Lauded by the New York Times as a "brutal satire about mythmaking" and by the Hollywood Reporter as "something for which to be truly thankful," author Larissa FastHorse's comedy The Thanksgiving Play makes its Quad Cities debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre October 17 through November 2, the show's 2023 New York rendition marking the first time that a female Native American playwright had a play produced on Broadway.

A special one-act version of the hilarious fairytale musical that won Great Britain's 2000 Olivier Award for Best Musical – and triumphed over such contenders as Mamma Mia! and The Lion King – the family entertainment Honk! Jr. will be staged by the young talents at Davenport Junior Theatre October 11 through 19 demonstrating why Broadway World said the show boasts “plenty for kids, parents, and grandparents to enjoy.”

As I drove through the waning dusk of a scorching hot fall evening, I wondered what was in store with the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre’s production of The Woman in Black, directed and designed by Dana Skiles. Turns out, a frighteningly good time. With a wealth of talent on stage and off, this production is not one to miss for fans of horror or damn good theatre.

Talented folks at the Spotlight Theatre, led by director Aaron Baker-Loo and music director Laura Hammes, are giving Young Franknstein's seasonally apropos, demanding script an electrifyingly exuberant treatment.

With the stage hit lauded by Broadway World as "entirely entertaining and enjoyable," the spooky, kooky, ooky musical-comedy version of The Addams Family brings its national tour to Davenport's Adler Theatre on October 16, this opener to the 2025-26 Broadway at the Adler series treating audiences to a Tony Award-nominated delight inspired by the beloved TV comedy and the iconic cartoon strip by series originator Charles Addams.

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.

Praised by DC Theater Arts as "a genuine joy to watch," the family entertainment Junie B. Jones: The Musical enjoys an October 10 through 12 run at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, the DC Theater Arts adding that the characters in this Barbara Park adaptation "say the silliest things and die on the hills of the most meaningless opinions, and in doing so, bring genuine belly laughs to the adults in the room."

Remembering the devastating losses and world-changing terror of 9/11 doesn't usually inspire joy, or instill hope. But there's a musical about it that does both, focusing on how the destruction in New York City and Washington D.C. affected a little island roughly 1,500 miles northeast.

Local Theatre Auditions/Calls for Entry

Updated: Monday, October 6

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.

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