'Les Miserables' set to open Peoria Players season

We've all heard the issues, the complaints that our education system is not what it should be, that we need to do a better job of taking care of our poor and even that the prison system in unjust.

For one man, the audacity of voicing these complaints in his writings forced him into exile from his native country. Victor Hugo eventually returned to France, but his beliefs about the above mentioned social issues made him one of that country's...

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Enjoy drive-in theaters on their 80th anniversary, while you still can

The drive-in theater turned 80 years old this summer, but this summer is when Peoria's Landmark Drive-In started its first full season, continuing into September.

The first official drive-in theater was in Camden, N.J., which ushered in the era in 1933. By the mid-1950s one in four moviehouses in the country had an outdoor screen where people packed into cars, used playgrounds before sunset, ran to the concession stand and settled in to...

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Movie review: Acting makes 'The Butler' worth the price of admission

(Rated 6 out of 10 stars.)

(132 minutes. Rated PG-13 for some violence and disturbing images, language, sexual material, thematic elements, and smoking.)

Among the carnage of every summer's big-budget, wanna-be blockbusters, oftentimes a charming film emerges from the settling dust. This year, Hollywood has given us a winsome little picture, "Lee Daniel's The Butler," that in many ways is the best thing to which...

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'Company' by Stephen Sondheim to wrap Corn Stock summer season

Of the challenges that faced Nate Downs, who directed the musical "Company" at Corn Stock Theatre, the Stephen Sondheim music was not among them.

"The music is wonderful; it's pure Sondheim. These aren't the best known songs is musical theater, but they are songs you can sing while you walk around clean your house. Audiences will appreciate...

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25th Annual Illinois Blues Festival this weekend

Jay Goldberg's baby turns 25 this weekend and he couldn't be more proud. And with the entertainment he has lined up for the party, he expects thousands to brave the heat and show up on Peoria's riverfront Friday and Saturday.

Goldberg's baby in this case is the Illinois Blues Festival, sponsored by Budweiser,...

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'The Wiz' eases into Corn Stock Theatre

Of all the words that could be used to describe the character Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz," it's doubtful that "funky" would be one of them.

But in "The Wiz," the Motown Productions version of the classic L. Frank Baum story told from the African American experience, that word pretty much sums up Dorothy and the rest of the cast, said Peoria community theatre veteran Bryan Blanks.

"The tone of the music is certainly more funky,...

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'Greater Tuna' has five-week run at Barn II

The quick-change comedy "Greater Tuna" opens a five-week run at Conklin's Barn II Dinner Theatre beginning Thursday, Aug. 29 and continuing through Sept. 29.

Starring Barn II favorites Pat Gaik and Dan Challacombe, it will be the Barn premiere of "Greater Tuna", which was the first of four comedies featuring the "outrageous residents of Tuna, the third smallest town in Texas where the Lion's Club is too liveral and Patsy Cline never dies."

The...

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'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' premieres Friday at Eastlight Theatre

Ian Fleming stories are known for their gadgetry, their cool cars capable of doing everything short of flying.

There is one story written by the well-known author of the James Bond stories in which the car does fly and in fact, is one of the heroes. It is even a musical.

The car in question takes flight starting at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Eastlight Theatre in East Peoria when the production of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" opens a seven-show...

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