Music
John Fullbright
Rozz-Tox
Friday, July 27, 9 p.m.
Discussing the widely acclaimed musician who will perform a special concert at Rock Island's Rozz-Tox on July 27, the legendary singer/songwriter Jimmy Webb is quoted as saying, "I have no doubt that in a very short time, John Fullbright will be a household name in American music."
I can't imagine how Webb knew that Fullbright would eventually be highlighted in the Reader's What's Happenin' pages, but let's get cracking on that household-name thing!
ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT
TO ROME WITH LOVE
The inherent danger in seeing any production of Footloose, whether on stage or screen, is that you risk having those maddeningly catchy pop tunes trapped in your brain for days. I'm therefore pleased to report that, less than 72 hours after attending the Timber Lake Playhouse's speedy and sprightly take on the musical, I no longer have "Let's Hear It for the Boy," "Holding Out for a Hero," and the rest playing in an endless mental loop. It's actually the performances by Karl Hamilton and Elizabeth Haley that I can't get out of my head.
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
Music
Among Bye Bye Birdie's signature numbers is the show-tune staple "Put on a Happy Face," and barring one intentionally, gloriously sour exception, the cast for the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's winning and energetic production of this Broadway warhorse has done just that.
MAGIC MIKE
Based on the justly celebrated 1974 nonfiction by Studs Terkel, the musical Working is a two-act series of vignettes on the joys and frustrations of professional life, and the search for satisfaction in even the most mundane of careers. It's somewhat ironic, then, that in the Timber Lake Playhouse's current, wholly engaging, superbly performed production of the show, the most effective segment in it concerns a man who actually doesn't work for a living.
BRAVE
