Opening its 2026-27 season with the theatre's 40th world premiere since its inception, Iowa City's Riverside Theatre debuts the period comedy I, Will: A Late Romance from September 10 through 27, its Emmy Award-winning author Scott Carter tackling a plague, a demanding king, an increasingly frustrated acting company, and a playwright wondering if his best work is behind him.

With the film boasting a Rotten Tomatoes "freshness" rating of 93 percent and the site's critical consensus calling it "a twisty yet heartfelt look at relationships and heartache," director Michel Gondry's and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind enjoys a September 10 screening at Rozz-Tox, this Oscar-winning sci-fi comedy the latest presentation in the Rock Island venue's popular Filmosofia series.

Even if nothing entirely thrilled me, as least nothing this past weekend outright sucked – making this the perfect time for another quintet of 300-word reviews,

There are some scripts that can be like pulling teeth when not done right. Thankfully, no orthodontist is needed for director Tristan Tapscott's powerful production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.

Yet another sexual harassment allegation has been made against an Illinois House Democrat. But this time, the House speaker’s operation is fully supporting its incumbent.

Delivering a blues-rock tribute to legendary musicians of the past, Iowa City's ever-popular ensemble The Beaker Brothers Band returns to the Quad Cities for a concert at Davenport's Gypsy Highway Bar & Grill, the August 23 show one of the last touring stops the beloved ensemble will make before signing off as a publicly performing band at the end of 2026.

After Charlie Baty retired from touring in 2008, longtime frontman Rick Estrin brought in guitar virtuoso Kid Andersen and formed Rick Estrin & the Nightcats, an ensemble built around the bandleader's unmistakable harmonica work, vocals, and songwriting, and one performing a special Mississippi Valley Blues Society at Davenport's Gypsy Highway Bar & Grill on August 30.

Although the band has been lauded by Today's Country Magazine as "one of the must-see acts when you visit Nashville," you'll only have to travel as far as Davenport to see the Southern-rock and soul musicians of Hippies & Cowboys, who, at the Raccoon Motel, will headline a September 2 concert on their Midwestern tour.

Touring in support of their acclaimed July 31 release Mirrors, Shapes, Objects, the multi-instrumentalist trio of veteran genre benders David McDonnell, Christopher Kalis, and Dylan Ryan bring their outfit Michael Columbia to Rock Island's Rozz-Tox on August 28, the musicians hailed for drifting effortlessly between the Soft Machine-style soprano saxophone leads, interlocking riffs of Discipline-era King Crimson, and psychedelic-hypno-funk rhythms of Can.