes a really questionable choice and ends up in a formerly avoidable, now-inevitable and desperate situation, and you say to yourself, “No-o-o-o!!! Why did she do that?!”? If so, you’ll understand some of my experience on Friday night during the Mississippi Bend Players’ production of Wait Until Dark.

17 Jul 2017

Take the Plunge: "The Dixie Swim Club," at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre through July 23

By Victoria Navarro

With its focus on gatherings held when the women are 44, 49, 54, and 77, the script requires quick repartee and timing, and under the direction of Jacque Cohoon, the stage quintet does not disappoint. At the July 11 preview performance, in fact, the audience's laughter came so often, and was so hearty, that the actresses – complete with Southern accents and charm – had to sometimes wait for it to die down, although they consistently kept the pace lively and energetic.

17 Jul 2017

Child-Custody Suite: The Prenzie Players' “The Caucasian Chalk Circle,” at the QC Theatre Workshop through July 22

By Victoria Navarro

Sixty-six characters, a beheading, star-crossed lovers, a woman and child on the run, wedding and funeral parties for the same guy (on the same day), a crazy judge, songs, and another beheading all add up to an incredible evening of theatre courtesy of Bertolt Brecht and the Prenzie Players. Brecht is known for his “epic theatre” works and, true to form, the Prenzies' staging of The Caucasian Chalk Circle incorporates a play-within-a-play – or rather, a parable-within-a-play – alongside social commentary, occasionally absurd humor, sentimentality, satire, and music. (Whew!) And meeting this challenge are director Kate Farence, her creative crew, and her stellar cast of 15 (10 of whom play multiple roles),  who made for exciting theatre on July 14's opening night.

17 Jul 2017

Coach Me If You Can: “Rounding Third,” at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre through July 23

By Jeff Ashcraft

Across the street from my childhood home was an open lot with worn-down dirt spots and paths etched into the grass, shaping a makeshift baseball diamond – like something from the film The Sandlot. I played ball there every summer, all summer, from kindergarten through high school, and getting a new baseball glove was always the best, except when you initially put the glove on your hand and realized it was stiff and awkward.

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