Paul Batterson - Page 14

A couple of years after the first phase of his acting career ended, Zachary Sayle feels like he's starting over with the national tour of NEWSIES.

Perhaps Bruce Springsteen was right. Every one of us, at one time or another, is born to run.

After several projects fell through, lyricist Nathan Tysen and composer Chris Miller were left with a handful of songs they just couldn't give up on.

Perhaps there is no better time to see Lyle Lovett than on Halloween Night. Performing Oct. 31 at New Albany's McCoy Center for the Performing Arts, Lovett changed styles and genres like he was shedding costumes. He flitted from country to jazz to blues to rock, delighting the nearly sold out crowd.

Otterbein University's theater department has never been known to play it safe when it comes to selecting plays. The department, which brought such works as AFTER THE FALL, SPRING AWAKENINGS and FULL MONTY to the stage in recent years, continues to stretch its audience with its most recent production MIDDLETOWN.

Not all memories of THE LION KING are good ones.

Tis good to be the queen. Few people know that more than Tryphena Wade, a 1999 Pickerington High School graduate who plays Sarabi in a touring production of Disney's THE LION KING. The production opens in Columbus on Oct. 14 and will stay in the city until Nov. 9 at Ohio Theatre.

If 'Every Movie's a Circus,' as a song midway through the first act proclaims, the Short North Stage's season opening production of SUNSET BOULEVARD must be a very grand carnival. The theater group pulls out all the stops as far as color schemes and movie clips go but it is rock solid performances of stars Gina Handy and Chris Shea that brings the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical to life.

In the delightful Otterbein University production of SWEET CHARITY, Charity Hope Valentine (brilliantly portrayed by Madison Tinder) has worn her heart on her shelves so many times that she has it tattooed on her arm. The heart-shaped tattoo could be an analogy of the dancehall hostess' love life. It bears the name of a man she planned to move in with, only he dumped her (literally) and left her to drown in a lake at the park after stealing her purse.

Tyler Joseph spent one summer checking IDs at the Lifestyles Community Pavilion. Obviously, the Twenty-One Pilots front man took a lot of notes on what it takes to put on a great concert. The Columbus-based duo of Joseph and drummer Josh Dun sold out back-to-back nights Sept. 4 and 5 at the LC and left both of the 5,000-plus crowds happy, sweaty and exhausted.

Every one has "kegs" in their garage -- those dirty little secrets they like to sweep in corners and skeletons they try to keep hidden in our overstuffed closets. The cast of MURDER BALLAD has more than a keg filled with secrets; it has a full bar.

Few moviegoers were thinking about the musical potential of DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS when it was released as a movie in 1988. However, the movie producers were.

MURDER BALLAD offers its four actors little room to hide when the show makes its Midwest debut Aug. 7-16 at the Short North Stage's Green Room in downtown Columbus.

DAMES AT SEA is listed as a parody of the Busby Berkley musicals of the 1930s but the Otterbein University's production of the George Haimsohn and Robin Miller musical comes across as a loving tribute than a skewering of the glitzy, style-over substance musicals.

Don't tell John Elefante that violins don't belong in rock and roll. The former Kansas front man came from a rock band where the violin was essential to the band's sound. Elefante and the Legends of Classic Rock incorporated the Columbus Symphony Orchestra into a rain delayed set of rock standards during a Picnic at the Pops concert at the Columbus Commons.

The average temperature of the state of Oklahoma is in the high 80s. The temperature of the Valerie Accetta directed OKLAHOMA! at the Weathervane Playhouse in Newark, Ohio, is much, much hotter.

At the beginning of Otterbein University's production of THE 39 STEPS, Richard Hannay is desperate for a diversion from the dullness of his life in London. 'I wanted to do something mindless and trivial, so I went to the theater,' says Hannay, the central character in the Christina Kirk directed production. It's a perfect introduction for what is to follow: a show that is equal parts farce, film noir and romantic comedy.

Sam Ray's final production with Otterbein University turned out to be like a final exam for the versatile actor.

At first glance, Ben Folds and Albert-George Schram would appear to have nothing in common. Schram, a white-haired maestro with a greying mustache and a soft smile, is the Resident Staff Conductor of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. Folds, the bespectacled pop star/pianist with an acerbic sense of humor, makes a living with acidic love songs and often off-color storytelling.