Winner of three 2009 Tony Awards and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the wildly acclaimed Broadway hit Next to Normal receives a Blue Devil Productions "alumni staging" at Davenport Central High School from July 10 through 12, the New York Times raving that this ecstatically praised pop/rock musical “throbs with an emotional intensity” and “is steeped in an inescapable, aching compassion for people crippled by pain.”

In celebration of America’s 250th birthday, Davenport's Figge Art Museum is hosting American Art talks throughout the month of July, and on Thursday the 16th, guests are invited to hear from artist Connie Roberts of the new exhibition Connie & Michael Roberts: Portrait of America, Connie noted for bridging the realms of fine art and folk art, and for tackling many subjects with sharp wit and restrained humor.

Given how bored I've been at so many cinematic superhero origin stories over the decades, I feel silly for actually feeling and writing this. But I really wish director Craig Gillespie's Supergirl had merely been a superhero origin story.

A country-music superstar whose long list of accomplishments includes eight chart-topping albums, more than two dozen chart-topping singles, and recognition as the most awarded country artist of all time – all since her American Idol debut in 2005 – Carrie Underwood is the fourth of July's special guest in the John Deere Classic's "Concerts on the Course" series, Rolling Stone hailing her as "the female vocalist of her generation in any genre."

With Still Listening magazine hailing the artist as "unafraid to bend genres and explore the depths of her emotions," indie-pop singer/songwriter Julianna Joy headlines a July 5 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, Illustrate magazine adding to the raves by saying that the Midwestern talent "captures the ache of emotional distance with striking precision."

Touring in support of her debut album Neon Lullaby that Music Arena Gh praised for its "sprawling themes of defiance, motherhood, and queer identity," singer/songwriter Rachel Swain headlines a July 8 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, Music Arena Gh adding that the Americana artist's first full-length recording is "a deeply honest testament to her own survival,"

Their most recent album XOXO lauded by Pitchfork for being "a distillation of their manifold strengths" boasting "pastoral accounts of American beauty curdling into something coarser and sadder," the Minnesota-based alt-country and country-rock outfit The Jayhawks headlines a July 3 concert at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, Louder Than War adding that "there is a real feel of togetherness on XOXO which is reflected in the interchanging lead vocals and instruments."

Purchased in honor of the Figge Art Museum's late museum trustee, board president, and museum supporter Tom Gildehaus, the visitor favorite Corn Zone returns to the Davenport venue through September 27, its “corn field” installation of oversize blown-glass ears carefully suspended from the museum's ceiling with rope, and designed to explore the fragility of glass, the story of corn, and contemporary issues in farming.

At Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse from July 8 through September 5, family audiences are invited to follow the yellow brick road toward a magical stage treat in the theatre's new production of The Wizard of Oz, a delightful stage adaptation of the L. Frank Baum tale boasting the beloved musical score from the MGM film and unforgettable songs including "If I Only Had a Brain," "Ding Dong, the Witch Is Dead," and, of course, the iconic "Over the Rainbow."