Theatre

Big River

Clinton Area Showboat Theatre

Thursday, July 29, through Sunday, August 8

Running from now through July 25 is the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre musical titled ... Show Boat. And after that production closes, the Iowa theatre that sits on a big river will present a musical titled ... Big River. I can hardly wait for the Showboat's next outing: Summer-Stock Venue Located Across the Street from a Baseball Park!

Theatre

Fences

Playcrafters Barn Theatre

Friday, July 9, through Sunday, July 18

So let's say you watched this year's Tony Awards ceremony, saw that the August Wilson drama Fences received awards for Best Revival of a Play, Best Actor in a Play (Denzel Washington), and Best Actress in a Play (Viola Davis), and said to yourselves, "Wow, I'd really like to catch that show someday."

You currently have two options: (1) Book a flight to New York, and cross your fingers that the Broadway production still has a few premium-seat tickets available for $376.50 a pop. Or (2) Drive a few miles and see Fences at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre, with tickets going for $10 each.

I'm presuming you'd like to hear more about the second option?

Music

Toyota-Scion of Iowa City Jazz Festival

Downtown Iowa City

Friday, July 2, through Sunday, July 4

This year's Fourth of July weekend brings with it the annual Toyota-Scion of Iowa City Jazz Festival, and among the scheduled performers is the gentleman in the accompanying photo, jazz trombonist par excellence Roswell Rudd.

Wow. Iowa City's lookin' a little arid this summer, huh?

Comedy

Laughter Relief

Adler Theatre

Friday, June 18, 8 p.m.

Feel like a laugh? Davenport's Adler Theatre knows you do, and the venue is planning to deliver wa-a-a-ay more than just one with its June 18 stand-up-comedy concert Laughter Relief - which, ironically enough, is exactly the phrase we Reader employees use to describe our weekly staff meetings.

Of course, in that situation, it's a relief from laughter.

Theatre

Whodunit ... the Musical

Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse

Thursday, May 27, through Saturday, July 10

Making its regional debut at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, the mystery farce Whodunit ... the Musical takes place in a Connecticut mansion in the summer of 1931, and finds a wealthy spinster, her young niece, her niece's secret beau, a Cockney maid, and an eccentric butler as the primary suspects in a murder investigation. Yet considering who's been cast in director Dennis Hitchcock's song-and-dance spoof, the bigger question than "Whodunit?" might very well be "Who's gonna steal it?" (The show, that is.)