Boasting more than 25 years of experience dazzling audiences across the Midwest, a homegrown talent will amaze guests of Moline's Sound Conservatory with two presentations of David Casas: An Evening of Magic & Wonder, the November 23 and 24 events filled with mind-bending illusions, masterful sleight-of-hand, and plenty of interactive fun.
On November 24, Dave Meier, curator for the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum in Walcott, Iowa, will share local history, industry connections, innovation, and engineering feats of the last century in Trucking: A Lifeline Across America, a program in the German American Heritage Center's popular "Kaffee und Kuchen" series boasting discussion on trucking in America through the years and the impact of the Interstate Highway System.
You may think blending the exquisite classical beauty of the Nutcracker ballet with the gritty urban energy of hip hop would be like oil and water. Yet The Hip Hop Nutcracker – making its Quad Cities debut at Davenport's Adler Theatre (136 East Third Street) on November 27 – has entertained audiences nationwide since 2013. The beloved holiday story and enchanting music, paired with staggeringly limber breakdancers, will be performed as part of a tour to more than 25 U.S. cities.
In the eagerly awaited return of a seasonal Quad Cities tradition, visitors can experience the wonders of a classic Victorian holiday season in Moline's unique Deere-family homes through 19th Century Christmas, the Butterworth Center's and Deere-Wiman House's annually beloved December 1 event boasting litany of yuletide treats including live music performances, interactive tours, make-and-take activities, refreshments, and, of course, a special visit by Santa Claus.
In a beloved seasonal tradition, family audiences are invited to the Vibrant Arena at the MARK from December 5 through 8 to experience the wonderful world of Disney – on Ice – in the brand-new touring sensation Disney on Ice Presents: "Frozen" & "Encanto," with the Moline venue transformed into an enormous skating rink for thrilling takes on two of the studio's most popular and acclaimed animated films of recent years, both of which won Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature.
Just about nothing happened in the first week of veto session in the House and the Senate. The Democratic legislative leaders are still trying to figure out what their members want to do in the wake of Republican President-Elect Donald Trump’s victory and whether that can be done. Whether that action starts in the second and final week of veto session, or in the lame-duck January session or in the regular spring session, is still up in the air as I write this.
Local artist and friend John Bald reached out to me several months ago and said, “Todd, we have to do something about what they are spraying us with in the skies! Have you seen this?” Of course I have seen it, I told John.
Back in 2018, about midway through President Donald Trump’s first term, the Illinois Senate passed a bill that was designed to prevent “the weakening of Illinois environmental and labor regulations in response to a weakening of federal regulations,” according to an Illinois Environmental Council press release.
In its nearly quarter-century of existence, Nahant Marsh in southwest Davenport has worked to grow and improve inside and outside its borders.
As usual, plenty of false claims have been made during this state legislative election cycle. But the campaign I keep going back to in my own mind is the battle in the 97th House District.
Directed by Dana Skiles, My Son Is Crazy, but Promising boasts 15 actors, and while about half of the characters don’t especially move the plot along, there wasn’t anyone who didn’t bring their “A” game.
If anyone can parody a parody -- along with its early roots, its subsequent wannabes, plus a bunch of random stuff -- it's Calvin Vo and T Green, founders of the theatrical troupe Haus of Ruckus, and their posse of benign troublemakers. They do so spectacularly in Dojo to Go, now running at St. Ambrose University's Studio Theatre, written by the prodigious pair and directed by Vo.
M: It’s the cast members, in character, telling you to put your cell phones away and all that, which perfectly sets the tone for all the fourth-wall-breaking in Life Sucks.
K: So much fourth-wall breaking. Does the fourth wall even exist here?
A hilarious and endearing tale based on the best-selling book series by Barbara Park, Junie B. Jones in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells is set to delight audiences at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, the family comedy's November 26 through December 29 run treating family crowds to a show that led River Cities' Reader reviewer Thom White to rave, "I was legitimately laughing throughout the performance."
A well-known seasonal tale gets an inventive theatrical makeover when Iowa City's Riverside Theatre presents playwright Joe Landry's It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, which finds Frank Capra's holiday classic – and the entire town of Bedford Falls – re-enacted by a cast of five in this delightful November 29 through December 15 stage presentation.
Her 2023 album Healing Power hailed by Americana Highways for its "freshness and consistent melodic assets," Canadian folk and roots-rock singer/songwriter Terra Lightfoot headlines a November 22 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, her famed touring partners over the years including The Posies, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Bruce Cockburn, Blue Rodeo, and, in his lone Canadian date for the 2018 Outlaw Music Festival, country icon Willie Nelson.
With the November 22 concert event at Davenport's Redstone Room presented by Rocktown Entertainment Group, a host of familiar fan favorites by two iconic artists will be delivered in A Tribute to Motown, the night boasting the talents of Alphonse Franklin, offering a tribute to Smokey Robinson, and Rob Willis, crooning compositions by Bobby Womack.
With their previous releases including 2021's hypocrite, 2022's Follow Your Nature, and this year's critics' hit Light Decline, the London-based artists of great area headline a November 22 at Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox, their music, according to Boomkat.com, "set to pique attentions of Bar Italia, Broadcast, Carla Dal Forno, Victor De Roo, or Susu Laroche fans."
A beloved, Grammy-winning country ensemble fueled by Marty Raybon's distinctive vocals and the band's skilled musicianship, the country stars of Shenandoah play a November 22 concert at Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre, with the group's collection of chart-topping singles including such fan favorites as "Sunday in the South," "Next to You, Next to Me," and "If Bubba Can Dance (I Can, Too)."
With two bands teaming up to deliver one evening of exhilarating Celtic tunes, the Coralville Center for the Performing hosts its concert event Irish Night on November 22, this stage celebration boasting the Midwestern talents of Illinois' four-person Steam Quartet and Iowa's three-person Sorcha.
There's a kick in watching actors play their widely recognized “types” so flawlessly, and with such fresh enthusiasm, that these roles feel like ideal distillations of their portrayers' talent and presence. I'm thinking of Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood and Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich … and also, now, Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain.
Going to the cineplex or staying in and streaming this weekend? Every Thursday morning at 8:15 a.m. you can listen to Mike Schulz dish on recent movie releases & talk smack about Hollywood celebs on Planet 93.9 FM with the fabulous Dave & Darren in the Morning team of Dave Levora and Darren Pitra. The morning crew previews upcoming releases, too.
Or you can check the Reader Web site and listen to their latest conversation by the warm glow of your electronic device. Never miss a pithy comment from these three scintillating pundits again.
Thursday, November 21: Discussion of Hot Frosty, Red One, A Real Pain, and Emilia Perez (the worst one isn't the one you think), and previews of this year's "Barbenheimer" event: the "Glicked" two-fer of Wicked and Gladiator II. No segment during Turkey Week, so we overstuffed this one. Happy Thanksgiving and we'll be back in December!
Both the funniest and saddest Cinderella tale you've ever seen, writer/director Sean Baker's Anora is a great movie with some great big problems.
Hugh Grant is is stunningly threatening in this Beck/Woods horror thriller, his recognizably benign shrugs, cheerful mugging, and self-effacing manner never masking the fact that there is one person in charge of this situation, and it isn't one of the visiting Mormons.
Now playing at area theaters.
Boasting large woodcut prints and charcoal and pastel drawings of a dying willow tree from her yard in Dubuque, the arresting, fascinating exhibition Louise Kames: I Don’t See Anything That’s Not Beautiful – on display November 30 through April 6 – will be showcased in the Gildehaus Gallery of Davenport's Figge Art Museum, the artist focused on creating works that explore the beauty of natural decay, the line between life and death, and what remains after.
Between now and November 30, Dubuque's Voices Studio will host a new and compelling dual exhibition featuring the works of renowned artists Ellen Wagener and Greg Gossel, whose works displayed in separate galleries will deliver a full visual experience that juxtaposes the serene, ethereal landscapes of Wagener with the bold, provocative explorations of pop culture by Gossel.
A wide variety of artworks – thoughtful, arresting, disturbing, even hilarious – by nearly four dozen area artists will be on display at the Quad City Arts Center through December 6, with the Rock Island venue presenting a series of fascinating takes on the prompt of the exhibit's title: “It's Fine. Everything Is Fine.”
From now through December 7, local and regional artists and crafters are sharing their talents for a good cause in the Muscatine Art Center's Heartfelt & Handmade Ornament Competition Exhibit, with beautifully designed ornaments on display and available for purchase beginning December 7, and each sale benefiting the Friends of the Muscatine Art Center and its mission to support educational programs.
Roughly 40 photographs showcasing the exhilarating and dangerous world of motorsport will be on display at the University of Dubuque's Bisignano Art Gallery, with the exhibition Freezing Speed – Ian Brightman offering evocative, arresting images through December 31.
You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Amy Alkon Advice Goddess, Real Astrology, Red Meat cartoon and RCR Crossword every week?)
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