A beloved biblical musical boasting seven Tony Award nominations and a chart-topping U.K. single in “Any Dream Will Do,” the Broadway smash Joseph & the Amazing Technical Dreamcoat enjoys a June 26 through July 6 run at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, this theatrical classic the first-ever publicly staged work by the legendary stage team of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

One of the most adored hits in the Disney/Pixar canon will be brought to delightful stage life at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts from June 27 through 29 when the student talents of the Young Footliters present Finding Nemo Jr., a 60-minute adaptation of the Oscar-winning animated comedy boasting new music by the songwriting team of Kristen Anderson-Lopez and double EGOT winner Robert Lopez.

They're creepy and they’re kooky, but I must tell you: For a musical comedy about a clan that generally lacks enthusiasm for anything other than the macabre, the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's The Addams Family was truly a high-energy showcase of talent and spectacle. Director Courtney Ryan Crouse, who's also the company's artistic director, brought the ghoulish tale to light in a way that was hysterically heartwarming.

One of William Shakespeare's most memorable and beloved romantic comedies returns to Rock Island's Lincoln Park when Genesius Guild presents its June 21 through 29 staging of Much Ado About Nothing, the Bard-ian classic that enjoyed a Tony-winning Broadway run in 1985, a 1993 movie showcase for Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, and a 2011 black-and-white film modernization by pop icon Joss Whedon.

One of history's most adored classical operettas enchanting audiences at Davenport's St. Ambrose University on June 20 and 22 when the talents of Opera Quad Cities debut Die Fledermaus, Johann Straus II's legendary 1874 work that's sure to deliver mischief, masks, laughter, and some of the area's most astounding voices.

A family-friendly treat that the River Cities' Reader said “bubbles with color, personality, and wit,” the sweet and hilarious musical Miss Nelson Is Missing! enjoys a June 20 through 29 run at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre, the show based on a series of beloved, best-selling children's books by Harry Allard and James Marshall.

Described by Time Out New York as an “insanely fun mixtape musical” and by Variety as a show that “gleefully apes the worst excesses of the era's pole-dancing, crotch-grinding, big-hair-tossing movies,” the Broadway smash Rock of Ages enjoys a June 20 through July 6 run at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, treating audiences to a celebration of 1980s chart-toppers that NY1 called “so cleverly staged and impressively performed that it's an irresistible, offbeat trip of a show that hits all the right notes.”

For Oedipus Rex, veteran director and actor Michael Callahan was wise to choose a translation by Ian Johnston, written in contemporary English, rather than an archaic version (i.e., one employing 17th-century "thou"s). We're also spared a script written in verse, as continued rhymes might've become irritating in a stage work lasting this long.

The Avenue Q book writer, a Tony Award-winning lyricist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, and the creator of Hamilton collaborate on a musical that's a hybrid of Hairspray, Mean Girls, and Sister Act II. You in? You should be.

M: With its familiar storyline, a lot of talent on and off stage, and a full helping of over-the-top silliness, it really hits most of the right notes.

K: You know who was hitting all the right notes?

M: Could you possibly mean Lauren VanSpeybroeck and Casey Scott?

K: I could!

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