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Nashville Theater Reviews

The latest reviews and critic recommendations from Nashville.

BWW Reviews: Trish Crist's '41' from Rhubarb Theater Company

BWW Reviews: Trish Crist's '41' from Rhubarb Theater Company

by Jeffrey Ellis — July 29, 2010

Nashville playwright and director Trish Crist has brought her latest project to the stage of Darkhorse Theatre, a heartfelt consideration of the journey taken by Americans since 1969 - the summer in which the modern lesbian and gay civil rights movement was finally galvanized at the Stonewall Inn in

BWW Reviews: INTO THE WOODS at Clarksville's Roxy Regional Theatre

BWW Reviews: INTO THE WOODS at Clarksville's Roxy Regional Theatre

by Jeffrey Ellis — July 19, 2010

Some 20-plus years after its Broadway debut - and about 15 or more years since I last saw the musical's first production at The Roxy - Into the Woods retains its powerful storytelling technique, made all the more memorable by Sondheim's beautiful score, and presents a plethora of characters from chi

BWW Reviews: FUNNY MONEY at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre

BWW Reviews: FUNNY MONEY at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre

by Jeffrey Ellis — July 14, 2010

This confluence of events and elements has resulted in the perfect summer diversion at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, Nashville's venerable theatrical venue, with their production of Ray Cooney's Funny Money.

BWW Reviews: NINE at Boiler Room Theatre

BWW Reviews: NINE at Boiler Room Theatre

by Jeffrey Ellis — June 21, 2010

Ciaran McCarthy gives such a stunningly raw and beautifully nuanced performance as film director Guido Contini in Boiler Room Theatre's production of Nine that it would be easy to lavish praise on him and leave it at that.

BWW Reviews: DOUBT at David Lipscomb University's Shamblin Theatre

BWW Reviews: DOUBT at David Lipscomb University's Shamblin Theatre

by Jeffrey Ellis — June 4, 2010

Provocative and compelling, John Patrick Shanley's script for Doubt remains stagebound - albeit a Pulitzer Prize-winning, stagebound masterpiece - until a confident director and cast take on the challenge of mounting a production, in which to breathe life into the characters created so vividly by th

BWW Reviews: THE BUTLER DONE IT at Chaffin's Barn

BWW Reviews: THE BUTLER DONE IT at Chaffin's Barn

by Jeffrey Ellis — May 19, 2010

Starring a whole slew of Barn regulars hamming it up, The Butler Done It is cliche-filled romp -- and while it covers no new ground, Chaffin, Wilkinson and company are clearly in on the joke and make certain to include their audience in the fun.

BWW Reviews: showHOPE's CINDERELLA: ENCHANTED EDITION

BWW Reviews: showHOPE's CINDERELLA: ENCHANTED EDITION

by Jeffrey Ellis — May 17, 2010

What with all the star power of the assembled cast - featuring such theatre luminaries as Heather Headley, Alli Mauzey, Jodi Benson and Anthony Fedorov - it should come as something of a surprise that showHOPE's concert version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella was very nearly stolen out from

BWW Reviews: SONGS IN A SILKEN SKY

BWW Reviews: SONGS IN A SILKEN SKY

by Jeffrey Ellis — May 11, 2010

When I ran into Carolyn one afternoon a couple of weeks ago, she invited me to attend Songs in a Silken Sky, a cabaret performance by participants in Metro Parks Theater and Music Department's Young Performers Program.

BWW Reviews: WAITING FOR GODOT at Amun Ra Theatre

BWW Reviews: WAITING FOR GODOT at Amun Ra Theatre

by Jeffrey Ellis — April 25, 2010

Keifer's superbly cast five-member ensemble delivers a performance that is compelling and provocative, bringing Beckett's rather nonsensical, although altogether shocking and introspective, premise to vivid life.

BWW Reviews: Nashville Ballet's World Premiere of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

BWW Reviews: Nashville Ballet's World Premiere of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

by Jeffrey Ellis — April 24, 2010

The resulting production that comes from Vasterling's unerringly skillful choreography and his clearly developed vision for the piece - exquisitely expressed through Baird's costume and scenic design, Scott Leathers' stunningly evocative lighting design and the beautiful music of Felix Mendelssohn p

BWW Reviews: Street Theatre Company's PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

BWW Reviews: Street Theatre Company's PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

by Jeffrey Ellis — April 19, 2010

Thanks to Street Theatre Company's stellar production of the William Finn-Rachel Sheinkin-Rebecca Feldman musical comedy, I'll be wallowing in self-pity (or maybe I'll be just a little melancholy and sanguine) until I find better ways to occupy my time and better memories to fill my mind - or a brig

BWW Reviews: Rhubarb Theatre Company's POTTY TALK

by Jeffrey Ellis — April 12, 2010

For women in the audience (and both women and men came out in droves this past weekend for the opening of Potty Talk at the Darkhorse; making reservations for this week's upcoming performances is a very good idea), I suspect that the shared camaraderie of the ladies' room is a given.

BWW Reviews: Nashville Opera's RIGOLETTO

by Jeffrey Ellis — April 12, 2010

Rife with corruption and intrigue, teeming with forbidden love and deception, Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto is among the most often performed operas in America - and Nashville Opera closes out its 2009-2010 season with a beautifully designed and sumptuously mounted production of the Italian masterpiece

BWW Reviews: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD from Nashville's Circle Players

BWW Reviews: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD from Nashville's Circle Players

by Jeffrey Ellis — April 5, 2010

Despite a few glimmers of hope and the promise of a transformative evening of theatre, the current Circle Players production of To Kill a Mockingbird is a thoroughly passionless and completely uninspired staging of Harper Lee's classic Southern tale and, clearly, is one of the biggest disappointment

BWW Reviews: THE FANTASTICKS at Boiler Room Theatre

by Jeffrey Ellis — March 29, 2010

McCarthy's boyishly appealing Matt, Sonn's winsomely beguiling Luisa and Sevier's beautifully sung El Gallo are, clearly, the lynchpins that guarantee audiences will respond favorably to the show, and they are given ample support from a gifted veteran cast assembled by Morton.

BWW Reviews: BIG RIVER from Tennessee Repertory Theatre

BWW Reviews: BIG RIVER from Tennessee Repertory Theatre

by Jeffrey Ellis — March 23, 2010

But three other individuals are perhaps most responsible for the overall delight that is Tennessee Rep's 25th Anniversary season production: director Rene Dunshee Copeland, whose imaginative work helps to re-invent this musical on a basis that is at once more intimate while, somehow, is on a grander

BWW Reviews: ACT 1's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

by Jeffrey Ellis — March 23, 2010

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Edward Albee's scathing evisceration of marriage and indictment of suburban morality - is brought to the Nashville stage once again in a superbly acted and confidently directed production from Artists Cooperative Theatre 1 (ACT 1).

BWW Reviews: Bethlehem Players' SOUTHERN FRIED FUNERAL

BWW Reviews: Bethlehem Players' SOUTHERN FRIED FUNERAL

by Jeffrey Ellis — March 16, 2010

Clearly, Osborne and Eppler are writing about the people, places and things they have known from birth (in fact, on opening night, Osborne's family members from Arkansas, Alabama and Tennessee were on hand to witness the world premiere of the play, thus his pedigree is assured) and they display an i

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The Fisher Center at Belmont University (10/17-10/17)
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Chattanooga Theatre Centre (9/01-9/30)
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