Grand Rapids Civic Theatre Announces 2024-2025 Season
With the end of one season comes another!
On March 5, 2024, the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre announced the full lineup of shows for the 2024-2025 season!
Let's take a look at it!
Grand Rapids Civic Theatre 2024-2025 Season
This upcoming season
"To celebrate 98 years of Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, we’re kicking off the season in a sparkly and spooky fashion on Friday the 13th of September with a cult classic more than 50 years old, and in June we’re wrapping up with the ground-breaking and history-making Sara Bareilles musical making its Michigan community theatre premiere. In between you’ll find a special engagement for Young Audiences with an entirely “Pick Your Price” run, a beloved musical classic and a wild and witty mystery – both never before seen on the Civic stage, a teen story of rivalry and friendship, the West Michigan community theatre premiere of a powerful tale of personal awakening based on a beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, and the return of the Ten For All playwriting festival."
The Rocky Horror Show - September 13-October 6, 2024
This cult classic is kicking off Civic's 2024-2025 season!
"In this cult classic more than 50 years old, sweethearts Brad and Janet, stuck with a flat tire during a storm, discover the eerie mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. As their innocence is lost, Brad and Janet meet a houseful of wild characters, including a rocking biker and a creepy butler. Through elaborate dances and rock songs, Frank-N-Furter unveils his latest creation: a muscular man named “Rocky.” Music, lyrics and book by Richard O‘Brien. This production of The Rocky Horror Show is a Grand Rapids Civic Theatre first!"
READ MORE: Broadway Grand Rapids Announces Exciting 2024-25 Schedule
A Year With Frog and Toad - October 15-19 2024
Besides being an amazing show, this entire performance run will be "Pick Your Price." So, you will be able to pick the price you want to pay to see the show.
"Waking from hibernation in the Spring, Frog and Toad plant gardens, swim, rake leaves, go sledding, and learn life lessons along the way. The two best friends celebrate and rejoice in the differences that make them unique and special. Part vaudeville, part make-believe… all charm."
CATS - November 15 - December 15, 2024
This upcoming season's holiday show will be CATS.
"One of the world’s best-known and meow-velous musicals! The Jellicle Cats come out to play on one special night of the year – the night of the Jellicle Ball. One by one they tell their stories for the amusement of Old Deuteronomy, their wise and benevolent leader, who must choose one of the Cats to ascend to The Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a whole new Jellicle life. Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber; Based on Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot."
The 39 Steps - January 17 - February 2, 2025
"Mix an Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel by John Buchan, add a dash of Monty Python and you have The 39 Steps, a fast-paced whodunit adapted by Patrick Barlow. This entertaining play features a riotous blend of nonstop laughs, over 150 zany characters (played by a cast of four), an onstage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers, and some good old-fashioned romance!"
Disney's Camp Rock The Musical - February 28-March 16, 2025
Based on the infamous Disney Channel movie that launched the careers of Demi Lovato and The Jonas Brothers, Camp Rock The Musical is one for the whole family.
"A classic story of rivalry and power, Disney’s Camp Rock The Musical opens with Mitchie and her friends arriving at Camp Rock, ready to spend another summer jamming out and having the time of their lives. But the new, flashy Camp Star across the lake now threatens Camp Rock’s very existence. To keep the doors open, Mitchie steps up, rallies her fellow Camp Rockers and gets them into top shape for the ultimate showdown!"
Here is one of the songs that may be in the show.
The Color Purple - April 18-May 4, 2025
After the iconic movie was released last year, it makes sense why it is time for The Color Purple to grace the Civic mainstage.
"The Color Purple is an inspiring family saga that tells the unforgettable story of a woman who, through love, finds the strength to triumph over adversity and discover her unique voice in the world. This musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (and the popular 1985 Steven Spielberg film) spotlights Celie, a downtrodden young woman whose personal awakening over the course of 40 years forms the arc of this epic story. With a joyous score featuring jazz, ragtime, gospel, African music and blues, The Color Purple is a story of hope, a testament to the healing power of love and a celebration of life. With a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, Grand Rapids Civic Theatre’s production of The Color Purple is a West Michigan community theatre premiere."
Ten For All
Ten For All is a special Civic event that is happening this year as well.
"Back for its 5th year, the Ten For All festival will once again present original world premiere 10-minute plays written by West Michigan playwrights. Plays are anonymously read and scored and the top Semi-Finalist scripts in each category are read live on stage. Those Semi-Finalists are then adjudicated by local theatre experts and media and business leaders and then one finalist in each category is named. The finalists’ plays are then fully produced, staged, and performed during the premiere event, and audience members vote to give one playwright the coveted “Audience Choice” Award."
Waitress - June 6-29 2025
To end off the season with one of the most popular Broadway shows right now, Waitress!
According to the website,
"Brought to life on Broadway by a groundbreaking all-female creative team, Waitress features original music and lyrics by six-time Grammy nominee Sara Bareilles, and a book by acclaimed screenwriter Jessie Nelson. Waitress is inspired by Adrienne Shelly’s beloved film and offers a special recipe for finding happiness in unexpected places. Jenna, a waitress and expert pie maker, is stuck in a small town and a loveless marriage. Faced with an unexpected pregnancy, Jenna fears she may have to abandon the dream of opening her own pie shop… until a baking contest in a nearby county and the town’s handsome new doctor offer her a tempting recipe for happiness. Supported by her quirky crew of fellow waitresses and loyal customers, Jenna summons the secret ingredient she’s been missing all along — courage. Grand Rapids Civic Theatre’s production of Waitress is a Michigan community theatre premiere."
If any of these shows interest you, you can purchase season passes now.
Full Exclusive Interview with Noddea Skidmore, Civic's Director of Marketing and Communications
Here's When Grand Rapids-Area Ice Cream Stands Open in 2024
Gallery Credit: Janna