Taft Theatre — Attraction in Cincinnati

My first Taft Theater experience was at a David Crosby/Graham Nash concert in 1972. My seat was in the second last row in the third balcony. What impressed me then was the acoustic sound, even way-up in the nose bleed seats. Well Taft Theater has been completely remodeled and restored. Not only is the appearance beautiful; but I have to proclaim the sound that I heard was nearly equal to the Metropolitan in New York, just smaller in size only. Everything, including the bar, rest rooms and souvenir locations was spot on. I think the Taft Theater might be one of the best entertainment venues in Ohio.

Now, the reason for being at Taft Theater; I went to a Brit Floyd concert. Great acoustics, wonderful venue. They were nearly perfect musically and the light show was awesome, next to none. This was my second Brit Floyd concert in eight months. They are purportedly the best Pink Floyd cover band.

My only gripe is they only played about an hour and a half with a 20 minute break in between. They missed playing at least 5 or 6 of the songs that should always be played when covering Pink Floyd.

In contrast, if comparisons are valid, I saw 2 Signs of Life: American Pink Floyd concerts in the last 6 months and they played 2 1/2 hours and 2 hours and 45 minutes respectively, no breaks. When one pays so much more for a concert, one expects more for their money. When leaving the theater, my wife and I felt an emptiness. The Signs of Life band are the equal to Brit Floyd and their light show will catch up to them. Brit Floyd was very good but they better not sit on their laurels, for the price they charge is greater then the length of the performance they gave.

Go Signs of Life: The American...

The theater is a great venue, but avoid the balcony for concerts. The sound quality up there is horrid. Same with the ballroom in the basement. I saw Umphrey's McGee two nights in a row at the theater, first in the balcony, then at floor level. At the balcony level the snare drum pretty much dominated the rest of the sound--probably because we were at ear level with the top of the tweeter stack. Was so very disappointed with that concert. But the next night on floor level was a completely different experience. Will never get balcony seats again. Only saw one concert in the ballroom. The band even mentioned how it felt to them like they were playing in their parent's basement. Very boomy--bass drowned out any nuance the music might have had, and the poor organist was simply inaudible 90% of the time. I walked all over that space trying to find a decent spot to listen, and finally settled for the very back corner, farthest from the stage, but it still was not great. Not sure how much of that could have been alleviated by better sound engineers (this was Magpie Salute so I assumed they knew what they were doing) and how much was simply bad room acoustics, but I likely won't go to the...

Last weekend, my family—Steph, the kids, and I—went on a grand adventure to see Beauty and the Beast Jr. at the Taft Theater. It was like stepping into a Disney movie but with way better parking (thank you, Cincinnati)! From the moment we walked in, the kids were buzzing with excitement—my oldest was trying to predict how the Beast’s transformation would go down, my oldest daughter was in full “Belle” mode, and my youngest just wanted to twirl like she was at a royal ball.

Steph, as always, was radiant and ready to soak in the show. She even got a few chuckles when she pointed out that Lumière’s costume looked a little like a fancy candelabra from a yard sale—classic Steph humor.

The show itself? Pure magic. The kids were glued to their seats (a rare occurrence) and even I found myself humming along to “Be Our Guest.” The cast did an incredible job, and by the time the curtain fell, Emily declared she’s going to marry a prince, Sophie wanted to read more books (a win!), and Zeke decided we all needed to start rehearsing for our musical debut.

All in all, it was a night of laughter, singing, and family memories we’ll treasure forever....