A multi-platinum-selling singer/songwriter with the distinction of having earned six American Country Awards in one year, chart-topping superstar Jason Aldean serves as the first Grandstand performer in the 2021 Mississippi Valley Fair, his August 3 appearance treating country fans to a thrilling repertoire that boasts nine studio albums and a remarkable 22 number-one singles to date.

Winner of Great Britain's Oliver Award for Best Play and described by London's Independent as “wondrous, hilarious, and heartbreaking,” the fascinating two-character drama The Mountaintop, from July 29 through August 7, serves as the inaugural production at Davenport's new venue The Mockingbird on Main, the play's imagined tale involving Martin Luther King Jr. lauded by the Los Angeles Times as “a powerful, poetic take on (King's) legacy.”

With the pop-culture Web site NME.com giving the artist's solo-album debut Super Monster four stars and calling the release “a vivid portrait of the giddiness and drama of love,” bedroom-pop singer/songwriter Claud performs July 30 as the first headliner for Davenport's new Raccoon Motel at 315 East Second Street, her compositions, according to NME.com, capable of “pulling on the heartstrings in a way that feels intensely genuine.”

Director Malcolm D. Lee's LeBron-James-meets-the-Looney-Tunes adventure, beyond feeling cynical and desperate, may be the most flabbergasting, relentlessly self-promoting entertainment I've ever endured. Lee's movie is constantly selling, yet the only thing it actually gave me was a headache.

This past weekend, in all its masked glory, Genesius Guild’s Hippolytus featured gorgeous face coverings designed by Daitlyn Duffy and fitted by Bob Hanske, and these were certainly not your typical COVID-era face masks, either; they were works of art that amazingly kept mouths uncovered. When paired with Sara Wegner’s absolutely beautiful costumes, I was swept up in the story before anyone said a single word.

At last! After being pandemic-delayed for 17 months, it was finally opening night for the long-awaited Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse production Saturday Night Fever. And Friday’s performance transported an extremely excited audience back to the 1970s for a disco revolution in which there was a whole lot of incredible dancing going on.

Even within the subset of meritorious solo or duo shows, author Lauren Gunderson's I & You is a particularly outstanding and imaginative two-person play unlike any I've seen in the Quad Cities, and one to which the Black Box Theatre did full justice. I attended opening night as one member of an equally appreciative crowd.

Returning to downtown Davenport for the 47th time after an unplanned year off, the Quad-City Times Bix 7 will find runners and walkers taking on a seven-mile foot race alongside live bands and cheering crowds, with the July 23 and 24 weekend also featuring numerous block parties – hosted by more than 20 downtown-Davenport businesses – between the Rock Island Arsenal Bridge on the east to the Centennial Bridge on the west.