The Timber Lake Playhouse's Young Frankenstein is a polished, professional production featuring stellar performances by the lead actors and impressive energy from the ensemble. Playwright/composer Mel Brooks' material - with its book by Thomas Meehan - is well-served by this group of talented performers, dynamic lighting effects by designer James Kolditz, inventive choreography by Cameron Turner, and adeptly paced humor by director Brad Lyons. After seeing my first production at this much-lauded theatre in Mt. Carroll, I left impressed.

This year, Genesius Guild's annual Greek tragedy is a double-feature, as the local theatrical organization presents Aeschylus' The Suppliants and The Persians - two plays for the price of one (which is still free). With each piece running less than an hour, the entire evening's entertainment, even with intermission, falls just short of two hours, giving audiences one partial hour of what frequent Guild patrons expect from the group's Greek tragedies, and one partial hour of some very welcome, though relatively minor, changes.

There were moments during Friday's performance of Annie Get Your Gun at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre in which I forgot that I was watching a performance. That is to say, the audience around me disappeared as I became lost in the production, and particularly captivated by Heather Baisley's Annie Oakley. This, for me, was a true escapist experience: I was absolutely taken in by Baisley's fantastic portrayal.

Quad City Music Guild's Les Misérables has the look and feel of the local community theatre producing its own, specific version of the Broadway favorite, with its music by Claude-Michel Schönberg and lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel. And that delights me, given that I wanted to see the group's take on this much-loved musical, rather than an attempt to recreate one of its previous stagings.