With the touring ensemble led by Jeff Bush, a gifted trombonist who has played alongside jazz masters Benny Golson, Jon Hendricks, Ahmad Jamal, and Vanessa Rubin, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra performs a special February 7 concert at the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center, the group's namesake remembered and beloved for standards such as "Opus One," "This Love of Mine," "Song of India," "I'll Never Smile Again,” and “Marie.”

Treating science-fiction fans to a trio of classics set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far way, Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre hosts its Star Wars Film Series with presentations of three of creator George Lucas' Academy Award-winning classics: 1977's original A New Hope, 1980's The Empire Strikes Back, and 1983's Return of the Jedi.

The funny bone of one of the United States' most revered presidents will be explored at Coal Valley's Robert R. Jones Public Library on February 11 when historian and former professor Dr. William Hampes presents The Humor of American Lincoln, a program focusing on the types of humor that Lincoln used, how he used them in politics and his personal life to achieve his goals, and what his sense of humor demonstrated about his personality.

Nominated for seven 2017 Tony Awards and the winner of the prestigious Olivier Award for Best New Musical, the comedy-classic adaptation Groundhog Day: The Musical makes its Quad Cities debut at Moline's Spotlight Theatre February 7 through 16, the stage hit lauded by the New York Times as a "dizzyingly witty" work "so outrageously inventive in ringing changes on the same old, same old, that you can’t wait for another (almost identical) day to dawn."

With the City Circle Theatre Company's latest presentation a winner of the 2000 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical, the concert version of Andrew Lippa's Wild Party enjoys a February 7 through 16 run at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, this delicious stage hit's 13 Drama Desk Award nominations including those for castmates Brian D'Arcy James and Idina Menzel.

The Illinois legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability recently released an eye-popping actuarial analysis of a union-backed pension reform plan. The analysis concluded that the proposal, House Bill 5909, would cost tax-payers almost $30 billion through the year 2045.

If I were the sort who randomly tossed the word “snub” around, I might have a question for those responsible for this morning's nominees for the 97th Oscars: What do you have against Zendaya?!

Lauded by The Aquarian as employing "a unified approach to performance and songwriting, crafting aural mosaics through adept instrumentation and humble precocity," the New Jersey-based funk, jazz, and rock ensemble Dogs in a Pile headline a February 3 concert at Davenport's Redstone Room, the group's output also hailed by Go-Set.net as "fun and jovial, hot and sexy, funky and weird, contemplative and dreamy."

Delivering a special tribute to our 16th American president at the Rock Island Public Library's Main Branch on February 4, gifted singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Chris Vallillo will treat patrons to his touring event Abraham Lincoln in Song, a performance in the Tuneful Tuesdays series that led Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum director of theatres Phil Funkenbusch to rave, "Vallillo takes the audience on a musical journey, making history come alive with his excellent blending of music and storytelling.”