NASHVILLE THEATER REVIEWS

When Patty Duke played the role of Helen Keller in the Broadway premiere of William Gibson's The Miracle Worker, she was ten years old, and when Madeleine Hall took the stage of the Franklin Theatre on Thursday night in the opening of Studio Tenn's exquisitely crafted revival of the modern American ...

Led by an ensemble that includes the always superb Michael Holder in the titular role of Tommy, the "deaf, dumb and blind kid" who becomes a "pinball wizard," setting off widespread public acclaim and becoming a cause celebre in the process, Tommy in Concert also features the inspired pairing of Hol...

Tyrannical and imperious, Bernarda Alba rules her five daughters with an iron-fisted vehemence in Actors Bridge Ensemble and Belmont University Theatre's presentation of Federico Garcia Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, which marks the return to the stage of Vali Forrister, Actors Bridge producing...

Try as they might, director Martha Wilkinson and her talented ensemble of actors just can't breathe enough life into a thin, tepid script to make it work onstage for audiences eager to be entertained. Virginia Cate and Duke Ernsberger's Elvis Has Left The Building is pleasant enough, with a promisin...

It might not be great art, but Xanadu-the new musical onstage through March 3 at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre-sure is great fun! Pure, unadulterated escapism, Xanadu is laugh-out-loud funny, thanks primarily to the book by Douglas Carter Beane, but you have to give props to director Corbin Green a...

There comes a moment late in the second act of South Pacific when Nellie Forbush (played by the luminous Katie Reid), after hearing the disembodied voice of Emile Debecque (the dashing Marcelo Guzzo) over a two-way radio relaying some heartbreaking news-and confirming to her that he has sacrificed a...

Starring a quartet of fine Nashville actors-Shelean Newman, Jeff Boyet and Shannon Hoppe welcome David Alford back to Tennessee Rep's stage to complete their not-so-genial foursome-Reza's darkly comic script comes to life with seemingly effortless ease, thanks to Copeland's direction, the aforementi...

With a score filled with so many Cole Porter tunes that you're fairly drunk with delight after hearing them, the expert direction and choreography of musical theatre aficionado Kate Adams-Johnson, and a cast of extraordinarily gifted performers breathing vigorous life into the time-honored text, the...

Beautifully conceived by an ambitious, driven director and artfully brought to life by a stellar cast of actors, Pacific Overtures-the musical by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman-seems, at first, an unlikely choice for the sophomore season of Nashville's Blackbird Theater. Yet when you consider the...

If you can find a more joy-filled, inspirational musical than Regina Taylor's Crowns-a tribute to African-American women, their church-going traditions, their friends and families and their gorgeous chapeaux-I can't imagine what it could possibly be! Raising the roof of the historic Christ Church Ca...

Imperious and commanding, confident and resolute, Maria Callas is the quintessential opera diva-Leonard Bernstein referred to her as "The Bible of opera"-and with her oversized personality and regal bearing, she remains a force to be reckoned with almost 35 years after her death. ACT 1 continues its...

Eppler's obvious affection for the genre is apparent from the play's very first moments-Caldwell gives a high-spirited reading of his role, delivering Eppler's tongue-twisting dialogue with high caliber self-assurance, while Gore makes the first of his hilarious appearances in the play-and he once a...

Although the events of the story are nearly 50 years old, they resonate deeply-particularly for us Southerners in whose memories they continue to reverberate-and they offer younger audiences a sepia-toned look back at the not-so-distant past that we still must strive to overcome. In short, The Watso...

With taut, focused direction by Beki Baker and what is arguably the finest cast of actors to be assembled on a Nashville stage in recent memory, Nashville Shakespeare Festival heats winter up to a fever pitch with its remarkable production of Julius Caesar, Shakespeare's timeless-and very timely-tra...

With a cast filled with some of Nashville's most talented stage performers, director Paul J. Cook's version of Company-now onstage at The Keeton Theatre in a sparkling new production from Circle Players-is brimming over with theatrical riches. But if you had to pick just one from among this cadre of...

With an alluring and gorgeous Morticia (played by Broadway diva Sara Gittelfinger) and a charming and swellegant Gomez (Great White Way heartthrob Douglas Sills) leading the charge, the onstage iteration of Charles Addams' cartoon family is surely a dysfunctional lot. But, more importantly, they are...

Each one a force of nature in her own right, the five women of MAS Nashville unleashed their superpowers and talents upon a Nashville audience for the third time this week with their Christmas Holiday Hangover, a fast-paced (if over-long) tribute to the holiday season that allowed each of the women ...

Ever wonder how those other Cratchit kids must have felt cast in the shadow of their younger brother Tiny Tim's star-making turn in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol? Let's face it, the kid's a ringer: he's lovable, cute and wise beyond his years and his health, or lack thereof, make him a sentimen...

If there is an onstage moment more breathtaking, more purely theatrical, than the one during Nashville's Nutcracker when the green upstage curtain falls at the end of the exquisitely danced "Waltz of the Flowers," I simply cannot recall it nor would I want to-for it is during that brief respite from...

Restaging Studio Tenn's A Christmas Carol for the company's new home at the lavishly restored historic Franklin Theatre, director/designer Matt Logan manages to give new and invigorated life to the time-honored tale while interpreting it in a manner that is tremendously appealing and accessible, add...

Truth be told, seeing Martha Wilkinson in a black pageboy wig while she delivers a wonderfully droll comic character performance might be worth the price of a ticket to Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre's revival of Boeing-Boeing, the Marc Camoletti farce (adapted by Beverly Cross) under the direction o...

With a plethora of theater productions of A Christmas Carol filling local stages throughout December, you'd be hard-pressed to not find yourself in the audience of one of those productions. But if you have the presence of mind-and a ticket-you'd search far and wide for a more pleasing rendition of C...

Dance-the quality of performance, the merits of the performers, the creativity of the choreographers-at Middle Tennessee State University has certainly improved since the last time I reviewed the fall dance concert at MTSU. Of course, it was 32 years ago and the dance program at the university has g...

Under the sure-handed direction of Morton, who has brought together an impressive cast of adult actors with two different casts of youngsters, the whole of Oliver! is remarkable, a thoroughly delightful evening of theater that allows those older thespians to show off their talents while showcasing t...

Directed by David Alford, who certainly knows his way around the breakroom (what with his own experiences playing Crumpet the elf, Sedaris' velvet smock/candy can tights-wearing doppelganger), The Santaland Diaries is the perfect seasonal antidote for the countless, treacly-sweet productions of A Ch...