Photo Coverage: THE VIEW UPSTRAIRS at the Columbus Performing Arts Center

The View UpStairs is an interpretive account of a true event: a notoriously unsolved arson fire that took place at a gay bar called the Up Stairs Lounge on the ragged edge of the famous French Quarter. Thirty-two lives were claimed in that bar on the night of June 24, 1973 when an arsonist lit a spark that destroyed a trailblazing establishment-a place apart that had transcended barriers of straight and gay, male and female, black and white. Through the fantasia of musical theatre, The View UpStairs will do the impossible. This musical will convey you alongside Wes, our modern-day "millennial influencer" protagonist, into the bar before it burned. There, you will see the Up Stairs Lounge in a way that historians like myself can only yearn for: joyous, full of the revelry of men and women crooning beside the piano and, as yet, untouched by its tragic fate. You will hear the laughter and feel the love that commingled before all the screams.

Performances are July 17 thru the 27th, 2019 at the Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 Franklin Avenue, Columbus, OH 43215. For tickets, visit: http://www.evolutiontheatre.org/

Check out a first look below!