Peter Pans Go Head to Head
These days anyone who thinks of the sitcom “Growing Pains” probably thinks of Robin Thicke, the young lead, now a rock star. The show’s success, however, depended more on the [...]
Read More →
Posted January 07, 2015in Center Stage
Posted December 31, 2014in Center Stage
Uproarious Africa
It might seem a long way from South Park — that town full of filthy-mouthed kids — to the Mormon tabernacles. Yet the same two talents, Matt Stone and [...]
Read More →
Posted December 24, 2014in Center Stage
Coming back and ready to bash
“Bash to the Future” At the Des Moines Social Club, the New Year’s “Bash” has always included performance. A few years back I caught “Jerry Springer: the Opera,” a StageWest [...]
Read More →
Posted December 17, 2014in Center Stage
Iowa Nice in a cage match
If anyone has established Iowa as a center for performance, it’s Scott Seipker. In 2012, Seipker’s sardonic “Iowa Nice” videos propelled him into gigs with ESPN and IPTV. Yet he [...]
Read More →
Posted December 10, 2014in Center Stage
An old cuss, a small cast and a Christmas myth
It is as if the story has been around forever. The hard-hearted old miser, visited by night spirits, awakens to the joy of Christmas. It is a kind of myth [...]
Read More →
Posted December 03, 2014in Center Stage
Fixing a family with supernatural sugar
At one of the last rehearsals of “Mary Poppins,” I saw a young woman fly. What’s more, she was singing. Onstage, technicians scrambled around, at work on location and timing. [...]
Read More →
Posted November 26, 2014in Center Stage
Lunacy as a group effort
Actors, Inc., has a hit on their hands. The Ames company had to put in extra seats, and as their barn-like space echoed with laughter, it grew toasty. Onstage, meanwhile, [...]
Read More →
Posted November 19, 2014in Center Stage
Showing the man, celebrating the music
When I interviewed Clifton Owen, the man playing Motown founder Berry Gordy in the tour of “Motown the Musical,” the show was in Detroit — Motown itself. As you might [...]
Read More →
Posted November 12, 2014in Center Stage
Zombies, families, light and magic
For the people who put together “Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom,” the show must feel like going home. For those who watch it, home may never feel the same. “Neighborhood [...]
Read More →
Posted November 05, 2014in Center Stage
A wide variety and a world premiere
Every now and then, Des Moines plays host to one of the movers and shakers of performance. This September, Andrew Lloyd Webber slipped quietly into the Civic Center to catch [...]
Read More →
