Paul Batterson
In 25 years of working with newspapers and magazines, Paul Batterson has had the pleasure of interviewing wide variety of people, from Phil Campbell of Motorhead to David Hasselhoff to the San Diego chicken. He was born in Columbus, graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia and spent three years in Frankfurt, Germany before returning to Columbus. He lives here with his wife, Nancy, and children Alicia and Grant.
BWW Review: BWW REVIEWS: THE EAGLES at Nationwide Arena
BWW Interview: SNS' SPRING AWAKENING at Garden Theater
BWW Interview: It's Not Easy Being Green for WICKED's Deguzman at Ohio Theater
BWW Review: AJR at Value City Arena
BWW Review: BWW REVIEWS: SQUEEZE at Express Live
BWW Review: THE MUSIC OF QUEEN WITH THE COLUMBUS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at Columbus Commons
BWW Review: BWW REVIEWS: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at The Palace Theatre
BWW INTERVIEWS: SQUEEZE'S CHRIS DIFFORD at Express Live
BWW Review: NOISES OFF at Garden Theater
BWW Review: CATCO'S MR. BURNS: A POST ELECTRIC PLAY at Riffe CenterBWW Review: SPRING AWAKENING at Garden Theater
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
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
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
May 2, 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
April 21, 2022
What is the sound of America? When you think of the United States' landscape, what band do you think of?
BWW Review: CATCO'S HEAD OVER HEELS at At Riffe Center
April 4, 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 debuted at the Oregon Shakespearean Festival in 2015, then throws a spotlight on transgender relationships and current sexual politics.
BWW Review: SNS LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS At the Garden Theatre
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 Interview: COME FROM AWAY Cast Member Julie Johnson
February 2, 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
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
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 ending, however, is also soul wrenching.
BWW Review: BWW REVIEWS: SHORT NORTH STAGE'S SISTER ACT at Garden Theater
December 6, 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 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.
BWW Review: HADESTOWN at Ohio Theater
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
November 2, 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 series THE SIMPSONS, remain.
BWW Review: YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN AT Garden Theater
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
September 5, 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 any director’s hair go white.
BWW Review: BWW REVIEWS: SQUEEZE at Express Live
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
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
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
July 25, 2021
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BWW Review: THE MUSIC OF QUEEN WITH THE COLUMBUS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at Columbus Commons
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.
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
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
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
May 2, 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
April 21, 2022
What is the sound of America? When you think of the United States' landscape, what band do you think of?
BWW Review: CATCO'S HEAD OVER HEELS at At Riffe Center
April 4, 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 debuted at the Oregon Shakespearean Festival in 2015, then throws a spotlight on transgender relationships and current sexual politics.
BWW Review: SNS LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS At the Garden Theatre
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 Interview: COME FROM AWAY Cast Member Julie Johnson
February 2, 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
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
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 ending, however, is also soul wrenching.
BWW Review: BWW REVIEWS: SHORT NORTH STAGE'S SISTER ACT at Garden Theater
December 6, 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 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.
BWW Review: HADESTOWN at Ohio Theater
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
November 2, 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 series THE SIMPSONS, remain.
BWW Review: YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN AT Garden Theater
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
September 5, 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 any director’s hair go white.
BWW Review: BWW REVIEWS: SQUEEZE at Express Live
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
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
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
July 25, 2021
.
BWW Review: THE MUSIC OF QUEEN WITH THE COLUMBUS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at Columbus Commons
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.
