For Your Entertainment: The Speakeasy

By Sean Leary

One of the most diverse and intriguing showcases for area entertainment since its debut. With everything from burlesque to comedy to theater to drag shows to live music to lip sync battles to dueling pianos and more, the Speakeasy is truly a one-of-a-kind swiss army knife of a venue.

“Our vision for The Speakeasy was to create a venue that would present edgy entertainment that would appeal to those 21-45 year olds that were looking for an evening away from the kids with a spouse or significant other that wanted to be entertained and have a few drinks!” said Brett Hitchcock, the Director of Audience Development.

“When selecting new shows we keep that in mind. Is this something that people will enjoy? Is this already being done in the area? Is this something people will come back and see multiple times? Once we answer those questions we decide if it’s something that’s right for the venue.”

With capacity of just over 100, the venue offers an intimate and immersive theater experience that presents a complement to its older neighboring venue, Circa ‘21.

“We wanted to open a venue that did a unique blend of shows like nobody else in town was doing,” Hitchcock said. “I think we have succeeded! Another goal when opening was to hopefully make the Speakeasy audience today the Circa ‘21 audience of the future.

For event information please visit thecirca21speakeasy.com. For tickets, call (309) 786-7733, Ext. 2.