Jeffrey Ellis - Page 2

Alfred Uhry is a Southern writer who knows our region better than most and he uses the power of his words and the artistry of his pen to create moments and scenes in plays and musicals that are as authentic as the little rivulets of condensation that snake their way down the outside of a glass of iced tea on a too-hot afternoon in March, for goodness’ sake.

In the aftermath of experiencing the Nashville premiere of Jagged Little Pill — the musical inspired by and featuring music from Alanis Morissette’s 1995 album of the same name, other songs written by her and including two created expressly for the production, and featuring a compelling, biting and challenging book by Diablo Cody — one cannot help but lament the show’s abbreviated three-performance run at TPAC’s Andrew Jackson Hall.

Originally written and produced by Team Starkid (of A Very Potter Musical fame), The Trail to Oregon! parodies the video game The Oregon Trail, which follows a pioneer family on their journey westward to make a new life for themselves. Described as “hilarious and ‘edu-macational’ musical comedy,” the audience chooses the characters’ names at each show and making the decision of which family member succumbs to dysentery on the way to the Pacific Northwest.

Indian Ink Theatre Company’s Justin Lewis promises that Mrs. Krishnan’s Party – which will be celebrated over four days at Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Andrew Johnson Theatre March 6-9 – will lift your spirits and help you feel connected to a community of new friends who may have been actual strangers when you first arrived for the joyous festivities.

Just wondering: Do people still engage in cybersex, or has it – like electronic pagers, AOL and video rental stores – gone the way of the dodo? I ask because cybersex provides a salient plot point in Patrick Marber’s 1997 play Closer, which currently is the inaugural production from Nashville’s IS Productions, the more serious, yet less drunken theater producing arm of Inebriated Shakespeare, the entity that’s been serving up the Bard along with a cocktail or two, for the past few years in various Music City (and now in Houston, Texas, if memory serves) locales.

Now onstage at Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Andrew Jackson Theatre, through Sunday, February 18, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical gives the full biographical jukebox musical treatment to one of Tennessee’s most talented exports and favorite daughters.

Closer stars Britt Byrd, Ross Canales, Jeremy James Carmichael and Angela Gimlin, who take on our Friday Five (+1) questions and tell us why they think you should come see their show. You know the drill: Read their answers, call and get tickets, then tell everyone you know to meet you there.

Meghan Wombles’ spirited portrayal of 19th century British genius Ada Byron Lovelace provides the very heart of Lipscomb University Theatre’s Ada and The Engine, currently onstage through February 18 at the Shamblin Theatre, in a beautifully conceived production directed by Beki Baker.

A musical theater version of the infamous pair’s ill-fated life together is brought to life in a highly romanticized, tuneful and fast-paced production of the Frank Wildhorn-Don Black-Ivan Menchell Broadway musical Bonnie & Clyde, which played just a month on the Main Stem, but has since enjoyed a successful run in the United Kingdom and in American regional theater. Now onstage through Sunday, February 18, at Lebanon’s Capitol Theatre and directed by Angie Dee for Audience of One Productions, Bonnie and Clyde offers audiences a rip-roarin’ good time, featuring superb performances from the company’s stable of stars.

Should you feel the sudden urge to go home and bake some gingerbread upon leaving a performance of Nashville Children’s Theatre’s world premiere production of The Gingerbread Kid, rest assured it’s not a sign that you’ve developed cannibalistic tendencies. Rather, it’s part of a clever plot by director/choreographer/librettist Abe Reybold and executive artistic director Ernie Nolan (and their gang of creative artists) to ensure you’re immersed in the sweet-smelling world of confectionery treats while enjoying the brand-new musical that presents all manner of childhood tales in “bakery-fresh” packaging.

It is a chilling reminder of the hardships of life, the capricious nature of humankind and the cruelty to which people are still subjected today. And that, quite frankly, is why you should make it a point to see Nashville Repertory Theatre’s stunning production of Indecent, which is at once warmly amusing, heartbreakingly authentic and horrifically prescient more than a century after many of the events depicted took place.

Perhaps without knowing it, McPherson, the show’s creative collective and everyone involved with bringing Girl From The North Country to the stage have created the perfect musical for Nashville’s discerning theater audiences, people who know a thing or two about appreciating music, art and live performance. Only when you begin to leave the theater, perhaps awestruck by what you have just experienced, will you realize the gravity of what you have just seen.

Calling Girl From The North Country a 'jukebox musical' is not only a misnomer, but it completely misses the point of Irish playwright/director Conor McPherson’s acclaimed Broadway musical that features a score by Bob Dylan, according to actress Jennifer Blood, who plays Elizabeth Laine in the national touring company that begins its weeklong stand at Nashville’s Tennessee Performing Arts Center tonight.

What a way to open a brand-new year of live theater in Nashville: in Funny Girl, audiences may have found exactly what they were longing for as Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s touring presentation provides a portentous kick-off to 2024. In fact, we can’t recall a standing ovation more gratifyingly sincere and genuine in the 35+ years we’ve been reviewing shows at TPAC than the one with which the company was rewarded on opening night in Andrew Jackson Hall. It was appreciative and effusive – downright enthusiastic and straight from the heart – the thunderous and sustained reaction to two-and-a-half hours of gloriously exhilarating musical theatre straight out of the golden age.

Audience of One Productions’ stunning Anastasia, now onstage through December 10, is the perfect gateway: Beautifully directed with professionalism and a cinematic flair by Angie Dee, the romantic and historical musical is strikingly performed, emphatically sung and lyrically danced.

Nashville Repertory Theatre, in their tradition of celebrating this festive time of year, draws upon the sense of family that pervades our theater community by presenting a sumptuously appointed production of a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ venerable Christmas tale – A Christmas Carol – written and directed with heartfelt emotion to match the demands of the season by Micah-Shane Brewer.

Now onstage at Oz Arts Nashville in a ten-performance run through Sunday, December 10, FOOD both defies description and demands it: if, for example, you are like me and found yourself so caught up in the sheer spectacle and drama of Sobelle’s stunning performance on opening night only to be unable to really talk about it for at least half an hour after...

Although Geoff Sobelle’s life currently focuses on food – or, more aptly, FOOD – he admits that he’s never considered himself a “foodie.” In fact, he’s never really used the term. “I have two toddlers at home,” he says. “So, we don’t go out to restaurants very much at all, and that seems a big part of being a foodie. With toddlers, my life has changed.”

We continue to celebrate the return of Collegiate Theatrics with an interview featuring one of our favorites from the theatre department at Middle Tennessee State University in nearby Murfreesboro: Logan Purcell, a native of Gallatin, Tennessee, who will be graduating in 2025. We know Logan from his onstage appearances in MTSU’s productions of Fun Home, Cabaret and Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella in which his talents were on prominent display.

Denice Hicks is a national treasure who's been hiding out in plain sight in Nashville, Tennessee, for more than a quarter century. One of the most sought-after actors and directors in town, she has appeared on virtually every stage and her exquisite talents have been enjoyed by audiences and fellow theatre-types since her first Music City appearance as a cast member at the now-defunct Opryland USA theme park.