Paul Batterson - Page 9

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.

a??a??a??a??a??a??a??Consider this entry from the 'If at first you don't succeed' department. A young television writer is recruited to write a book for the musical SHINBONE ALLEY. Haven't heard of it? That's not too surprising. It lasted a little over a month and closed on Broadway after 49 performances. Undaunted, he writes the first act for another musical, ALL-AMERICAN five years later. It also flops, closing on Broadway after 80 performances.

When the movie ANASTASIA was released in 1996, somewhere someone was humming along with the score of the 20th Century Fox film and thought 'This might make a fantastic musical.' It took nearly 20 years but the faith in the concept is paying off.

In the television show, 30 Rock, Tracy Jordan, the self-centered actor played by Tracy Morgan, decides his life-goal is to EGOT (meaning to capture Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards). Jordan asks Whoopi Goldberg, an EGOT winner herself, for advice.

Even after close to three decades of performing, sales of over 15 million records, twice being named as group of the year at the Juno awards, and a selection into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, Steven Page still feels he has to win his audience over at every show.