An intimidating ogre, a feisty princess, a wisecracking donkey, a diminutive tyrant, an ambulatory gingerbread man, and other fantastical figures take over Maquoketa's Ohnward Fine Arts Center when gifted youths present August 3 and 4 performances of Shrek the Musical Jr., a one-act version of the Tony-winning fairytale slapstick based on the Oscar-winning animated smash, the show hailed by USA Today as “a triumph of comic imagination with a heart as big and warm as Santa's.”

In director Lee Isaac Chung's disaster thriller, you sense them coming, but you're never quite prepared for them. They dominate the screen. They annihilate everything in their path. They leave you awestruck by Hollywood magic. I am, of course, referring to the dimpled grins of Glen Powell. The twisters in Twisters aren't bad, either.

It’s hard to imagine a more ideal venue for a performance of Charlotte’s Web than the Playcrafters Barn Theatre. Because the show's action takes place almost entirely in a barn, the space itself blends seamlessly with the set, inviting the audience to immerse themselves in the world of the play.

Scottish bagpipe marches and rollicking Irish pub tunes will fill Rock Island’s Riverfront Grille on July 20 as part of the fourth-annual Celtic Night Out, a celebration of heritage sponsored by the Scottish American Society of the Quad Cities, and boasting performances by the Black Hawk Pipes & Drums and the musicians of east/central Iowa's Blame Not the Bard.

An Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Award winner who can boast a remarkable 18 chart-topping hits in a mere nine years, Thomas Rhett, on July 30, serves as the opening headliner for this year's Mississippi Valley Fair's grandstand acts, the singer/songwriter sure to demonstrate why USA Today labeled him “The Prince of Country Music.”

Boasting two songs that peaked Billboard charts in "Kiss Kiss" by Chris Brown and "Low" by Flo Rida, the latter of which was named third in the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade, rap and R&B sensation T-Pain acts as grandstand headliner for the August 1 Mississippi Valley Fair, the artist's "Good Life" and "Blame It" winners of Grammy Awards for Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Performance, respectively.

A disparate pair of independent-music acts will take the stage at Davenport's Raccoon Motel for two concerts on July 27, the first with the rockers of Deserta performing in support of last year's album Don't Dare Stop, and the second with Georgia-based folk-rock, country, and blues vocalist Pony Bradshaw celebrating the release of his new recording Thus Spoke the Fool, scheduled for release on August 16.

Their springtime release Hum of the Road lauded by Saving Country Music as "instilled with insightful road-worn and real-life wisdom," and the artists themselves hailed as "a band that attentive country music fans across the United States revere," the talents of Tylor & the Train Robbers headline a July 29 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the musicians' latest also praised by Americana Highways for delivering "what made people like Guy Clark and Townes van Zandt legends."

A collective of Iowa-based musicians and educators founded in 2017 by a group of friends at the University of Northern Iowa, the high-energy ensemble BYObrass headlines a July 26 outdoor concert in the "Live at 5" series, the event held in Davenport's SkyBridge Courtyard and sponsored by Friends of Common Chord.