Jeffrey Ellis - Page 11

Fiddler on the Roof first debuted on Broadway in 1964 and in the intervening 55 years, it's become a beloved standard in the Broadway musical canon, being revived many times and performed on stages all over the world in productions both professional and amateur. The heartwarming tale of the world-weary dairyman Tevye, his long-suffering wife Golde, their five(!) daughters and their suitors and all of the other inhabitants of the Russian village of Anatevka has been delighting audiences ever since that initial mounting and rather than growing old and rather precious over time, Fiddler on the Roof instead has become even more relevant, particularly in the current socio-political climate in which immigrants have become political pawns and in which change is constant.

Blake Holliday's jaw-dropping performance as "international song stylist" Hedwig Schmidt is reason enough to book your tickets as soon as possible to witness the actor's transformation in a 90+ minute production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch now ensconced at Nashville's Street Theatre Company through July 6. But there's another performance which is just an impressive and just as awe-inspiring from Natalie Rankin, who transforms into Itzhak, the "husband" of Hedwig whose hangdog expression and considerable stage presence clearly rivals that of the show's eponymous star.

It should come as no surprise that Fun Home, therefore, that the aforementioned Broadway hit featuring music by Jeanine Tesori, with book and lyrics by Lisa Kron based upon Bechdel's graphic novel, is one of my favorite works in the canon of contemporary American Musical Theater. What some readers might find surprising, however, is that I fell absolutely and deeply in love with the show once over, thanks to a production from, of all places, Murfreesboro Little Theatre, where the show completes its much-too-brief run today with its 2 p.m. matinee.

American playwright Neil Simon's prolific and wide-ranging contributions to theater range from the sublime (The Odd Couple and Rumors) to the ridiculous (Fools), with God's Favorite - now onstage through tomorrow - falling somewhere in the middle. While it's not one of the master craftsman's best scripts, it nonetheless is certain to provoke thought and when performed by a talented cast of actors, like it is in its current iteration at The Barn, it is certain to entertain and to evoke an emotional response.

Over coffee, on the morning after seeing Verge Theater Company's production of Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play - the dark comedy by Anne Washburn, directed by Nashville theater veteran Amanda Card - last weekend, a friend allowed as how he had heard of the play, but had no idea what it was about, asking me for a brief synopsis: "It's about a group of five people in a post-apocalyptic society, presumably brought about by nuclear events across the country, if not the world, who entertain one another with detailed stories based upon episodes from The Simpson," I answered.

Compellingly dramatic and featuring an exquisitely emphatic score performed by a dazzling cadre of triple-threat actors and a 15-person orchestra, Miss Saigon once again lands at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall this week for an eight-performance run that will almost certainly stand out among the very best of productions to play Music City during the tenure of departing CEO Kathleen O'Brien. With heart-stopping performances by its trio of stars – Red Concepcion as The Engineer, Emily Bautista as Kim and Anthony Festa as Chris are superb – who are ably supported by a huge company of equally impressive performers, Miss Saigon is at once one of musical theater's most stunning examples, while remaining an enigma among audiences yet to experience its power in person.

ACT 1 brings its 2018-19 'Fuck the Classics' Season to a close with director/designer Jim Manning's unique reinterpretation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet with Violent Delights, a dance-based retelling set to a score of music from emerging Nashville artists. Violent Delights runs May 24-June 8 at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater.

Avante Garage Theatre Company, the award-winning company originally based in Nashville before its founders moved to New York City, will debut its first Los Angeles production this summer at The Avery Schreiber Playhouse in the NOHO Arts District:  the world premiere of The Favorite by Joe Correll, co-artistic director, along with Avante Garage founder Michael Bouson.

Lynn Nottage's Sweat - her 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning play about the impact of economics, immigration laws and differing political views and, in turn, their effect on interpersonal relationships - is given its second mounting in two months in Nashville theater, with the Alicia Haymer-directed production from Street Theatre Company. Now running through May 25, Sweat offers a searing indictment of the political climate in which we live and interprets in some personal detail just how we've managed to come to this very point in our nation's history.

After 15 years with the company, Rene Copeland, longtime artistic director for Nashville Repertory Theatre, is stepping down from her position with the organization, according to details included in a joint statement from the company's board of directors and Copeland, herself.

With Joseph, which opened last night at Franklin's Jamison Theater inside The Factory at Franklin, further establishes its brand: presenting exceptional musical theater with production qualities that might rival Broadway, performed by a cast (a dreamcast, if you will) made up of actors from Nashville, New York and various and sundry points in between. The show's title role is entrusted to New York-based Jesse Michels, who oozes great charm and is fairly dripping in sex appeal which ensures the audience is riveted to his performance - but it's his gorgeous baritenor and prominent stage presence that makes certain this production of Joseph is so appealing and we daresay noteworthy.

It's that time of the week, theater lovers! With the weekend set to kick off at any moment - personally, we like to consider Thursday morning at 12:01 a.m. the official start of the weekend (that's directed primarily to the Dowager Countess of Grantham who quite clearly didn't understand what actually constitutes a 'weekend') - so we are back with a few suggestions of our own to help make your job easier. There are some new shows opening, others which are continuing their runs and still more which will be winding up their slate of performances this weekend!

Les Miserables School Edition - the musical adaptation for younger actors of Victor Hugo's timeless and iconic novel about the life of Jean Valjean - is next up for Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts May 17-June 2. Hugo's emotional, touching and uplifting story set to music follows an ex-convict through 19th century France as he creates a new life for himself. Directed by Denise Parton, this production features a cast of students who are 18 years old or younger.

McMinnville's Cumberland Caverns Live is gearing up for a banner slate of performances this weekend May 18 and 19, featuring acclaimed, genre-defying outfit Deer Tick, along with opening act Courtney Marie Andrews, who will be making a special stop Saturday, May 18, and Americana luminaries The Band of Heathens (with their opening act Cordovas) hitting the stage on Sunday.

Studio Tenn will close out its ninth season with Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, opening at the Jamison Theater in Franklin on Friday, May 17, and continuing through June 2. Jesse Michels takes on the title role, with Studio Tenn favorite Laura Matula as the Narrator.

Two Davidson County high school students - Lilla Galgoczy-Toler of Nashville School of the Arts and Trenton McCrary of John Overton High School - took home Outstanding Lead Actress and Actor honors at the 2019 Spotlight Awards on Saturday. The duo will travel to New York to compete nationally in The Jimmy Awards (www.JimmyAwards.com) on June 24.

Now would seem the perfect time for a Nashville revival of Christopher Hampton's Les Liasions Dangereuses - an intriguing play about powerful men subjugating women to their sexual domination, private missives between aristocrats made public in order to cause embarrassment, and any perceptibly well-meaning act of charity is undermined by far baser instincts - which is perhaps best known for the movies it has inspired: Dangerous Liaisons and Cruel Intentions.

Now onstage through Mother's Day (Sunday, May 12) in a much anticipated and gleefully subversive production from Nashville Opera, The Cradle Will Rock remains hard to define: It could be described as a work of art whose meaning, its very raison d'etre, can be bent to suit any conceivable justification. Variously, Blitzstein described his 1937 work as a 'play in music' or an 'opera for actors' and its history clearly paints it as either or even as both.

Today, we continue with our in-depth look at the Ingram New Works Project with a conversation with Nate Eppler, Nashville Rep's playwright-in-residence, whose work with the new playwrights has been an integral part of the experience since it first began. Eppler's new play, This Red Planet, will be given its world premiere production by Nashville Rep during its upcoming 2019-20 season.

It's another busy weekend in Nashville - but when is Music City not packed with events, festivals, affairs? - and we're back with our Critic's Choice recommendations to have you cut through the theatrical flotsam and jetsam and find a cultural opening that's a good fit for your harried lifestyle. Nashville Opera opens its staging of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock at Noah Liff Opera Center, Way Off Broadway Productions unveils its version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Music Valley Event Center, Street Theatre Company invites you to the see their staging of Lynn Nottage's Sweat at their new venue on Elm Hill Pike and Nashville Rep continues its celebration of 10 years of The Ingram New Works Festival at Nashville Children's Theatre.