On March 28 and 29, a Nickelodeon smash now in its 10th year comes roaring – or rather barking – to delightful stage life when Moline's Vibrant Arena at the MARK welcomes the national tour of PAW Patrol Live! Heroes Unite, a brand-new, full-length amphitheater adventure featuring super-size versions of the furry characters that kids of all ages know and love.
On March 29, the Eastern Branch of the Davenport Public Library invites patrons to join the Civil Air Patrol in recounting its history in the Quad Cities and nationally in the presentation Civil Air Patrol Lecture Series: United States Air Force @ 75, an examination of some of the organization's most significant accomplishments in celebration of its 75th year.
Lauded by Midwest Writing Center founder and executive director Ryan Collins as "vivid in both its danger and humor," author and St. Ambrose University professor Emily Kingery's new chapbook Invasives will enjoy a reading and release party at Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox, the March 31 event also featuring readings by Kingery's fellow poets Melissa Estes, Lexi Birks, and Lola Nakashima Brooke.
A Midwestern comedian, New York Times bestselling author, Emmy-winning journalist, and musician whose content for his various social platforms has amassed more than five million followers, Charlie Berens brings his "Midwest Survival Guide Tour" to the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center on March 31, the Wisconsin native famed for his appearances on Comedy Central, Funny or Die, and MTV News.
A delightful evening of laughter, music, and support is sure to be delivered in the April 1 fundraiser hosted by Gilda's Club of the Quad Cities, with Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center housing bestselling author and Impractical Jokers comedian James "Murr" Murray and the gifted musicians of the Quad Cities' Soul Storm in the second-annual Live from QC … It's Saturday Nite!
The “Twitter Files” are explosive revelations of political censorship by a social-media giant colluding with the federal government and certain activist groups.
ComEd has long been a source of political patronage. The company’s Deferred Prosecution Agreement with federal prosecutors even references how former House Speaker Michael Madigan’s “old-fashioned patronage system” obtained ComEd meter-reader jobs for its precinct workers.
Governor JB Pritzker declared last week when announcing the formation of the Behavioral Health Workforce Education Center that the state was building “the best behavioral health system in the nation.” It was quite a bold thing to say. So, my associate Isabel Miller and I asked a couple of follow-up questions: How long will this take and how much will it cost?
The political fallout from COVID mismanagement has also resulted in politiopaths wishing to offload the responsibilities for health emergencies to the World Health Organization (WHO) in an all-too-familiar cowardly dodge, not unlike our Ukraine engagement (and many more conflicts before it) with no congressional “Declaration of War” as dictated in the U.S. Constitution.
The beginning of spring will also be a season of love at Moline's Prospect Park Auditorium when Quad City Music Guild opens its 2023 lineup with the modern classic Rent, creator Jonathan Larson's unforgettable rock opera that earned four Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and the hearts of countless millions of stage fans the world over.
A world-premiere workshop production being staged at Davenport's Mockingbird on Main from March 24 through April 1, Anywhere but Here tells of a young man from a big city forced, by the advent of the 2020 pandemic, to move back into his parents' rural Midwestern home. It's a situation likely familiar to many. It's certainly familiar to the show's playwright and director Bradley Robert Jensen, who fashioned his own experiences into what he describes as “a family dramedy centered around people choosing each other over each other's differences.”
One of the most ticklish and tuneful operettas in theatrical history comes to the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center on March 26 with the touring presentation The Pirates of Penzance, the beloved Gilbert & Sullivan masterpiece enjoying a rich and radiant new staging by the artists of the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players.
Described by the New York Times as "effervescent and entertaining," and by Online America as an all-ages show that delivered "fresh bursts of energy," Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse opens its 2023 season of high-spirited family musicals with Junie B.'s Essential Survival Guide to School, an adaptation of Barbara Park's beloved children's-book series about the riotous and winning young Junie B. Jones.
[3/25 update: Due to positive COVID tests among the cast, the show's originally scheduled opening will be delayed until March 31.]
Praised by The Guardian as “perfectly crafted” and “beautifully scripted,” the wildly entertaining Agatha Christie mystery Witness for the Prosecution enjoys a March 31 through April 2 run at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre, the show a spine-tingling entertainment by the legendary author of The Mousetrap, Murder on the Orient Express, Evil Under the Sun, and other classics.
With the Canadian Broadcasting Company calling him "an absolute juggernaut" and The Guardian deeming him "a storytelling titan," folk singer and guitarist Willi Carlisle headlines a March 26 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the Washington Post adding of the artist, “Carlisle has a poetry in describing songs passed down through generations as a most precious cultural commodity, and a passion and immediacy in performing them.”
Lauded by Billboard magazine for their "catchy, danceable beats paired with melancholy lyricism and shimmery melodies," the indie rockers of Plastic Picnic headline a March 29 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the musicians also praised by NPR as an ensemble that "has a real knack for making synthesizers sound epic."
With New York magazine calling their most recent album a showcase of "deliciously dark music" and "a mix of frantic, furious riffs, dour vocals, and existential poetry” and Pitchfork deeming it their “most expansive statement yet,” the critically lauded rockers of Protomartyr play Davenport's Raccoon Motel on March 30 in support of their latest release Ultimate Success Today, a recording that inspired NPR to rave of the musicians, “I don't think they needed to level up, but boy, did they.”
March in the Quad Cities sees the return of spring, or something like it. It also brings a wide variety of live music, from past masters and new faces. My top live picks for March fall into each category, from returning rock veterans to debut performances in the Quad Cities.
With the Quad City Symphony Orchestra's conclusions to its 2022-23 Masterworks season on April 1 and 2, the gifted classical musicians will not only celebrate one of history's greatest composers in Mahler One, but will extend their tribute to Gustav with a tribute to Sergei, as the concert's repertoire will also boast a ravishing performance of a Prokofiev violin concerto boasting featured soloist and QCSO concertmaster Naha Greenholtz.
Going to the cineplex or staying in and streaming this weekend? Every Thursday morning at 8:15 a.m. you can listen to Mike Schulz dish on recent movie releases & talk smack about Hollywood celebs on Planet 93.9 FM with the fabulous Dave & Darren in the Morning team of Dave Levora and Darren Pitra. The morning crew previews upcoming releases, too.
Or you can check the Reader Web site and listen to their latest conversation by the warm glow of your electronic device. Never miss a pithy comment from these three scintillating pundits again.
Thursday, March 23: After a week off, discussion of Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Champions, 65, and the 95th Oscars.
Everything that's wrong with the super-sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods is effectively baked into the title. Because if there's one thing that fans of the 2019 film (myself among them) don't want, or at least shouldn't want, it's fury – not when the original's appeal was so firmly grounded in the goofy, amiable, touching, and refreshingly inconsequential.
As a rule, horror sequels aren't supposed to be good. Fifth sequels in any genre aren't supposed to be good. Sequels whose basic M.O. is “Let's do what we've always done … but in a different city!” aren't supposed to be good. And yet, almost preposterously, Scream VI proves to be very, very good – though if that praise seems suspect, I'd be willing to amend it to “very, very entertaining.”
It's still incredibly early in his career to ask this, but is there anything Jonathan Majors can't do?
Now playing at area theaters.
Perhaps the most fanous mural in the history of world art will be examined in a special exhibition at the University of Dubuque's Bisignano Art Gallery through March 26 when the venue hosts Anatomy of a Painting: Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, a showcase about which gallery director Alan Garfield says, "“For those who wondered why Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper is so famous, I hope this show will begin to answer that question in a number of ways.”
Offered on March 27 as a program in the "Evenings at Butterworth Center" series, the Moline venue will host historian Sarah Rovang as she presents Georgia O’Keeffe & Deere: The Making of a Modern Masterpiece, detailing how the legendary artist forever established a local connection by referring to her monumental work Sky Above Clouds IV as the “Deere Clouds.”
With spring in the air, it's time again for the River Cities’ Reader's annual Spring Photo Contest!
For 2023, we've decided on three new categories for your submissions: “Prairie,” “Oaks,” and “Ethanol.”
Entrants are welcome to interpret the categories however they wish. Click photo or headline for full list of rules.
Participating in a Figge Art Museum Artist Talk on March 30, Mexican/Latinx multidisciplinary artist Tlisza Jaurique will discuss her inherited indigenous upbringing and aesthetics in conjunction with Decolonial Intervention, the Davenport venue's current exhibit in which Jaurique has created her own artistic intervention surrounding the Spanish Vice Regal collection, reexamining the art in this space and providing a different viewpoint that allows for a shared authority of the collection.
Held in conjunction with the Figge Art Museum's popular exhibit Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960, noted dress Historian Nicole Rudolph, on April 1, will engage in the first of a two-part overview on the seismic shifts that transformed women’s clothing between 1800 and 1960, with an emphasis on developments in women’s athletic wear.
You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Amy Alkon Advice Goddess, Real Astrology, Red Meat cartoon and RCR Crossword every week?)
Get the printed Reader edition mailed to you (or anyone you want) first-class for 12 months for $48.
$24 goes to postage and handling, $24 goes to keeping the doors open!
