I read an article this past weekend devoted to our current, collective state of franchise fatigue, with the disappointing domestic box office for Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Secret Life of Pets 2, and Dark Phoenix cited as proof that audiences are getting tired of seeing the same ol' things in newfangled packaging. What that “Are franchises finally over?!” piece failed to suggest, though, was that maybe these particular sequels weren't making major bank because they're just not good. And the third sequel to 1997's Men in Black might be the not-good-est of them all – an exhaustingly manic and just-plain-exhausting reboot to a series that should have ended with 2012's surprisingly clever Men in Black 3. The only real surprise here is that cleverness is in such depressingly slim supply.

The Mississippi Bend Players' third season opened on Friday with Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues, a tribute to our military veterans and all the brave men and women who currently serve this great country. This second installment in Simon's semi-autobiographical comedic trilogy – one that begins with Brighton Beach Memoirs and concludes with Broadway Bound – had me rifling through my purse to find a tissue to dry my eyes, given that they were watering so much from laughter. Director and St. Ambrose University theatre professor Cory Johnson, who also gave us MBP's Brighton Beach in 2017, delivered a hilarious show that was not only extremely funny, but touched on some very serious subject matter.

A literary classic becomes a moving and tune-filled stage entertainment at the Black Box Theatre June 20 through 30, when the Moline venue treats audiences to the beloved characters and timeless charm of Little Women: The Musical, the Tony Award-nominated adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel that the Chicago Reader called “an absolute delight” and Broadway.com deemed “a chamber-size musical [that] pulses with a generous affection for its source material.”

Praised by Funkatopia for his “amazingly fluid guitar and great piano work” and “vocal work which he has nailed down to a science,” singer and multi-instrumentalist Marshall Charloff brings his ensemble the Purple Xperience to East Moline venue The Rust Belt on June 21, the Moeller Nights headliners performing the signature stylings of Prince & the Revolution, and emerging as what the El Paso Times deemed the nation's “top Prince tribute act.”

A gifted rock trio and an award-winning country-music singer/songwriter assume headliner roles in two Moeller Nights concerts on June 22, with the sibling musicians of Radkey playing the Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel stage at 7 p.m., and Nashville-based touring artist JP Harris taking over the Davenport stage at 10 p.m.

Performing in support of his 2018 album Animal Companionship, a release that Pop Matters called the artist's “most cohesive and accomplished work yet,” Chicago-based singer/songwriter Owen Ashworth brings his solo project Advance Base to Rock Island's Rozz-Tox on June 22, the artist's most recent recording inspiring Stereogum.com to rave, “In its sharp and unrelenting and empathetic specificity, this is some real masterly heart-wrecker music.”

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Paraphrasing from the latest presentation at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, “If you need musical medication, the Holiday Inn fills the prescription." And June 7's opening night for this Irving Berlin spectacle was certainly therapeutic, delivering a fantastic, high-energy, fast-paced, never-a-dull-moment performance. With its seasoned dancers and strong vocals, you'll thoroughly enjoy this production. It does not disappoint.