The outstanding “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” at Playcrafters shows us the essence of excellent live theater. Just two actors – with lots of costume changes, a varied musical soundtrack and dance styles – responsible for drawing and holding our attention for an entire story of two very different, colorful, strong-willed characters. With Playcrafters […]
When I heard that the prolific, amazing Alex Richardson was updating the 1882 Henrik Ibsen play “An Enemy of the People” to a tighter, slimmer, modern version – addressing science, disease, truth, corruption, adultery and journalism – I briefly wondered if there would be a spin on one of Donald Trump’s endlessly repeated lies, the […]
Saturday in the Arts is a weekly feature covering a trend, subject, event or personality of local interest. It runs every Saturday morning on your site for the best entertainment and arts coverage in the area, QuadCities.com! I am listening to pianist Garrick Ohlsson’s magisterial, towering 2005 transversal of the immortal 24 Preludes by the […]
It’s fitting that the last Quad City Symphony Orchestra performance before the Covid shutdown was Verdi’s Requiem, a piece written in memory of a dear friend. The first Masterworks program to welcome a full-capacity audience since then (Oct. 2-3, 2021) will feature the classic Dvorak “New World” Symphony. It’s a whole new world for sure, […]
For the second fully staged production at Mockingbird on Main, 320 N. Main St., Davenport, Q-C playwright Alexander Richardson has taken a sprawling 19th-century play by Henrik Ibsen, slimmed it down and modernized it. The 27-year-old East Moliner – who’s been writing plays for almost a decade – slashed the 1882 “An Enemy of the […]
Kevin Hines, one of the world’s leading suicide-prevention advocates, will be the keynote speaker for “Can’t Replace You” – a conference Thursday, Sept. 30 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Ballroom, 226 17th St., Rock Island, presented by Foster’s Voice and The Gray Matters Collective. Foster’s Voice, Inc., is a non-profit […]
Before composer Alan Menken (now 72 and an eight-time Oscar winner) became a Disney juggernaut (penning such scores as “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” Aladdin,” “Newsies,” “Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Enchanted”), he wrote the downright delightful, infectious music for “Little Shop of Horrors,” which opened in 1982 and became the highest-grossing Off-Broadway […]
Playcrafters Barn Theatre (4950 35th Ave., Moline) has some well-known titles planned for both its Mainstage and Barn Owl season for 2022. The Mainstage season is as follows: “The Odd Couple” by Neil Simon, performing in February. “Agatha Christie’s A Murder is Announced” by Leslie Darbon, performing in May. “A Raisin in the Sun” by […]
“Disenchanted” is the name of an upcoming 2022 Disney+ live-action/animated musical fantasy film, a sequel to the 2007 “Enchanted,” with Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, and Idina Menzel reprising their roles. But that title was taken years before, first in a 2009 New York workshop (in its own way a sequel), as Dennis T. Giacino wrote the snarky book, lyrics and […]
Saturday in the Arts is a weekly feature covering a trend, subject, event or personality of local interest. It runs every Saturday morning on your site for the best entertainment and arts coverage in the area, QuadCities.com! Kyle Carter and Geoff Manis are two of the biggest cheerleaders for the Quad-Cities, and within two days […]
