Rock Island’s Circa ’21 Brings Holiday Cheer With ‘Miracle On 34th Street’
Delivering what the Denver Post called “a sleighful of gifts” including “a minuet of the familiar and the special” and a “gentle, genial advocacy of the impossible,” Rock Island’s Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse presents the long-awaited return of a seasonal favorite in MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET: THE MUSICAL. Running through December 29, this delightful adaptation of the holiday-movie classic boasts music and lyrics by The Music Man creator Meredith Willson and is being brought to life by a sensational team of professional talents.
MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET: THE MUSICAL will be presented at Circa ’21 through December 29, with performances on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 5:30 p.m., and Wednesday matinées at 1:15 p.m. Pre-show entertainment featuring the theatre’s wait staff the Bootleggers also will precede all performances. Ticket prices are $68 for the Friday-through-Sunday dinner-and-show productions and $61 for all Wednesday performances.
Reservations are available through the Circa ’21 ticket office. For reservations, contact the theatre at 1828 Third Ave., Rock Island or by calling 309-786-7733 ext. 2.
As in the iconic 1947 movie, the musical stage version of MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET finds sensible single mother Doris Walker not wanting her six-year-old Susan’s head filled with romantic notions. Such notions, however, are exactly what are on the mind of neighbor Fred Gailey as he tries to woo Doris by charming Susan and taking her to see Santa Claus at Macy’s, the Manhattan department store in which Doris works. At first, practical-minded Doris is not impressed. But when she begins to think that this Macy’s Santa may, in fact, be the real Kris Kringle, a wave of love spreads across New York City that begins to melt even the most cynical of hearts.
Filled with humor, spectacle, and such touching songs as “Pine Cones and Holly Berries,” “My State, My Kansas,” and the timeless seasonal tune “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” the joyous, heartwarming MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET: THE MUSICAL is enthralling family entertainment by legendary composer and lyricist Willson, whose follow-up to The Music Man debuted on Broadway in the fall of 1963. The show finally closed after nearly a year and 334 performances and continues to enchant audiences both new to its story and well-familiar with the film favorite starring Natalie Wood, Maureen O’Hara, and the Oscar-winning Edmund Gwenn.
Directing Circa ’21’s first presentation in the venue’s 48th season is venue veteran Corinne Johnson, the former St. Ambrose University theatre professor who most recently helmed the theatre’s winter production of “Murder on the Orient Express” and whose additional credits for the Rock Island dinner theatre have included directing “Disenchanted!” and “Don’t Dress for Dinner.” Circa ’21 owner Dennis Hitchcock serves as producer of MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET: THE MUSICAL, with additional members of Johnson’s creative team including choreographer Shelley Cooper and music director Ron May.
Kris Kringle is portrayed by John Payonk, who also played the jolly old elf in Circa ’21’s 2012 presentation of the musical, while Doris, Fred, and Susan are respectively played by Sarah Hayes (The Addams Family), Kyle DeFauw (Irving Berlin’s White Christmas), and, in alternating performances, Isabelle Minteer and Charlotte Ruth. Meanwhile, no fewer than 16 stage talents complete the musical’s ensemble: Mitchell Burchett; Adam Cerny; Noah Johnson; Sophia Kilburg; A.C. Lam; Kiera Lynn; Arianna Marshall; Michael Metcalf; Paul Gregory Nelson; Samuel Sommer; Savannah Bay Strandin; Tristan Layne Tapscott; Shelley Walljasper; Becca Worthington; Edith Young and Fulton Young.
The entire staff of the Rock Island dinner theatre is thrilled to be bringing this warmhearted yuletide treat to local audiences for the first time in a dozen years and urges patrons to make reservations quickly for this holiday gift that everyone can share. Call the Circa ’21 ticket office at 309-786-7733 ext. 2 for reservations and treat the family to the wondrous wintertime fun of MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET: THE MUSICAL!
