22 Dec 2025

Picks 'o Six 2025: Highlights from the Year in Area Theatre

By Pamela Briggs, Madeline Dudziak, Kitty Hooker, Mischa Hooker, Alexander Richardson, and Mike Schulz

And they said it couldn't be done! Well, actually, no one to my knowledge ever said that … . But who cares? It was done, dammit! Our annual celebration of area theatre, the Reader Tony Awards, has made it to its 10th anniversary!

02 Dec 2025

Fairy-Tale Dreams Can Come True: Ivy Jensen Stars in “Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella,” December 5 through 14 at the Spotlight Theatre

By Jonathan Turner

After years of struggle, Ivy Jensen is living her dream, on stage and off.

30 Sep 2025

Thirty Shows Later, and Still "Working": Muscatine’s New Era Dinner Theater Presents Its Latest Musical, October 10 through 12

By Jonathan Turner

Jenni Colbert, a 2002 Davenport Central alum, was born to play her part in the new October 10 through 12 production by Muscatine's New Era Dinner Theater.

21 Sep 2025

“Haus of Ruckus Live!”, September 27

By Mike Schulz

After four years, nearly a dozen full-length productions, random special events, and a few Random Access Morons, the Haus of Ruckus team of Tee Green and Calvin Vo is bidding us adieu – for the time being – with Haus of Ruckus Live!, a one-night-only presentation in which the comic duo and their cohorts will perform live for the first time. Again.

31 Jul 2025

A Flawed Stage Mother Takes Over: Julie Funk Stars as “Momma” Rose in Quad City Music Guild’s “Gypsy," August 8 through 17

By Jonathan Turner

Julie Funk is both excited and terrified to take on one of the most iconic roles in musical theatre. The passionate 50-year-old Davenport mom is playing the monstrous Mama Rose in Quad City Music Guild's Gypsy, running August 8 through 17 at Moline's Prospect Park Auditorium (1584 34th Avenue).

29 Jun 2025

Barely There Theatre's “To Leer at Lear,” July 10 through 19

By Mike Schulz

Even without benefit of a plot synopsis, you may think you know the chief inspiration for Alexander Richardson's new Barely There Theatre stage comedy To Leer at Lear. It's Shakespeare's timeless tragedy King Lear, right? Well, yes. But also no. Because as Richardson states during our recent interview, “The inspiration that's actually been in the back of my head as I was writing it, and that's apparent as we're rehearsing it now, is A Muppet Christmas Carol.”

05 Jun 2025

Up Close with the Artistic Directors at the Clinton Showboat and Timber Lake Playhouse

By Jonathan Turner

Courtney Crouse and Tommy Ranieri are both enthusiastic theatre directors who are taking on recent roles as artistic directors of, respectively, our area's summer-stock organizations the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre and the Timber Lake Playhouse. Their passion for the craft and their new summer homes were obvious in recent interviews about the theatres located just 24 miles apart, one on each side of the Mississippi River.

16 Apr 2025

Haus of Ruckus' “Zooted Suits,” April 25 through May 4

By Mike Schulz

In our recent phone chat about the new Haus of Ruckus play, it takes Calvin Vo more than a half-hour to drop a bomb that probably should've been dropped in the first five minutes: “We're thinking, with the format we have now, this might be the last time we write Johnny and Fungus.”

Ummm … what?!

29 Mar 2025

A Truly Titanic Production Sets Sail in Moline: "Titanic: The Musical," at the Spotlight Theatre April 4 through 13

By Jonathan Turner

One hundred and 13 years (minus six days) after making its infamous maiden voyage, a new production of Titanic: The Musical will set sail at Moline's Spotlight Theatre.

22 Dec 2024

Picks o' Six 2024: Highlights from the Year in Area Theatre

By Pamela Briggs, Madeline Dudziak, Mischa Hooker, Kitty Israel, Alexander Richardson, and Mike Schulz

If the Internet is to be believed – and when isn't it? – the traditional gift for a ninth anniversary is pottery. But while our theatre-reviewing team and yours truly briefly considered getting y'all lovely handcrafted vases or replicas of the ashtray I made in elementary school (ah, more innocent times …), we instead decided to treat you to sincere, exultant, pithy words of praise in announcing recipients of the Ninth-Annual Reader Tony Awards!

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