Jeffrey Ellis

Two stars from Broadway and London’s West End – Laura Michelle Kelly and David Shannon – will lead Nashville Repertory Theatre’s production of Sunday in the Park with George, which will be presented April 4-13, 2025, at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center as the final production of the company’s 40th anniversary season.

Jason Spelbring is a theatre director, administrator, educator, and producer. He has served as associate artistic director, artistic associate/resident director at Lyric Repertory Company, and associate professor/assistant department head in the Department of Theatre Arts at Utah State University’s Caine College of the Arts.

Over and over again, that has happened to me for the almost half a century during which I’ve been reviewing theater. No matter if it’s a play I have seen countless times, I find myself excited to witness a new take on a much-loved title or to find new and expressive meaning in something I know like the back of my hand. More importantly, I find that theater can elicit in me a profound response and cause me to recall people, places and memories that feed my very soul.

Street Theatre Company’s mega-successful residency at Nashville’s The Barbershop Theatre continues with their latest production: a sold-out run of Fun Home, the Tony Award-winning musical by Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron, based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel of the same name. Opening Friday night, June 14, every single ticket to the emotional, funny/sad, gripping and highly entertaining musical was sold in the days leading up to Thursday’s final dress rehearsal (which we reviewed; look for our reaction this weekend).

Today our spotlight shines on Ella Claybrooks, a senior at Nashville School of the Arts, who won her Spotlight Award nomination for her performance as Alice in Bright Star. Ella will be attending The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) this fall, in pursuit of a BFA in Musical Theater.

Today our spotlight shines on Landon Wilson, a senior at Spring Hill’s Summit High School, who earned his Spotlight Award nomination for his performance as Ren McCormack in Footloose The Musical. Landon will be a student at Belmont University this fall, with plans to audition for its musical theater program once he’s on-campus.

Today’s spotlight is focused on Alyssa Freeze, a senior at Coffee County High School, who garnered Spotlight Award attention for her performance as Janet Van De Graff in The Drowsy Chaperone. This fall, Alyssa begins her college career at Nashville’s Lipscomb University. 

The two winners of the Outstanding Lead Performer Spotlight Awards in Nashville will travel later this summer to New York City to take part The Jimmy Awards and to compete for top honors, which recognizes the nation’s leading high school musical theater performers.

In today’s spotlight is Raleigh Risser, a senior at Williamson County’s Ravenwood High School, who garnered Spotlight Award attention for her role as Fiona in Shrek: The Musical. She will pursue her BFA in Musical Theater at Ithaca College. 

Today we begin a six-part series of interviews with the Spotlight Awards’ nominees for Outstanding Lead Performer, shining the BroadwayWorld Nashville spotlight on the talented young actors who will compete for the opportunity to represent Nashville, Middle Tennessee and TPAC at The Jimmy Awards.

Nashville Repertory Theatre closes out its 39th season with one of the best laugh-out-loud comedies we’ve ever seen on a Tennessee Performing Arts Center stage: Selina Fillinger’s uproariously funny, if all-too-real, POTUS or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive. Directed by the acclaimed Lauren Shouse and performed by an all-star cast that’s filled with seven of the best actors in Nashville, it’s a smart, incisive and topical farce that’s certain to lift your spirits and feed your soul.

Paul Vasterling, the longtime CEO and artistic director of Nashville Ballet, makes his debut as a director of musical theater with his revival of Cabaret – which he also choreographs – in a much-heralded and eagerly anticipated production for Franklin-based Studio Tenn. The timely and sumptuous revival allows audiences an opportunity to consider the prescience of the classic Broadway musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb that debuted in 1966 and which has continued to fascinate and challenge artists of the theater the world over almost 60 years later.

Meanwhile, theater aficionados, bachelorette parties (aka “WOO! girls”), fun-seekers and all the assorted denizens of Music City’s Broadway district will be buying up all the sunglasses in order to protect their eyes from the over-the-top glitz and glamour provided by the physical production of Yes, A Musical Comedy’s theatrical magic and technical wizardry and the pure joy of Blaine Hopkins’ book and lyrics, Garrett Kotecki’s music and lyrics and Joel Waggoner’s everything else (including additional words and orchestrations) that make the show so entertaining, so delightful and, lord have mercy, so much fun!

Captivating, heartwarming, colorful, imaginative and down-right magical, Nashville Children’s Theatre’s world premiere production – it’s 19th in the past few years since executive artistic director Ernie Nolan’s arrival – of the theatre for young audiences version of Disney-Pixar’s Finding Nemo is just the latest theatrical hit from the venerable Nashville institution.

Led by a bravura performance from Carli Hardon, Nashville Repertory Theatre’s production of The Color Purple – the musical based on the beloved Alice Walker novel – is yet another extraordinary success from the professional company in the midst of its 39th season. Directed with complete self-assurance and confidence by Reggie Law, with evocative and energetic choreography by Joi Ware and the musical direction of Dion Treece that results in one of the most emphatically sung shows in Nashville Rep history.

Cooper’s clear and focused direction of [title of show] ensures that the action that transpires over the course of 90-plus minutes holds your attention, reminds you of people you know and delivers a pretty spot-on depiction of what real life is all about. With the able assistance of musical director Angela Tipps (the only non-student involved in the production, except for the professors who serve as mentors of the student-led creative team and production crew) and choreographer Paige Lovell (who provides the quartet of actors some fancy footwork that enlivens the proceedings), Cooper and his ideally cast quartet of actors, in this critic’s estimation, deliver the goods and then some.

With its silver anniversary year within sight, Belmont University Musical Theatre concludes its 24th season with what is perhaps its best show yet: Legally Blonde, The Musical. Featuring a remarkable cast of student performers, including most of the Class of 2024, which is arguably the most accomplished and most promising group of students assembled in the program’s quarter-century of musical theatre pedagogy and preparation, this Legally Blonde could easily hold its own against other productions of the tremendously entertaining show, whether on tour or even on Broadway.

In the world of theater, there exists a sisterhood of women who can count an appearance as an orphan (maybe even THE orphan) in a production of Annie as either their first onstage role or one of their most vivid onstage performances. But for Murfreesboro native Julia Nicole Hunter, who now stars as Grace Farrell in the national touring company of the seven-time Tony Award-winning musical coming to  Tennessee Performing Arts Center this week, her current role as Oliver Warbucks’ faithful assistant marks her first time ever in the show.

Nashville Repertory Theatre’s 40th Season will open with its staging of Waitress, the Tony Award-winning musical by Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson, running September 13-22 at the James K. Polk Theatre at Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

The answer is none of the above, obviously – you and I are showing our age with those ridiculous suggestions – and any effort to explain The Trail to Oregon to you would contain spoilers, which people oftentimes don’t want to know, sending particularly disturbing and frankly threatening emails to critics just trying to do their jobs.