With the British Theatre Guide praising the play for delivering “plenty of moments that are funny, frightening, or exciting,” playwright Jeffrey Hatcher's take on Henry James' classic chiller The Turn of the Screw enjoys an October 23 through November 8 run at Iowa City's Riverside Theatre, the Los Angeles Times hailing the work as “an ingenious twist on an old-school ghost story."

Make no mistake: This is not a show with a lovely, happy ending. In fact, it’s an altogether dark look at humanity. And October is a perfect time for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, because it’s spooky and dark – ideal for setting the Halloween mood without explicitly being Halloweeny.

With its source material named "the best American children's book of the past two hundred years" by the Children's Literature Association, the stage version of E.B. White's beloved Charlotte's Web enjoys an October 10 through 18 run in St. Ambrose University's Galvin Fine Arts Center.

Rock of Ages was nominated for five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. “Wait – what?” I said when I read of these accomplishments after seeing the show. I eventually unearthed why.