Paul Batterson - Page 13

Those who have never seen THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE before should be very careful when they attend Imagine Production's version of the two-act musical. In her directorial debut with Imagine, director/choreographer Rose Babington has together a show that future MILLIE productions will have a hard time topping.

Composer George Gershwin had been dead for almost six decades by the time Connor Allston, Lottie Prenevost, J.T. Wood and Morgan Wood were born. Yet the combined power of the voices of that quartet brought back to life the music of Gershwin and his contemporaries in Otterbein University's production of THE ALL NIGHT STRUT.

The Weathervane Playhouse in Newark has taken a shotgun approach to the musicals it is presenting this summer. The theater company opened its summer season with RENT, the edgy rock musical by Jonathan Larson. Then it staged with THE PAJAMA GAME, a light-hearted musical by Richard Alder and Jerry Ross, as its second musical of the season.

How do you write a song when the chords sound wrong Though they once sounded right and rare? When the notes are sour Where is the power you once had to ignite the air?

The Last Summer on Earth tour, featuring the Barenaked Ladies, the Violent Femmes and Colin Hay, the former front man from Men At Work, got off to a soggy start on Friday, June 5 at Lifestyle Communities Pavilion in Columbus. After strong sets by Hay and the Violent Femmes, the BNL set, featuring several songs from their new album "Silverball," was interrupted by rain. The fans who stuck it out got to see the completion of the 14 song set. The tour will run across North America until late July.

The Barenaked Ladies, the headlining act of The Last Summer on Earth Tour with Colin Hay and the Violent Femmes, have made a living off irony. The Canadian band of singer Ed Robertson, drummer Tyler Stewart, bassist Jim Creeggan and keyboardist Kevin Hearn churned out quirky hits 'If I Had A Million Dollars,' 'Pinch Me,' and 'One Week.'

Few artists would relish the position Colin Hay will find himself in this Friday. Hay, the former front man for Men At Work, will be the opening act in a triple bill that also features the Violent Femmes and headliner the Barenaked Ladies on 'Last Summer on Earth' tour.

When I was a teenager, a parenting magazines put out a tongue-in-cheek list of the 'the top most terrifying sentences a parent can hear.' Nearing the top of the list was the one over 60,000 people heard May 30 at Ohio Stadium: 'Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones.'

If Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb are indeed 'Super men' as the two principle characters claim throughout the Short North Stage's production of THRILL ME: THE STORY OF LEOPOLD AND LOEB, the whole world is in trouble.

When Ashley Pearce interviewed to become a part of the Shadowbox Live theatre troupe, one of the questions she was asked was what her favorite rock group?

Yolanda Kondonassis wants to change people's mind about what the harp sounds like when the world renowned harpist performs with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra on May 15 and 16 at the Southern Theatre (21 East Main Street in downtown Columbus).

Most fairy tales end with the words 'Happily Ever After.'

A CHORUS LINE is one of those shows that should be a prerequisite for anyone considering a career in the performing arts.

Every time he takes on a show, director Edward Carignan insists on putting his own spin on the choreography.

Kevin Thiel doesn't see any particular challenge in performing Otterbein University's INTO THE WOODS four months after Hollywood released the musical as a feature film.

Growing up Father's Day must have been very confusing for Sophie Sheridan, the lead character for MAMMA MIA. The product of a brief love affair, Sophie never knew who her real father was. So on the weeks before her wedding, she sends out invitations to the three chief suspects in hopes of finding out how her real dad is.

Jack Gilbert would have definitely been honored and perhaps a trifle embarrassed that the first-place trophy for the inaugural Grace InFused Theatre Festival bears his name.

The more he plays Luke, the Chinese convert and reformed gambler in the musical ANYTHING GOES, the more Roy Flores discovers how much he and his character have in common.

The audience for the Jan. 21 premiere of THE GREAT ONE looked decidedly different than most of the opening night spectators at the Short North Stage. About 40 percent of the viewers for the one-act musical, written by Scott Hunt and J.J. Tiemeyer, came to the downtown theater donning hockey sweaters and sweatshirts and even broke into a chant of 'Let's Go Jackets' before the beginning of the play.

In the days leading up to the Weathervane Playhouse's production of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, Layne Roate approached director Adam Karsten with an idea.