Columbus Theater Reviews Page 4

Review: OTTERBEIN'S PIRATES OF PENZANCE at Cowen Hall
by Paul Batterson - July 14, 2022

What did our critic think of BWW REVIEWS: OTTERBEIN’S PIRATES OF PENZANCE at Cowen Hall? Otterbein University offers a much-needed refresher course in Gilbert and Sullivan with its presentation of THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE for its final production of the summer season. The two-act comedic musical clo...

BWW Review: WICKED Flies High at the Ohio Theatre
by Christina Mancuso - May 20, 2022

Winning more than 100 international awards including three Tony Awards and a Grammy Award, WICKED has managed to cast its spell on more than 60 million people across the globe for nearly two decades, and is still going strong today. Read our critic's review....

BWW Review: SPRING AWAKENING at Garden Theater
by Paul Batterson - May 19, 2022

It has been over 130 years since German playwright Frank Wedekind first published SPRING AWAKENING. In 2006, the play was reinvented when Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater turned it into a musical....

BWW Review: AJR at Value City Arena
by Paul Batterson - May 16, 2022

At AJR's May 13 concert at Value City Arena, Jack Met estimated he and his brothers Ryan and Adam Brett have played Columbus the second most out of any city behind their native home, New York City....

BWW Interview: It's Not Easy Being Green for WICKED's Deguzman at Ohio Theater
by Paul Batterson - May 12, 2022

Some nights Lissa deGuzman (who plays Elphaba in the national tour of WICKED) and Jennafer Newberry (who plays Glinda) walk out of a theater together and run into a throng of fans of the 2003 musical....

BWW Interview: SNS' SPRING AWAKENING at Garden Theater
by Paul Batterson - May 02, 2022

The May 5 performance of the Short North Stage's production of SPRING AWAKENING at the Garden Theater (1187 N. High Street in downtown Columbus) will be more than just opening night for Emma Rose Johnson and Sage Lee....

BWW Review: BWW REVIEWS: THE EAGLES at Nationwide Arena
by Paul Batterson - April 21, 2022

What is the sound of America? When you think of the United States' landscape, what band do you think of? Read our critic's review. ...

BWW Review: CATCO'S HEAD OVER HEELS at At Riffe Center
by Paul Batterson - April 04, 2022

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 ...

BWW Review: PRETTY WOMAN at the Ohio Theatre - Powerful Vocals Despite Dated Material
by Christina Mancuso - March 30, 2022

An illustrious creative team is at the helm of PRETTY WOMAN: THE MUSICAL, with direction and choreography by two-time Tony Award®-winner Jerry Mitchell, music and lyrics by Grammy®-winner Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, and book by the movie's legendary director Garry Marshall and screenwriter J. F. L...

BWW Review: SNS LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS At the Garden Theatre
by Paul Batterson - March 28, 2022

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....

BWW Review: COME FROM AWAY Lands at the Ohio Theatre - Celebrating the Power of Humanity
by Christina Mancuso - February 09, 2022

Nominated for seven Tony awards in 2017 and winning Best Direction in a Musical under Christopher Ashley’s extraordinary direction, COME FROM AWAY landed in Columbus at the Ohio Theatre on Tuesday night to a welcoming and lively audience.  ...

BWW Interview: COME FROM AWAY Cast Member Julie Johnson
by Paul Batterson - February 02, 2022

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...

BWW Review: BWW REVIEWS: ALTAR BOYZ at Garden Theater
by Paul Batterson - January 24, 2022

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

BWW Review: BWW REVIEWS: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at The Palace Theatre
by Paul Batterson - December 16, 2021

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 endi...

BWW Review: BWW REVIEWS: SHORT NORTH STAGE'S SISTER ACT at Garden Theater
by Paul Batterson - December 06, 2021

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 appearance...

BWW Review: HADESTOWN at Ohio Theater
by Paul Batterson - November 18, 2021

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....

BWW Review: CATCO'S MR. BURNS: A POST ELECTRIC PLAY at Riffe Center
by Paul Batterson - November 02, 2021

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...

BWW Review: YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN AT Garden Theater
by Paul Batterson - October 11, 2021

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)....

BWW Review: NOISES OFF at Garden Theater
by Paul Batterson - September 05, 2021

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 a...

BWW Review: BWW REVIEWS: SQUEEZE at Express Live
by Paul Batterson - August 20, 2021

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....

BWW Review: BWW REVIEWS: SHERIDAN at MadLab Theater
by Paul Batterson - August 17, 2021

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....

BWW Interview: CARRIE at Columbus Immersive Theater
by Paul Batterson - July 28, 2021

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....

BWW INTERVIEWS: SQUEEZE'S CHRIS DIFFORD at Express Live
by Paul Batterson - July 25, 2021

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BWW Review: THE MUSIC OF QUEEN WITH THE COLUMBUS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at Columbus Commons
by Paul Batterson - June 13, 2021

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....