Quad City Music Guild hasn’t even opened its July show, but it’s already eyeing a big season for 2023, with powerhouse titles on tap for Prospect Park in Moline.
The community theater announced its next season slate Thursday on Facebook — its 75th season of Broadway in the park. It will consist of the following:
- “Rent” — March 2023
- “Singin’ in the Rain” — June 2023
- “The Wizard of Oz” — July 2023
- “Pippin” — August 2023
- “Sweeney Todd” — November 2023
Of the five shows, the Jonathan Larson rock musical “Rent” (1996) is a Music Guild premiere, said board president Jen Sondgeroth. The show was done in 2010 by the former Harrison Hilltop in Davenport.
QCMG’s play selection process is meant to involve as many people as possible, Sondgeroth said Friday. It starts with an online survey that is open to anyone. Then, using those survey results to guide the discussion, there is an open community meeting where anyone can give additional input.
The play selection committee takes all of that information and works to build the five-show season, taking into account production and casting requirements, balancing types/tones of show, and looking at which shows are actually available for community theatres to produce in any given year based on professional tours, Sondgeroth said.
“This year’s committee did a great job juggling all of those factors while staying true to the input and feedback from people who participated in the process,” she said. Next year’s production of Stephen Schwartz’s “Pippin” is the 2013 Broadway revival, which has never been done at Music Guild.
The QCMG board has been talking about the placement of the fifth show in the season for a while now, and whether it should stay in December as in past years, Sondgeroth said.
“It is becoming harder and harder to find volunteers to staff that show that close to the holiday season, and the weekend inevitably conflicted with other holiday events in the community,” she said. “Also, with the December date, the play selection committee really felt tied to a show with a holiday theme, and there are just a finite number of those.”
“So, the board elected to move the fifth show up to November in hopes that participants’ schedules are more flexible and to provide more flexibility in show selection,” Sondgeroth said. “Now, the fifth show could be a holiday show, or it could simply be a show that fits in well with the rest of the season or receives a lot of positive talk through the play selection process, which is the case with ‘Sweeney Todd’.”
Music Guild is “very excited to be celebrating our 75th season in 2023,” she said. “The committee really worked to bring a stellar season to the table to mark this milestone — balancing QCMG premieres like ‘Rent’ with QCMG favorites with awesome production value like ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ and ‘Wizard of Oz.'”
The remainder of the 2022 season is comprised of “Cinderella,” “Jekyll & Hyde” and “Elf.” For more information, visit the Music Guild website.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7sMHRqqyanJOewaqx0meaqKVfo7K4v46lppyZnGK7psPSaJirrKNirq%2BwjJyspaylp7JwrsigZKeZnZp6rsHSopqapKNivK9505qnZp6fp3quwdKimmafpZ65pXmRaWlsZaOarrS7zWg%3D