NASHVILLE THEATER REVIEWS

Startling, stunning and evocative performances by an ensemble of Nashville actors performing at the top of their game in an altogether effective and moving production of a contemporary classic: that's what audiences are likely recalling now - hours, days, weeks - after experiencing the latest artist...

If there was ever a local production of MY FAIR LADY that was sure to offer a treat to the Nashville theater scene, the current installment of the play at the Larry Keeton Theatre would be the one....

It's not often that adaptions of beloved classics can do justice to the original, but that is precisely what the latest installment of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, directed by Jack O'Brien, has accomplished. The current U.S. tour made a stop at TPAC's Andrew Jackson Hall on Tues., Feb. 14 for the opening nig...

The Nashville Ballet's 2017 production of ATTITUDE brought a host of grace, edge and even a bit of history to TPAC's James K. Polk Theatre on Thurs., Feb. 9....

A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER has been delighting audiences everywhere since its award-winning debut in 2012. Nashville got to experience that joy when it made its debut at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall opening night on Tues., Jan. 24. The show is nothing short ...

Nashville's historic and iconic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre - now led by Norma Luther, the gracious and charming new owner - launches its second half century on the venerated chow and bow circuit with a sparkling new revival of Neil Simon's equally historic and iconic The Odd Couple, now onstage t...

And, lord! What a cast Larson has assembled for his unique take on the musical - which again was catapulted into the cultural zeitgeist thanks to the critically acclaimed televised version from NBC last year of the show that features the music and lyrics of Charlie Smalls and book by William F. Brow...

Hand to God is a ballsy, brassy and in-your-face consideration of life in a Southern church and its impact on the lives of its congregants, exposing the hypocrisy of small-town convention and social mores that continue to evolve at a glacial pace. You'll be singing hosannas in the show's aftermath, ...

Since its debut in 2008, Nashville's Nutcracker – choreographer Paul Vasterling's holiday-scented love letter to his adopted hometown – has delighted thousands of audience members eager to experience this particularly rapturous paean to this most wonderful time of the year. Eager to set off on a...

Those wacky sisters of Hoboken are back on the job and back in the theatre in Nuncrackers - writer Dan Goggins' latest installment of the continuing saga of a group of down-on-their-luck nuns from New Jersey who are still trying to beef up their rolls, score some longed-for electronic gadgets and la...

With a cheerful attitude that knows no bounds, Eubie - the happiest elf at the North Pole - is determined to spread his apropos spirit of the season wherever he goes in Harry Connick Jr.'s The Happy Elf, now onstage at Clarksville's Roxy Regional Theatre in a delightful production directed by Ryan B...

Some grand holiday traditions are exactly what is needed in these turbulent times and nothing is more pleasing than the 2016 version of Nashville Repertory Theatre's live stage version of A Christmas Story, the theatrical treatment of the movie of the same name that somehow captures all the memories...

While there are always rumors of closings and real estate transactions happening willy-nilly, Chaffin's Barn continues to thrive and to entertain and to give both audiences and theater folk an opportunity to get to know one another better and to be transported and transformed via the magic of live t...

As challenging a work of theatrical artistry that you could possibly conceive of, Parade affords BUMT students a sublime opportunity in pursuit of excellence in a production that vociferously demands to be seen and experienced. It is one of the year's best musicals in a Nashville theatrical season t...

You gotta admit: A lot has changed in this world since Nashville audiences were first treated to The Book of Mormon two years ago. The extended run in 2014 at Tennessee Performing Arts Center set records for ticket sales, garnered great critical acclaim and knocked the socks off the thousands of peo...

Just in time to lift your spirits in the wake of a bruising presidential election season, Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre - the iconic theatrical venue, which for 50 years has delighted Nashville audiences on the chow-and-bow circuit - provides ample laughs and plenty of guffaws (along with a bountifu...

There is perhaps no theme more deeply resonant in Disney's Beauty and the Beast than its treatment of the redemptive power of love to change any trouble soul - and thanks to Mike Fernandez's cinematic take on the musical theater classic and the superb leading performances of Bekah Purifoy and Scott ...

Who knew that a whimsical, magical play - Philip Dawkins' evocatively written Failure: A Love Story, now onstage at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater in a thoroughly engaging production from Actors Bridge Ensemble in its 20th Anniversary Season - would speak so eloquently to that sense of pervasive loss...

Patrick Kramer's commanding performance as Frederick Frankenstein (that's 'FRONKENsteen' for the uninitiated) in the Center for the Arts' production of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein is reason enough to buy a ticket (if you're lucky enough to score one - shows are playing to capacity crowds in Murfr...

It's hard to believe that Jonathan Larson's epic rock musical masterpiece, Rent, debuted on Broadway, making headlines around the world, winning the Pulitzer Prize and bringing a whole new generation of audiences to the theater 20 years ago. Larson who died just prior to the show's 1996 off-Broadway...

There comes a moment in Act Two (or maybe it's Act One - on second thought, maybe it's the second Act One, although it could be the third…) of Michael Frayn's Noises Off, now onstage at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theatre, in which Martha Wilkinson comes onstage, hits her mark, cuts her eyes at another ...

Joseph Kesselring's Arsenic and Old Lace, a genteel and sometimes beguiling 'suspense comedy,' is a favorite among the nation's various and sundry community theater companies. And for good reason: It's slyly amusing, despite its age, and it features some genuinely engaging (if somewhat despicable, d...

There's something about Tonya Pewitt, a certain, almost indefinable, something that makes her an ideal musical theater leading lady (perhaps, we admit, that's a dated term in these politically correct times – we are, after all, in the 21st century and the election of the first woman president of t...

One thing in theater seems certain: Give an accomplished and veteran director the reins to a show and you can be guaranteed they will approach the work decisively and imaginatively - no matter how weak or how strong a particular play's script may be…...

From the very first moment - when principal guest conductor Nathan Fifield raises his baton and the musicians of the Nashville Symphony play the very first notes of Prokofiev's lush score - it becomes apparent that Nashville Ballet's Cinderella is going to be something very special. And so it goes f...