The latest gifted guests in Quad City Arts' Visiting Artists series will deliver a special, one-night-only public performance when March 22 brings with it a Figge Art Museum evening with Eisenhower Dance Detroit, the professional repertory company that, through its outstanding performances and educational services, strives to deepen the understanding and appreciation of contemporary dance regionally, nationally, and internationally, and to reflect on and explore issues of social significance.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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One of the most fascinating of all oceanic creatures will be given an up-close-and-person look at the Putnam Museum & Science Center through February 4, when the venue displays the Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend, an examination of the water-based wonders from their depiction in the 1500s as angry sea monsters to their present status as icons of pop culture.
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The “Twitter Files” are explosive revelations of political censorship by a social-media giant colluding with the federal government and certain activist groups.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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The performers at Sunday's performance of director Curt Wollan's production shined, as they most always do at this theatre, and the jokes – most of them innuendos and phallic allusions – were actually pretty funny, and delivered well.
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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.
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Praised by The Guardian as “perfectly crafted” and “beautifully scripted,” the wildly entertaining Agatha Christie mystery Witness for the Prosecution enjoys a March 24 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.
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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.”
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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.
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Performing in support of their latest album Unify, a 70-minute record that Live for Live Music raved “emanates brotherhood, evokes oneness, and embodies inspiration in the face of adversity,” the funk artists of Lettuce bring their national tour to East Moline venue The Rust Belt on March 22, their 2022 release also inspiring Glide magazine to rave that the group “does more than enough here to solidify their well-earned status as one of today’s leading fun-and-funk bands.”
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Ever since the 2018 musical bio-pic Bohemian Rhapsody won four Academy Awards and grossed more than $215 million domestic and $875 million worldwide, Freddie Mercury and Queen have been hotter than ever – which is sure to be proven by the raucous crowd response on March 24 when Moline's Vibrant Arena at the MARK pays tribute to the iconic British rockers in the stage spectacle One Night of Queen performed by Gary Mullen & the Works.
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A Grammy-winning icon and bona-fide county-music legend makes her eagerly awaited appearance at the Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on March 24 with the Davenport arrival of Tanya Tucker, whose first radio hit "Delta Dawn" – recorded when she was only 13 years old – has thus far led to the release of 25 studio albums, three live albums, and 30 compilation albums.
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Touring in support of their fall release Flowers for June, Jay Ernest and the Minneapolis-based musicians of Church of Cash bring their Johnny Cash tribute to Davenport's Raccoon Motel on March 24, performing from the legendary singer's expansive repertoire and the album's repertoire that boasts undersung hits such as “A Thing Called Love,” “Dark as a Dungeon,” and “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky.”
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
Friday, March 10: A little later than usual ... and a little longer than usual! Discussion of Creed III and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre; a (p)review of Scream VI (it's really good!); anticipation for the Beck/Woods 65; predictions for this Sunday's Academy Awards; and reminiscences of being traumatized by Sesame Street.
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A Golden Globe nominee for Best Foreign Language Film that was also named the 30th greatest film of all time in the 2022 Sight & Sound critics’ poll, Céline Sciamma's French romance Portrait of a Lady on Fire will enjoy a Figge Art Museum screening on April 6 in conjunction with the exhibition Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960, the Davenport venue's latest movie series highlighting award-winning, groundbreaking feature films that celebrate the cinematic achievements of women.
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Now playing at area theaters.
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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.
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Held in conjunction with the Davenport venue's current exhibition Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960, the Figge Art Museum will present a special March 23 program that explores the Quad City Symphony Orchestra's March 25 concert Up Close with the Figge: Women in Music, with the QCSO's principal cellist Hannah Holman, in Women in Music, celebrating extraordinary female instrumentalists and composers throughout musical history.
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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.”
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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.”
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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.
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