Circa ’21 and Richmond Hill Players, despite being very different venues with very different shows (a large dinner theater presenting mainly musicals and a small barn theater in the round offering primarily straight plays), share some key commonalities. The Rock Island and Geneseo houses both seem to pride themselves on staging comforting, feel-good stories, and […]
Watching the spectacular, mesmerizing new production of “The Secret Garden” Friday night at Moline’s Spotlight Theatre made me cry. Not only because of the tremendously powerful performances in this story of loss, grief and death in the haunting, breathtakingly beautiful musical — which premiered in 1991 and is based on the classic 1911 book of […]
I wanted very much to enjoy “word play,” a world premiere from the incredibly prolific playwright, Alex Richardson, and his Barely There Theatre. Unfortunately, I really didn’t, I’m sorry. Despite 11 years of revisions, from when Richardson first tackled his first of many plays, “word play” still feels unfinished, a random collection of pretty brief […]
You are pretty much guaranteed of a good time with the winning new production of “9 to 5: The Musical,” at Spotlight Theatre, 1800 7th Ave., Moline. Directed by Becca Casad and starring Katie Griswold in the role immortalized by Dolly Parton in the 1980 film of the same name, we are in very capable […]
It’s hard not to like “Lucky Stiff,” the fun, fizzy musical farce now playing at Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, Rock Island, in its Quad Cities premiere. In dark, depressing, heavy times like this (in an Arctic winter), this 1988 show by acclaimed Broadway veterans Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (“Ragtime,” “Anastasia,” “Once on This Island” […]
I’m sure it was purely coincidental, but it was illuminating to see two Moline theatrical productions about a strict father with a big brood of kids within about a month of each other. As soon as Joe Urbaitis (who played another proud, frustrated Papa in 2024’s “Fiddler on the Roof” at Music Guild) blew his […]
The best performing arts not only offer us incandescent talent from those who share their dazzling gifts with us, but a welcome, necessary, tidy distraction from the chaos, craziness and cruelties of the real world. When you step into the magical fairy-tale world of the stunning new production of Spotlight Theatre’s “Cinderella,” the contrast could […]
Long before the acclaimed black comedy-drama “Succession” ruled prestige TV (on HBO 2018-23), two other intense royal power struggles ruled stages and screens – Shakespeare’s “King Lear” (1606) and James Goldman’s “The Lion in Winter” (1966). Logan Roy (the scarily intimidating Brian Cox) of “Succession” wasn’t an actual king, but a media king, utterly ruthless, […]
Richmond Hill Players’ final play for the 2025 season is a true holiday treat, in every sense of the word. “A Sherlock Carol” — a comedy/mystery by Mark Shanahan – is a supremely clever, well-crafted, smart, meticulous and affectionate tribute to two of the most famous literary characters ever: both haunted men of Victorian England, […]
Seeing the giddily entertaining “Young Frankenstein” musical at The Spotlight Theatre is like watching a classic B-movie spring to glorious life. This true “monster” of a show faithfully recreates the supremely silly 2007 Mel Brooks show, especially fitting for this sprawling gothic space, in the 1931 former Scottish Rite Cathedral at 1800 7th Ave., Moline. […]
