Musical Theater

The '80s hair band musical "Rock of Ages" at Community Players Theatre features the rare addition of a live band rocking out on stage with the cast.

The show started as an acting exercise on empathy with Drew and Lea Lachey's theater students. The touring musical, performed 'Chorus Line' style, stops at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts before a 10-day run off-Broadway.

The former Rockette and star of Broadway, small and silver screens Chryssie Whitehead is on tour with her one-woman show about her mother's death and learning to live with bipolar disorder. She shares her story hoping to normalize conversations about mental health.

After last summer's production of "Crowns," director Elaine McCoy Hill and Deonte' Mosely couldn't wait to work together again. The result is on view through Aug. 20 with a musical loosely based on "The Little Mermaid."

The Disney musical "Newsies," based on the 1899 newsboys' strike, concludes Community Players Theatre's 100th season. We talked to two young cast members about how their views on "papes" have changed by participating in the show.

There’s the magic of theater, and then there’s theater about magic. Community Players latest production, “Matilda The Musical,” has both. The production runs through July 31 at Community Players, with antics galore and a few optical illusions that will, above all, remind you of the power kids have.

We don't usually think of the "Sound of Music" as a dark story. But a new production by MIOpera focuses on us-versus-them situations in the classic musical showing June 24-26 at the Astroth Center auditorium at Heartland Community College.

It’s been 13,140,000 minutes, give or take, since “Rent” first premiered on Broadway in 1996, and hit songs like “Seasons of Love” and “La Vie Boheme” changed the musical theater landscape in immeasurable ways. Now, Jonathan Larson’s enduring rock musical is traveling the country on a farewell tour, stopping at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts on Nov. 21 for one night only.

Set sail this Thursday, Aug. 1, as Prairie Fire Theatre opens Gilbert and Sullivan’s “HMS Pinafore” at Community Players Theatre.This comic opera parodies…