What Others Are Saying

Nyla Nyamweya is a metaperformer, percussion leader, SBX Academy teaching artist and the box office manager at Columbus performing arts company, Shadowbox Live. Nyla grew up singing and dancing in church, but didn’t begin professionally singing until her junior year in high school. Now, she has spent the last 10 years of her career at Shadowbox Live, and is currently performing in Bangers.

Shadowbox Live (SBX) will continue its 2026 season with Leather and Lace: A Music Tribute to the Women of Rock. Last performed in 2021, the popular production returns bigger and better with 8 new songs and 5 new artists that were not previously in the show.

Shadowbox Live (SBX) will kick off the new year and its 2026 season with Bangers, a compilation of the best sketch comedy and music selections from its 2025 season. The annual best-of-show will open on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. and continue through March 28 at Shadowbox Live in the Brewery District.

Various photos from 36 years of Shadowbox Live

Jimmy Mak, the head writer for the Shadowbox Live! theater troupe, isn’t one to throw an idea away. The Mak-penned “Cereal Killers” is one of eight new sketches in Shadowbox Live’s Halloween-themed FREAK SHOW, performed 7:30 p.m. Saturdays through Nov. 15 at the theatre company’s stage (located at 503 S. Front Street in downtown Columbus). It only took 22 years for the sketch about a group therapy session for children cereal mascots to go from its lonely exile in Mak’s idea folder to being performed.

MILLINNEUM, a two-act musical created by Davis and boyfriend Zach Tarantelli, follows the lives of Maria (Davis), Will (Jamie Barrow), and Millie (Riley Mak) as the trio navigate the path of chaotic coffee shops, careening careers and collapsing courtships in the early 21st century. The musical, which features a diverse catalogue of songs from the 2000s, opened June 5 and runs through Aug. 29 at Shadowbox Live’s theater (503 S. Front Street in downtown Columbus).