A veteran standup comic who has worked and toured with famed artists including the cast of Impractical Jokers, comedy hypnotist Doug T performs as the latest guest in the "Laugh QC" Thursday Night Comedy Series held in the Mississippi Hall of the Davenport RiverCenter, his February 26 engagement delivering a raucously fun evening that, unlike other hypnotism shows, doesn’t come at the cost of your compromised dignity.
On February 26, patrons of the Bettendorf Public Library are invited to brings their love of listening, curiosity, and the title of a musical piece they like to the program Music & Mocktails: Know Your Music with Tony Oliver, an interactive session featuring tasty beverages and the Quad City Symphony Orchestra percussionist speaking on rhythm, melody, harmony, and how the three shape your favorite music.
With the presentation featuring rare filmed and recorded performances by one of the most iconic orchestras in history, Gates Thomas' program Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn will be delivered at the Black Hawk College Quad Cities Campus on February 27, the public invited on this unforgettable journey through an extraordinary body of American music.
One of the area's most eagerly anticipated sales events returns to Rock Island's QCCA Expo Center March 6 through 8, as Melting Pot Productions, Inc. presents this year's spring Antique Spectacular Vintage Market, allowing hunters of vintage goods an all-weekend opportunity to shop for a wide range of quality antiques.
A Midwestern comedian, New York Times bestselling author, Emmy-winning journalist, and musician whose content for his various social platforms has amassed more than 10 million followers, Charlie Berens brings his "The Lost & Found Tour" to Davenport's Adler Theatre on March 8, the Wisconsin native famed for his appearances on Comedy Central, Funny or Die, and MTV News.
As expected, we did not see a whole lot of spending increases in Governor JB Pritzker’s state budget proposal last week. Last year, Pritzker said his budget limited discretionary spending to less than a one percent increase. The plan unveiled last week limits discretionary spending to less than a half a point increase.
As I write this, Governor JB Pritzker is preparing to give his annual budget address. It’s an unenviable task. Earlier this month, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget released a report showing federal tax cuts caused a $587 million reduction in state revenues this fiscal year.
Governor JB Pritzker announced a plan last week to “manage Illinois pension commitments through a set of proposals designed to build on the state’s recent fiscal progress and further reduce long-term risk for taxpayers and retirees.” The price tag, however, is already giving one legislative leader pause. And “fiscal progress” is not the reality when factoring in federal funds.
On January 22, 2026, the Scott and Muscatine GOP county parties co-hosted a 2026 Gubernatorial Primary Candidate Forum live in Eldridge, Iowa. The event was the first of its kind in Iowa's history and the first time any substantive questions were presented to Republican want to be governor candidates in a primary race in more than 20 years.
The ACLU's 63-page report released last month is a very valuable and exhaustive work product that every elected official who has an oath of office to uphold the state and federal constitution, and protect the governed who consented to have their rights protected, should read.
A Tony Award winner hailed by Variety magazine as “elegant, acerbic, and entertainingly fueled on pure bile,” Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage opens the 2026 season at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre, the comedy's February 27 through March 8 run treating audiences to a Broadway hit that, according to the New York Times, “delivers the cathartic release of watching other people's marriages go boom."
The recipient of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama that, according to Intermission magazine, "cuts to the heart with a simply constructed story, understated humor, and dialogue unburdened by purple prose," playwright Eboni Booth's Primary Trust makes its Iowa City debut at Riverside Theatre February 27 through March 15, the work also hailed by The Daily Beast as "beautifully written" and "a 95-minute, intermissionless, buffed-to-gleaming jewel.”
What do you get when four young adults’ lives are entangled with one another, yet the full picture doesn’t come into focus until the final moments? You get word play, written by fellow Reader reviewer Alexander Richardson: a tightly woven one-act that asks its audience to lean in, listen closely, and trust the unraveling.
Director/choreographer Ashley Becher and musical director Ethan Hayward, alongside their wonderful crew and energetic, talented crème de la crème cast, elevate the solid script and score into the realm of delight.
Praised by WhartonPlazaTheatre.com for its "rousing musical numbers, hilarious social commentary, and heavenly harmony," the feel-good, foot-stomping, country-music sensation Honky Tonk Angels enjoys a March 11 through April 25 run at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, RochesterMedia.com adding, "To paraphrase a well-known movie quote: Is this heaven? No. It’s Honky Tonk Angels. Welcome to heaven on earth.”
Touring in support of their forthcoming album The Long Surrender, the group's tenth full-length recording set for release on March 27, the alternative, Americana, and Christian rockers of NEEDTOBREATHE headline a February 26 concert event at Davenport's Capitol Theatre, accolades for the popular, Grammy-nominated act including a Billboard Music Award nomination for Rivers in the Wasteland and no fewer than 15 wins at the GMA Dove Awards.
Grammy nominees whose accolades include a Country Music Association Award and an Academy of Country Music Award citation for Vocal Group of the Year, the chart-topping touring artists of Sawyer Brown headline a February 27 concert at Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center, the group's 45 years of performance boasting such career highlights as a Star Search championship win and three number-one singles on the Billboard Hot County Songs chart.
With the touring event one-of-a-kind concert that will take audiences on a journey through the music and performances of the King of Pop, MJ: The Illusion lands at Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre on February 27, the show inviting Michael Jackson fans to re-live the artist's "Dangerous Tour" with "Jam," "Thriller," "Smooth Criminal," "Billie Jean," and many more iconic favorites.
Sharing his musical gifts in a pair of 45-minute performances plus a full-length concert evening at Davenport's TMBC Lincoln Resource Center, acclaimed pianist Barron Ryan returns to the area for Quad City Arts' 2025-26 Visiting Artists Series, this lauded musical sensation hailed by Kensington Concert Series director Gary Payne for the "emotive quality of his playing," and the musician recognized as one of Smithsonian magazine's 10 “Innovators to Watch."
Celebrating their sixth decade of professional performance, and with accomplishments including chart-topping success, tens of millions in album sales, and 2000 induction in the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, the rockers of Three Dog Night play Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on February 28, their repertoire including such timeless hits as “Mama Told Me (Not to Come),” “Black and White,” and the iconic “Joy to the World.”
In this dark comedy thriller, and in a change of pace for the performer, Margaret Qualley turns out not to be an on-screen firecracker. She's more like a countdown clock, the type that requires action heroes to cut either the blue or red wire before everything gets blown to bits
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, February 26: Discussion of How to Make a Killing and I Can Only Imagine 2, previews of Scream 7, Pillion, and EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert, and a shameless plug for Mike's new Playcrafters Barn Theatre comedy God of Carnage, running February 27 through March 8. Well, look at that. Another shameless plug.
Because the experience felt so unusual, I actually checked my archives to make sure, and it was true: This past Thursday-through-Saturday marked the first time since pre-COVID that I viewed six new big-screen releases over the course of three days.
With the series' first episode widely regarded as one of the greatest two-hour works in television history, the international pilot for David Lynch's iconic Twin Peaks enjoys a screening at Roxk Island venue Rozz-Tox on February 28, the spoiler-filled overseas version featuring 20 additional minutes not broadcast in the states until it was eventually released on VHS and laser disc.
Now playing at area theaters.
With the artist exploring art's role as a record of his own humanity and his fascination with how discarded material can tell the story of one’s life, John Hunting Hansen's exhibition Toil is on display through February 27 at St. Ambrose University's Catich Gallery.
With the exhibition's trio of artists three hoping that viewers will take some time to look for joy in their work and enjoy a diversion from the tension happening around us, Mutschler, Quick, & Westphal will be on display at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery through March 2, the showcase of Midwestern talent featuring photos by Pete Mutschler, folded paper by Rebecca Quick, and serigraphs by Keosha Westphal.
In celebration of National Quilt Day on March 16, Davenport's Figge Art Museum will again showcase a number of colorful and hand-crafted functional artworks in the March 3 through 8 Mississippi Valley Quilters Guild Display, with a special reception for the exhibit's gifted artisans scheduled for March 5.
A wide range of disparate mediums and gorgeous artworks will be on display at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery from March 4 through April 27, with art lovers area-wide invited to view new metal and fiber sculpture by Amanda Langer, encaustics by Cindy Lesperance, and Japanese tiles by Nick Schroeder in the exhibit Langer, Lesperance, & Schroeder.
Held in conjunction with the current exhibit The Golden Age: Featuring Northern European Works from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Davenport's Figge Art Museum will host a special Art Conservation Talk on March 12, the event featuring a program conservator visiting the Quad Cities from the National Gallery of Art.
You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Real Astrology and RCR Crossword every week?)
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