The familiar sounds of “Peggy Sue,” “Maybe Baby,” “Oh Boy,” “Everyday,” and many other iconic '50s-rock hits will fill the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse on December 31 when the Rock Island venue presents New Year's Rockin' Reunion: A Tribute to Buddy Holly & Friends, a classic-rock celebration featuring headliner Todd Meredith, the star of Circa '21's 2008 musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story and the touring smash That'll Be the Day: A Tribute to Buddy Holly & the Crickets.

Set to a backdrop of stunning multimedia and also boasting lively choreography, costume changes, witty banter, and even trivia, the female-driven Beatles tribute ensemble The Beatelles performs a New Year's Eve concert at Maquoketa's Ohnward Fine Ats Center, their December 31 engagement showcasing four powerhouse female vocalists performing the songs of John, Paul, George, and Ringo with harmonious perfection.

Having entered their fifth decade of professional performance, the acclaimed punk rockers of The Queers headline a December 17 concert in conjunction with the closing weekend of beloved Rock Island venue RIBCO (the Rock Island Brewing Company), the group currently boasting a repertoire that includes 13 studio albums, nine live albums, four compilation albums, and 22 EPs.

Held in collaboration with the Quad Cities' TMBC at the Lincoln Resource Center, a series of performances by noted community leaders will be delivered in the Figge Art Museum's Empowerment Echoed: Responding to 'Art & Activism at Tougaloo College,' the December 16 event held in conjunction with the Davenport venue's current exhibition that explores a distinctive intersection of modern art, education, and social justice.

Lauded by the Orlando Sentinel as "a magical time" and "an utterly charming, topnotch production," the touring entertainment Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical is set to delight Quad Citiians right before Christmas, its December 22 staging at Davenport's Adler Theatre treating family crowds to a live version of the beloved stop-motion-animated television special that has charmed audiences for generations.

Its setting may be wintry New England in the early '60s, and its story may conclude on Christmas Day, but don't even think about mistaking director William Oldroyd's Eileen for feel-good seasonal fare: It's a cup of eggnog deliciously laced with strychnine.

Imagine a lobbyist approaching a legislator and promising that if the member voted for a specific bill, the lobbyist would contribute to their campaign committee. Lobbyists have been convicted here for doing just that, going back to at least 1982. Legislators would be violating state law if they made that deal. The statute prohibits legislators, candidates, and others from promising “anything of value related to State government,” including any “action or inaction on any legislative or regulatory matter, in consideration for a contribution to a political committee, political party, or other entity that has as one of its purposes the financial support of a candidate for elective office.”

One of the most significant forces in gospel, pop, and Christian rock returns to the Adler Theatre on December 18 when three-time Grammy Award winner Michael W. Smith brings his "Christmas Live in Concert" tour to Davenport, sharing the talents that have made the artist an international sensation and recipient of an incredible 45 Dove Awards.

Boasting musical director Manuel Lopez III on drums, Ronald Wilson on bass, and Corey Kendrick on piano, the Polyrhythms Third Sunday Jazz Series wraps up its 2023 schedule with a December 17 performance at Davenport's Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities, with the Polyrhythms Trio + 2 delivering festive holiday cheer with the three band members playing alongside special guests Manny Lopez and James Culver.