One of the millennium's biggest animated-film hits enjoys a raucous, colorful, and tuneful stage presentation when Young Footliters Youth Theatre presents Madagascar: A Musical Adventure Jr. at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, a delightful family treat, running October 30 through November 1, reuniting audiences with Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe, Gloria the hip-hip-Hippo, and all of their other Dreamworks favorites.

With the British Theatre Guide praising the play for delivering “plenty of moments that are funny, frightening, or exciting,” playwright Jeffrey Hatcher's take on Henry James' classic chiller The Turn of the Screw enjoys an October 23 through November 8 run at Iowa City's Riverside Theatre, the Los Angeles Times hailing the work as “an ingenious twist on an old-school ghost story."

Rock of Ages was nominated for five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. “Wait – what?” I said when I read of these accomplishments after seeing the show. I eventually unearthed why.