Paul Batterson - Page 12

Every time he takes on a show, director Edward Carignan insists on putting his own spin on the choreography.

Kevin Thiel doesn't see any particular challenge in performing Otterbein University's INTO THE WOODS four months after Hollywood released the musical as a feature film.

Growing up Father's Day must have been very confusing for Sophie Sheridan, the lead character for MAMMA MIA. The product of a brief love affair, Sophie never knew who her real father was. So on the weeks before her wedding, she sends out invitations to the three chief suspects in hopes of finding out how her real dad is.

Jack Gilbert would have definitely been honored and perhaps a trifle embarrassed that the first-place trophy for the inaugural Grace InFused Theatre Festival bears his name.

The more he plays Luke, the Chinese convert and reformed gambler in the musical ANYTHING GOES, the more Roy Flores discovers how much he and his character have in common.

The audience for the Jan. 21 premiere of THE GREAT ONE looked decidedly different than most of the opening night spectators at the Short North Stage. About 40 percent of the viewers for the one-act musical, written by Scott Hunt and J.J. Tiemeyer, came to the downtown theater donning hockey sweaters and sweatshirts and even broke into a chant of 'Let's Go Jackets' before the beginning of the play.

In the days leading up to the Weathervane Playhouse's production of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, Layne Roate approached director Adam Karsten with an idea.

A couple of years after the first phase of his acting career ended, Zachary Sayle feels like he's starting over with the national tour of NEWSIES.

Perhaps Bruce Springsteen was right. Every one of us, at one time or another, is born to run.

After several projects fell through, lyricist Nathan Tysen and composer Chris Miller were left with a handful of songs they just couldn't give up on.

Perhaps there is no better time to see Lyle Lovett than on Halloween Night. Performing Oct. 31 at New Albany's McCoy Center for the Performing Arts, Lovett changed styles and genres like he was shedding costumes. He flitted from country to jazz to blues to rock, delighting the nearly sold out crowd.

Otterbein University's theater department has never been known to play it safe when it comes to selecting plays. The department, which brought such works as AFTER THE FALL, SPRING AWAKENINGS and FULL MONTY to the stage in recent years, continues to stretch its audience with its most recent production MIDDLETOWN.

Not all memories of THE LION KING are good ones.

Tis good to be the queen. Few people know that more than Tryphena Wade, a 1999 Pickerington High School graduate who plays Sarabi in a touring production of Disney's THE LION KING. The production opens in Columbus on Oct. 14 and will stay in the city until Nov. 9 at Ohio Theatre.

If 'Every Movie's a Circus,' as a song midway through the first act proclaims, the Short North Stage's season opening production of SUNSET BOULEVARD must be a very grand carnival. The theater group pulls out all the stops as far as color schemes and movie clips go but it is rock solid performances of stars Gina Handy and Chris Shea that brings the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical to life.

In the delightful Otterbein University production of SWEET CHARITY, Charity Hope Valentine (brilliantly portrayed by Madison Tinder) has worn her heart on her shelves so many times that she has it tattooed on her arm. The heart-shaped tattoo could be an analogy of the dancehall hostess' love life. It bears the name of a man she planned to move in with, only he dumped her (literally) and left her to drown in a lake at the park after stealing her purse.

Tyler Joseph spent one summer checking IDs at the Lifestyles Community Pavilion. Obviously, the Twenty-One Pilots front man took a lot of notes on what it takes to put on a great concert. The Columbus-based duo of Joseph and drummer Josh Dun sold out back-to-back nights Sept. 4 and 5 at the LC and left both of the 5,000-plus crowds happy, sweaty and exhausted.

Every one has "kegs" in their garage -- those dirty little secrets they like to sweep in corners and skeletons they try to keep hidden in our overstuffed closets. The cast of MURDER BALLAD has more than a keg filled with secrets; it has a full bar.

Few moviegoers were thinking about the musical potential of DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS when it was released as a movie in 1988. However, the movie producers were.