Dixon Historic Theatre’s ‘It Had To Be You’ a hit with audiences

Hello Sauk Valley and beyond!

Between my two homes, one is on fire and the other is a frozen tundra! Our hearts at The Dixon: Historic Theatre go out to the families in the greater Los Angeles area. I’ve personally had one friend, with her husband and two kids, lose the house they just purchased a year ago. Many other friends have been evacuated that are not allowed back for an unspecified time. They can’t even get their mail.

One of our lead actors in “It Had To Be You,” Jacob Smith, has been on the phone constantly to make sure his wife is safe. Luckily, she’s in an area that has strong protections surrounding her. This has allowed him to stay and provide us his fantastic performance. Getting him to acclimate to -9 degree weather has been a different monster altogether!

Even I had forgotten what it felt like to have your entire face go numb and not be able to breathe into the wind. This has not stopped the cast, crew and staff members of The Dixon from bringing you the award-winning play “It Had To Be You.”

We had engaging audiences all weekend, including a standing ovation! We still have four shows left starting on Thursday! We have had three lucky winners win tickets to see “Spamilton” on March 2 when The Dixon has its Grand Revitalization Party and Show.

Every night at “It Had To Be You” you can win a pair of tickets to this historic event. We also have a $20 raffle for one of our six season ticket packages. That’s more than $100 value to the winner.

The construction at The Dixon is into its third phase. The roof is 95% complete, safe and waterproof. We have plastered all the holes in the theater and are ready to paint the lobby and staircase areas. The tuck-pointing has been done to all the problem areas and will be finished soon. The wall by Peace Park has been fixed and drainage from rain has been routed to the street sewers.

All of this outside work will preserve The Dixon for more than 100 years. The dome is painted. It looks so cool. The bathrooms have the plumbing ready to go. It looks like March 2 will be a full go.

Speaking of March 2, we will be having our Grand Revitalization Party and Show. “Spamilton” is the National Touring Show spoofing the mega-hit musical. It also spoofs most of the current big musicals on Broadway. It’s going to be a hoot. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Feb. 1. If you sign up for our newsletter, you’ll have the first shot at your choice of ticket. This show will sell out.

We have more exciting news. Tori DuBois Highley has joined the staff at The Dixon.

With 90 nights of entertainment in 2025, we needed another staff member who was hungry to see The Dixon succeed. She has been the choreographer and much more for the past three years of Children’s Theater. Her family runs the Polo Community Theater. She has been seen in many Dixon Stage Left productions and is a current member of The Mosaic Theater Company and the Rock River Theater Company.

Her drive, love of the arts and growing up in the area make her the perfect fit at The Dixon. With Tori joining the staff, we now have a rock star team going into 2025 to bring you the best nights of entertainment right here in Sauk Valley.

We are able to entertain this season because of the community, volunteers and support from all businesses. We’d like to thank Shaw Media and Sauk Valley Bank for sponsoring “It Had To Be You” and all the support you’ve given the local arts throughout the years. We’d also like to thank the new WLLT for their constant support on the airwaves and attending our shows. We’d like to spotlight The Impact Program at Sauk Valley Community College. We had nine Impact students volunteer at our shows last weekend and they were all terrific kids. It’s an amazing opportunity for local youths to attend an incredible local college.

We have four volunteers running “It Had To Be You,” from the box office to back stage to our light board. We couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks friends. If you’d like to be a part of the 2025 Dixon season, please sign up to be a volunteer.

We know it’s cold but if you could brave the wind chill, we’d love to see you at the final weekend of “It Had To Be You.” The actors worked so hard to have the show ready in nine days, especially Tori, who only got the script a week before she had to have it memorized and knock it out of the park.

Scott, our amazing technical director, had the set up, painted and dressed in that short amount of time as well. The show is funny, touching and may have some surprises for you.

We had many audience members make it a dinner and a show night. Here is a quote from one of our patrons: “We had a group of 18 plus 1 other joined us yesterday afternoon and this play was absolutely fabulous. Many funny lines….we all loved when the song ‘It Had To Be You’ came on! We thoroughly enjoyed this stage performance. Thank you for sharing your talents and making us all laugh! If you haven’t seen it yet you should try to get to one of the upcoming performances… It’s a fantastic fundraiser that supports The Dixon: Historic Theatre.”

Thank you, Teresa J.

To buy tickets, visit www.dixontheatre.com or buy them at the door. The Jerry Mathis Theatre is located in Sauk Valley Community College on the Dillon Mall side.

Here are your movie reviews: “The Wolfman” is dark and has some gory moments. It’s a slow burn but pretty tense. Some of the characters make stupid decisions but that’s to be expected in a low-budget horror flick.

“Den of Thieves 2: Pantera”: Heist film. 2 hours and 40 minutes. They could have cut 2 hours of it. There are plenty of moments to get some shut-eye. Get some kind of caffeine at the concession stand.

Food Review: The chicken tikka at Mak’s American and Indian Bar & Grill is outstanding. Eat it with some Naan bread and you are in heaven. And then go see “It Had To Be You.”

Thanks for reading all the way through and we’ll see you at Sauk Valley Community College this weekend starting on Thursday then back at the Dixon on March 2.

• Darren Mangler is The Dixon: Historic Theatre’s artistic producer.