On October 9, a gifted series of disparate artists ranging from Quad City Symphony Orchestra musicians to professional dancers to an Augustana College instructor/performer to a visiting guest conductor will gather at St. Ambrose University for QCSO Up Close with Ballet Quad Cities: The Soldier's Tale, an evening of music and movement headlined by the influential and rhythmic Igor Stravinsky ballet of the title.

An early member of REO Speedwagon whose guitar talents were described by the Michigan Daily as “B.B. King played through Jimi Hendrix (with a touch of Andy Gill),” blues guitarist, songwriter, vocalist, and humorist Duke Tumatoe and his ensemble the Power Trio play Davenport's Redstone Room on October 8, sharing the talents that enabled the headliner and Chicago native to open for the legendary likes of Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, George Thorogood, and John Fogerty.

A legendary, groundbreaking achievement whose original Broadway production received six Tony Awards and whose most recent New York presentation won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical, composer Stephen Sondheim's and author George Furth's Company enjoys an eagerly awaited run at Moline's Black Box Theatre October 7 through 16, the work a resonant dramatic comedy by an artist the New York Times calls “one of the most sophisticated composers ever to write Broadway musicals.”

While it's intermittently moving and generally well-acted, the film version of Broadway hit Dear Evan Hansen, as you may have heard, has a number of problems: an unconvincing, even preposterous premise; blithe depictions of teen depression and mental instability; a 27-year-old lead cast as a high-school student. We'll get to those shortly. But the movie's biggest issue, it seems to me, lies in a sensation that you might only recognize if you've seen a lot of stage musicals, or least a lot of sub-par ones.

If you know this musical's title, and have seen any ad artwork, you already know that the show involves a very bad sentient plant. So I'll now reveal that it grows, as plants do. Except real big. And it's a carnivore. And it keeps wanting heftier portions of meat.

Described by DC Metro Theatre Arts as a mystery comedy with “a dizzy, stimulating joy that makes it a whole lot of fun,” the movie and board-game adaptation Clue: On Stage takes residence at Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre October 7 through 17, the show a farcical riot that, according to Broadway World, “creates one laugh after another – and a series of 'Ah-hah!'s – as the audience is led on a merry chase.”

Touring in support of the band's recently released third album Walkman, a recording described by Paste magazine as “a jubilant half-hour punctuating a newfound maturity,” the Minnesota-based Bad Bad Hats play Davenport venue the Raccoon Motel on October 13 demonstrating the talents that NPR described as “programmed to fire all neural pathways associated with carefree indie-rock fun.”

One of the most powerful and influential memoirs in American literature will, on October 3 and 4, enjoy a live rendition at the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center, with Richard Wright's iconic Black Boy given theatrical treatment in a Literature to Life solo presentation that premiered at the Kennedy Center – one that boasts actor Tarantino Smith playing more than a dozen of the book's seminal characters.

The celebration of a key artist in the development of printmaking in the 20th century, as well as the artistic community that he created, Robert Blackburn & Modern American Printmaking will be on display at Davenport's Figge Art Museum through January 9, the exhibit a fascinating showcase of a talent who challenged the idea of lithography as a high-craft process.