Ballet Des Moines welcomed a crowd of spooky season enthusiasts to Hoyt Sherman Place with their haunting season debut, Ghost Stories. Clearly audiences were ready to celebrate the macabre the week before Halloween, and Ballet Des Moines delivered with a spirited evening of poignant tales told through dance. The ghostly vibes began well before the […]
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Jousting is no walk in the park, but it’s a lot more thrilling: ‘Everyone wants to see themselves in something like this’
A torrential morning downpour had soaked Deadpools and dashing knights alike, but the seats were packed at the Sleepy Hollow Ren Faire for the main event: the joust, produced by Iowa jousting company JoustEvolution. Two rows of wooden seats and a set of metal bleachers were filled shoulder to shoulder with cheerers and jeerers as horses […]
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Review: ‘I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire’ follows a 14-year-old Spider-Man stan with a penchant for kidnapping
You already know if you’ll enjoy I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire. If that title piqued your interest, I’m 90 percent sure this dark comedy from Iowa Stage Theatre Company is worth your time. It’s currently running at Des Moines’ Stoner Theater, with shows through Sunday, June 14. Go see it. In case you’d like […]
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‘Clarence Darrow’, a play about the storied American lawyer, is coming to five Iowa cities in October
“History repeats itself — that’s one of the things wrong with history,” Clarence Darrow once said. Darrow, who died in 1938 at age 80, understood history, or at least how to make it. The most famous trial lawyer of his era, he mounted eloquent and ingenious defenses for the accused in some of the biggest […]
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Review: The Des Moines Playhouse serves ‘Waitress’ with the right mix of sweet and savory
Waitress at the Des Moines Playhouse tells you exactly what’s inside the show in its first 15 seconds: “Sugar … Butter … Flour.” A delicious pie will typically have the same base ingredients as a so-so slice — the difference comes down to additions, assembly and the aptitude of the chef. Similarly, Waitress, on paper, […]
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Review: A fence between neighbors sparks polite, passive aggressive chaos in Riverside’s timely ‘Native Gardens’
Native Gardens opens to the strains of “Las Casitas del Barrio Alto” by Victor Jara. Keen-eared listeners will recognize the melody of Malvina Reynolds’ “Little Boxes” and while the Spanish iteration was written to critique socioeconomic disparities in Chile, it contains the same critique of upper middle class posturing as it’s sister song.
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Review: A fading celebrity challenges a criminal president in ICCT’s finely tuned ‘Frost/Nixon’
Iowa City Community Theater (ICCT) premiered its production of Frost/Nixon on Friday night at The James Theater. The play by Peter Morgan – a British playwright probably best-known to Americans as the creator of The Crown – was first staged in London in 2006.
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Form follows function: Creating new theater works in COVID-times
The theater community in eastern Iowa is antsy. In the five months since the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered stages across the country, theater artists here — a region that boasts multiple professional theaters, countless community theaters and new eager startups laying claim to their own vibe at a rate of at least one or two a […]
