“Lucky Stiff,” the show opening this weekend and running through March 7 at Rock Island’s Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, is new to area stages, but it’s not new to one cast member. Megan Mistretta did the show in summer 2024 (in a different part) at the Maples Repertory Theatre in Macon, Mo. “It’s really a […]
The list of comic musical murder mysteries is not long, and Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, Rock Island, features one in its latest production, a Quad Cities premiere. Friday night is the opening of what’s billed as the “delightful song-and-dance slapstick,” “Lucky Stiff,” playing through March 7. Penned by acclaimed Broadway veterans Lynn Ahrens and Stephen […]
Claire McPartland has never done a show at Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, Rock Island, but she feels like she’s home. Co-starring as Betty Haynes in the new production of “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” the Minneapolis native has fond memories of spending the holidays at the home of her maternal grandparents, Chuck and JoAnn Harrington of […]
If there was ever a time for a feel-good, warm-hearted musical in today’s deeply polarized, violent society, today would seem to be the time. As the classic 1965 Burt Bacharach-Hal David song dreams, “What The World Needs Now Is Love.” And that’s what the new show at Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, 2017’s “Come From Away,” […]
Shortly before opening its newest show, the heartwarming musical “Come From Away,” Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse has announced its lineup for next season, its 49th, at 1828 3rd Ave., Rock Island. It will kick off with the holiday favorite, “White Christmas,” last done in 2022, to run Nov. 5 to Dec. 28, 2025. In the […]
There are three brief, key scenes in Circa 21’s new production of “Mary Poppins” where Gillian Weatherford as the proper British nanny floats above the stage, and another when Jordan Thomas Burnett as the impish chimney sweep Bert does even more gravity-defying gymnastics. But these are hardly the only magic moments in this gloriously entertaining […]
Gillian Weatherford is absolutely thrilled to be playing the iconic part that made her fall in love with musical theater in the first place. The twentysomething Las Vegas native is stepping into the classic nanny lead in “Mary Poppins,” opening Friday at Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, Rock Island. “The Sound of Music” (1965) was the […]
Elvis Presley has been dead now longer than he was alive, which is hard to believe. Nearly 48 years after the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s passing at 42, his revolutionary career has again been brought to blazing, passionate life in the area debut of the tribute jukebox musical, “Heartbreak Hotel” at Rock Island’s Circa […]
For those who “aaaarrrrrr” ready for some hilarious, musical fun on the high seas, Rock Island’s Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse is proud to present the eagerly awaited return of the family comedy HOW I BECAME A PIRATE. Running March 25 through April 19, this sublimely silly show is adapted from the beloved children’s book written […]
Treating audiences to what DC Theatre Arts called a “bright, shiny, comic entertainment” that’s “full of energy and stamina,” Rock Island’s Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse welcomes 2025 with the hilarious whodunit BASKERVILLE: A SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY. Making its area debut through March 8, author Ken Ludwig’s cheeky Arthur Conan Doyle adaptation finds five actors portraying […]
