Corridor’s best entertainment bets for 2025

By the time this hits print, I will have retired from The Gazette, but certainly not from the Corridor’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene. Even after I move to the family farm in the spring, it’s just two hours south of Cedar Rapids, and my car knows the way better than I do.

So here are 10 events I will come back to see in 2025, sneaking in a couple more for good measure. More will be added as the year progresses, so be sure to check out what your favorite venues have in store, since some of them won’t announce their 2025/26 seasons until spring.

1. Orchestra Iowa’s premiere of “Field of Dreams”: 2 and 7 p.m. June 7, 2025, Veterans Memorial Stadium, Cedar Rapids. The movie that let the world know that Iowa is Heaven is coming to the Kernels’ ballpark, with Orchestra Iowa playing the musical score live.

“We are the first orchestra in the country to do this,” Tim Hankewich, the orchestra’s lead pitcher, told The Gazette. “I just know that every ballpark in the country will want to be doing the same thing soon. We’re kind of beta-testing the idea of doing ‘Field of Dreams’ at a ballpark on the Jumbotron, and performing the music in real time. …

“I think the nation’s eyes will be on us, so we want to make sure those stands are filled to capacity. And we also want to make sure that we pull the technical elements of coordinating the music with the film in such a way that other orchestras can follow our model.”

And to quote the movie: “People will come Ray. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. … The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. … This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again. … People will most definitely come.”

The orchestra is counting on that.

2. Tie: Twyla Tharp Dance, Jan. 29, 2025, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, March 11, 2025: Hancher Auditorium, Iowa City. The former and current Hancher auditoriums have always been noted as exceptional spaces for dance, and I’ve seen the best of the best there over the years, including Mikhail Baryshnikov. Audiences are in for a double treat in 2025, with performances from the Twyla Tharp and Alvin Ailey troupes.

From Hancher’s website: In 1999, the American premiere of Twyla Tharp’s “Diabelli” ­— choreographed to Beethoven’s thorny and thrilling “Diabelli Variations” and commissioned by Hancher — took place on the original Hancher stage. Now, as part of the 60th anniversary tour of Twyla Tharp Dance, the work returns home so Hancher patrons can once again revel in the composer and choreographer’s conversation, which includes … ballet, jazz, modern, social, and street (styles). Also on the program, a new work titled “SLACKTIDE,” featuring “Aguas Da Amazonia,” by Philip Glass, arranged and performed live by Hancher favorites Third Coast Percussion on a collection of custom-designed instruments.

Also from the Hancher site: Starting in 1973, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has made regular visits to Hancher. The company is a powerful incubator of pure talent, and you’ll watch as Ailey’s newest dancers showcase their skills alongside the virtuosity of the most tenured artists. The company will showcase a mixed repertory program of signature Ailey classics and new works from the most dynamic choreographers of today — the performance will conclude with the soul-stirring masterpiece “Revelations.” More than 25 million people in 71 countries have seen “Revelations,” making it the most widely viewed modern dance work in the world.

3. Emanuel Ax: Feb. 8, 2025, Hancher Auditorium, Iowa City. If you were lucky enough to hear any of this legendary pianist’s concerts during his free residency with Orchestra Iowa in April 2018, you’ll know why I can’t wait to hear him again. His artistry is so astonishing that during the 2018 residency, he held area middle school students in rapt attention during two school performances at the Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids.

Ax is returning to Hancher with Anthony McGill, principal clarinetist for the New York Philharmonic. Both artists are Hancher favorites, and will combine their talents playing music for both instruments, including Leonard Bernstein’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano.

4. “Cinderella,” with Cedar Rapids Opera and Orchestra Iowa: Jan. 17 and 19, 2025, Paramount Theatre, Cedar Rapids. Many plot points remain the same, but this isn’t Disney’s or Rodgers & Hammerstein’s version. This is Jules Massenet’s “Cendrillon,” performed in English, providing a fairy tale introduction to opera for all ages.

Cedar Rapids Opera explains: “Through captivating arias, tender duets, and lush orchestration, it tells the timeless story of Cinderella’s journey from rags to riches and the power of kindness and love to conquer all obstacles.”

5. Amy Grant: Songs, Stories & Memories: April 8, 2025, Paramount Theatre, Cedar Rapids. One of my first and favorite Contemporary Christian and crossover pop recording artists, Grant has amassed six Grammys and 26 Dove awards, and has a star on both the Hollywood and Music City walks of fame. Among her hits are “Baby, Baby,” “Breath of Heaven,” “El Shaddai,” “Grown-Up Christmas List,” “Could I Have This Dance,” and my favorite, “Heirlooms.”

6. Revival Theatre Company: “La Cage Aux Folles”: May 30 to June 8, 2025, CSPS Hall, Cedar Rapids. The musical that inspired “The Bird Cage” film version is a hit wherever it plays. And Revival Theatre Company has put together an inspired cast, with Greg Smith and Casey Prince leading the way as couple Georges and Albin, respectively, who run a drag nightclub in St. Tropez. They’re facing a whole new set of challenges when Georges’ son announces he’s marrying the daughter of conservative parents. Georges reluctantly agrees to play it “straight,” but what will Albin do?

7. Strokes of Genius: American Impressionism and its Legacy: June 7 to Sept. 14, 2025, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids. What’s not to love about French Impressionism? Those galleries are the first place I hit at the Art Institute of Chicago. I won’t have to travel that far this summer to see light dancing through loose brushstrokes in my favorite color combinations. The local museum notes this artistic style was prevalent in the United States in 1895, when an art club formed that would evolve into the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. And now the museum will be pulling works from its collection, displaying the American reinterpretation of this style.

8. Tie: “Amadeus,” May 29 to June 22, 2025, and “Little Shop of Horrors,” June 27 to July 27, 2025, Theatre Cedar Rapids.

TCR staged “Amadeus” in 1987, and the “fake” harpsichord sat for years in my office during my costuming stint at TCR. And because I’ve studied classical music, this period piece (which I didn’t costume) and the film version have always been among my favorites. I can’t wait to see what the brilliant director Patrick Du Laney of Iowa City does with this show in TCR’s intimate lower-level Grandon Studio space.

On the well-shod heels of “Amadeus” comes another of my all-time favorites, “Little Shop of Horrors.” The late Doug Jackson voiced the man-eating plant like no other, but I’ve seen subsequent productions that would make Doug proud. And thankfully, I long ago kicked my dental phobias.

9. Alison Krauss & Union Station: June 13, 2025, McGrath Amphitheatre, Cedar Rapids. Contemporary bluegrass doesn’t get any better than this. I love her cover of “When You Say Nothing at All,” as well as everything she contributed to the soundtrack of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” including “Down to the River to Pray,” “I’ll Fly Away” and the tight harmonies on “Didn’t Leave Nobody but the Baby.”

10. Toss-up: Gaelic Storm, March 5, 2025, and Marcia Ball, March 16, 2025, Englert Theatre in Iowa City. I’ve seen them both and loved them both. Gaelic Storm was the “Irish Party in Third Class” in “Titanic,” which shot the band into stardom.

Born in Texas and raised in Louisiana, Marcia Ball rocked King Chapel at Cornell College in Mount Vernon in 1998. Fast-forward, she most recently brought her blackened blues to the Englert in October 2021.

Both acts will have you dancing in your seat — or in the aisles.