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Theater Review: ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ from Coralville’s City Circle Theatre Company

Before now, I wasn’t familiar with the 1992 Tony award winner for best play, Dancing at Lughnasa, or its playwright Brian Friel, who has been called “Ireland’s Chekhov.” I also must admit that I’ve attended Coralville’s Center for the Performing […]

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‘We never do anything remarkable just for ourselves’: ‘Buffalo Women’ opens on Juneteenth

Three minutes to curtain on June 19, 2022, the Kate Goldman Theatre at the Des Moines Playhouse was mostly full. The blackbox was decked in a sparse yet effective smattering of western themed set pieces and there was an excited […]

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Step into another world with City Circle’s ‘Matilda’

The saying goes that a final dress rehearsal needs to be riddled with dropped lines, missed cues and costume snafus in order for opening night to shine. City Circle Theater Company’s final dress of Matilda: the Musical may not need […]

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ICCT presents ‘Company,’ just in time for its 50th birthday

Update: On Friday, March 13, Iowa City Community Theatre decided to postpone performances indefinitely due to health concerns related to coronavirus. For as long as there has been theater, fictional lovers’ stories have culminated in either marriage or death. Love […]

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RHCR gets wonderfully messy with ‘Five Women Wearing the Same Dress’

Full disclosure, I don’t love the script of this play. Alan Ball is not my favorite playwright and I don’t typically enjoy the female characters he writes. … successful performances of it are heavily dependent on the women who inhabit the roles and the team in charge of putting it up. And every person involved in this production really did the work. […]

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Foundry Performance Laboratory raises stakes with Conor McPherson’s ‘The Seafarer’

I have always subscribed to the philosophy that theater has a responsibility to use the tools at its disposal to expose hypocrisy, contextualize truths and show people who they really are. There is no better way fiction has achieved this goal than with stories that include magic or the supernatural. People are just more honest when they’re making things up. […]

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‘Is There Life After High School’ features lovely performances but faces challenges

Presented by Iowa City Community Theatre, Is There Life After High School? is a musical of carefully woven monologues told from the perspective of adults that both loved and hated high school. This production marks the second time that ICCT has brought the show to the stage. The first was in 1995 as a contest production — Jeff Mead, who was in the band of the 1995 production, returns as director, actor and musical director. […]

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‘Les Misérables’ — An Iowa City favorite returns to the Hancher stage

‘Les Misérables,’ the epic musical based on Victor Hugo’s expansive 1862 novel, returns to Hancher this week. The play has a long and popular history in Iowa City. Now, after almost 18 years (just shy of Jean Valjean’s 19 year imprisonment for stealing a loaf of bread), ‘Les Miz’ is back. […]

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