Praised by WhartonPlazaTheatre.com for its "rousing musical numbers, hilarious social commentary, and heavenly harmony," the feel-good, foot-stomping, country-music sensation Honky Tonk Angels enjoys a March 11 through April 25 run at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, RochesterMedia.com adding, "To paraphrase a well-known movie quote: Is this heaven? No. It’s Honky Tonk Angels. Welcome to heaven on earth.”

A groundbreaking achievement whose original Broadway production received six Tony Awards and whose most recent New York presentation won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical, composer Stephen Sondheim's and author George Furth's Company enjoys a March 12 through 16 run in Augustana College's Brunner Theatre Center, the legendary work a resonant dramatic comedy by an artist the New York Times calls “one of the most sophisticated composers ever to write Broadway musicals.”

A Tony Award winner hailed by Variety magazine as “elegant, acerbic, and entertainingly fueled on pure bile,” Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage opens the 2026 season at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre, the comedy's February 27 through March 8 run treating audiences to a Broadway hit that, according to the New York Times, “delivers the cathartic release of watching other people's marriages go boom."

The recipient of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama that, according to Intermission magazine, "cuts to the heart with a simply constructed story, understated humor, and dialogue unburdened by purple prose," playwright Eboni Booth's Primary Trust makes its Iowa City debut at Riverside Theatre February 27 through March 15, the work also hailed by The Daily Beast as "beautifully written" and "a 95-minute, intermissionless, buffed-to-gleaming jewel.”

Director/choreographer Ashley Becher and musical director Ethan Hayward, alongside their wonderful crew and energetic, talented crème de la crème cast, elevate the solid script and score into the realm of delight.

What do you get when four young adults’ lives are entangled with one another, yet the full picture doesn’t come into focus until the final moments? You get word play, written by fellow Reader reviewer Alexander Richardson: a tightly woven one-act that asks its audience to lean in, listen closely, and trust the unraveling.

Local Theatre Auditions/Calls for Entry

Updated: Wednesday, February 18

With Barely There Theatre's latest presentation landing, as its company originator and playwright says, "just in time to be late for Valentine's Day," busy area-theatre participant (and Reader theatre reviewer) Alexander Richardson brings the world premiere of his first-ever script, word play, to Moline's Black Box Theatre February 19 through 28.

Reviews by Rochelle Arnold, Jeff Ashcraft, Patricia Baugh-Riechers, Audra Beals, Pamela Briggs, Dee Canfield, Madeline Dudziak, Kim Eastland, Emily Heninger, Heather Herkelman, Kitty (née Israel) Hooker, Mischa Hooker, Paula Jolly, Victoria Navarro, Roger Pavey Jr., Alexander Richardson, Mark Ruebling, Mike Schulz, Joy Thompson, Oz Torres, Brent Tubbs, Jill Pearson Walsh, and Thom White.

Kitty: In keeping with the feminist theme, the women were the ones driving this show.

Mischa: The three main actresses are all blessed with tremendous singing voices, and each one alternately becomes the center of attention in a series of impressive numbers.

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