Live performance venues were the first businesses to close when the coronavirus arrived in the United States, and they will likely be the last to reopen. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be a clear path to a scenario where these important cultural spaces can reopen in the near future. As Broadway announced its theaters will […]
Theatre Cedar Rapids
Posted inCOVID-19
Amy Friedl Stoner returns to Theatre Cedar Rapids for a virtual performance
It was about eight months since Amy Friedl Stoner last performed on stage. This is the longest the cabaret artist has ever gone without audiences enjoying her work — but that’s soon about to change. Theatre Cedar Rapids is hosting Stoner for a virtual cabaret performance that will be streamed on Oct. 23 and 24. […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Intoxicating and otherworldly, TCR’s ‘St. Nicholas’ will linger with you after you leave
Like the protagonist in Conor McPherson’s St. Nicholas, I, too, am struggling to find the perfect words — in my case, to convey my unadulterated awe and affection for Theatre Cedar Rapids’ exquisitely haunting (and hilariously vulgar) production of the 1997 play. Listening to the drunken, Irish monologue is intoxicating in itself as Mathew James […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Theatre Cedar Rapids Underground goes online: 10th annual festival pivots amid ongoing COVID concerns
Theatre Cedar Rapids is underground and online this year as they prepare to present their 10th-annual Underground New Play Festival. This year’s theme, The Mysterious, offers theatergoers an opportunity to see 13 original plays written, directed and performed by people with Iowa connections. The plays will be presented May 16 and 17 in an online […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
TCR shows how to murder your way to the top, with humor and music
TCR’s staging of ‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder’ features an outstanding cast, ensemble and musical direction. Although based on a serious question (“What will people do to get what they believe deserve?”), this musical comedy is energetic and humorous throughout.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Wonderfully acted ‘Matilda’ a TCR holiday joy
Theater Cedar Rapids opened Matilda the Musical, based on Roald Dahl’s book Matilda, on Nov. 15 with a high energy number that sets the tone for the whole show. The song, “Miracle,” poses the question: Who is special, and who decides? The choreography (Erin Helm) is outstanding in this number, and that carries throughout the show.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Theatre Cedar Rapids sinks its teeth into ‘Dracula’
Though the recent resurgence of zombie hordes both on- and off-screen may be giving vampires (in general) a run for their money, no one character has been immortalized as often as Dracula. And if TCR’s ticket sales are any indication, this lone monster and his violent delights still have a powerful hold on our collective imaginations.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Get thee to a theater! 10 can’t-miss local productions this month
With the variety of offerings in Eastern Iowa, you won’t have to go far to find something for date night, the whole family or just a quiet evening for one. This seems particularly true in September. Shows continuing their runs include
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with: playwright Rob Merritt
In 2011, at the first ever Theatre Cedar Rapids Underground New Play Festival, the community was surprised by a new play from local playwright Rob Merritt, The Summerland Project. A fascinating and philosophical piece of rare science fiction theater, The Summerland Project explored the implications, both ethical and emotional,
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Reconsidering evil and salvation: TCR’s ‘Hunchback’ offers engrossing storytelling, exceptional vocals
The Hunchback of Notre Dame — directed by Angie Toomsen, assisted by Lisa Kelly and with musical direction by Janelle Lauer — opened Friday at Theatre Cedar Rapids (it runs through May 26; tickets are $25-52). With rich vocals from the first notes, a story of outcasts, sin and love was woven beautifully on stage.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘The entire universe’ is in TCR’s ‘Ada and the Memory Engine’
“…0 to 1. The entire universe is in their difference.” There is a whole world just waiting to be discovered and brought into being. There is spectacle in the unsuspecting. Complexity in the simple. An incredible potential for reality in the conjured. And sometimes, things happen to come into being because of a brilliant young woman who’s work languishes behind the scenes of a world maintaining the order of men.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with: Playwright Zhen E. Rammelsberg
Zhen E. Rammelsberg’s journey inspired her to write ‘Black Box,’ an intimate theater piece that was recently read as part of a sold-out Chicago event called Our Perspectives: Asian American Play Readings. It was announced late last week that Black Box is one of the shows chosen for production in the Underground New Play Festival at Theatre Cedar Rapids this August.
