Circa 21 Dinner Playhouse

A smaller, fun historic dinner theatre.
We came to see Yeston & Kopit’s The Phantom and our experience was excellent!
The dinner was served buffet style. Everything was served hot and fresh. Bottomless drinks too!
The wait staff (aka bootleggers) were super friendly and you can tell they love working there.
The singers were phenomenal! Costume was on point and I feel the small size of the venue gave for awesome acoustics.
Definitely worth a trip to the QC!

We saw «A wonderful life» a couple of weeks ago. I was so disappointed. We saw it 8 years ago and it seemed to be a different version. More cussing, much less focus on the Angel, prayer and the importance of life. It seemed to be the politically correct version. Not the heartwarming version I remember. So sad.

A delightful experience. Although it is buffet sryle the food was good, the service wonderful, and to my surprise the theater was on par with the likes of Chicago, New York, and Toronto. I have to admit that when my partner in crime made reservations I snubbed my nose because I thought «Oh God, does he not realize I’ve been to some of the best entertainment in Metropolitan cities.» Shame on me! The actors were great and the hospitality better! I would go again and highly recommend the experience. Hidden jewel of the Quad cities.

I wish I could give this place 10 stars! Coming from Atlanta where I attend a lot of theater and having seen Les Mis on Broadway, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this show at Circa. It was my first time seeing a show here. I will definitely be back! Outstanding and amazing are two words I would definitely use to describe this cast, wait staff, and operations team. Thank you for putting on such a quality production that left my heart touched and my soul inspired. Incredible voices and you can feel the energy from the performers. I can’t fully describe how much I LOVED attending this performance of Les Miserables. Truly beyond expectation.

Other people hit the nail on the head– the food isn’t great, but the shows and talent are fantastic. Every show I go to there has been done very well. The food is a buffet style with a salad or soup to start with. $ 50 per person is a good price for an entire evening. Tonight, we lucked out because the chicken was fantastic. Baked to perfection and wasn’t dry at all. They offer drinks and desserts that are brought out during intermission. I disagree with the girl who says the place smells. I did not notice that.

The first dinner playhouse I have ever been to and it definitely set the bar high. I have been to a couple in bigger cities and Circa 21 definitely keeps up! You can’t beat a meal and a show for $ 50 a person! The talent is outstanding and the servers are so personable!

Went to a comedy show. The opener was not funny but the other guy and the Shots ‘N Giggles show as great!

I have been to a few dinner shows at Circa 21 in the past year and by far Southern Crossroads is the best show I’ve seen there leaving Lost Highway to a close second. The show was so well played and the scripts were so surreal that it made you feel part if the story. I want to go again and the food selection was incredible as well. Circa 21 is always a 10 out of 10 for me. If there was a 15 I’d give I 15. A must see show! The music was so incredible which was all live and no recorded parts. Very entertaining and amazing!!!

Circa 21 is great, so when they expanded into the neighboring building to open up a new comedy club, I thought to myself, it’s going to be great. I was correct. The Speakeasy used to be a ComedySportz place (family friendly comedy), but they moved across the street and restored another building and now we have a family friendly and another comedy club (The Speakeasy) where, if he was still alive, I imagine that Richard Pryor would do a show at… which would be sweet, because that guy is a riot. If you’re looking for some laughs (without small children around) this is the place to be.

My parents and I saw «Hairspray» here a few weekends ago. Amazing show, I would highly recommend it to anyway who enjoys musicals.
Now on to the venue…
Tickets are $ 50 and they include your meal and show. I would love the option to buy a lower price ticket that excludes the buffet. This is because the food sub-​par. (No need to go into detail, as every other review confirms this). They include water, coffee, or tea in your ticket price, but not soda, flavored teas, or other drinks. This would have been good to know, as we got totally ripped off on drinks. My father got a teeny tiny soda that he got refilled at least twice. We were charged $ 2.50 for the soda and every refill!!! I got a flavored tea that was also in that price range! I felt cheated. We had no idea these drinks were not part of the included meal.
The building is really old and smelly. My clothes and hair stunk even after I was home for a good 3 hours after going there.
The chairs are not comfortable. If you were only there for the 2 – 3 hour show, the discomfort would not be unbearable. HOWEVER, they drag out the meal and pre-​show so it becomes a 4+ hour event.
Now, can I please vent about this preshow that they make everyone sit through before the actual play starts…
Torture. Pure TORTURE! This was probably 45 minutes to an hour of song and dance by the waitstaff. It felt like it would never end. The choreography was the epitome of cheesy. The performers were far far faaaaaaaar from talented singers or dancers. This sounds so rude, but the whole thing was more embarrassing then entertaining. I would highly suggest scrapping it and getting on with the show that we all paid to see.

LOVED the show Hairspray however the food is definitely lacking and the chairs are SO TERRIBLY uncomfortable. Sitting in these chairs for over 4 hours is way too long. I left with a sore TUSH, BACK, and NECK from sitting sideways. LOVE the atmosphere and the theatre and concept but the accomodations are NOT up to par!

I was originally going to give Circa 21 3 stars, but I felt basing a good portion of the review on their food would be unfair. We saw Church Basement Ladies here over Easter, and the show was very good. The performances were great, the writing was OK. It often relied on comedic torture for laughs, and the «we’re funny because we’re Minnesotan» schtick got tiring. The cast was excellent, and they really could have excelled given better material.
Now for the food. Whoever mentioned the word cuisine and Circa 21 in the same review might want to get out more often. Please fire your «chef» and start over. I’ve had better food at grade school cafeterias. When the highlight (and I use the term loosely) of your meal is the soup, there is room for immediate improvement.
This is a neat, unique place to see a show if you ever wind up in Rock Island, IL, but either eat before hand or plan to eat afterward.

Last night my mom took me to Circa’ 21. It’s a theatre where they serve dinner & then a show. The wait staff also does a preshow & performs themselves. It’s really cool. She took me for my birthday to see «Buddy,» the Buddy Holly story. Yeah, I know it’s a little belated considering it was back in September, but this was the first show that even sounded interesting. I didn’t know for sure if I would like it because of how old the music was. Come to find out I really enjoyed it. There was a lot of music that I knew & liked. The actors & actresses were very talented. You could tell they have been doing this show for awhile now b/​c they had it down to a tee. The guy who played Buddy did an awesome job portraying his character. Not only could this guy act, he was an awesome singer & guitarist. The two men playing his band were just as good. The drummer blew it through the roof. I felt like I was at a rock concert, now a musical. The rest of the crowd was getting into it, too, singing & dancing.
If you have a chance to go see it, it’s playing from January 16-​March 22.
Can check it out at:
BUDDY — The Buddy Holly Story
This huge Broadway and international smash hit is a musical celebration of the legendary 50’s singer/​songwriter. The unique mixture of innocence, determination, humor, and charm that was Buddy Holly is all wrapped up in a package that truly deserves the billing: «The World’s Most Successful Rock & Roll Musical». Enjoy songs «That’ll Be The Day», «Chantilly Lace», «La Bamba», «Johnny B Goode» and many more!
Rating: G
The person that plays Buddy, Toddy Meredith, has also currently released a cd of Buddy Holly covers and Buddy inspired original songs called Not Fade Away. You can actually locate his website on myspace:
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