Paul Batterson - Page 8

CATCO's presentation of the musical HEAD OVER HEELS may be the ultimate May-December romance with an age gap of nearly 400 years. The production takes Arcadia, a 16th century play written by Sir Phillip Sidney and remixes it with the music of the Go Gos, a 1980s all-girl quintet. The musical, which debuted at the Oregon Shakespearean Festival in 2015, then throws a spotlight on transgender relationships and current sexual politics.

The great thing is the casting changes add and do not detract from the show. Riley and Mia Angelique, who plays Audrey, carry the arc of co-worker crush awkwardness, the puppy love stage of courting, and finally self-sacrificing true love.

COME FROM AWAY is an actor’s challenge. To tell the story of what happened in Newfoundland, the cast members take on the voices and actions of at least three to five characters a night. That's no problem for Johnson

Director/choreographer Dionysia Williams describes the 90-minute musical as a “perfect love letter to the late 1990s/early 2000 boy bands”

FIDDLER, which runs Dec. 14-19 at the Palace Theatre (34 West Broad Street in downtown Columbus), has everything a good musical should have: a solid plot that sticks with the viewer for months and months, excellent acting and singing, and catchy songs that leave indelible mark in the brain. Its ending, however, is also soul wrenching.

Prior to BOOK OF MORMON's release in 2011, nuns were easily the most scrutinized religious organization in the entertainment industry. On Broadway, there's THE SOUND OF MUSIC, NUNSENSE, and AGNES OF GOD to name a few while Hollywood has given us a convent full of films with Sisters making appearances in a diverse array of movies including NUNS ON THE RUN, THE BLUES BROTHERS, DOUBT, DEAD MAN WALKING, and A CHANGE OF HABIT among others. There have been singing nuns, flying nuns, pregnant nuns, baby-delivering nuns, justice-seeking nuns, and Nazi-fighting nuns. Producers and directors, need an eccentric religious figure? Get ye to a convent.

Even before patrons of the opening night of HADESTOWN arrived at the Ohio Theater (39 E. State Street in downtown Columbus), the lush red seats were being filled. On top of each seat was a red carnation, thanking attendees for returning to the theater after a long shutdown due to the Covid 19 virus.

There's an old joke that says only three things can survive a nuclear war - cockroaches, Twinkies, and Cher. In the post-apocalyptic world of CATCO'S MR. BURNS: A POST ELECTRIC PLAY, only a handful of people, a limited number of cans of Diet Coke, and the flawed memories of the Fox Network's cartoon series THE SIMPSONS, remain.

For the second time in a year, the Short North Stage is bringing Mel Brooks' comedic musical YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN back to life. The musical opened Oct. 7 and will run through Nov. 7 at the Garden Theater (1187 North High Street in downtown Columbus).

Chances are director Edward Carignan has never been a part of a production as wildly chaotic as NOTHING’S ON, the play which provides the backdrop for Short North Stage’s production of NOISES OFF. The fictional play within a play has enough egos, pratfalls, romance, and mistaken identities to make any director’s hair go white.

A little nostalgia can be a dangerous thing. After seeing Squeeze live in 1988, I had the chance to see the 1980s New Wave darlings nearly two decades later in Cleveland. I walked away thinking I had just seen one of my favorite bands sucking down the last dregs of their popularity.

It’s uncomfortable to watch at times and left its audience shifting in their seats, but its poignant message strikes a chord with many of its viewers.

If there were a secondary title to the Columbus Immersive Theater’s production of CARRIE, it would be There Will Be Blood. Lots of blood, in fact.

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The Columbus Symphony Orchestra did a fine job of not making Queen’s A Night At The Opera sound like an actual night at the opera.

Before its 2004 debut on Broadway, MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT, Eric Idle’s musical take on the cult classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail, raised a few eyebrows. Python purists wondered if a musical could capture the lunacy of the 1975 film. Broadway aficionados wondered if there would be a place for Monty Python’s brand of humor on the Great White Way.

The world premiere of the 90-minute musical can be viewed online between Dec. 10-27 by making a donation on ShortNorthStage.org.

For the show to be successful, the audience must be engaged with the performance.

Stage version of HOWARD CRABTREE'S WHEN PIGS FLY, the silence can be almost deafening.

In the play,THE DIXIE SWIM CLUB, a group of female swimmers return each year to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a weekend rendezvous of drinking and playing catch-up on each other's lives. Curtain Players' season-opening production of this five-women play feels much the same way.