High-spirited, energetic and enormously entertaining, Circle Players' Newsies is a certified hit - thanks in large part to the focused direction of Jim Manning, the athletic and challenging choreography of Tosha Pendergrast and the superb musical direction of DaJuana Hammonds - performed by an impre... (more...)
There's probably no title in the contemporary theater repertoire guaranteed to spark more debate than Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias. Particularly among southern companies, Harling's story of six women who gather every Saturday morning in a small-town Louisiana beauty shop has legions of fans who ... (more...)
Sharply written dialogue and an engaging story as relevant as any you are likely to see onstage nowadays are the hallmarks of Molly Smith Metzler's Cry It Out, now onstage through August 18 at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater in a superbly acted production from SistaStyle Productions and Three in a Tre... (more...)
Nashville's iconic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre is back and better than ever! After some six months - and 50 or more years since its debut - the newly renovated and gorgeously appointed Chaffin's Barn has reopened with a rousing production of Sister Act, the habit-forming musical that played to sol... (more...)
It's fun, perhaps even joyful, and audiences are clearly delighted to reward director Matthew Hayes Hunter's youthful cast with riotous applause at the appropriate moments, but do they really endorse the message of the timeworn Jacobs and Casey script? Heck, do they even think about it?... (more...)
The legend of Robin Hood is subject to personal interpretation and, given the times in which we now live, it only makes sense that playwright Adam Szymkowicz would devise his own treatment of the legend in ways both provocative and traditional. In Marian, Or The True Tale of Robin Hood, Szymkowicz p... (more...)
Playwright Tori Keenan-Zelt's emergence as a force in contemporary theater seems assured with her newest play, Truth/Dare, an incisive, on-target treatment of the pitfalls of adolescence and the frailty of relationships during a time in which everything seems in a constant state of flux. Directed by... (more...)
We cannot help but wonder: Do peacock feathers foretell of something far more sinister and portentous than what we've seen already in both Love Never Dies and The Phantom of the Opera await our heroine in the moments to follow? We won't spoil the outcome for you, of course, but suffice it to say tha... (more...)
There's absolutely no need to equivocate, make comparisons or to otherwise water down this particularly judgmental opinion: The Little Mermaid - the stage version of the Disney musical about a gamine sea creature who longs to become human which is now onstage at Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts th... (more...)
Annie, the Broadway musical by Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin and Thomas Meehan, is something of a community theater warhorse - a show that is sure to bring in throngs of theater-goers despite the oftentimes scornful dismay of the theaterati - along the same lines as Steel Magnolias, Grease and, we... (more...)
Without a doubt, an individual's teenage years can be fraught with tension and riddled with despair and even when that is leavened by the joy of self-discovery and the constant gaining of knowledge that accompanies adolescence, there's a steep learning curve that some are unable to embrace gracefull... (more...)
Verge Theater Company continues its trajectory as one of Nashville's leading and most adventurous theater companies with its wondrous production of David Lindsay-Abaire's Kimberly Akimbo, featuring an astonishing and electrifying five-person cast under the superb direction of Laramie Hearn. Kimberl... (more...)
Now onstage at the Z. Alexander Looby Theatre as the concluding production of Circle Players' 2017-18 season, Disney's Beauty and the Beast is brought to life by an eager-to-please cast and crew, giving further proof to the universality of the story and the continued delight of audiences lucky enoug... (more...)
Why am I writing about my obvious journalistic shortcomings now for what could be construed for the third time? Street Theatre Company's production of the Hunter Bell-Jeff Bowen musical [title of show] opens tonight to run through June 23 - and last night I was part of the preview audience, having b... (more...)
There comes a moment late in act two of Waitress, the Jessie Nelson-Sara Bareilles musical now onstage at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall, when Desi Oakley - the actress portraying Jenna Hunterson, the show's very pregnant heroine - finds herself bathed in the bright glow of a... (more...)
At first blush, it would be easy to say that there's not much action packed into Annie Baker's The Flick - now onstage in a noteworthy production from Nashville's Verge Theater Company at Belmont's Black Box Theater - but that is, in fact, a pretty simplistic take on a story that is as complex and a... (more...)
Grease has been a part of the American musical theater vernacular for so long - it opened in Chicago some 47 years ago in the halcyon days of 1971 - that it's easy to overlook the show's impact on theater, in general, and audiences, in particular. Its multiple revivals on Broadway, in regional theat... (more...)
There's something striking about the way that THE LITTLE FOXES manages to leave an impact on its viewers, not with flash and spectacle, but with its piercing dialogue and moral complexity.... (more...)
Filled to overflowing with youthful energy and plenty of showbiz razzle-dazzle, CoPlayers Theatre's production of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown - directed and choreographed by the peripatetic Tosha Pendergrast, easily the busiest musical theater choreographer in Middle Tennessee - does what so ma... (more...)
Now onstage at Brentwood's Towne Centre Theatre, Ludwig's Shakespeare in Hollywood (not to be confused with the musical Shakespeare in Love, which is based on an Oscar-winning film) once again takes audiences to 1934 to tell the story of the mirthful hijinks surrounding Austrian stage director Max R... (more...)
No matter how many times you see Wicked, no matter how many actresses defy gravity to soar as Elphaba or how numerous the renditions of 'Popular' you may hear Galinda sing, make absolutely no mistake about it: Wicked is a musical theater masterpiece. Winnie Holzman's engaging book (based on the nove... (more...)
Theater's power to illuminate and to elucidate even while offering diverting entertainment has perhaps never been felt so strongly as in Nashville Repertory Theatre's engaging version of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's Inherit the Wind, a fictionalized account of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in ... (more...)
We Southerners take our literary history seriously, whether it's a book, a poem, a novel or a play - no matter the genre, we are proud to read about our way of life and the things that we believe make us so very special. Such is the case with Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias, which debuted in 1987 t... (more...)
There's really nothing better than a musical theater-inspired epiphany: On opening night of Belmont University Musical Theatre's altogether invigorating and exhilarating On The Town (which plays Belmont's Troutt Theatre through this Sunday, March 25) I was struck by the similarities - both structura... (more...)
There's something magical about the Nashville Ballet and that statement rang true during the 2018 Nashville Ballet Ball at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.... (more...)
BWW Review: NEWSIES Makes Headlines for Start of Circle Players' 69th Season
BWW Review: CFTA Sells All The Tickets for Harling's STEEL MAGNOLIAS
BWW Review: Metzler's CRY IT OUT Engagingly Traverses the Many Challenges of Motherhood
BWW Review: Chaffin's Barn Re-opens With Habit-Forming SISTER ACT
BWW Review: Arts Center of Cannon County's GREASE is Fun, But Out of Step With The Times
BWW Review: Adam Szymkowicz's MARIAN, OR THE TRUE TALE OF ROBIN HOOD is Truly Legendary
BWW Review: Keenan-Zelt's TRUTH/DARE Gives Four Young Actors A Chance to Shine
BWW Review: LOVE NEVER DIES Closes Out TPAC's 2017-18 Season
BWW Review: Murfreesboro's Best Ever? THE LITTLE MERMAID Stakes A Claim for the Title
BWW Review: Noah Rice-led ANNIE Brings Spirit to The Keeton's Summer Show
BWW Review: Radical Arts' BARE Features Strong Performances from Rising Actors
BWW Review: Verge Theater Company Inaugurates The Barbershop Theatre With Wondrous KIMBERLY AKIMBO
BWW Review: Circle Players' Closes its 17-18 Season With BEAUTY AND THE BEAST![BWW Review: Street Theater Company's Ultra-Cool, Ultra-Insider(y) Take on [title of show]](https://images.bwwstatic.com/columnpic10/200200BECDC5A8-C5D6-2AB0-44BF56BA048FBAC5.jpg)
BWW Review: Street Theater Company's Ultra-Cool, Ultra-Insider(y) Take on [title of show]
BWW Review: WAITRESS Captures The Heart of Nashville During TPAC Run
BWW Review: Verge Theater's THE FLICK Best of 2018 to Date
BWW Review: Young, DeGarmo and Doolittle Star in Studio Tenn's Stylish Revival of GREASE
BWW Review: THE LITTLE FOXES Captivatingly Shines Spotlight on Power and Greed at Darkhorse Theatre
BWW Review: CoPlayers Theatre Hits One Out of the Park With YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN
BWW Review: Ludwig's SHAKESPEARE IN HOLLYWOOD Takes TCT Audiences Back to 1934
BWW Review: Magical, Memorable WICKED Flies Into TPAC's Jackson Hall for 4-Week Nashville Run
BWW Review: Nashville Rep's Timely - and Timeless - Take on INHERIT THE WIND
BWW Review: Circle Players' 2017-18 Season Continues With STEEL MAGNOLIAS
BWW Review: Starmaking Performances Lead Belmont University's Exhilarating ON THE TOWN
BWW Review: 2018 NASHVILLE BALLET BALL Stuns at Schermerhorn Symphony Center
