11 Jun 2018

Luxury Croons: Quad City Music Guild's “Mame,” at the Prospect Park Auditorium through June 17

By Rochelle Arnold

Big-band music and huge dance numbers filled with sequin gowns and big-city lights are what I experienced at Quad City Music Guild's latest production Mame. With a multitude of cast members to fill the ensemble, Saturday's June 9 performance was packed with comedy, fantastic singing, and extravagant sets.

11 Jun 2018

Compassion Play: “Jesus Christ Superstar,” at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre through June 17

By Rochelle Arnold

What's the buzz? I'll tell you what's happening over at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre – the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. And from the outstanding choreography by Katie Johannigman to the stellar vocals by Jesus portrayer Ben Cherington, I was thoroughly entertained.

11 Jun 2018

Belle of the Ball: “Beauty & the Beast,” at the Timber Lake Playhouse through June 17

By Jeff Ashcraft

My kids grew up on Disney's Beauty & the Beast. I've seen the animated movies and TV specials. I've tripped over toys. I have faded photos of my daughter dressed in a brilliant ballroom gown. I've listened to Alan Menken’s soundtrack (with lyrics by Tim Rice and Howard Ashman) hundreds of times, seen the story performed on ice, and watched the live-action film earlier this year. But I’d never seen the Broadway-musical adaptation, and now that the Timber Lake Playhouse has opened its extravagant version of this classic tale, I can cross the live version off of my theatrical bucket list, too.

04 Jun 2018

Weed Wacky: “Reefer Madness,” at the QC Theatre Workshop through June 17

By Mark Ruebling

Marijuana is an “unspeakable scourge,” warns The Lecturer (played by an augmentedly-bearded Andy Curtiss) at the start of the QC Theatre Workshop's hilarious production of Reefer Madness. A scourge, warns the man, that's “turning all our children into hooligans and whores!”

03 Jun 2018

Litera-tour: “All the Great Books (Abridged),” at the Spotlight Theatre through June 10

By Madeline Dudziak

Do a quick Google search and you’ll find innumerable lists of the greatest books of all time. But if you aren’t quite as well read as you’d like, the Spotlight Theatre has a solution for you with their inaugural production of All the Great Books (Abridged).

03 Jun 2018

Runaway Bride … and Groom: “Dearly Beloved,” at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre through June 10

By Madeline Dudziak

There’s a big reunion in Geneseo! To celebrate the 50th-anniversary season of the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, director John VanDeWoestyne got some of the 2008 Dearly Beloved gang back together for this summer’s sweetly nostalgic revival. The theatre’s audience voted to add the show to the season, and, along with over half the original production’s actors returning, the plot features its own reunion in the form of a family wedding. Dearly Beloved must have been remembered fondly because Thursday night’s opening was packed.

28 May 2018

Oh, There's Nothing Halfway About the Iowa Way to Treat You: "The Bridges of Madison County," at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse through July 14

By Rochelle Arnold

Fate and destiny: Are they real? Is love at first sight possible? So asks the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's The Bridges of Madison County, the romantic story of two strangers who, by chance, run into one another in rural Winterset, Iowa, in 1965. And the May 24 preview performance left me captivated, delivering beautiful ballads, impressive vocals, and stunning scenic design by Eric Luchen complete with a large backdrop screen that projected fantastic images of the Roseman covered bridge, simple farmhouses, and green pastures.

24 May 2018

Magical Misery Tour: “Some Girl(s),” at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre through May 26

By Mark Ruebling

“Four cities, four past romances, four stories to be told (four nearly identical hotel rooms).” That's the premise behind the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's Barn Owl presentation of Neil LaBute's Some Girl(s), and alternating between the emotionally draining, bitingly funny, viciously cynical, and surprisingly engaging, the comedy/drama might best be described as a how-to manual on how not to make amends with your past relationships.

14 May 2018

G-Nial N-Tertainment: “Bingo! The Winning Musical,” at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre through May 20

By Jeff Ashcraft

Who knew that something as benign as bingo could be a cutthroat, super-competitive soap opera, complete with callers enjoying something extra for announcing the right bingo balls, zany rituals performed over cards, rice-cereal-treat bribes, and WWE-style heels and heroes? It just goes to show that the competitiveness of the human experience filters even into the most unlikely and folksy slices of Americana, as demonstrated in Bingo! The Winning Musical, the kooky musical offering at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre.

30 Apr 2018

Going Off the Record: “The Drowsy Chaperone,” at Augustana College through May 6

By Madeline Dudziak

What would happen if you invited a friend over to listen to an original Broadway cast album? You’d probably turn it on and imagine the show in your head, inserting your opinions about what was going on as you listened. That is exactly what you will get from attending Augustana College's production of The Drowsy Chaperone.

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