Julie Funk is both excited and terrified to take on one of the most iconic roles in musical theatre. The passionate 50-year-old Davenport mom is playing the monstrous Mama Rose in Quad City Music Guild's Gypsy, running August 8 through 17 at Moline's Prospect Park Auditorium (1584 34th Avenue).

With The Daily Beast hailing the show as "a two-hour explosion of physical comedy, malapropisms, and knockabout satire," the Tony-winning slapstick farce The Play That Goes Wrong enjoys an August 8 through 17 run at Moline's Spotlight Theatre, this crowd favorite sure to demonstrate why the New York Times deemed the stage smash "one of those breakneck exercises in idiocy that make you laugh 'til you cry."

Regarded by many, including New York Times critic Ben Brantley, as potentially the greatest of all American musicals, the legendary, Tony-winning Gypsy enjoys an August 8 through 17 Quad City Music Guild staging at Moline's Prospect Payk Auditorium, the Times' Frank Rich adding that "Gypsy is nothing if not Broadway's own brassy, unlikely answer to King Lear."

A lauded musical in which, according to The Sound on Stage, "the songs hit every band of the emotional spectrum," composer Adam Gwon's Ordinary Days enjoys its Quad Cities debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre from August 8 through 17, StageLeft.nyc adding that the show is a "sweet, quietly extraordinary musical that cleanses the soul, lifts the spirit, and reminds you what you love about New York."

Hailed by The New Yorker as "clever in conceit, alive with humor, surprising in its turns, and terribly haunting by the time the lights go out," playwright Jordan Harrison's science-fiction tale Marjorie Prime makes its debut at Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre. Its August 14 through 24 run is sure to demonstrate why the New York Times deemed the stage piece an "elegant, thoughtful, and quietly unsettling play" that "keeps developing in your head, like a photographic negative, long after you have seen it."

Kitty: Full disclosure: We once dressed as Mary Poppins and Bert for Halloween. We’re very serious about our Poppins lore.

Mischa: But we promise to be absolutely objective in our reactions to this show.

Local Theatre Auditions/Calls for Entry

Updated: Wednesday, July 30

Reviews by Rochelle Arnold, Jeff Ashcraft, Patricia Baugh-Riechers, Audra Beals, Pamela Briggs, Dee Canfield, Madeline Dudziak, Kim Eastland, Emily Heninger, Heather Herkelman, Mischa Hooker, Kitty Israel, Paula Jolly, Victoria Navarro, Roger Pavey Jr., Alexander Richardson, Mark Ruebling, Mike Schulz, Joy Thompson, Oz Torres, Brent Tubbs, Jill Pearson Walsh, and Thom White.

Seeing and hearing Countryside Community Theatre's production of Hairspray has nearly stolen my words from me.

A lot of the action follows Aristophanes' original text. The rest is decidedly in the style of Calvin Vo and Tee Green.

Pages