Nominated for five 2011 Tony Awards including Best Musical, and based on the beloved comedy starring Whoopi Goldberg, the tuneful and riotous Sister Act opens the Countryside Community Theatre summer season, the show's July 5 through 13 run at Eldridge's North Scott High School Fine Arts Auditorium demonstrating why the Associated Press deemed it “frothy, giggly, and yet often poignant,” as well as “a musical that hits all the right spots, achieving something close to Broadway grace.”

A one-act version of the Broadway-musical hit praised by Variety for its "off-the-wall humor, endless visuals and aural delights, [and] tuneful music and wicked lyrics," Beetlejuice Jr. enjoys a June 26 through 29 run at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, this adaptation of the Oscar-winning Tim Burton smash boasting a gifted cast of young talents and all the favorite characters audiences have loved for a generation-plus.

Delivering a blend of local history, environmental issues, education, entertainment, and fresh air, Davenport's River Action will present a series of outdoor presentations in the second month-plus of the annual Channel Cat Talks and Riverine Walks: weekly programs that, from July 8 through August 2, will address such topics as the music of local jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke, the Hauberg Estate, the Hennepin Canal, and even the Channel Cat series itself.

Art you can view and art you can wear (though not during its local showcase) will be celebrated at the Quad City Arts Center gallery through August 8, with the Rock Island venue proud to host the collective exhibition Bales & Pappageorge: an arresting showcase of sculptural fashion by Judy Bales and fiber wall pieces by Louise Pappageorge.

With 28 Years Later, we appear to be exiting the realm of realism and entering the land of the mythic, and I'm not sure that, inspiration-wise, trading George A, Romero for J.R.R. Tolkien is any kind of upgrade.

T Green's and Calvin Vo's production hooked me from the start – the performers are lively, fully present, and engaged in their scenes, and usually moved and spoke naturally, with excellent projection and diction.

There are three main villains from childhood fiction that still occasionally haunt my nightmares – my terror trifecta, if you will: the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Barnaby from Babes in Toyland, and Miss Viola Swamp from Miss Nelson Is Missing! So naturally, I was both excited and terrified when I took my seat at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre.

Delivering a sure-to-be-unforgettable night of timeless rock hits, the touring artists of Styx and the Kevin Cronin Band – the latter outfit fronted by REO Speedwagon's former lead vocalist – co-headline a July concert event at Moline's Vibrant Arena at the MARK, with, in addition to other hits, the artists performing two albums in their entirety: Styx's The Grand Illusion, and REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity.

With Pitchfork declaring the artist's 2024 recording We Belong "an exuberant new album" that "rejoices in the power of Black diasporic identity and community," progressive-rock and Sudanese-pop musician Sinkane headlines a July 2 concert event at Davenport's Redstone Room, Pitchfork adding that "glittering with disco lights and showered with confetti, We Belong is a radiant homage to Black music and Black people."