Described by DC Metro Theatre Arts as a mystery comedy with “a dizzy, stimulating joy that makes it a whole lot of fun,” the movie and board-game adaptation Clue: On Stage takes residence at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse August 1 through 11, the show a farcical riot that, according to Broadway World, “creates one laugh after another – and a series of 'Ah-hah!'s – as the audience is led on a merry chase.”

I was overdue for captivating theatre, and on Friday, the Black Box Theatre delivered.

The Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's current production is The Bikinis, which is subtitled A New Musical Beach Party, and I attended Thursday's preview night. The musical part is enjoyable; the four singers and four-member band perform admirably. However, I'd personally subtitle the rest of the show When Bad Scripts Happen to Good People.

The summer-theatre season trundles on with the latest from the Timber Lake Playhouse: The Wizard of Oz. While it features some strong performances, a children’s choir double digits strong, and even an acting dog, certain directing choices made by Chaz Wolcott hinder this timeless classic.

If you’ve ever wondered what a collaboration between George Orwell and Freddie Mercury would look like, you’ll find your answer in We Will Rock You, now playing at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre.

Dear Quad Cities Theatergoer,

It may seem strange that I should be writing this letter, the explanation being that 84 Charing Cross Road, now playing at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, is a play that is almost exclusively epistolatory in nature: The story is told through the recitation of letters. The opening-night performance was a charming evening, and in telling you about it, I could think of no better method than through that of a letter.

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 a July 19 through 28 run at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre, this adaptation by playwright Joseph Robinette praised by the Chicago Tribune as a theatre piece that "manages to hit the emotional and humorous high points of the original."

Adapted from the delightful series of children's picture books written and illustrated by sisters Victoria and Elizabeth Kann, the bubbly, bighearted Pinkalicious: The Musical enjoys a July 23 through August 10 run of morning and afternoon performances at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, the tasty stage treat lauded by Centerstage as "a cotton-candy-Technicolored dream come true."

Praised by Broadway World as "a nostalgic and enormously entertaining musical revue," the peppy and winning stage treat The Marvelous Wonderettes closes the 2024 summer season at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, the show's July 25 through August 4 run treating audiences to delightful renditions of 1950s and '60s pop classics including "Lollipop," "Dream Lover," "It's My Party," and "It's In His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song)."

A Steven Spielberg movie smash becomes a lavish, tuneful, funny, and romantic City Circle Theatre Company presentation in Catch Me If You Can, the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit that runs July 19 through 28 at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, and a show that Variety magazine praised for its “swinging orchestrations” and “considerable entertainment value.”

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