Director Craig Cohoon's production was such a ticklish and sustained creep-out that I chuckled and smiled in appreciation as much as amusement, even when I was silently begging one of our leads to not, not, open that scary-ass door.

Everything that goes out of fashion seems to make a resurgence at some point or another. This trend is no different in the music scene. Record collectors have seen formats come and go. But most recently, the focus is on the comeback of vinyl records and cassette tapes.

Called “a delightfully spunky musical” by Variety magazine and “lively, agile, and full of fun, fun, fun” by DC Theatre Scene, the stage-musical adaptation of Disney's family favorite Freaky Friday runs at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse January 17 through 24, bringing to theatrical life the body-switching slapstick, generational laughs, and warm sentiment beloved from the 1976 film with Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris and the 2003 remake with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis.

With his studio debut Compadre lauded by the Fort Worth Weekly for being “an adventurous foray beyond the musical norms that constrain less adventurous Americana songsmiths,” Texas musician Matthew McNeal performs a January 16 Moeller Nights concert in conjunction with his latest live session at Daytrotter, where the country, rock, and folk singer/songwriter last recorded in June of 2015.

An award-winning orator and educator familiar from her appearances on BET, MSNBC, NBC, and numerous SiriusXM radio stations, Dr. Chandra Gill will serve as the keynote speaker for Augustana's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, with January 13's “The Time Is Now” event also featuring musical performances, a video presentation, and an opening ceremony boasting the Metropolitan Youth Program Drill Team.

Works by four Midwestern female artists will be on display at the Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy beginning January 23, with paintings by Evanny Angelene Henningsen featured in the exhibit Utah Colors, and pieces in various mediums by Ann Peters, Amy Whiteman and Olivia von Gries – all former students of gallery owner Pat Beréskin – in the fittingly titled exhibition Coming Home.

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The Democratic gubernatorial candidate shocked just about everyone by claiming that a deliberate "strategic gentrification plan" exists to push black people out of Chicago and make the city “whiter.”

Performing blues, folk, country, and Americana music that, according to NPR, “evokes the old-timey spirit of a thousand crackling 78 RPM records” whose “energy makes them feel new and alive,” Midwestern singer/songwriter Pokey LaFarge plays Davenport's Redstone Room in support of his most recent album Manic Revelations, described by Paste magazine as “all sass and swagger, with plenty of juke-jump energy to spare.”