Directed by Colleen Houlihan, ABBA’s hits tell the hilarious story of a young woman’s search for her birth father. This sunny and funny tale unfolds on a Greek island paradise, with a golden jukebox of songs including “Honey, Honey,” “Money, Money, Money,” “Mamma Mia,” “Dancing Queen,” “The Name of The Game,” “SOS,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” and more.
Music Guild board member and third-generation Guild performer Hillary Erb says everyone is glad to be back together after a rough time dealing with the Covid pandemic.
"I think we can probably all say, like all of the theaters around, it was really hard to not be able to do anything for about 15 months. And we're all just so excited to have an audience back in our seats and be able to produce arts in our area for everyone.”
“A lot of the things are just kind of cosmetic - repainting some walls, doing lots of waxing on our floors. Things that we don't usually have time for in our busy season. Just kind of keeping everything nice and clean and ready for when we were able to open our doors again.”
The state of Illinois is allowing full capacity for indoor theaters, and the Music Guild has a sign on the door, like many places, saying that patrons who are not fully vaccinated should continue wearing masks, and those who are vaccinated are welcome not to wear them.
Erb says ticket sales for “Mamma Mia!” have been very good.
“We have been a really excited and everything has been exceeding our expectations. It just kind of shows that people are missing theater in their lives and in the area and are anxious to get back.”
That support also extended to Music Guild’s first performances to be streamed online – an April cabaret and history of the 72-year-old organization, and a filmed performance in June of “Monty Python’s Spamalot.”
“It all just really exceeded our expectations and we were really happy with the outcome for the show. Everyone seemed to have a really fun time with it and we actually were able to have people from out of the area stream from all over the U.S., which is kind of fun for people that have family out of the area that usually don't get to come and see and support their loved ones.”
She says the casts and crews for “Mamma Mia” and “Matilda” are really looking forward to performing for people again.
“From what I heard from everyone, and I was speaking personally for myself, since I'm involved with ‘Matilda,’ we're just so anxious to be able to get back on the stage and see people in the audience and being able to perform for an audience. Everyone's just really anxious and excited.”
Erb is choreographer for “Matilda,” the August show, and her mom, Valeree Pieper, is helping with the choreography and available if she can’t make a rehearsal, since she’s expecting her first child. Her due date is August 10, right in between the two weekends of the show.
The Music Guild also recently announced its 2022 season, which includes the musicals “Disaster!,” “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” “Something Rotten!,” Jekyll & Hyde,” and “Elf.” She says it’s a satisfying process to pick the new shows.
“We always have a lot of different factors that play into it. We invite participants and patrons to provide input for which productions they would like to see performed at Music Guild along with looking to see how many years it's been long since we've done certain shows, and where things have been announced locally for other theaters. And so there's lots of factors that play into it, but ultimately the proposed season is presented to the board of directors for final approval and it’s usually a pretty easy process.”
“Mamma Mia” opened last weekend, and continues this coming Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (July 15-18), with performances at 7:30 p.m., except Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $16 for adults, and $11 for children, available at 309-762-6610 or qcmusicguild.com.
