Admittedly, Oliver! is one of those musicals that instantly takes me back to my formative years, as I fondly remember watching the 1968 film version at school and at home. It would have taken a total disaster for the Spotlight Theatre to leave me disappointed. Luckily for everyone, though, director Sara Tubbs’s production is a sensory delight: it looked and sounded terrific. Sure, the “unwashed” youth of this production went a little extreme with the makeup's dirt smudges. But if given the chance, who wouldn’t overly grime up, right?

Lauded by CurtainUp as "a masterful study of the human soul," Sholem Asch's acclaimed and incendiary 1906 drama God of Vengeance enjoys a student-produced run at Augustana College from April 27 through 30, this Jewish masterwork described by Broadway World as "full of complex characters whose motives invite debate."

With the Geneseo venue's 2023 season opener lauded by Talkin' Broadway as “a fast-paced, quick-witted, an funny comedy with a bright, happy ending,” the stage sequel Drinking Habits 2: Caught in the Act will be staged at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre April 20 through 30, this wacky slapstick a continuation to the terrifically popular Drinking Habits that made its area premiere last spring.

With the New York Daily News calling the play "lunatic fun that keeps you in stitches" and the Village Voice hailing it as a "hearty mixture of thrills, laughter and extravagant showmanship," author Charles Ludlum's stage sensation The Mystery of Irma Vep makes its long-awaited area debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre April 13 through 22, the New York Post having added, "The story has to be seen to be believed."