A legitimate musical-theatre classic that won both the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying wraps up Augustana College's 2018-19 mainstage theatre season from April 26 through May 5, treating audiences to a joyously biting, tune-filled delight that the New York Times called “crafty, conniving, sneaky, cynical, irreverent, impertinent, sly, malicious, and lovely – just lovely.”

Rich oils and paints, vibrant colors, and four-legged majesty will be on display at the Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy from April 27 through May 30, with the Bettendorf venue hosting a showcase of numerous works by Texas artist Laurie Justus Pace in an equine celebration fittingly titled HorsePower.

For its final presentation in the venue's 2018-19 World Adventure Series, Davenport's Putnam Museum & Science Center will take patrons to the other side of the planet with two April 23 screenings of The Silk Road: The Journey from China to Turkey, a beautiful, thoughtful, and eye-opening work by award-winning documentarian Marlin Darrah.

An eagerly awaited annual event rides, jumps, and spins into Moline's TaxSlayer Center on April 27 and 28 as the Moline venue hosts Monster Jam 2019, bringing a new level of high-flying, four-wheel excitement to the entire family with racing, two-wheel skills, donuts, and freestyle competitions.

Appearing locally a mere four days after the release of their latest album – a fully re-recorded, remixed, and remastered 10-year-anniversary edition of their Against the Grain debut – the Canadian post-grunge rockers of The Veer Union play Davenport's Redstone Room on April 25, their 2018 album Decade II: Rock Acoustic inspiring XSRock.com to state, “If Decade II doesn't get your blood pumping, there is a good chance that you might not even be alive.”

The invigorating sounds of modern and classical jazz will be on beautiful display on April 25 in the 27th Annual Black Hawk College Jazz Festival, an evening of sensational student talent augmented by the performances of Detroit-based jazz pianist (and former BHC instructor) Corey Kendrick and the University of Northern Iowa's trombone professor Dr. Anthony Williams.

Named one of country music's top 10 touring acts by Billboard magazine and described by The Daily Country as an “energizing stage presence” who's “the definition of a road warrior,” singer/songwriter, guitarist, and Iowa native Jake McVey takes the stage at Moline's Spotlight Theatre & Event Center on April 27, treating fans to the talents that inspired Hoopla Now to rave, “McVey has a big warm voice that is a pleasure to hear, and he can deliver a guitar solo with an appealing swagger.”

Soaring, swooning music by George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, and the Quad City Symphony Orchestra will fill the air in three Davenport venues on April 27 and 28, and the gifted professional musicians of the QCSO lend their talents to a trio of events: the family concert Gershwin's Magic Key on April 27, and the annual Side-by-Side and Community-Wide Side-by-Side concerts on April 28, the latter featuring a musical tribute to West Side Story.

Performing in support of his 2019 release Cash Cabin Sessions Vol. 3 – an album that Rolling Stone says “draws a line from Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theatre through MTV, Fox News and The Apprentice, dissecting the talking blues trope along the way – the iconic, genre-hopping singer/songwriter Todd Snider visits Davenport's Redstone Room on April 28, demonstrating why Rolling Stone raved, “His lyrics are razor sharp, unsparing, hilarious, and surprisingly tender.”

With DC Theatre Scene calling the show “a wonderfully fun production” that's “clever enough to charm all ages,” Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse opens its 2019 season of high-spirited family musicals with Junie B. Jones Is Not a Crook, an adaptation of Barbara Park's beloved children's book that the Maryland Theatre Guide described as “almost too much fun to be as heartfelt as it is.”

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