There are plenty of artists who can fill an amphitheater with sound, but Josh Groban has always possessed the kind of voice that seems tailor-made for a setting like Blossom Music Center. On August 28, Groban brought his Stage, Screen and Symphony tour to Cuyahoga Falls, joined by the Akron Symphony Orchestra for an evening that traded the traditional concert playbook for something considerably more theatrical.
It was an odd night, to say the least. I distinctly remember needing to scalp tickets through an eBay auction in 2005 to take my then-girlfriend to Groban’s sold-out concert in Downtown Cleveland. It was the hottest ticket in the touring realm, and falling in Valentine’s Day made this show even less accessible to poor college students. (It took years for my bank account to recover.)
Tonight, driving down Steels Corners to the gates of Blossom Music Center, it felt like I had been transported back to the COVID era. Traffic was light, the grass parking lots nearest to the street were 100% vacant. The normally diligent ushers didn’t even check my tickets when I strolled into the pavilion. Why this show only sold an estimated 5,000 tickets is beyond my comprehension. 10,000+ more fans could have comfortably enjoyed tonight.
From the opening notes of “Pure Imagination,” Groban immediately established the tone for the evening. Rather than simply running through a greatest-hits collection, the performance served as a musical tour through Broadway, Hollywood and some of the songs that have shaped Groban’s career and artistic identity. With the Akron Symphony providing the musical foundation, even the more familiar selections took on a larger, more cinematic quality.
Under the direction of conductor Christopher Wilkins, Akron Symphony dazzled. The impressive collection of musicians, while not exactly rivals of the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra, proved that LeBron James and The Black Keys aren’t the Rubber City’s only great exports.
The first half of the evening moved effortlessly between styles and eras. “What I Did for Love” brought the emotional weight of Broadway, while “Old Devil Moon” provided a playful change of pace. Groban then dug into “The Barber and His Wife” from Sweeney Todd before delivering one of the night’s more powerful performances with “Dust & Ashes” from Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.
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That Broadway focus continued with “On My Own” from Les Misérables and “All I Ask of You” from The Phantom of the Opera. The latter was incredibly memorable as Groban was joined by Samia Posadas, the winner of 2026 Jimmy Award (National High School Musical Theatre Award) winner for Best Performance by an Actress. Posadas is heading off to college in the fall before, as Groban guaranteed, she can punch her ticket to anywhere she wants in the performing arts field.
These are songs that demand considerably more than simply hitting the right notes, and Groban’s theatrical background made the material feel naturally suited to him. His voice has the ability to move from delicate and intimate to absolutely enormous without losing its warmth in the process.
Groban also demonstrated that his musical world extends well beyond the stage. His rendition of Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” offered one of the evening’s more recognizable contemporary moments. It takes a real talent to make the insufferable Phil Collins palatable, but Groban did so with ease.
“Evermore” from the extended outro of the televised version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast fit perfectly into the concert’s cinematic atmosphere. Prior to the song, Groban noted that he was hesitant to add the song into the rebooted production, as he did not want to mess with the soundtrack’s perfection, but that he was thrilled at how well the song fit in flawlessly.
After an intermission, the second half continued the journey through music for stage and screen. “As Time Goes By” brought a touch of classic Hollywood, followed by “Remember Me” from Coco, another selection that allowed Groban’s voice to carry plenty of emotional weight without requiring excessive theatrics.
One of the evening’s most memorable instrumental moments came with violinist Lucia Micarelli, who took the stage for The Red Violin Caprices: Main Theme & Variation.
Cleveland Chamber Choir also joined onstage, further celebrating the immense talent that exists in the music scene of Northeast Ohio. The choir’s contribution to Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” Groban wasn’t simply putting a symphony behind his biggest songs; he was building an entire evening around the relationship between voice, orchestra, theater, and film
Groban has spent much of his career occupying the space between pop, classical crossover, Broadway and musical theater, and Stage, Screen and Symphony allowed him to embrace all of those identities at once. There were no genre boundaries to worry about and no need to force the evening into the format of a conventional amphitheater concert.
For a performer whose greatest strength has always been his remarkable voice, it was an appropriately grand setting—and an evening that proved sometimes the best way to appreciate a great singer is to give him an orchestra and let him go.
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