Boasting a company name that suggests mysteries of its own, Ben Gougeon, Alexander Richardson, and the Sound Conservatory are back with Rock Island Tunnel Co.'s The Tapes: An Immersive Revolution. Running October 11 through 26, the production is both similar to and quite different from last winter's The Stacks – partly because, not long after that show closed, the library stacks themselves vanished.

An intimidating ogre, a feisty princess, a wisecracking donkey, a diminutive tyrant, an ambulatory gingerbread man, and other fantastical figures take over Davenport's Adler Theatre on October 10 with the nationally touring arrival of Shrek: The Musical, the Tony-winning fairytale slapstick based on the Oscar-winning animated smash, and a show that Variety called a work of “irreverent charm” that “never stints on spectacle or laughs."

A three-time Tony Award nominee also cited among the 2022 Drama League Award contenders for Outstanding Production of a Play, author Selina Fillinger's uproarious satire POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive enjoys its area debut at Iowa City's Riverside Theatre, its October 4 through 20 run sure to demonstrate why the New York Times' Jesse Green said the work "lets us experience the double-bind of exceptional women unmediated by the men who depend on their complicity."

With gags and asides to the audience, An All-American Riot has a vaudevillian vibe, often fast-paced and engaging, which unfortunately makes the slower scenes drag by contrast.