The Capital City Players began bringing Mid-Missouri audiences quality dinner theatre entertainment in 1991. Founded by Rob Crouse, President of Capital City Players, this not-for-profit community dinner theatre group first brought local talents together to present “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” in dinner theatre at the Truman Hotel and Convention Center in Jefferson City. Over the next few years such box office hits as “Big River,” “Chicago,” and “West Side Story” graced the CCP stage as well as the Central Missouri premieres of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Aida,” “Footloose,” “The Civil War,” “Mister Roberts,” and “Ragtime.”
In 2001, the Capital City Players carried on the tradition of Shakespeare In The Park in Memorial Park in conjunction with the Jefferson City Parks and Recreation Department.
During the summer of 2005, the Capital City Players formed a summer company that presented dinner theatre productions every weekend in June and August in the unique dining setting of Tonanzio’s Restaurant in Guthrie. This summer season included the hilarious musical comedy “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” in June and the classic Broadway comedy thriller “Deathtrap” in August.
In January 2007 the Capital City Players launched a new era in their history with a theatre home at the Shikles Center at 1200 Linden Drive in Jefferson City where this special dining and entertainment experience can be enjoyed year-round. The group opened in their new home with the highly successful musical “The Full Monty,” which played to sold out houses. Their production of the new Broadway musical “All Shook Up” was the Missouri premiere of the show and made Jefferson City theatre history. “All Shook Up” was the first production in Jefferson City Theatre history to completely sell out before the production opened with all eight performances playing to full houses.
In the summer of 2016 when founder Rob Crouse was unable to continue full time operation of CCP because of health issues, Nate Grey and a team of other CCP family members picked up the banner with a new organizational name, Capital City Productions, and an expanded array of theatrical services for the community. The new CCP has not only increased the high-quality professional level of dinner theatre productions which have been CCP’s hallmark, but now offer a summer children’s two-week workshop and production, hold acting, dancing, and technical classes, and raises money for other not-for-profit organizations through a new CCP Pay It Forward program. In the past year, 17 different other organizations received funding due to this program for a total of $10,300.
In 2018, CCP completed two blockbuster musicals, “Shrek the Musical” and the Missouri premiere of “Newsies, the Musical,” which played to sold out audiences and led to encore performances of both to meet the audience demand for tickets.