Columbus Summer Fun 2022: World premieres, classic favorites and more on theater stages
From musicals and plays to new works and youth-oriented productions, Greater Columbus theatergoers will enjoy more than three dozen varied choices for live summer entertainment.
Among the world premieres: Short North Stage’s “Surviving the Moonlight,” a chamber musical-within-a-musical about love and loss in the theater world; Abbey Theater of Dublin and Original Productions Theatre, “Voice of the Net,” Otterbein University professor Jeremy Llorence’s futuristic suspense drama about crime in the Internet era: and Shadowbox Live’s “Flower Power: The Music and Movement,” a celebration of late-1960s hippie music and culture.
Columbus Summer Fun 2022: Our comprehensive events guide to concerts, festivals, theater, arts and more
For those on a shoestring budget, several free shows will be offered — most notably, Actors’ Theatre of Columbus’ Schiller Park productions, which include the greater Columbus premiere of “August Wilson’s King Hedley II.”
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Abbey Theater of Dublin
5600 Post Road, Dublin (except where noted)
• Abbey Theater of Dublin and Original Productions Theatre, “Voice of the Net,” June 2-12: The world premiere of Otterbein University professor Jeremy Llorence’s futuristic suspense drama about a cyber-vigilante, a small federal task force dedicated to fighting Internet crimes and a digital death threat toward a U.S. senator.
• Evolution Theatre Company, “Birds of a Feather,” June 23-July 2: Marc Acito’s play, about the trials and tribulations of parenting, tells the true story of Roy and Silo, two Central Park Zoo male chinstrap penguins who partnered, adopted an egg, hatched and raised a chick together. (614-233-1124, evolutiontheatre.org)
• “The Wind in the Willows,” July 14-17, Coffman Park Amphitheater, 5200 Emerald Parkway: Abbey Theater of Dublin presents the youth musical adapted from Kenneth Grahame’s children’s book about the friendship of good-hearted Water Rat, shy and curious Mole, sensible Badger and impulsive Mr. Toad, who steals motor cars and drives them recklessly around the countryside.
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• Otterbein Playwrights Collective, July 15-17: Original scripts written by Otterbein University playwrights will be workshopped, rehearsed, and performed by Dublin-based teen performers.
• Evolution Theatre Company, “Gently Down the Stream,” July 21-30: Martin Sherman’s romantic and comic drama celebrates and mourns the ghosts of the gay and lesbian men and women who fought for equality, legalized marriage and the right to dream. ((614-233-1124, evolutiontheatre.org)
• “Rent”: School Edition,” Aug. 11-20: Abbey Theater of Dublin will present Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer-winning rock musical, about a group of struggling artists, updates Puccini’s opera “La Boheme” to the AIDS era in the East Village of 1990s Manhattan.
Contact: 614-410-4550, dublinohiousa.gov/abbey-theater
Actors' Theatre of Columbus
Schiller Park amphitheater, 1069 Jaeger St.
• “Hamlet, 1603,” Thursdays through Sundays May 26-June 19: The tragic drama, widely viewed as Shakespeare’s greatest play and presented here in a shorter version based on the First Quarto text published in 1603, revolves around a Danish prince haunted by the recent death of his father and suspicious of the new king.
• “A Tale of Two Cities,” Thursdays through Sundays June 23-July 17 (except July 1): Terence Rattigan and John Gielgud’s 1935 drama, first staged professionally in 2013, was adapted from Charles Dickens’ 1859 bestselling novel about courage, justice, sacrifice and resurrection in the late-1700s events leading up to the French Revolution and Reign of Terror.
• “Queen Margaret,” Thursdays through Sundays July 21-Aug. 14: Jeanie O’Hare’s 2018 British drama was adapted from Shakespeare’s history cycle to focus on a young queen who matured into the ruling force in the chaotic War of the Roses.
• “August Wilson’s King Hedley II,” Thursdays through Sundays Aug. 18-Sept. 4: Actors’ Theatre will collaborate with PAST Productions Columbus to present Wilson’s Tony-nominated, Pulitzer-finalist 2001 Broadway play about an ex-con trying to rebuild his life in 1985 in Pittsburgh.
Contact: 614-444-6888, www.theactorstheatre.org
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Columbus Performing Arts Center
549 Franklin Ave. (except where noted)
• Mine 4 God Productions, The 10th Annual Columbus Black Theatre Festival, July 9-10, Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 Franklin Ave.; and other locations. The 10th festival will showcase six plays, by playwrights from across the country, exploring the theme of “Speaking Truth That Heals.” (www.mine4godproductions.com)
• Wild Women Writing, "The World is Round," Sept. 2-10: Katherine Burkman's musical adaptation of Gertrude Stein’s narrated children’s story about a girl, who cries after singing because she doesn’t know who she is. Suggested for children and adults. Masks and proof of vaccination required. (614-457-6580, theworldisround.eventbrite.com)
Columbus State Community College
Mitchell Hall, 250 Cleveland Ave.
• Theatre Columbus State, “Spoon River Anthology,” July 20-23: The collection of comic and tragic monologues, based on Edgar Lee Masters’ poetic 1915 book about the residents of the cemetery of the fiction Midwestern town of Spoon River, will be presented as a progressive evening of free theater where the audience walks to different campus locations to view the scenes.
Contact: 614-287-2235, www.cscc.edu
Eclipse Theatre Company
915 Schrock Road
• “Too Much Sun,” Thursdays through Sundays June 3-19: Off-Broadway playwright Nicky Silver’s comedy-drama revolves around clandestine trysts and calculated romances of a temperamental actress who walks offstage during rehearsal to spend the summer at her daughter’s Cape Cod home.
• “Four Weddings and an Elvis,” Thursdays through Sundays July 22 through Aug. 7: Nancy Frick’s comedy, set at a Las Vegas wedding chapel, focuses on the three-times-divorced female proprietor and some of her funniest and oddest weddings.
Contact: 614-987-5731, www.eclipsecolumbus.com
MadLab Theatre
227 N. 3rd St.
• Young Writers Short Play Festival, Fridays and Saturdays July 15-30: MadLab Theatre will present seven new playlets by students from central Ohio high schools in its 11th festival, directed and acted by theater professionals inside and outside the MadLab ensemble.
• JB3Entertainment, “Althea & Angela,” Aug. 11-13, Aug. 19-20, Aug. 26-27: James Blackmon’s theater company will present Todd Olson’s inspirational drama, based on a true story about Althea Gibson, a Black tennis player from Harlem who crossed the color line of international tennis; and Angela Buxton, a Jewish tennis player from London who joined forces with Gibson to change sports history and win the Wimbledon doubles title in 1956. (614-271-8415, www.jbcentertainment.com)
Contact: 614-221-5418, www.madlab.net
McCoy Community Center for the Arts
100 E. Granville Road, New Albany
• New Albany Youth Theatre, Roald Dahl’s “Matilda the Musical, Jr.”, July 8-10: The children’s theater troupe will present the hourlong junior version of the Broadway musical comedy-drama based on Roald Dahl’s fable about a rebellious British girl with special powers and a love of reading.
Contact: 614-245-4701, 614-469-0939, www.cbusarts.com
Otterbein Summer Theatre
Cowan Hall’s Fritsche Theatre, 30 S. Grove St., Westerville (except where noted)
• “Side by Side by Sondheim,” June 2-5, Riley Auditorium, Battelle Fine Arts Center, 170 W. Park St., Westerville: The staged concert of the musical revue, celebrating the life and work of the composer-lyricist who died in November, showcases songs from “Company,” “Follies,” “Gypsy,” “A Little Night Music” and other classic Sondheim shows.
• “Mrs. Mannerly,” June 9-18: The classroom comedy, a Greater Columbus premiere written by Ohio native and 1980 Denison University graduate Jeffrey Hatcher, revolves around a 10-year-old boy striving to overcome treachery by fellow students to become the first to achieve a perfect score in Mrs. Mannerly’s etiquette class.
• “The Pirates of Penzance,” July 7-16: Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic 1879 operetta, considered their swashbuckling masterpiece, revolves around raucous pirates, bumbling police, sisters, a modern major general and an innocent young man with an unfortunate birthday.
Contact: 614-823-1109, www.otterbein.edu/drama
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Red Herring Theater Company
3723 S. High St.
• “Silent Sky,” Thursdays through Sundays June 9-26: Lauren Gunderson’s bio-drama focuses on 19th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, whose astronomical advances also sparked social progress in how the culture viewed a woman’s place in science and society.
• “Waiting for Waiting for Godot,” Thursdays through Sundays July 14-31: Dave Hanson’s comedy centers on two hapless understudies occupying time backstage during a production of Samuel Beckett’s classic existential drama while trying to understand art, theater and life.
• “The Niceties,” Thursdays through Sundays Aug. 18 through Sept. 4: Eleanor Burgess’s contemporary drama about race, history and power is sparked by Black college student called into her professor’s office to discuss her paper about slavery and the American Revolution.
Contact: 614-723-9116, www.redherringtheater.org
Shadowbox Live
503 S. High St.
• “Hot and Bothered,” select Friday and Saturday performances through Aug. 6: The original sketch-comedy-and-music show takes a peek at the dirty little secrets people keep between the sheets.
• “Flower Power: The Music and Movement,” select performances June 2 through Aug. 28: The music-comedy-and-theater resident company celebrates the late-1960s hippie music and culture that inspired social change in a new musical revue.
Contact: 614-416-7625, www.shadowboxlive.org
Short North Stage
Garden Theater, 1187 N. High St.
• “Surviving the Moonlight,” June 17-26: The new chamber musical-within-a-musical, adapted by author-lyricist Rick Gore (Short North Stage co-founder), composer-lyricist David Spangler and composer Christopher Gore from Pierre Loti’s stories, follows a group of thespians navigating love, loss amid the mystical power of theater in modern-day New York and 1870s Istanbul.
• “Rock of Ages,” Thursdays through Sundays July 21 through Aug. 14: The Broadway jukebox musical, with classic 1980s songs from Bon Jovi, Journey, Styx, Twisted Sister and other rock groups, revolves around the relationship between an aspiring rocker and an aspiring actress in Los Angeles.
Contact: 614-469-0939, www.cbusarts.com
Southern Theatre
21 E. Main St.
• Visceral Entertainment tour, “Emojiland the Musical,” June 3-5: The off-Broadway 2020 musical comedy, launching its eight-week summer tour in Columbus, follows a group of emoji archetypes (including a smiling face, a princess, a skull and a pile of poo) threatened by a software update and questions about the meaning and identity of their lives.
Contact: 614-469-0939, www.cbusarts.com
Town Center Park
3339 Park St., Grove City
• Little Theatre Off Broadway, “You’re A Good Man Charlie, Brown,” June 24-26, July 22-24: The community theater ends its 61st season with an outdoor production of the Broadway musical comedy about Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, Snoopy and other beloved characters from the Charles M. Schultz comic strip Peanuts. (614-875-3919, www.ltob.org)
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Weathervane Playhouse
100 Price Road, Newark
• “9 to 5, the Musical,” June 2-11: The Broadway musical comedy, by composer-lyricist Dolly Parton and author Patricia Resnick, focuses on the friendship of three late-1970s female coworkers who plot revenge against a sexist, egotistical and deceptive boss.
• “Steel Magnolias,” June 16-25: Robert Harling’s ensemble comedy-drama revolves around feisty women, linked through a Louisiana beauty salon, who find strength and love amid adversity.
• “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” June 30 through July 9 (except for July 4): Adapted from the classic movie, this romantic-comedy stage musical follows six men on the Oregon frontier who meet their match when they bring in six women from afar to marry.
• “Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express,” July 14-16 and July 20-23: Playwright Ken Ludwig (“Lend Me a Tenor”) adapts Agatha Christie’s classic mystery about detective Hercule Poirot investigating a locked-room murder of an American tycoon on a luxurious and isolated train in Europe.
• “Flashdance the Musical,” July 28-30 and Aug. 2-6: “Maniac, “Manhunt,” and “What a Feelin’” are among the 1980s pop hits in the stage version of the 1983 film about a steel worker who works nights as an exotic dancer and auditions for a ballet academy.
Contact: 740-366-4616, www.weathervaneplayhouse.org
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Summer theater in Columbus: 'Hamlet,' 'Rent,' Shadowbox and more
