The latest reviews and critic recommendations from Nashville.
With the strong, focused direction of Clay Hillwig and the uniformly consistent and superb performances of an exceptional cast, Circle Players starts off 2011 with its impressively mounted revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.
Thanks to a joint production of Nashville's Rhubarb Theater and Pendulum 3, Sedaris' twinbill for Christmas - The Santaland Diaries and Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family, adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello - gave audiences just the right twist to the season, delivering laughs and evoki
You really must give credit to Kaine Riggan: the man has recreated one of downtown Nashville's best-known nightspots into a beautifully appointed live theater venue, somehow doing a thriving business in an economy that, at best, may be described as 'dire.
Visiting - or, more accurately, revisiting - the fine folks of Tuna, Texas, during the holiday season is akin to seeing all those crazy old friends or wacky members of your own family.
Theater-goers in Nashville have a new holiday tradition to embrace this season with Tennessee Repertory Theatre's wonderfully staged and acted revival of last season's critically acclaimed stage adaptation of A Christmas Story.
Forget the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade or schlepping to the mall to shop 'til you drop on Black Friday, the best - and definitely the most joyous - way to welcome the holiday season is a trip to Crossville for Cumberland County Playhouse's gloriously rapturous production of She Loves Me, the love
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Truth be told, 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' is one of my all-time favorite holiday songs - sweetly sentimental, blending holiday hope with a certain melancholic sensibility that is perfect for the season.
Now onstage at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse is Sanders Family Christmas, the second part of the trilogy, in which the gospel-singing family returns to Mt.
Brigadoon, onstage at Cumberland County Playhouse through November 21, could well be one of the closest-to-sheer-perfection musical theater experiences I've ever had, beautifully played and exquisitely staged, performed by a phenomenally gifted cast led by the multi-talented Britt Hancock (who sings
Directed with his customary flair and oh-so-obvious affection for the material by NCT producing artistic director Scot Copeland, it's one of the sweetest shows you'll ever witness.
There's no doubt about it: Circle Players' Tim Larson is fearless.
Now, in a sumptuously mounted revival touring the country, director/choreographer Robert Longbottom - who made his Broadway debut with Side Show, a musical of similar themes (again with music by Henry Krieger) that had the same visceral impact on me - has re-fashioned Dreamgirls for the new millenni
With an imaginative staging and details-oriented direction by Matt Logan, with the superb musical direction of Nathan Burbank and the spirited choreography of Ashley Anderson McCarthy (who does double duty as 'Minnie Fay' in the cast - and has never looked lovelier onstage), Studio Tenn's first offi
If you've a hankering for some wickedly good fun this Halloween season, you need look no further than Street Theatre Company's wonderfully staged Macabaret, a musical send-up of all things ghostly, that features a terrific cast under the direction of one of Nashville's most beloved director/choreogr
Clearly, Bud, Not Buddy is a promising opening to NCT's 2010-11 season and it sets the bar high for what is to follow in the coming year.
Director Maryanna Clarke's intelligent choice to retain the play's original setting instead of transplanting the playwrights' characters to some American hamlet helps to underscore the play's universality and to further illustrate how women all over the world must confront the cold reality of a canc
With a trio of powerful leading performances from Ben Van Diepen, Ciaran McCarthy and Laura Matula, the Boiler Room Theatre production of Jonathan Larson's Pultizer Prize-winning Rent may well be the finest interpretation of the groundbreaking musical we've ever seen.
Nashville theater audiences owe a huge debt of gratitude to Tennessee Repertory Theatre's creative team - led by producing artistic director Rene Dunshee Copeland, scenic and properties designer Gary Hoff, costume designer Trish Clark, lighting designer Phillip Franck and technical director Tyler Ax
Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler have quickly gained a reputation as Nashville's most accomplished playwriting team and, thanks to their latest effort - the winkingly titled Rear Widow, now onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre - the talented duo have scored their biggest success to date.
Make no mistake about it: everybody in Tennessee loves Dolly Parton! She's a Volunteer State treasure, a role model for people all over the world and an example of what hard work and a whole lotta heart can achieve.
Performed by Hillwig's large cast against the backdrop of Jim Manning's beautifully conceived and exquisitely realized set that magically transforms the Keeton's intimate stage into a panoramic view of dustbowl Oklahoma, the fiery Southwest and the lush, verdant fields and orchards of California, Th
In a stylish and immensely entertaining fashion, director Melissa Bedinger Hade and her capable and confident band of merry players deliver a pleasantly diverting late-summer offering of Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid to open ACT 1's 2010-11 season with vigorous aplomb at Darkhorse Theatre.
There comes a moment late in act two of the Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre production of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming when now-married, about-to-give-birth daughter June Sanders Oglethorpe delivers a beautiful monologue in which she talks about her love for her family, her excitement at being a n
Blackbird Theater, the newest member of Nashville's burgeoning community of theater companies, makes an auspicious debut with the premiere of Wes Driver and Greg Greene's smartly written new script - Twilight of the Gods - now onstage at David Lipscomb University's Shamblin Theatre.
Reckless - Craig Lucas' skewed vision of suburban life in contemporary America - is brought to life in an engaging and entertaining new production from Actors Bridge Ensemble.
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Moon Over Buffalo Tellico Community Playhouse (9/03-9/20) |
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America Through the Tempest Scenic City Shakespeare (10/25-10/25) |
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Mean Girls the Musical Playhouse on the Square (8/21-9/13) |
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Dial M for Murder Hendersonville Performing Arts Company (3/19-4/04) |
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Clue Orpheum Theatre (9/15-9/20) |
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The Night Shift Before Christmas The Circuit Playhouse (11/20-12/20) |
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C.S. Lewis On Stage: Further Up & Further In The Fisher Center at Belmont University (10/17-10/17) |
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Sister Act Hendersonville Performing Arts Company (5/27-6/13) |
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The American Revolution (in 40 Minutes or Less!) Chattanooga Theatre Centre (9/01-9/30) |
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Come From Away Chattanooga Theatre Centre (9/01-9/30) |
