Doris Betts News

What did our critic think of VIOLET at TheatreSquared? This is the musical to beat this summer!

Violet, the poignant, uplifting award-winning musical that took Broadway by storm, opens June 7 at TheatreSquared (477 W. Spring St., Fayetteville) and runs through July 2.

Violet, the poignant, uplifting award-winning musical that took Broadway by storm, opens June 7 at TheatreSquared (477 W. Spring St., Fayetteville) and runs through July 2. Tickets, from $20-$54, can be purchased by calling (479) 777-7477 or by visiting theatre2.org/violet.

With noteworthy performances across the board, Nashville Repertory Theatre’s production of Violet – with a lovely, haunting and emotional score by Jeanine Tesori and a sometimes meandering, oftentimes difficult to follow, libretto by Brian Crawley, based upon Doris Betts’ short story “The Ugliest Pilgrim” – closes out the company’s 2022-23 in impressive style that heralds great promise for what is still to come as the Rep moves forward into its 39th season.

While the source material is subpar, director Bekah Harbison uses simple staging with minimal set pieces to focus the audience on the relationships between the characters. Through her collaboration with her actors, she extracts committed and emotional performances out of each member of the cast. Her blocking, coupled with Mary Fedak’s choreography, uses every inch of the floor (stage) in the theater adding to the intimacy of her vision. There are moments when the entire company fills the full performance space, and it almost seems uncomfortably cramped. There may have been an opportunity to edit and think through the limitations of the space and the number of chorus members used in some of the larger numbers.

Live Arts Theater's 2022/23 Transformations Season journeys forward with the award-winning musical VIOLET. This soaring musical pilgrimage features music by Jeanine Tesori and lyrics and book by Brian Crawley. VIOLET will have 12 performances in the Gibson Theater, November 18 through December 10, 2022.

Today we rewind to 2013, for the Encores! Off-Center production of Violet. Violet, based on the short story 'The Ugliest Pilgrim' by Doris Betts, has music by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by Brian Crawley.

A spectacular small musical I adored, and a spectacular big one I missed.

Court Theatre, under the continuing leadership of Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director Charles Newell and Executive Director Angel Ysaguirre, announces its 66th season. The company's 2020/21 season will feature the sixth play in August Wilson's American Century Cycle, Two Trains Running, directed by Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson; the Americana musical Violet, with book and lyrics by Brian Crawley and music by Jeanine Tesori, directed by Charles Newell; the culmination of Court's Oedipus Trilogy with the Sophocles classic Antigone, directed by Seret Scott; Caryl Churchill's Fen, directed by Vanessa Stalling; and a new production of Shakespeare's Othello, starring Kelvin Roston, Jr. and Timothy Edward Kane, adapted and directed by Charles Newell.

Updated September 2023: Finding your best audition song is crucial - especially as a young performer. Check out some great audition song options for kids of all ages and find out how to pick the perfect audition song if you're a kid or teenager!

Town Hall Theatre Company (THT) is thrilled to announce four compelling plays and musicals for its milestone 75th 2019/20 Season, entitled TRANSFORMATIONS. Town Hall's TRANSFORMATIONS Season opens with Matthew Lopez's fabulously sassy comedy The Legend of Georgia McBride; continues with the West Coast premiere of an enchanting original new take on the classic Brothers Grimm story Cinderella: A Fairytale; followed by Anton Chekhov's final masterpiece, The Cherry Orchard; and closes with the stirring Tony-nominated musical Violet. Subscription package sales are now available.

Bay Area Musicals presents the Tony Award-nominated VIOLET. Inspired by the short story 'The Ugliest Pilgrim' by Doris Betts, the World Premiere 1997 Off-Broadway production of VIOLET won the Drama Critics' Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, and the revised version that debuted on Broadway in 2014 was Tony Award-nominated. Featuring a folk/bluegrass/gospel-flavored score from Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori (CAROLINE, OR CHANGE; THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE; SHREK; FUN HOME) and book and lyrics by the acclaimed Brian Crawley (A LITTLE PRINCESS), VIOLET has been astounding critics and audiences alike for over two decades.

Bay Area Musicals presents the Tony Award-nominated VIOLET. Inspired by the short story "The Ugliest Pilgrim" by Doris Betts, the World Premiere 1997 Off-Broadway production of VIOLET won the Drama Critics' Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, and the revised version that debuted on Broadway in 2014 was Tony Award-nominated. Featuring a folk/bluegrass/gospel-flavored score from Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori (CAROLINE, OR CHANGE; THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE; SHREK; FUN HOME) and book and lyrics by the acclaimed Brian Crawley (A LITTLE PRINCESS), VIOLET has been astounding critics and audiences alike for over two decades.

Bay Area Musicals presents the Tony Award-nominated VIOLET. Inspired by the short story 'The Ugliest Pilgrim' by Doris Betts, the World Premiere 1997 Off-Broadway production of VIOLET won the Drama Critics' Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, and the revised version that debuted on Broadway in 2014 was Tony Award-nominated.

Bay Area Musicals (Matthew McCoy, Founder & Artistic Director, and AeJay Mitchell, Managing Director) has announced the full cast and creative team for the Company's first 2019 production, the Tony Award-nominated VIOLET. Inspired by the short story 'The Ugliest Pilgrim' by Doris Betts, the World Premiere 1997 Off-Broadway production of VIOLET won the Drama Critics' Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, and the revised version that debuted on Broadway in 2014 was Tony Award-nominated. Featuring a folk/bluegrass/gospel-flavored score from Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori (CAROLINE, OR CHANGE; THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE; SHREK; FUN HOME) and book and lyrics by the acclaimed Brian Crawley (A LITTLE PRINCESS), VIOLET has been astounding critics and audiences alike for over two decades.

At the opening of the 2018-2019 season production of The Legend of Georgia McBride, Garden Theatre's Artistic Director Rob Winn Anderson took the stage to announce the Garden's 2019-2020 season. Current subscribers can renew their subscriptions immediately. New subscriptions start at $90 and go on sale March 19. Single tickets go on sale May 8, 2019.

VIOLET, a multi award-winning musical with Music by Jeanine Tesori (Tony Award winner for Best Original Score with Lisa Kron for Fun Home, and Tony-nominated for Caroline, or Change and Shrek the Musical), and Book & Lyrics by Brian Crawley (The Little Princess), is to get its UK premiere in a 12-week season to Saturday 6 April in an international co-production that will see it transfer to Tokyo

Bay Area Musicals (Matthew McCoy, Founder & Artistic Director, and AeJay Mitchell, Managing Director) has announced the full cast and creative team for the Company's first 2019 production, the Tony Award-nominated VIOLET. Inspired by the short story "The Ugliest Pilgrim" by Doris Betts, the World Premiere 1997 Off-Broadway production of VIOLET won the Drama Critics' Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, and the revised version that debuted on Broadway in 2014 was Tony Award-nominated. Featuring a folk/bluegrass/gospel-flavored score from Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori (CAROLINE, OR CHANGE; THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE; SHREK; FUN HOME) and book and lyrics by the acclaimed Brian Crawley (A LITTLE PRINCESS), VIOLET has been astounding critics and audiences alike for over two decades.

Final casting is announced for VIOLET, a multi award-winning musical with Music by Jeanine Tesori (Tony Award winner for Best Original Score with Lisa Kron for Fun Home, and Tony-nominated for Caroline, or Change and Shrek the Musical), and Book & Lyrics by Brian Crawley (The Little Princess).

VIOLET, a multi award-winning musical with Music by Jeanine Tesori (Tony Award winner for Best Original Score with Lisa Kron for Fun Home, and Tony-nominated for Caroline, or Change and Shrek the Musical), and Book & Lyrics by Brian Crawley (The Little Princess), is to get its UK premiere in an international co-production that will see it transfer to Tokyo.