Boasting unforgettable show tunes including "Everything's Coming Up Roses," "Rose's Turn," "Together (Wherever We Go)," "If Mama Was Married," and "Let Me Entertain You," the musical classic Gypsy enjoys an April 17 through 19 run at the Coralville Center for the Arts, this production of Iowa City Community Theatre featuring timeless music by Jule Styne, a trenchant book by Arthur Laurents, and wickedly smart lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Continuing the area's month-long celebration of Davenport as the onetime “wickedest city in America,” Davenport's Capitol Theatre will host the Wickedest City Burlesque & Variety Fest Grand Showcase on April 18, this special event featuring a performance by local winner of the Wickedest Performer: A Burlesque Competition contest held at the Adler Theatre on April 16.

The co-editor of the Pitt Poetry Series and a professor of creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, esteemed author Jeffrey McDaniel will be the featured guest in the latest SPECTRA Reading Series event hosted by the Midwest Writing Center, his April 23 engagement at Rock Island's Rozz-Tox treating literature lovers to an evening of poetry, an open-mic event, and a community writing hour.

With the featured guest a German novelist, musician, and radio DJ currently living in pre-alpine Bavaria south of Munich, An Evening with Thomas Meinecke enjoys a special presentation at Davenport's German American Heritage Center on April 18, the author's books always fueled by music, including that of renowned Davenport musician Bix Beiderbecke.

With the in-person event held in conjunction with the monthly meeting of the Rooting Out Poverty Book Club, Augustana College graduate, former Moline teacher/coach, and Superintendent of Rock Island-Milan Public Schools Dr. Dave Markward will discuss his memoir at the Moline Public Library on April 22, From Dubuque to Selma & Beyond: My Journey to Understand Racism in America available by request through PrairieCat, Libby, or Hoopla.

On April 11, visitors to Bishop Hill, Illinois, are invited to bid adieu to winter and welcome the beginning of the tourist season in the 2026 Bishop Hill Spring Fling, with various stores, museums, and restaurants offering special discounts, events, and live entertainment.

With Masterworks' moving 2025-26 season finale presented in partnership with Violins of Hope, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra will present Johann Sebastian Bach’s beautiful Concerto for Two Violins and Gustav Mahler's gripping Sixth Symphony on April 11 and 12, the respective concerts at Davenport's Adler Theatre and Augustana College's Centennial Hall finding members of the QCSO – including soloists Emily Nash and Sabrina Tabby – performing on historic violins that serve as symbols of resilience, hope, and remembrance.

WAR, April 11

Beloved for hit songs that include "Spill the Wine," "The World Is a Ghetto," "The Cisco Kid," "Why Can't We Be Friends?," "Summer," and the iconic earworm "Low Rider," the venerated rockers of WAR bring their national tour to Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on April 11, the group's massive discography to date boasting 18 studio albums, three live albums, seven compilation albums, and no fewer than 60 singles.

Their collection of 17 studio albums including top-10 Billboard smashes The Amazing Jeckel Brothers, The Might Death Pop, and Bang! Pow! Boom!, the Insane Clown Posse of Joseph Bruce and Joseph Utsler - performing under the respective personas of wicked clowns Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope - bring their tour to Davenport's Capitol Theatre on April 12, the horrorcore musicians also members of the current super-group 3 Headed Monster.

Hailed by Tomorrow's Verse for “unique and soulful songs that don’t often lean on bluegrass clichés – or any clichés, for that matter,” the lauded roots and bluegrass ensemble Pert Near Sandstone headlines an April 10 concert at Rock Island's RIBCO, the group's 2023 bluegrass album Waiting Days hailed by Americana Highways as "all done with finesse and nothing retro despite the genre's age."

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