Writing a new play is murder. Well, it certainly was for busy Q-C actor, director, and theater owner Tristan Tapscott, whose latest original work – “Murder at Mistwell Manor” – is a breezy blast. Known in part — before he opened The Mockingbird on Main theater last summer — for penning a new musical adaptation […]
The latest production at Moline’s intimate Black Box Theatre isn’t one necessarily to be enjoyed, but is a terrifying thriller – tailor-made for fans of suspense, mystery and horror. The whiplash-inducing, psychological roller-coaster “Veronica’s Room” (1973) truly puts the “black” in Black Box. Director and co-founder Lora Adams warns as much in her brief introduction […]
As a lapsed Catholic and current wine lover, I was fully prepared to be intoxicated by “Drinking Habits,” the latest feel-good farce at Richmond Hill Players in Geneseo. I wasn’t prepared for how drunk with delight I got, I could barely drive home after Sunday’s picture-perfect matinee at the Barn Theater in Richmond Hill Park. […]
Rick Elice’s Broadway hit “Peter and the Starcatcher is A LOT – a lot of characters (allegedly 100), a lot of story (with intermission, 160 minutes), a lot of action, sound and fury, and in its ADD-fueled, childlike soul, a heck of a lot of fun. Though you couldn’t pay me enough to summarize its […]
I just love what Circa ’21 has done this year in regard to its shows. Its last show, “The Play That Goes Wrong,” was wonderfully absurd and hilarious, a terrific bit of humorous escapism. It’s latest show, “Just Desserts,” isn’t quite as unhinged and wacky, it’s far more conventional in terms of plotline and structure, […]
Circa ’21’s latest show, “The Play That Goes Wrong,” gets one huge thing right: It hits all the comedic notes to make it a hilarious show. These types of silly, goofy, farces are exactly what we need right now, in my opinion. The last two years have sucked, let’s face it, and things aren’t exactly […]
The new Christmas-themed musical at Mockingbird on Main in downtown Davenport is the ultimate stocking stuffer – not a major present in any way, but a sweet, silly, delicious trifle in more ways than one. When a huge snowstorm hits and the star-studded cast of a 1953 radio show can’t make it into the studio, […]
Exploding with vibrant costuming and swirling with clever choreography, Circa ‘21’s enchanting “Seussical” is an absolutely wonderful show for the whole family. Full of energy and charged with a talented and exuberant cast, it nicely captures the spirit and buoyancy of Dr. Seuss’ work and briskly unspools a smart tale germane to today while avoiding […]
“The Sound of Music” may seem like an overdone, ancient warhorse – with its 1938 Austrian setting and ruthless, invading Nazis – but classics are classics for a reason. Live theater presents the chance for actors to interpret iconic roles in their own way, putting their own spin on them, letting us see the familiar […]
If you close your eyes during the terrific, open-hearted, snarky musical “Holiday Inn,” now at Music Guild in Moline, there is virtually no way to tell that the incredibly talented, dedicated volunteer performers are singing with cloth masks on. (Precise diction helps and those must be powerful body mics, thank God.) As we approach our […]
