Short North Stage kicked off its 15th season this month with a remount of Pippin, bringing back six performers from its acclaimed 2019 production inside a freshly renovated Garden Theatre. The historic venue at 1187 N. High Street now sports a new marquee, an upgraded will-call window, a renovated lobby and bar setup, and improvements to the stage and dressing rooms, all completed ahead of opening night.
The physical updates, detailed by Broadway World, mark a visible new chapter for the company as it enters its milestone anniversary year. Producing Artistic Director Edward Carignan, who also directed the 2019 run, called Pippin a legacy show meant to be re-envisioned every five years, according to the outlet. Corbin Payne returns as Pippin and Amber Knicole reprises her role as the Leading Player, part of a cast that includes six performers from the earlier staging.
According to myfox28columbus.com, Pippin tells the story of an heir to the Frankish throne who disposes of his father, King Charlemagne the Great, while chasing battlefield glory, the temptations of the flesh and political intrigue in search of true happiness and fulfillment. The musical ultimately finds that happiness lies in unextraordinary everyday moments rather than grand conquest. Composer Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the show's score, has won three Oscars and four Grammy Awards, and Pippin itself took home four 2013 Tony Awards, including Best Musical Revival, per the same report.
Circus Flair Meets Fosse on the Garden Theatre Stage
The Short North Stage production draws its visual language from the 2013 Broadway revival, blending stage magic and aerial silk stunts with original movement alongside Bob Fosse's signature dance vocabulary in numbers like Glory. As Short North Arts District has noted, the staging adapts circus-style spectacle for the company's more intimate regional theater space rather than a full Broadway house.
Showtimes for the run include Thursday, Friday and Saturday performances at 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m., with additional dates and times added since the season's announcement. Tickets are available at shortnorthstage.org/pippin, and box office operations for Garden Theatre productions are handled in partnership with the CAPA Ticket Center, which serves as the dominant ticketing provider for major nonprofit theater venues across Columbus.
A Century-Old Building's Long Road to the Stage
The Garden Theatre itself carries a layered history stretching back to its 1920 construction, having operated over the decades as a vaudeville emporium, a movie house, a church, and Columbus's last burlesque theater before its conversion into a live performing arts venue. According to WOSU, the building faced severe decay before Short North Stage's founders rescued and renovated it.
That founding effort dates to 2011, when former magazine journalist Rick Gore and his partner Peter Yockel established the resident, music-driven theater company with the goal of anchoring the Short North Arts District. The company staged its inaugural production, Stephen Sondheim's Follies, at the Garden Theatre that October, according to the Short North Gazette.
New Signage Caps Years-Long Push for Street Visibility
In January, Short North Stage permanently illuminated a newly built marquee at the Garden Theatre, replacing flat street banners with the venue's first prominent illuminated signage along High Street in decades. Venue leadership had noted that the previous lack of street-level signage obscured the theater's identity to passersby, as reported by WBNS-10TV.
The 15th anniversary season extends well beyond Pippin, with six more major productions running through June 2027: Sweeney Todd, The Rocky Horror Show, Hairspray, Dear Evan Hansen, The Producers, and Mean Girls. It represents the organization's largest musical lineup to date, per Short North Stage's season announcement. The milestone year also comes with leadership anniversaries of its own — Carignan is marking 12 years with the company, having joined as artistic director in 2015, while Associate Artistic Director Dionysia Williams Velazco and Company Manager Kyle McCandless are each celebrating five years on staff.
Beyond its mainstage productions, the Garden Theatre also hosts the Johnstone Fund for New Music Series in its Green Room, featuring monthly contemporary classical ensemble concerts running through early 2027. The salon-style series brings touring and regional chamber groups to the venue, according to the Johnstone Fund for New Music, underscoring how the century-old building now functions as a multi-disciplinary arts hub well beyond its Broadway-style musical calendar.
