By Jackie Demaline
Enquirer staff writer

I saw something pretty amazing last Saturday afternoon.

It was the promise of what could be.

New Stage Collective isn't brand new: College kids Alan Patrick Kenny and Joshua Steele put on a couple of short runs in Sycamore schools and Wyoming Fine Arts Center last summer. They're back this summer, with no money, big ambition and closer to the center of town.

Last weekend, for three performances over two days, they delivered the regional premiere of the Broadway musical Side Show in Xavier University's Gallagher Student Center Theater.

With a near-nonexistent budget (most of it went to rental of the theater), the way the show looked was nothing to brag about.

But Kenny got everything that mattered right. The show sounded wonderful. Great work from Michael Hamilton, vocal director for the cast of 19, and hats off to Laurence Bonhaus' leadership of a 25-piece orchestra.

Kenny may not have had much in the way of costumes or sets, but what he did have was a vision for the show that made a perfectly fine substitute.

He knows how to cast. He found the handful of performers who could pump the principal roles and it was easy to forgive the rest.

What I saw on the Xavier stage was artistic integrity and boundless passion. The last time a talented bunch of recent college grads decided to put down stakes on a Cincinnati stage was Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival 10 years ago.

I wish there were another half-dozen talented young Cincinnati theater would-be pros shouting, "Let's put on a show! Here, in Cincinnati!"

Kenny graduated from New York University in the spring, and next month Steele will be a senior at Ohio State. Kenny says the response to Side Show "makes us excited to continue next year."

Last Monday, they were still counting box office receipts to see if they came close to breaking even, Kenny's dad Jeff was cleaning out while multitalented Kenny, in his pianist guise, spent the day rehearsing with Mount Notre Dame's production of Songs for a New World.

New Stage Collective deserves some cheering on, and while applause is nice, good box office is even better.

The company completes its summer season with Neil LaBute's mature audiences only The Shape of Things Aug. 18-21 at the Greenwich, 2440 Gilbert Ave., Walnut Hills Call 293-6063 for reservations and information.