Quick Facts

Series

1.	Not Ready on Set
2.	The Show Must Go On

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by Nickdev

This is a real 5head quest. You can't get there if you did not play Shadowlands, the portal in Oribos is just not there. You must first do some Shadowlands quests to unlock it.

If you are lucky a Caverns of Time Portal-Keeper is currently maintaining a portal to Ardenweald, they are located at /way 62.39 49.35 Caverns of Time Portal-Keeper

Comment by Ideon

"The Case of Staged Disaster" -> The Show Must Go On -> No guide on Wowhead yet.

Pick up Not Ready on Set from Alyx, which sends you to Dapperdew in Ardenweald which starts The Show Must Go On.

/way #1565 41.4 44.8 Dapperdew
/way #1565 43.29, 46.46 Conductors Baton
/way #1565 41.17, 43.73 Mask of the Trickster
/way #1565 41.24, 42.80 Play Script
/way #1565 42.22, 46.71 Prop Sword

Comment by GiantAshSnake

If like me, you didn't do Shadowlands, just go into the Timeways in Dornogol (53,38) - (left of the upgrade spot), and the first portal on the left takes you to Ardenweald.

Comment by d3nalii

If you're doing this during the Anniversary event, and on the week this quest series started,
one of the three portals at the event in Tanaris (down by the pet fighting area) is to Ardenweald.

Took me a while to figure that out!

Comment by Jeolene

Soooo... lorewise... how exactly does our character get back to the Shadowlands if we closed the gateways between the dimensions? Is the afterlife now just a new vacation spot for Azeroth?

On a side note, as I'm writing this, the portal to Ardenweald is still up for the picture portal thing near the fashion stage :D

Comment by samael531

Heads up, this quest appears to be bugged/phased for some. I have Necrolord Covenant and Dapperdew didn't appear at all for me for this quest.

I tried changing covenants to Night Fae since I had fully unlocked the max channels to each tree, except when I changed to Night Fae I discovered the game was not registering I did all of that and even the channel anima object in the basement of the main hub disappeared too. Some others were expressing the same issue in using /say where Dapperdew should be.

Comment by NekoSurprise

I just want to thank Kznydpuxagbe for letting everyone in Oribos local chat know that there is a portal to Ardenweald at the Anniversary event, right by the pet area and photo stage. Literally saved me so much time and headache trying to get SL quests done.

Comment by Elnorr

The Case of Staged Disaster

Speak with Alyx at the Celebration Pavilion to pick up the quest Not Ready on Set
Head to Ardenweald and talk to Dapperdew to accept the follow-up quest The Show Must Go On.

The quest requires collecting several items scattered around the Amphitheater:

/way #1565 42.2 46.7 Prop Sword
/way #1565 43.3 46.4 Conductor's Baton
/way #1565 41.2 43.8 Mask of the Trickster
/way #1565 41.3 42.8 Play Script

Comment by Cynicale

If you pick these items up while in a raid you won't get credit. You'll have to abandon the quest and maybe discard the items and re-grab them to make progress on the bar.

Comment by Yinxy

To those whom Dapperdew wont show:
I was full Venthyr, and i could not see him.

I switched to Fae, finished the questline "Queen and Grove" . and now he shows

gl! I hope this works for you as well

Comment by leezusf

This quest is by far one of the most annoying one of the event if you haven't already dealt with Shadowlands, so here's the full scoop:

Getting to Ardenweald is a pain, but the most consistent way (if you haven't done any SL content) is to go to the Timeways in Dornogal. There's a direct portal to the Ardenweald that drops you almost directly outside of the amphitheater where the quest begins.

I haven't had any issue with phasing, but others have suggested that if you've picked a covenant as part of the SL campaign, you may need to swap to Night Fae covenant. The NPC was right on stage for me as I got there so ymmv

Once the quest is started, you will get a debuff that prevents you from using any of your detective toys, so you have to find them the old fashion way. The notes give you decent hints, but all the coordinates i've found in the comments are just wildly different from where the items actually were (at least for me), so i'll give no-nonsense location descriptions instead:

Prop Sword: Directly underneath the grand seat in the crowd. There is a singular bench, and behind the bench the sword will be sitting in the grass. Your cursor will change to a magnifying glass and picking it up gives credit.
Conductor's Baton: Behind the sword, there is a vendor, Master Clerk Salorn. To the left of this NPC there is a small alcove of musicians. The Baton is on the floor next to the left most small drum, in front of the large center drum
Play Script: Return to the stage, then go up the ramp at the back of the stage. From here, go up the ramp to the right. The script is on the table with the lantern and the mug, straight ahead
Mask of the Trickster: Coming down from the ramp behind the stage, it will be resting against the prop wall on the left. Right next to the giant pink lantern.

Comment by Katatooo

Alyx doesn't even have the quest for me. Does anyone know how to fix it?

Comment by yalazure

I asked help to a GM but I forgot that nowadays they are useless af so I had to figure this out myself. You need to do the quest behind the scene to find that little ugly &*!@er of Dapperdew,otherwise he's fased.

Comment by Sairiss

Shadowlands: Still proving to be the steamiest pile of &*!@ blizzard ever produced.

Comment by Maggieis

If anyone is like me and has not opened Shadowlands on a level 70 or above, and Darian Mograine isn't in Orgrimmar... you need to do the beginning of The War Within before he shows up. You can skip straight to Dornogal without doing the intro stuff, then go back to Org and he will show up to start you into SL.

Comment by Eillesthis

Previous: Lost and... Found?
This begins the ninth local story of Assistant to the Assistant Guest Relations Manager (although at this point they can be done in any order).
Next: The Show Must Go On

Comment by Wirikidor

Never did much of Shadowlands. Dapperdew gives me the quest "The show must go on" but none of the items are there. My reputation with The Wild Hunt is 1000 into Friendly but I don't know if I ever chose a covenant.

Any suggestions on what I should try?

Comment by Zastmen

As of the update on December 2, 2025, I have been unable to pick up this quest. I abandoned it when I found out the quest was bugged so I didn't want to start it until it was fixed. Well, shame on me..... because now it is supposedly fixed and with it being days away from the event ending. I doubt it gets fixed.

Links

Not Ready on Set

Find Dapperdew in Ardenweald.

Description

Oh <name>, I am glad to see you again. My superiors have informed me that I'm responsible not only for the guests here, but for everyone putting on celebrations! Now I'm hearing that Dapperdew in Ardenweald is trying to put on a new play and running into problems. Would you mind checking in on the situation? I can hardly manage this celebration, let alone whatever is happening in the Shadowlands.

Completion

Rewards

You will receive:

Gains

Upon completion of this quest you will gain:

See if you've already completed this by typing:

/run print(C_QuestLog.IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(84985))

Guides

Guest Relations Guide