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Behind the Eye (Review)
Playhouse premieres stunning new play about an iconic woman The deft and compelling story of Lee Miller, a photographer’s model in Vogue in the 1920s, a photographer herself in the 1930s and a fearless...
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The Dragon (Review)
Know’s production takes too long to tell an obvious story Know Theatre of Cincinnati is known for its fearless work and for partnering with other artists and companies. But I wish more of their work...
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The Handmaid's Tale (Review)
Cincy Shakes presents a frightening look at a possible not-too-distant future Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel from 1985, The Handmaid’s Tale, tells a frightening story about a woman trapped in a...
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Beehive (Review)
Music from the ’60s is not on the beat often enough I’m no expert on pop culture, but I was a teenager in the 1960s. So the 40 or so tunes by “girl groups” and women singers that constitute Beehive are...
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OVO (Review)
Cirque du Soleil production is up and running at Old Coney The whole premise of Cirque du Soleil — and each of its two dozen or so productions, including OVO, currently being presented at Old Coney,...
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Gee's Bend (Review)
Playhouse production is an honest play about quilters in Alabama Playwright Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder researched Gee’s Bend by interviewing women who wove quilts from tattered clothing and other scraps...
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End Days (Review)
ETC show uses humor to explore anxieties about carrying on The title of Deborah Zoe Laufer’s thoughtful comedy, End Days, says it all — the end is near. However, depending on which character you listen...
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Rent (Review)
CCM produces impact and contemporary meaning Every decade or so a new musical comes along to breathe new life into an art form that some fear is outdated, bringing young audiences back to the theater....
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Fiddler on the Roof (Review)
The classic musical Fiddler on the Roof has moved audiences to “happiness and tears” for almost a half-century. The current touring production onstage at the Aronoff Center has the capacity to do...
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Cinderella (Review)
Spirit of invention animates NKU's production Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your box office. Consider Cinderella at Northern Kentucky University, an inventive take on a...
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The Elephant Man (Review)
This simple, steady production is a very successful piece of theatrical storytelling. Brought to life by a highly committed group of actors and an inventive design team, all involved left a fair...
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Two Gentlemen of Verona (Review)
Few motives or profound emotions in CSC’s latest production Even the Bard’s byline doesn’t guarantee that that this early Shakespearean play is a comic gem. It has a few humorous moments, which do...
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Pride and Predjudice (Review)
Jane Austen adaptation saved by rewarding climax Patience. That’s Jane Austen’s prescription for love woes of any kind, and it’s my advice for enjoying Pride and Prejudice, a Cincinnati Shakespeare...
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[title of show] (Review)
New Edgecliff offers a show for people who love musicals [title of show] revels in the musical genre with self-referential songs like “Untitled Opening Number” and “Secondary Characters,” and it...
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The Pavilion (Review)
Playhouse production asks “What if?” and “Could it be?” The show, first produced in 2000, resonates with echoes of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, about the citizens of Grover’s Corners, a tiny New...
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Julius Caesar (Review)
Women in men’s roles misses the mark Director Jeremy Dubin writes in a director’s note, “Intrinsically and irrevocably tied to the creation of Rome is this image of feminine strength, an image of...
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Shrek the Musical (Review)
A crowd-pleasing combination of physical and highbrow humor I went into Shrek The Musical expecting a silly cartoon. That’s exactly what it is — but it’s a really well-done silly cartoon, perfect fare...
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The Piano Teacher (Review)
Under the direction of Ed Stern, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park’s production of Julia Cho’s play The Piano Teacher is a stark, engrossing and painful thriller. Memory is not a lane meant for...
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25 the Musical (Review)
ETC celebrates its anniversary years with a musical revue Musicals are not Ensemble Theatre’s bread and butter. But after 25 years, ETC has produced enough to excerpt selections for a thoroughly...
View ArticleTheater’s Power to Unite and Heal
I have a dramatic story for you, dramatic in every sense of the word — impressive and theatrical. It’s about a collaborative project involving drama students and a professor from the University of...
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Trying to Turn a Corner in the Brighton Art District
On a recent Saturday night, three galleries along Central and Harrison avenues were open — Synthetica-m and the collectively run U-turn Art Space and Semantics. The exhibits at U-turn and Semantics...
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‘Laughing Brook’ Might Help Save the Mill Creek
Jackie Brookner, a New York-based artist who creates “biospheres” by using storm runoff and other polluted waters as part of her outdoor, environmental earthworks, spoke at Xavier University this...
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Museum Center’s Underground Revenue Source
Let it not be said (as you might have heard or read) that the Cincinnati subway never hosted a paying customer. In fact, visits to the abandoned tunnels under Central Parkway intended for the...
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2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America
Albert Brooks, St. Martin's Press Albert Brooks, one of the most creative and influential comedians and filmmakers of the last 40 years, has turned his attention to writing fiction with his suddenly...
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Music in Motion
Concert:Nova reinterprets scores for modern dance This is not the chamber music of yesteryear. It’s hard to imagine a more artfully fun-filled summer evening of collaboration than what Concert:Nova has...
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CAC Moves to Add Performance Curator
Many people don’t realize that — as Raphaela Platow, Contemporary Arts Center’s director and chief curator, says — her institution has an “s” in its name. It’s “Arts,” not “Art.” That means the center...
View ArticleCincinnati Art Museum Chooses Its Greatest Hits
Even though the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Schmidlapp Gallery holds important Egyptian, Roman and Greek antiquities, it seems more a conduit than a destination. The display cases are no match for the...
View ArticleHolocaust Museum Discusses New Project
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington has many active supporters in the Cincinnati area, including the local Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education. As a result, the museum’s...
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The Uncoupling
Meg Wolitzer, Riverhead In Meg Wolitzer’s The Uncoupling, a suburban New Jersey town falls under a strange spell as the local high school prepares its stage adaptation of Lysistrata. The play is a...
View ArticleFringe: Antidote to Uptight
You’ve been reading a lot about the current Cincinnati Fringe Festival in CityBeat for several weeks. Now’s my chance to sum up what I like about this crazy annual event, and why it’s more than just...
View ArticleWho Needs Broadway?
The Tonys recognize only shows from Broadway. That’s just 40 theaters (many tied up with long, open-ended production runs), so there might be 30 or so new musicals or plays annually — not an extensive...
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Image of Self
Photographer John Coplans experiments with his own body John Coplans: Photographs 1984-2000, on view at the West End’s Carl Solway Gallery through Aug. 13, offers viewers the opportunity to revisit...
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Rites of Passage and Magnitude 7 (Review)
Manifest highlights student work and tiny treasures in its first shows of the summer Manifest Creative Research Gallery kicked off the summer with the college student show Rites of Passage and its...
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Picture This
FotoFocus announces its ambitious plans for 2012 FotoFocus, the citywide celebration of photographic and lens-based art planned for October 2012, is now well enough along that its organizers have...
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Back to the Future
American stained glass windows are gaining renewed interest American stained glass windows, long shrugged off as a Victorian enthusiasm, are attracting increasing interest, say museum curators, and...
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Moving Pictures
Alison Crocetta's films enter a different realm I can’t recall ever seeing an exhibition with so many films on view simultaneously; it’s comprised of more than two hours’ worth of footage, much more...
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The World Is Watching
Cincinnati’s Outsider Art scene is garnering international attention In a very alternative and “outsider” way, Raymond Thunder-Sky seems to becoming the next Cincinnati artist — after Charley Harper —...
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Saving a Rookwood Fireplace
The 2007 reopening of West Baden Springs Hotel in southern Indiana ranks as one of America’s finest architectural renovations in recent memory. With its magnificent dome standing 130 feet high above a...
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The Flowering of a Conductor
Joana Carneiro leads Cincinnati Opera's latest production Joana Carneiro has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. She was born in 1976, two years after her native Portugal overthrew...
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Diary of a Super Woman
A first-person account of being a super for Cincinnati Opera After years of writing about classical music and opera, I’m actually in an opera as a supernumerary, the operatic equivalent of an extra. My...
View ArticleRemedying the Sound of One Hand Clapping
The Acclaim Awards merged both the Cincinnati Enquirer's program of the same name and CityBeat's Cincinnati Entertainment Awards. The merger has had a rough life and after some turmoil changes are in...
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Bedroom Farce (Review)
Cincy Shakes' latest is perfectly silly There is nothing very profound about Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce, the British writer’s 1975 play that was a Broadway hit in 1979 and nominated for a Tony...
View Article42nd Street (Review)
Dancing revs up Showboat production There’s something elemental about the title song for the musical 42nd Street, currently onstage aboard the Showboat Majestic. “Hear the beat of dancing feet,” the...
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The Amish Project (Review)
Queen City Theater portrays seven people affected by tragedy If you’re a fan of the Cincinnati Fringe, you might want to check out Jessica Dickey’s The Amish Project, the first work presented by Queen...
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Winter Wonderettes (Review)
ETC celebrates Christmas in June and July with a cool show Although Cincinnati’s theater scene offers lots of fine work from September through May, the pickings are usually thin during the summer. So...
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2011 Cincy Fringe: Distillation of Magic
Fringe Fest finishes its most successful year yet This was perhaps the most satisfying Cincy Fringe Festival yet, offering varied and diverse shows that kept audiences coming back for more. My personal...
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The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Review)
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company offers a fresh look and a fine cast Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s current production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) is the regional premiere...
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Let's Get Physical
Body of Art presents various ways artists capture the human form Body of Art, at Northside’s Prairie gallery through Aug. 20, presents work by a dozen artists who all show their own or someone else's...
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Let’s Put on a Show
My teenaged and college summers were dominated by swimming pools (I was a lifeguard) and theater. I grew up in northeast Ohio where summer theater was easy to find. I’m put in mind of this every...
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Take a Bow
The Best of Cincinnati's 2010-2011 Theater Season What follows is my own personal “Best of Cincinnati Theater” for the 2010-2011 season. In roughly chronological order, I’ve ranged across nine...
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