A riotous farce and classic of 20th Century theatre that has been performed in more than 40 countries, Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist will enjoy an area staging at Augustana College April 12 through 15, with director Keenan Odenkirk and his cast exploring this revered work in which, according to the New York Times, “political corruption and the oafishness of officialdom are ridiculed with wit and incivility.”

On April 5, the Figge Art Museum will present a pair of special evening events exploring the principle of “collective action” – how individual energies can be united toward common goals – in the venue's 6 p.m. Scholar Talk with the University of Iowa's Dr. Ali Hanan, and, at 6:45 p.m., a performance by the touring student artists of the university troupe Dancers in Motion.

Clue: The Musical is the latest production to open in this wonderfully intimate venue in downtown Moline, and speaking candidly, I was blown away by the packed house as audience members loudly chattered away before the opening curtain. It was as if they all had been cooped up in their homes for the last 24 hours, but needed to venture out just to see a classic board game brought to life via a Broadway-esque style musical.

“One day you’ll look at yourself and you won’t be who you were.”

Ladies and gentlemen, that is foreshadowing in Catch Me If You Can – but there are more than simple plot devices in director Michael Turczynski’s staging that runs this weekend at Quad City Music Guild's Prospect Park Auditorium.

For the third mainstage production in its 2017-18 season, Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, from March 28 through May 12, will present the sixth presentation in a hugely successful musical-comedy series – The Church Basement Ladies in: Rise Up, O Men!, a follow-up to the Minnesota-set smash that, according to TwinCities.com, boasts “plenty of physical comedy” and “a lot of charm and humor.”

A storybook classic comes to magical stage life at Davenport's Adler Theatre when the professional talents of Ballet Quad Cities present their March 24 world premiere Alice in Wonderland, a full-length family ballet bursting with unforgettable characters, vibrant colors, astounding dancing, and live music by Orchestra Iowa composed by the legendary Pyotor Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Will it be Miss Scarlet in the kitchen with the dagger? Colonel Mustard in the ballroom with the revolver? Professor Plum in the conservatory with the lead pipe? The only way to find out “Whodunit?” is to catch the Black Box Theatre's March 22 through 31 production of Clue: The Musical – a stage adaptation that Broadway World called “an entertaining, humorous, and interactive musical that is not to be missed.”

A Steven Spielberg movie smash becomes a lavish, tuneful, funny, and romantic Quad City Music Guild presentation in Catch Me If You Can, the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit that runs March 22 through 25, and a show that Variety magazine praised for its “swinging orchestrations” and “considerable entertainment value.”

Saturday night’s performance of Venus in Fur at the QC Theatre Workshop was … steamy. Not only in terms of the material, but in the talent on-stage, as real-life married couple Thomas Alan Taylor and Jessica Taylor set the stage ablaze in a two-person show about a young actress who all but forces her way into an audition and proves, over the course of 100 minutes, to be far more then she claims to be.

When Neil Simon’s name is on a production, you tend to expect sentimentality and humor, and the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's opening-night performance of Simon's little-known Proposals was certainly humorous.

Pages