The winner of three Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and being presented locally in celebration of America's 250th-birthday year, the lauded historical musical 1776 enjoys a June 12 through 21 run at Moline's Prospect Park Auditorium, the show lauded by the New York Times as "a most striking, most gripping musical" whose "characters are most unusually full."

A delightful, hilarious family show adapted from the winner of a New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award, the stage romp The Stinky Cheese Man & Other Fairly Stupid Tales enjoys its area debut at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre, the show's June 12 through 21 run treating audiences to a comedy in which, per the Broadstreet Review's critic, "the adults around me laughed as much as the kiddos.”

Hailed by The Guardian as "boisterously comic" and by New York Stage Review for "the canny way in which it channels Jaws itself," the three-man comedy The Shark Is Broken makes its area debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre June 12 through 27, this lauded production dramatizing, and sometimes satirizing, the off-screen chaos behind one of Steven Spielberg's most explosive hits.

With its cast boasting R&B stars, a Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter, a co-star from several Tyler Perry comedies, and additional talents, the touring production of the stage play When a Woman's Fed Up comes to Davenport's Adler Theatre on June 13, an impassioned and exhilarating theatre piece being presented by Unlimited Entertainment LLC.

A legitimate stage classic and winner of eight Tony Awards including Best Musical, the international smash Les Misérables enjoys a June 12 through 28 staging at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, the production featuring such unforgettable songs as "I Dreamed a Dream" and "Do You Hear the People Sing," and the area presentation boasting a Jean Valjean portrayed by John Michael Finley, the critically acclaimed star of the film smash I Can Only Imagine.

One of the most deservedly beloved of all titles in the William Shakespeare canon, the magical, pastoral romance A Midsummer Night's Dream enjoys a June 12 through 28 Riverside Theatre presentation, its performances in Iowa City's Lower City Park reuniting audiences with an iconic work enjoyed for centuries by audiences of all ages.

Kitty: I think that Godspell is a highly underrated musical. It’s the secret, more heartfelt version of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Mischa: And without Andrew Lloyd Webber’s malevolent influence!

One of William Shakespeare's most delightful and infrequently staged romantic comedies opens Genesius Guild's 2026 summer season at Rock Island's Lincoln Park, with Love's Labour's Lost, from June 6 through 14, treating audiences to what the New York Times' Ben Brantley called a work that "may well be the first and best example of a genre that would flourish in less sophisticated forms five centuries later: the college comedy."

One of the greatest and most beloved musicals in the history of American theatre opens the 2026 summer season at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, with Guys & Dolls running from June 11 through 21, and treating audiences to a nine-time Tony Award winner that the New York Times called “the show that defines Broadway dazzle.”

I enjoy experiencing new-to-me talent, but it’s cozy and comforting to see familiar faces at the theatre.

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