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...)
Bleak and darkly menacing, playwright Martin McDonagh's view of the world in his blackest of black comedies The Pillowman focuses on the investigation into a series of child murders in a fictional totalitarian state sometime in the near future - or, given the political climate in this real country i... (more...)
Poignant and compelling, Mockingbird - the play adapted for the stage by Julie Jensen from the National Book Award-winning novel for younger audiences by Katherine Erskine - is a remarkably timely and prescient look at the aftermath of a school shooting for the people most intimately affected by it,... (more...)
Hedda Gabler, both Henrik Ibsen's legendary anti-heroine and his eponymous play from whence she comes, challenges even the most experienced directors and actors to create a version of the piece that is engaging and authentic - and, perhaps more importantly, appealing to the people sitting in the aud... (more...)
One thing becomes abundantly clear while witnessing Bailey McCall Thomas' emotionally charged performance of the song 'Cabaret' during a performance of the iconic Broadway musical of the same name: there is perhaps no 'title song' quite so evocative, quite so stunning as John Kander and Fred Ebb's c... (more...)
Who'd have thought that a play written in 2000 and based upon a work by Aeschylus from 463 BC (give or take a year or two) would prove to be so timely in the 21st Century? Yet that is exactly what Big Love, a play by Charles Mee, directed by Amanda Card and produced by Tamara Todres, Kristin McCalle... (more...)
Marguerite Lowell's exquisitely crafted performance as Sister Aloysius will continue to reverberate long after the curtain has come down on Studio Tenn's remarkably prescient and timely production of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, which runs at Jamison Theatre in the Factory at Franklin through Sunda... (more...)
Are Caucasians (specifically, white men) 'hard-wired' to be prejudiced - genetically engineered to be biased against the members of other races - their so-called white privilege perhaps mitigated by circumstances beyond their control? That's but one of the intriguing queries posed during the two-and... (more...)
There's a reason BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is such a beloved classic and the Hendersonville Performing Arts Center has done a marvelous job of bringing this 'tale as old as time' to life. Directed by Robert Pitt and Brendan Martel, HPAC's production of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST honors all the aspects fans lov... (more...)
Terrific performances across the board, sprightly direction that keeps the action moving at a quick clip-clop and a no-holds-barred sense of ridiculous theatricality all come together in Center for the Arts' production of Monty Python's Spamalot, the hilarious stage musical based on the irreverent t... (more...)
Passionate and captivating, The Hunchback of Notre Dame - the stage musical based on the Disney animated classic, featuring music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Peter Parnell - is given a superb production at Woodbury's Arts Center of Cannon County and discerning theater patr... (more...)
Some 90 captivating minutes of creative, imaginative movement, Light/The Holocaust & Humanity Project features the superb dancers of Nashville Ballet at their finest, bringing to life history in such a way that left their audiences rapt, riveted to the smallest of moments and the largest of themes a... (more...)
The selection of The Threepenny Opera to inaugurate Street's 2018 season is one of the year's most eagerly anticipated theatrical events in Music City - thanks in part to the fact that it may well be the first home-grown staging of Brecht and Weill's parody of operetta that, in turn, skewers capital... (more...)
What perfect timing! Kudos to Nashville Children's Theatre executive artistic director Ernie Nolan and education director Alicia Lark Fuss (who does double duty as director of the play) for their impeccable midwinter choice of A Snowy Day as the venerable company's first show of 2018. That they had ... (more...)
Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, Nashville's iconic professional theater, opens its 2018 season - its 52nd! - with an entertaining, if somewhat overly long, production of Disney's Freaky Friday, the new musical with a starry musical theater pedigree.... (more...)
Sumptuously designed and opulently mounted, the visual aesthetic for the Lincoln Center revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I (a year-and-a-half into its national tour and now ensconced at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center for an eight-performance run through Sunday, Februar... (more...)
Wonderfully complex - and somehow unexpected and altogether authentic - performances from Sam Ashdown as Hamlet and Cheryl White as his mother Gertrude are enough reason to experience Nashville Shakespeare Festival's production of Hamlet (now onstage at Belmont University's Troutt Theatre through Su... (more...)
For the audience attending the opening night of JERSEY BOYS at TPAC, it was almost like they had traveled back in time to the days of their youth, reliving the fond memories the music of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons has given them.... (more...)
The Nashville Ballet has a gift for delivering professional-grade productions with a Nashville twist, and the 2017 installment of Nashville's Nutcracker is a prime example of said talent.... (more...)
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
BWW Review: ACT 1's Bleak Midwinter of Martin McDonagh's THE PILLOWMAN
BWW Review: Nashville Children's Theatre's Poignant and Compelling MOCKINGBIRD
BWW Review: Second Stage Student Theatre's HEDDA GABLER Will Give You Plenty to Talk About
BWW Review: CABARET Continues to Captivate On Opening Night at Nashville's TPAC
BWW Review: BIG LOVE, A PLAY, or 50 Brides for 50 Brothers
BWW Review: Lowell's Exquisite Performance Reverberates Long After Curtain For Studio Tenn's DOUBT
BWW Review: Nashville Rep's Beautifully Acted Take on Lydia R. Diamond's SMART PEOPLE
BWW Review: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Enchants at Hendersonville Performing Arts Center
BWW Review: CFTA's SPAMALOT is Good For What Ails You
BWW Review: Arts Center of Cannon County's Spectacular HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME Deserves Your Attention
BWW Review: Nashville Ballet's Stunning Performance of Stephen Mills' LIGHT
BWW Review: STC's THREEPENNY OPERA: Weimar Germany Is Having A Moment
BWW Review: Perfect Timing for A SNOWY DAY at Nashville Children's Theatre
BWW Review: DISNEY'S FREAKY FRIDAY Gets The Chaffin's Barn Musical Treatment
BWW Review: Almost 70 Years After Its Premiere, THE KING AND I Continues to Captivate Nashville Audiences at TPAC
BWW Review: Ashdown, White Lead Compelling HAMLET at Nashville Shakespeare Festival
BWW Review: JERSEY BOYS Brings Spectacular Show to TPAC
BWW Review: NASHVILLE'S NUTCRACKER Dazzles at TPAC