COLUMBUS THEATER REVIEWS

In the Contemporary Theatre of Ohio production ALICE BY HEART, Alice Spencer (Elise Parks) finds herself in an air raid shelter with her best friend Alfred Hallam (Ethan Zink) as the German Luftwaffe bombard London during the Blitz in World War II. To comfort Alfred, who is dying of tuberculosis, Al...

What did our critic think of AMERICAN IDIOT at At Short North Stage? In Short North Stage’s production of AMERICAN IDIOT, everything isn’t meant to be okay. The characters are disappointed, disillusioned, and defiant, and their story is depressing, dark, and disturbing....

Over the last 65 years, The Second City improv and sketch comedy school has built itself into one of the premiere comedic factories of its kind. Lorne Michaels, the creator of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, seems to draw the majority of the show’s talent from three primary sources: Second City (Chicago, New...

After years of striving to build the Abbey Theater of Dublin into one of the more respected theaters in Columbus, director supervisor Joe Bishara put on a disaster of a musical....

Everyone should have a way of expressing themselves. Some sing. Some shout. Some curse....

The June 9 performance of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s epic musical HAMILTON may have opened under a cloud of disappointment at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State Street in downtown Columbus). Before the opening curtain, theatergoers learned the roles of Aaron Burr and Angelica Schuyler, two of the lynch pins ...

Playwright Herb Brown faces an uphill battle in his play, You're My Boy when trying to give audiences at the Abbey Theater of Dublin (5600 Post Road in Dublin, Ohio) a “better understanding” of Richard Milhouse Nixon....

What did our critic think of MILLENNIUM at Shadowbox Live!?...

Chances are Seth Weetis, the anagram-obsessed friend in KIMBERLY AKIMBO, would have a field day with the show’s title. The two-act musical opened June 3 and runs through June 8 at the Ohio Theatre....

Although the cast took a wrecking ball to the fourth wall separating the audience from the actors and the show within a show is intentionally light on plot, The Drowsy Chaperone serves up a cocktail that is two shots of Golden Age musicals, a jigger of acerbic wit, three parts parody, and a half ou...

Jerry Harrison doesn’t have too many regrets in his musical career. The Talking Heads’ keyboardist, who was in town to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the band’s landmark film STOP MAKING SENSE May 4 at the Southern Theatre (21 E. Main Street in downtown Columbus), is in the Rock and Roll Ha...

“I'll tell you what it is. It happens because of the audience,” Iris said in an interview with BroadwayWorld.com in April. “The audience is there with you, you know what I mean? The joy we give them, they give it back to us. We just keep going back and forth with them and it’s a wonderful th...

However, the audience can deduct the pair didn’t make it from the first line of the show’s opening number “Still Hurting” – Jamie is over and Jamie is gone/ Jamie's decided it's time to move on. Although they know the heart ache is coming, the audience can’t turn away from it....

The stellar cast accommodates theater goers on both sides of the Diamond spectrum and by the end of the two-act musical the average music fan will be surprised by how many Diamond songs he or she knows by heart and how good some of those songs truly are....

Foster possesses the uncanny ability to choose a set list from musicals and pop songs to reveal who she is as a performer. Is there anything that Sutton Foster doesn’t do well?...

The play, BOBBY AND THE CHIMPS, made its world premiere on April 3 and runs through April 12 at the Abbey Theater of Dublin (5600 Post Road in Dublin). In some ways, Phillips’ version of the debate of teaching evolution vs. creation is truer to life than its forerunner....

A Chorus Line is the perfect vehicle for SNS, which has a seemingly endless supply of actors capable of carrying a show individually, but who are willing to work as a unit to pull one off.?...

It seems an impossible feat to follow in the shadow of the legendary Barbara Streisand who originated the iconic role of Fanny Brice in the 1964 Broadway production of FUNNY GIRL, which received eight Tony Award nominations.  But Hannah Shankman marched herself onto the stage at the Ohio Theatre an...

Ijames reinvented the Shakespearean tragedy into something far more accessible for modern-day audiences. Instead of a dark tale of murder and revenge set in a dreary Denmark castle, Ijames brilliantly updates it into a backyard barbeque, replete with a karaoke machine, a gas grill, and a game of cha...

When it is at its best, ROCK THIS WAY is not just a cruise ship karaoke offering of the two rock bands; it’s a history lesson....

What did our critic think of & JULIET AND WEST SIDE STORY at At The Ohio Theatre?...

In an unprecedented collaboration, the Columbus Symphony, BalletMet, Opera Columbus, and the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA) have all joined forces to present West Side Story, the classic forbidden love story and rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks in a mesmerizing fusion of ...

You may not know the 1930s icon, but you definitely have seen the effects of her life. Nearly every siren, diva, and pop tart owes a little bit of their persona to Mae West....

The composer doesn’t show clips of the movies from whence the songs originated, letting the music speak for itself....

What did our critic think of NINE at Garden Theatre?...