The Litchfield Community Theatre production of “Mary Poppins” opens tonight in the Bernie Aaker Auditorium and continues Friday and Saturday – at 7 o’clock each evening, and on Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets will be sold at the door and tickets in advance are still available at litchfieldcommunitytheatre.com or at Litchfield Community Education.
“Mary Poppins” producer Rick Beecroft says the Litchfield Community Theatre Board of Directors wanted a special show as this is the 50th anniversary of the local theater and they chose “Mary Poppins” back in April of 2025. He says it’s a familiar story and many people may remember the 1960s movie version starring Julie Andrews which became a Broadway musical telling the story about a nanny who takes care of the Banks children.
Beecroft says it’s expensive to get the rights to musicals and produce them, but they work on their budget and try to cut down on costs so that the tickets are reasonable, with the main floor seats at $20 each and $15 for balcony seats. He says his first time performing with Litchfield Community Theatre was in 1994’s production of “The Sound of Music” and then he returned about 5 years ago and has been in several productions since then.
Beecroft says, as this is the 50th anniversary of Litchfield Community Theatre, they’ve added a couple of productions this year, and did “Murder on the High Cs” in May and will do the Broadway version of “A Christmas Carol” in December. He says tickets are still available for “Mary Poppins” at litchfieldcommunitytheatre.com or at Litchfield Community Education.
Sad news spread around Litchfield last week that long-time businessman and community servant Pete Kormanik had passed away. The former McDonald’s proprietor and City Council member passed away on July 16th.
Kormanik was born in Minneapolis, grew up in Golden Valley, graduated from Benilde High School in 1967 and served in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1971. Pete and his wife, Ros, moved to Litchfield in 1983 and became the owners and operators of the McDonald’s store, later expanding to Hutchinson and Annandale. They retired in 2019.
Kormanik served on the Litchfield City Council for several years and was also a member of the Litchfield Lions Club, Chamber of Commerce (where he served as president), LDC Hockey, Litchfield Industries, Watercade Board and the Litchfield Golf Board.
Visitation for Pete Kormanik will be held on Friday from 4-to-7 P.M., and mass of Christian Burial will be held on Saturday at 11 A.M. (with visitation starting at 10 a.m.) – all at St. Philip’s Catholic Church in Litchfield. Inurnment will be at Lake Ripley Cemetery. Memorials may be made to the Twin Cities Ronald McDonald House or to the Meeker Memorial Foundation scholarship fund.
On this day in music, July 22, 1977, Elvis Costello released his debut album, My Aim Is True, in the UK via Stiff Records. The artist, who was born Declan McManus in London, was accompanied by members of the San Francisco country rock band Clover, who had moved to the UK, though their names were omitted from the credits due to record company politics. My Aim Is True marked Costello’s first of five LPs helmed by producer Nick Lowe and featured such enduring favorites as “Alison” and “The Angels Wanna Wear My Shoes.”
In 2006, the late country legend Johnny Cash scored the second and final chart-topping LP of his career with the Rick Rubin-produced American V: A Hundred Highways, released nearly four years after his death. Rubin, who had signed the aging country star to his American label in 1994, added the instrumental parts to pre-existing vocal tracks after Cash’s death. Cash first topped The Billboard 200 more than three decades earlier with At San Quentin.
In 2019, 81-year-old singer, songwriter, and keyboardist, Art Neville, passed away. The New Orleans-born artist rose to fame in the late 60s with The Meters, scoring such instrumental hits as “Sophisticated Cissy” and “Cissy Strut.” After the group split in 1977, Neville joined his siblings to form the Neville Brothers, whose track “Healing Chant” from 1989’s Yellow Moon won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. Neville also appeared on tracks by Paul McCartney, Labelle, and Robert Palmer.
In 1989, American singer and actress Martika scored her sole US chart-topper with “Toy Soldiers,” a song about drug addiction that was a No. 5 smash in the UK. Born Marta Marrero in California, Martika attracted the interest of Prince, who worked with her in 1991 on her second and final studio album, Martika’s Kitchen.
In 2005, Eugene Record, a founder member of the Chicago-based R&B harmony group The Chi-Lites, died of cancer at the age of 64. Famed for his falsetto voice, Record led the group on 43 R&B chart hits between 1969 and 1998, including the two early 70s No.1s “Have You Seen Her” and “Oh Girl.” Record also put out three solo albums.
In 2019, Queen‘s iconic “Bohemian Rhapsody” video reached one billion views on YouTube, making it the first pre-1990s visual to reach the milestone on the platform. “Bohemian Rhapsody” was also named the most Googled song of 2018.
BORN ON JULY 22
1941: George Clinton (Parliament-Funkadelic)
1944: Rick Davies (Supertramp)
1947: Don Henley (Eagles)
1961: Keith Sweat
1963: Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls)
1964: Will Calhoun (Living Colour)
1967: Pat Badger (Extreme)
1973: Daniel Jones (Savage Garden)
1973: Rufus Wainwright
1992: Selena Gomez