Continuing the area's month-long celebration of Davenport as the onetime “wickedest city in America,” Davenport's Capitol Theatre will host the Wickedest City Burlesque & Variety Fest Grand Showcase on April 18, this special event featuring a performance by local winner of the Wickedest Performer: A Burlesque Competition contest held at the Adler Theatre on April 16.
With the featured guest a German novelist, musician, and radio DJ currently living in pre-alpine Bavaria south of Munich, An Evening with Thomas Meinecke enjoys a special presentation at Davenport's German American Heritage Center on April 18, the author's books always fueled by music, including that of renowned Davenport musician Bix Beiderbecke.
With the in-person event held in conjunction with the monthly meeting of the Rooting Out Poverty Book Club, Augustana College graduate, former Moline teacher/coach, and Superintendent of Rock Island-Milan Public Schools Dr. Dave Markward will discuss his memoir at the Moline Public Library on April 22, From Dubuque to Selma & Beyond: My Journey to Understand Racism in America available by request through PrairieCat, Libby, or Hoopla.
The co-editor of the Pitt Poetry Series and a professor of creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, esteemed author Jeffrey McDaniel will be the featured guest in the latest SPECTRA Reading Series event hosted by the Midwest Writing Center, his April 23 engagement at Rock Island's Rozz-Tox treating literature lovers to an evening of poetry, an open-mic event, and a community writing hour.
One of America's most popular comedians brings his latest touring event to Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on April 25, with Blue Collar Comedy Tour and Netflix comedy Tires star Ron White sharing the humorous observations and quick-witted routines that have earned him three Grammy Award nominations and comedy-album sales of more than 10 million to date.
State government revenues were up $1.571 billion at the end of the third quarter, according to the most recent report from the legislature’s bipartisan, bicameral Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. The almost $1.6 billion in new revenues is an increase of 4.2 percent. The state budget was crafted last year with an expectation that revenues would rise just 2.3% for the full fiscal year, so that’s pretty darned good news.
Massachusetts-based Federal U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy suspended Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s (RFK Jr.) reduction of the CDC's Childhood Schedule of Vaccines from 17 to 11, including both Hepatitis A and B; Influenza; Rotavirus; Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV); and Meningococcal vaccines – all absurd inoculations that have no more conclusive science behind them than most of the other vaccines populating the Childhood Schedule on behalf of Big Pharma.
As published back in March about one of the Reader's longest and most dedicated team members who passed in Februray, Jay Strickland's Celebration of Life was held April 4, 2026 at the Reader offices in downtown Davenport, Iowa. Below we publish Jay's younger brother Eric's eulogy he shared with us on Saturday.
A YouGov poll conducted last month shows registered voters in Illinois overwhelmingly believe that the cost of renting and buying a home is a problem, think that there aren’t enough affordable homes for average folks and want the state Legislature to take action.
The trend in special elections around the country for the past several months has shown spiking Democratic voter turn-out and tanking Republican turn-out. And some preliminary primary election results from earlier this month show the same trend here.
Boasting unforgettable show tunes including "Everything's Coming Up Roses," "Rose's Turn," "Together (Wherever We Go)," "If Mama Was Married," and "Let Me Entertain You," the musical classic Gypsy enjoys an April 17 through 19 run at the Coralville Center for the Arts, this production of Iowa City Community Theatre featuring timeless music by Jule Styne, a trenchant book by Arthur Laurents, and wickedly smart lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
With the Richmond Times-Dispatch insisting that while the title "might suggest another church lady play ... the charitable sisters are more like the women of Steel Magnolias, with a few unexpected twists," author Bo Wilson's The Charitable Sisterhood of the Second Trinity Victory Church opens the 2026 season at Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre with an area-debut April 16 through 26 run.
With Riverside Theatre's producing artistic director Adam Knight raving that “Emily Bohannon’s writing is one of the real pleasures of theatre today,” the playwright's stage piece The Fiancé enjoys a world-premiere April 16 through May 3 run at the Iowa City venue, Knight adding that Bohannon’s work "sheds light on characters seldom seen onstage, driven by a search for meaning in a vastness beyond the confines of New York, or even America.”
Director Luke Vermeire and assistant director Adrienne Evans, both accomplished actors as well as auteurs, have assembled a wide array of exceptional talent to create this sleek production. But don’t come expecting to leave your troubles outside, as Cabaret’s Emcee urges.
Mischa: I certainly love to see a story revolving around a garden.
Kitty: This story created my expectations for what a garden should be: an enchanted place unlocked by a hidden key with a kind local who does most of the work for me and charms bushels of roses into magically growing while I hold a small spade and talk to birds.
Winners of two Loudwire Music Awards for Live Act of the Year, and one of the only groups to achieve top-five Billboard success on both the Hard Rock and Comedy charts, Steel Panther brings its unique blend of glam metal and hilarious lyrics back to East Moline's The Rust Belt on April 18, the California musicians appearing on their "Twenty Twenty $ex Tour" and lauded by Metal Sucks, which stated that "Steel Panther’s concept is genius" while their songwriting is "preposterously snappy – and relatable.”
Delivering simultaneously gritty and suave original music applied to an electric format, the Larry Keel’s Electric Larry Land headlines an April 18 concert at Davenport's Redstone Room, the outfit praised by C-ville Weekly for "doing for bluegrass what Hendrix did for rock, what Miles did for jazz – exploring the unchartered possibilities, defying the limitations of a deeply established musical form."
On April 18, guests of Davenport's Figge Art Museum are invited to experience powerful masterpieces paired with emotionally resonant works embodying remembrance and resilience, the concert event Up Close with Violins of Hope boasting the exquisite musicianship of Quad City Symphony Orchestra members Hillary Kingsley and Erik Rohde on violin, Nick Munagian on viola, and Hannah Holman on cello.
Internationally acclaimed throat singers whose American credits include touring with Béla Fleck & the Flecktones to promote the Grammy-winning album Jingle All the Way (featuring the Russian talents as guest artists), the musicians of Alash make an eagerly awaited return to Rock Island's Rozz-Tox on April 18, the trio noted for their subtle infusion of modern influences into traditional folk music.
A Quad Cities-based tribute act dedicated to free-spirited and energetic concert experiences from the Stop Making Sense era, the tour de force of musicians known as Heads in Motion play Rock Island's RIBCO on April 18, show with the 10-piece ensemble celebrating Oscar, Grammy, and Tony Award winner David Byrne and his iconic rock outfit Talking Heads.
It's the absolute right time for director/co-writer Daniel Goldhaber's new Faces of Death, a tight, scary, unexpectedly crafty meta-commentary built on the notion that we can no longer instinctively believe anything we're shown on-screen. On any screen.
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, April 16: Discussion of Faces of Death, Mr. Nobody Against Putin, and You, Me & Tuscany; previews of Lee Cronin's The Mummy, Normal, Lorne, and Busboys; and a plug for the 35mm Kung Fu Festival at the Last Picture House. Nine films in two days! Or, in rom-com terms, Yu, Lee & Gluttony!
Prior to writer/director Kristoffer Borgli's transfixing, deeply uncomfortable A24 romance The Drama, I think you'd have to go back to 1992's The Crying Game to find a film that made you – by which I mean me – quite so antsy to learn its heavily promoted Big Secret.
Having not read the Andy Weir novel on which their film is based, it's hard to tell if Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were the right directors for the science-fiction adventure Project Hail Mary, or – for the book's many admirers, and maybe a few of us newbies – the absolute wrong ones.
Now playing at area theaters.
With the works in the artist's current exhibition reflecting a busy life filled with art and visual experience, Living Collection: Works on Paper by Jason Eisner will be on display in St. Ambrose University's Morrissey Gallery through April 24, his latest pieces, as Eisner says, "found out of the corner of the eye and drawn while on break, sitting in the grass."
Culling through artists Lisa Lofgren's and Matt Erickson's archive or shared studios, shared conversations, and shared life over the last years, the exhibition Tongue + Groove will be on display in St. Ambrose University's Catich Gallery through April 24.
A wide range of disparate mediums and gorgeous artworks will be on display at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery 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.
With the event inviting visitors to reflect on themes central to the artist's practice – including the joyful celebration of LGBTQ identity, acknowledgment of ongoing challenges to the community’s rights, and the enduring impact of the AIDS epidemic – a special Art History Talk on the works of Felix Gonzalez-Torres will be held at Davenport's Figge Art Museum on April 30, the program held in conjunction with the venue's current housing of the exhibit "Untitled" (L.A.).
Nearly 200 works by gifted student artists will be on display at Rock Island's Quad City Arts Center through April 30 in the expansive 49th-Annual High School Art Invitational, a glorious celebration of local talent featuring the Quad Cities’ most promising artists expressing themselves through paintings, drawings, sculpture, paper, recycled materials, and film.
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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