Screening locally through a special partnership between Fathom Events and distribution company GKIDS, the new anime entertainment Okko's Inn will enjoy April 22 and 23 presentations at Rave Cinemas Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, the latest work by lauded director Kitarô Kôsaka praised by Pittsburgh magazine for its “easy and very watchable charm,” and by the Pittsburgh City Paper for its “fantastical elemets” and “heartfelt lessons on family and acceptance.”

Praised by Rolling Stone for their “gutbucket rock & roll and soulful boogie” and by NPR Music for being “fresh, original, and truly pledged to rock and roll,” the Philadelphia-based musicians of Low Cut Connie headline a Moeller Nights concert on April 18, revealing why the Los Angeles Times wrote, “Their ferocious live show … is unmatched in all of rock right now.”

Lauded by AllMusic.com for his “emotionally charged voice and rich, melodic songwriting style,” British-born, New York-based singer/songwriter Bobby Long showcases his rock, folk, and Americana gifts as a Moeller Nights headliner on April 18, his latest album Sultan praised by The Hype magazine as a work that “pays homage to Sgt. Pepper’s-era Beatles in a wonderful way.”

Appearing together for the first time in their national “Surrounded & United Tour,” the contemporary-Christian artists of Newsboys United and singer/songwriter Michael W. Smith take the stage at Moline's TaxSlayer Center on April 19, sharing the talents that have resulted in chart-topping success and a collective 18 Grammy Award nominations.

This year, Easter weekend at the Redstone Room will showcase a thrillingly wide range of musicians and genres, as the Davenport venue hosts headlining sets with the folk-pop quartet Darlingside on April 19, the Quad Cities-based reggae talents of Rude Punch on April 20, and an Easter-Sunday concert with the Songbird Jazz Quartet performing as April 21 guests in Polyrhythms' Third Sunday Jazz Workshop & Matinée Series.

Delivering what the Associated Press calls “the next best thing to seeing the Beatles” and what the Toronto Star deems “a fun-filled family crowd-pleaser,” the gifted musicians and iconic impersonators of Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles bring their touring production to Moline's TaxSlayer Center on April 24, intoxicating crowds with their newest stage spectacular The Best of Abbey Road Live!

Touring in support of the band's sophomore album Lightning Roundan August release in which, according to Rolling Stone, its musicians “refine and polish the blend of indie-pop, folk, and rock that they introduced on their 2015 debut” – the Minnesota-based Bad Bad Hats play a Moeller Nights concert on April 24, demonstrating the talents that NPR described as “programmed to fire all neural pathways associated with carefree indie-rock fun.”

One of the most successful and adored film comedies of the 1980s will be given new musical-comedy stage life at the Spotlight Theatre April 5 through 14 when the Moline venue presents the area debut of Big: The Musical, a Tony-nominated charmer by the composing team of David Shire and Richard Maltby Jr. that DC Theatre Scene said “is filled with zany moments along with memorable musical numbers.”

One of the most beloved plays of the 20th Century, and the inspiration for one of the century's most beloved movies, opens the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre's 2019 season in the April 4 through 14 run of author Ernest Thompon's On Golden Pond, the Tony-winning dramatic comedy in which, according to the New York Times, “you will laugh … but you'll also experience the sympathetic ache that comes from sensing another human's awareness of his own mortality.”

Continuing the company's plan of producing all of William Shakespeare's plays by 2023, area verse-theatre troupe the Prenzie Players delivers one of the Bard's freshest and funniest titles in its April 5 through 13 QC Theatre Workshop staging of The Comedy of Errors – a work that esteemed literary critic Harold Bloom said “reveals Shakespeare's magnificence at the art of comedy” and demonstrated “mastery in action, incipient character, and stagecraft.”

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