Director Michael Brindish’s production is the perfect introduction to this venue; even the Rock Island theatre's seasoned patrons are in for a treat. While this Mamma Mia! felt familiar – here I go again – there were a few tricks up its sleeve, making it, for me, a unique experience.

Can you call yourself a theatre buff if you haven't seen a play by Václav Havel?

I must begin with an apology and a confession. Sorry to my British Literature professor in college: I never read Jane Austen's Sense & Sensibility, nor did I read her Pride & Prejudice. If you were generous, you could say I skimmed. But it’s okay (at least for me), because the most recent production at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre is so good, it makes me regret being a negligent student.

Nominated for five 2001 Tony Awards and currently the ninth-longest-running Broadway musical of all time, the internationally beloved Mamma Mia! returns to Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse for an eagerly awaited May 10 through July 8 run, with the show's collection of timeless ABBA tunes inspiring the New York Post to call the experience “one of those nights when you sit back and let a nutty kind of joy just sweep over you.”

Lauded by Variety magazine as "a biting bureaucratic satire" that "rings truer than ever," legendary Czech playwright Václav Havel's The Memo serves as the final stage production in Augustana College's 2022-23 season, the dark comedy - running May 11 through 14 - centering on the introduction of a new language that is meant to make work more efficient, but has the exact opposite effect.

With Time Out describing the show as “worthy of the gods,” the stage adaptation of Rick Riordan's popular book series opens the Timber Lake Playhouse's 2023 season in the 2019 Broadway spectacle The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, its May 12 through 14 Mt. Carroll run sure to demonstrate why The Hollywood Reporter raved that this family entertainment “provides an excellent if irreverent introduction to Greek mythology.”

Arriving directly from New York and with his latest stage spectacular featuring Dubuque native Rita Harvey, the May 6 performance of Neil Berg's 103 Years of Broadway finds the producer/pianist/composer returning to the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center alongside a cast of stars from history's greatest musicals, with Berg sharing the songs and stories behind the music that helped change the world.

The Richmond Hill Players’ latest offering, the Tom Smith farce Drinking Habits 2: Caught in the Act, is a sequel to Drinking Habits, which was a part of the company’s season last year. I didn't attend the first one, but was still able to easily follow the plot and characters. Not only that, but Richmond Hill’s Sunday performance, helmed by director Mike Skiles, was lighthearted, fun, and an easy-to-watch piece of theatre.

Lauded by the New York Times as "an enchanting romp of a play" and by the Houston Press as "a delight in every way," author Katie Hamill's adaptation of Jane Austen's literary classic Sense & Sensibility enjoys a May 5 through 14 debut at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre, this inventive, hilarious, and moving stage piece described the Denver Post as "a fun and supremely theatrical look at social climbing, heartbreak, and love."

Winner of seven 1977 Tony Awards and one of the 25 longest-running productions in Broadway history, the iconic comic-strip adaptation Annie will bring its national tour to Davenport's Adler Theatre on May 10, the show described by the New York Times as "an intensely likable musical" that's also "an unstoppable sunshine steamroller."

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