The opening 15 minutes of Titanic: The Musical, recreating the tragic 1912 sinking of the doomed ocean liner, is one of the most stirring, evocative sequences in all of musical theater. It grabs you as you meet dozens of characters boarding the ship, overflowing with great expectations — of success, of escaping poverty, of new life in America, of achieving dreams. But we know what awaits many of them in the freezing North Atlantic after the collision with an iceberg.   

If you’re paying attention to local theater currently, you might feel you’ve jumped into Mr. Peabody’s wayback machine. Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati is in Springfield again for Life Could Be A Dream, where teens from the 1950s fret about love and the future by singing tunes that Baby Boomers know by heart.  

Reach into your wallet and pull out a $20 bill. Do you know anything about the dashing guy portrayed there? Andrew Jackson, a military hero, was our seventh president, serving from 1829 to 1837. But he was a rock star back in his day, a rabble-rouser.  

Piano man Billy Joel and Gangsta Rap icon Tupac Shakur finally have something in common. No, Joel hasn’t gotten a big “Thug Life” tattoo inked across his ample abdominal area. Instead, Shakur’s music is being used — Movin’ Out-style — as the basis for a planned Broadway musical from Tony nominee Kenny Leon.  

If you pay attention to theater on a regular basis, you surely know Stephen Sondheim’s name. He’s has been esteemed as the greatest creator of musical theater for more than 50 years. When he turned 80 in 2010, there were celebrations across the United States and around the world. Cincinnati has been fertile terrain for his work.  

We always thought that the most interesting and mysterious thing about network TV news anchors was the possibility that they don’t wear pants when they’re on the air. Turns out, newscasters are just regular people (admittedly with super-human hair) and some even have good taste in music.  

Cincinnati doesn’t have a theater scene that compares to that of New York or Chicago or the Twin Cities. But for a city our size, we have a ton of theater. I see 60-70 local productions annually. Are there enough serious theatergoers in Greater Cincinnati to support more?  

As a kid, I watched "The Wizard of Oz" annually on TV. The 1939 film is a classic, and its stars, including Judy Garland as Dorothy, songs and lines are iconic. Now it's been turned into a stage musical. Unfortunately, a touring version, at the Aronoff for a two-week run, never gets beyond reproducing the film.