In celebration of its golden anniversary, the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre turned to its patrons to choose titles for the venue's 50th season. And Geneseo audiences were clearly in the mood for celebrating of the funny and feisty sort, as Richmond Hill's 2018 lineup begins with the April 12 through 22 return of Sex Please, We're 60, a madcap slapstick farce that The Californian described as “fast-paced and hilarious” and BroadwayWorld.com called “a bawky, rollicking romp” in which “you will relate and laugh yourself silly.”

Faith, hope, and brotherly love wrapped up in comic genius and superb writing was what I witnessed this past Good Friday. I must admit, I had never heard of the Church Basement Ladies series until recently, and was not sure what to expect. But the theatre's current The Church Basement Ladies in Rise Up, O Men was one of the best shows I've ever seen at the Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse.

Winner of the 2016 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play, Lucas Hnath's The Christians serves as the first title in the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's 2018 season of Barn Owl Theatre productions, its April 6 through 8 run treating audiences to a work BroadwayWorld.com deemed “utterly engrossing,” with the Chicago Tribune calling its author “one of the most interesting, focused, counterintuitive, and intellectually compelling playwrights of our moment.”

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.”

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