A world premiere by a local stage talent, the heartwarming dramatic comedy The Christmas Letter Writing Club makes its debut at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre August 19 through 28, this holiday-themed tale of friendship written by Tom Akers – a familiar actor from Playcrafters' The Odd Couple and the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre's Drinking Habits and A Doublewide, Texas Christmas.

With the Chicago Sun-Times describing Tim Clue's and Spike Manton's comedy as “simultaneously hilarious and touching,” the regional delight Leaving Iowa enjoys an August 18 through 28 run at Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, the show also lauded by the Chicago Tribune as a work of “genuine charm and humility” that “lives as happily in its own warm skin as an ear of corn ripening along Interstate 80 on an August afternoon.”

For the final production in its 2022 summer season, Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse is treating patrons to an audience with the Queen – or rather, simply Queen – in the imaginative musical review We Will Rock You, a celebration of the iconic rock and pop band boasting two dozen timeless hits including “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Are the Champions,” “Somebody to Love,” and the iconic title tune.

Lauded by the New York Times as a "delightfully weird and just plain delightful show" that "will provide the kind of thrills we look for in all musical comedies," Ride the Cyclone makes its area debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre August 11 through 20, with the Times going on the praise the show's "engaging and varied score" and "supremely witty book."

For the venue's final production of its 2022 summer season, the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, from August 4 through 14, will present the award-winning song-and-dance revue The World Goes 'Round that celebrates the legendary composing team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, whose works include Broadway’s longest running American musical, Chicago, and Cabaret, considered by many to be the greatest movie musical of all time.

A heckuva lot of talented people put this production together; see it now, while the duck's still in the pond.

A Broadway musical sensation that played for more than four years and 1,500 performances, the stage version a Robert Louis Stevenson's literary classic – one boasting a score by Frank Wildhorn and a book by the legendary Leslie Bricusse – comes to life in Jekyll & Hyde, the romantic thriller that will enjoy a Quad City Music Guild interpretation from August 5 through 14.

Disaster!, created by Seth Rudethsky, written by Rudethsky and Jack Plotnick, and now at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, combines classic catastrophic-cinema elements with '70s pop tunes, and director/choreographer Amy McCleary, music director Ron May, and all involved came together to create this silly, music-filled diversion.

A global stage smash that has delighted audiences with more than 5,000 productions worldwide and has been translated into 21 languages, the iconic musical comedy Nunsense enjoys a July 28 through August 7 run at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, the show lauded by Broadway World as boasting "dynamite singing, a pinch of puppetry, the tip-tap of time steps, and a hefty dose of soul."

For the first time since the organization's inception more than 60 years ago, the traditional end-of-summer comedy presented by Genesius Guild is not being written by Guild founder Don Wooten. Running July 30 through August 7, the company's latest comedic revamp of Aristophanes' The Frogs is instead being written, and directed, by T. Green and Calvin Vo. And if you're aware of the pair's accomplishments both on and off the Guild stage in Rock Island's Lincoln Park, you'll likely agree that the hiring choice is truly inspired.

Pages