COLUMBUS THEATER SHOWS - MUSICALS

by Paul Batterson - May 13, 2024

HAIR is not your typical linear, point A to point B musical. It roughly ambles through vignettes of the members of a “tribe” of hippies in New York City. And yet, HAIR is as important as it is subversive. Without it, shows such as RENT, ANGELS IN AMERICA, and HAMILTON probably wouldn’t stand a chanc...

by Christina Mancuso - May 09, 2024

TINA: The Tina Turner Musical came blazing in like a bolt of lightning with thunderous applause on opening night at the Ohio Theatre, just as most of our state was under severe tornado warnings.  TINA tells the remarkable story of the musical legend, and shares it all – the good, the bad, and the ug...

by Paul Batterson - May 08, 2024

This musical would flounder without a dynamic leading woman. In this case, TINA has two – Zurin Villanueva (who performed in the May 7 show) and Ari Groover because of the energy and vocal demands of the role....

by Paul Batterson - May 05, 2024

The first night Batiste went from performing solo, to playing with a jazz trio to playing with a 41-piece orchestra in a two-hour span. The following night The former musical director of LATE NIGHT WITH STEPHEN COLBERT unveiled a previously unheard piano concerto commissioned by ProMusica. Either ni...

by Paul Batterson - April 29, 2024

Brilliant acting mixed in with a powder keg of singing, dancing, and orchestration stuns its audience....

by Paul Batterson - April 23, 2024

RIDE THE CYCLONE is more like an eccentric Tim Burton film than a John Hughes hug fest. However, the moments of genuine humanity and sentiment keeps the show from going off the rails....

by Paul Batterson - April 20, 2024

The Shadowbox motto is to do to sketch comedy what Second City does for improv. To do that, it uses a simple formula: crisp writing and solid acting produce big laughs....

by Paul Batterson - April 10, 2024

The script is filled with pratfalls, sight gags, puns and “Dad jokes,” but what makes this play work is the backstory and the personality given to each character and each role contributes something to the plot....

by Paul Batterson - April 09, 2024

Cooney’s script is much like a van Gogh painting. Some characters, like Erin, are created with intricate paintbrush strokes; others are fingerpainted in concentric circles....

by Paul Batterson - March 17, 2024

Broadway Musicals are often fantasies, musical representations about things that could not possibly happen. The saddest thing about Short North Stage’s production of THE PROM, which runs from March 14 through April 7 at the Garden Theater, is that it is based partly in truth....