Carrie: The Musical, Theatre Cedar Rapids, Sept. 20–Oct. 13
This article is about two great shows happening in the corridor this season, and it is also a love letter to two theater powerhouses.
The impact of Chris Okiishi and Patrick Du Laney on the performing arts in eastern Iowa cannot be overstated. Even before starting their own company — Crooked Path Theatre in Iowa City — they were part of hundreds of productions, either onstage or behind the scenes, making amazing performances happen all over eastern Iowa.
This fall is no exception, with Du Laney directing The Merry Wives of Windsor in Iowa City for Crooked Path (which closed its run on Sept. 1) and Okiishi directing Carrie: The Musical for Theatre Cedar Rapids, running from Friday, Sept. 20 through, appropriately enough, Friday the 13th of October.
Crooked Path Theatre started with a party. It was summertime, and Du Laney and Okiishi decided to turn a gathering of friends into a musical, casting their invitees in a spontaneous production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company set in Coralville’s North Park Pavilion. The success of that venture led to more site specific work — Sense and Sensibility at Luxe Interiors and Design in Coralville, Ghost-Writer upstairs at Prairie Lights Books. While they still stage work at other sites, they’ve since found a fitting home in The James Theatre on N Gilbert Street in downtown Iowa City, where they produce two annual cabarets and plays such as What the Constitution Means to Me and last year’s exciting adaptation of Hamlet. And, of course, this autumn’s Merry Wives.
For his take on the Shakespeare comedy, Du Laney cast eastern Iowa favorites including Jason Alberty as Falstaff. Du Laney and Alberty have worked together for years in The Writers’ Room for SPT Theatre, and Du Laney had always thought Alberty would make a good Falstaff.
Shakespeare’s work is inherently patriarchal and often misogynistic, but as Du Laney puts it, “Without changing a word of text, we’ve flipped it on its ear. Mistresses Page and Ford are clearly the primary breadwinners of the household, leaving the husbands to mysterious, murky jobs like ‘consultant’ or ‘entrepreneur.’ We’ve given the women all the agency and we’ve made the men very happy about it!”
Crooked Path’s tagline is “Illuminating, astonishing and rigorous.” As Okiishi put it, “If [we are producing] new work, we want to present it in an illuminating way. If it is classical work, we want to offer an astonishing take. Throughout all of it we believe in a rigorous approach to theatre which involves technique, coordination, rehearsal and respect.”
It is this rigorous, professional approach that motivated Theatre Cedar Rapids to invite Okiishi to direct Carrie: The Musical, an entertaining but notoriously challenging piece to stage. The 1976 horror film Carrie was originally adapted as a musical in the ’80s, so some of the slang, pop culture references and characterizations in the book don’t necessarily suit 2024 sensibilities. Carrie’s arc in the musical remains consistent with the film, but the motivations of the characters surrounding her have evolved, including those of her mother Margaret, memorably played by Piper Laurie in the film.
In Stephen King’s original novel and all its film adaptations, Margaret is rigid and grotesque, motivated by twisted religious dogma. In the latest version of the musical, she is given more shades of empathy, with space for apology and forgiveness far greater than on the page or screen. Okiishi cast Iowa City’s own Kristen Behrendt DeGrazia as Margaret, which is a good sign to get your tickets now. Unlike the R-rated film, Okiishi said the musical is appropriate for teenagers as well as adults.
“This is a show for anyone who has ever felt like they were on the outside or have felt like someone has bullied them,” he said.
What’s next for Crooked Path’s dynamic duo? Their cabaret season — which includes a Halloween Cabaret in October and Holiday Cabaret in December — will be followed by Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice the last two weekends in February. Following that, they’re bring back Rob Bell’s We’ll Get Back to You (which got its world premiere at Mirrorbox Theatre in Cedar Rapids last spring) for a run at the James in March and April 2025.
Past that point, Okiishi says we’ll all have to “see where that goes next!” You can try and keep up with them at their newly redesigned website, crookedpaththeatre.com.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s September 2024 issue.
