Lauded by Vulture as "a brisk, disconcerting brainteaser" that "gives you the satisfying rush of a good mystery," playwriting triumvirate Jeremy Kareken's, David Murrell's, and Gordon Farrell's The Lifespan of a Fact serves as the mainstage season closer for Iowa City's Riverside Theatre, its April 18 through May 4 run sure to demonstrate why Variety praised the work for its "terrifically funny dialogue," and for how the piece ultimately "transcends comedy and demands serious attention."

Defined as a comedic work that employs buffoonery and horseplay, farce typically includes crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations. And on opening night, director Elizabeth Shaffer hit the nail on the head, because her production isn’t trying to be anything else.

Titanic received five 1997 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Book, and Score, and Spotlight director Noah Hill and musical director Amy Trimble had a boatload of logistics, decisions, and inspirations to sort out. Their staging of this intricate, visually stunning spectacle is exemplary.

M: No one's here for the story, are they?

K: No, we’re in it for the escapism! And fortunately, that’s exactly what this show is all about.

Closing the University of Iowa School of Music's 2024-25 opera season with a trio of ravishing performances April 11 through 13, the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts will house a pair of obscure yet treasured pieces that have enjoyed a recent resurgence: Gaetano Donizetti’s Rita, a darkly comic look at power dynamics in relationships, and La Colombe, in which Charles Gounod’s sparkling score accompanies a farcical tale of seduction.

Based on the kids’ picture book written by Melinda Long and illustrated by David Shannon, this upbeat little musical will leave you practicing your pirate vernacul-arrr and perhaps even wishing to sail the seven seas in pursuit of doubloons.

One hundred and 13 years (minus six days) after making its infamous maiden voyage, a new production of Titanic: The Musical will set sail at Moline's Spotlight Theatre.

With its delightful assemblage of songs including “Fins,” “Volcano,” “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” and the iconic "Margaritaville," the Jimmy Buffett celebration Escape to Margaritaville enjoys an April 4 through 13 run at Moline's Prospect Park Auditorium, Quad City Music Guild's 2025 season-opener lauded by the Hollywood Reporter as "the theatrical equivalent of sipping on a frozen drink while lying on a beach chair in the blazing sun."

Lauded by American Theatre Magazine as "raw and hilarious," the wickedly funny revenge comedy Exit, Pursued by a Bear enjoys an April 10 through 13 run at Augustana College's Honkamp Myhre Black Box Theatre, its playwright Lauren Gunderson also famed for multiple shows that have recently played on Quad Cities stages, among them Silent Sky, The Revolutionists, and Natural Shocks.

The 19th-century author of some of history's creepiest stories will serve as the inspiration for mistaken-identity hilarity when Geneseo's Richmond Barn Theatre opens its 2025 season with The Tell-Tale Farce, playwright Don Zolidis' witty and wacky comedy slapstick that enjoys an area engagement April 3 through 13.

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