If the production of Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men closing tonight after a much too brief two-weekend run at Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts proves anything it's just how current and relevant the play remains, almost 30 years after its Broadway premiere. First produced there in 1989, followed... (more...)
Ernie Nolan, Nashville Children's Theatre's new executive artistic director, makes an impressive debut with The Hundred Dresses, the initial show of his first official season as the leader of the country's oldest theater for younger audiences. Nolan's predecessor, the late and great Scot Copeland, l... (more...)
Singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg's music has provided the soundtrack for so many people's lives over the past 40 years that it should come as no surprise that his remarkable catalogue of music now provides the score for a new musical with its sights focused on a Broadway transfer. But does Part of th... (more...)
There is no mistaking the incisive wit of Jane Austen's rather genteel evisceration of the British aristocracy to be found in Sense and Sensibility, the thoroughly delightful and completely engaging adaptation by Kate Hamill that opens Nashville Repertory Theatre's 2017-18 season. In gleeful style, ... (more...)
Memory plays are a challenge for any playwright - ask Tennessee Williams, whose The Glass Menagerie is not only the quintessential memory play, but is also a theatrical masterpiece - and that may, perhaps, explain the shortcomings found in Studio Tenn's The Battle of Franklin: A Tale of a House Divi... (more...)
If not for the fact that she is already one on Broadway, it could be said that Rachel Potter's performance in Mamma Mia! - which opened last night at Nashville's historic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre - was, without doubt or without danger of fulsome exaggeration a "starmaking turn." With a glorious... (more...)
Sometimes even the loveliest and most appealing of musical theater scores can be forgotten, virtually erased from your memory. Unless, of course, you have your digital music system programmed to play a cavalcade of memorable showtunes, but even then, you're likely hear songs from the same ten shows ... (more...)
Director Chris McLaurin makes a particularly auspicious debut at the helm of his rollicking - and beautifully sung and winningly staged - production of Gilbert and Sullivan's classic The Pirates of Penzance, now playing at Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts through August 27. Charming and engaging, ... (more...)
Katharine Boettcher's glorious soprano is finally given the showcase it so richly deserves in the beautifully sung production of Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon's The Secret Garden, the oftentimes stirring and altogether bewitching story of a young orphaned girl forced to live with her mysterious uncle... (more...)
Strong and energetic - some even show-stopping - performances from a youthful, fresh-faced cast, choreography that will have you dancing in the aisles and sprightly direction that moves the plot along at an astonishing pace…if you aren't already a fan of Bring It On the Musical, then Circle Players'... (more...)
Theater's power to transform and transport is astonishing and the capability of artists to create a sense of time and place, with words and music and theatrical wizardry to lend a tangible feeling to the experience can leave you breathless. Who'd have ever thought that such thrilling artistry, the v... (more...)
Nothing seems to spark so much debate among the theaterati than the announcement of an upcoming production of a show considered overdone, old-fashioned or somehow hackneyed and quasi-provincial. Take for example, Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias - the somewhat nostalgic and Southern-fried seriocomic... (more...)
Nashville audiences have become rather familiar with the work of Lauren Gunderson, the most produced living American playwright of the 2016-17 season, primarily due to works presented by Tennessee Women's Theater Project. Now, thanks to an impressive production of her Silent Sky, by Woven Theatre Co... (more...)
Despite its provocative title and abundant profanity (or maybe even because of it), Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Motherf**ker With the Hat is actually filled with a lot of humanity and heart, enough that you'll find it difficult to shake off the story and its characters long after the final scene has p... (more...)
Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva's miraculous transformation into music legend Billie Holiday may well be the performance of 2017, theater-wise, in a city where we revere and venerate our favorite vocalists. But in Music City, where live theater is often perceived as a mere afterthought by the entertainment ... (more...)
Once again, Cori Laemmel and Laura Matula - along with their team of creative collaborators and their always surprising and courageous troupe of young actors at The Theater Bug - have achieved much with their latest original musical. If I Were You, which focuses on four young protagonists gives the ... (more...)
Ryan Bowie revives his amazing performance as the 'international song stylist' Hedwig Schmidt in the latest incarnation of Hedwig and The Angry Inch, now onstage at Clarksville's Roxy Regional Theatre through July 15. No matter if you saw him in 2014 during the show's initial run at theotherspace at... (more...)
Performed amid a gorgeous, bucolic setting, the latest offering from Nashville's KB Productions - a retelling of Theresa Rebeck's Greek tragedy cum American family drama The Water's Edge - is performed upon what may be the most detailed, stunningly conceived and beautifully realized set ever seen on... (more...)
Nashville audiences have long been noted for their generosity in rewarding performances with a standing ovation - to the point that they have become rather commonplace - but never before have we witnessed a 'standing O' at the end of a particularly raucous, thoroughly inspiring and resolutely entert... (more...)
Musical theater lends itself to the "high concept" approach, to be certain, even if it doesn't always add to the overall success of a production. Case in point: Street Theatre Company's current revival of Stephen Schwartz's Pippin, onstage through June 25 at Holy Trinity Community Church in Nashvill... (more...)
'Over-the-top' and 'larger-than-life' are but two of the descriptive phrases that may be used in reference to both director Jason Lewis and his latest theatrical project Reefer Madness the Musical - and, in both instances, they are equally justified. In all honesty, who else better than he to helm a... (more...)
Back in the day, theatrically speaking, there was something you could always count on in Nashville: some of the very best (if not the best) summer musicals could be found at one venue - Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. All manner of classic stage musicals were staged at the Barn over the years, rangin... (more...)
Shawn Knight's stunning and transformative performance as the 600-pound protagonist in Samuel D. Hunter's The Whale - now onstage in a new production from Verge Theater Company to launch its third season - elevates the script beyond its stage-bound limitations, guaranteeing two hours of reflection a... (more...)
The Nashville Ballet has a special way of producing unique works you've never seen before. EMERGENCE is its yearly production that opens viewers eyes to the creative process, offering an "artistic experiment" unlike any other, and the 2017 production is no exception.... (more...)
Carole King is an American treasure: a singer/songwriter of much renown, she possesses the showbiz bona fides that place her among the highest echelons of creative endeavor and for more than 50 years, she has provided the soundtrack for the lives of so many of us that you can't help but be caught up... (more...)
BWW Review: Bailey Directs Well-Paced A FEW GOOD MEN at CFTA
BWW Review: Nolan Makes Impressive Nashville Children's Theatre Debut With THE HUNDRED DRESSES
BWW Review: Fogelberg Score Soars in PART OF THE PLAN at TPAC
BWW Review: Nashville Rep's Stylish Take on Jane Austen's SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
BWW Review: Studio Tenn's History Lesson for THE BATTLE OF FRANKLIN
BWW Review: Gorgeous MAMMA MIA! Takes the Chaffin's Barn Stage in High-Flying Style
BWW Review: Springhouse Theatre's Winsome Staging of THE FANTASTICKS
BWW Review: CFTA's Tuneful and Entertaining THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
BWW Review: Towne Centre's Sumptuously Sung THE SECRET GARDEN Captivates
BWW Review: Circle Players' BRING IT ON THE MUSICAL Brings Down the House
BWW Review: SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN's Sentimental Journey at Chaffin's Barn
BWW Review: Roxy Regional's STEEL MAGNOLIAS Takes You Back Home
BWW Review: Woven Theatre's Exquisite and Enlightening SILENT SKY
BWW Review: Destiny Theatre Experience's MOTHERF**KER WITH THE HAT Burns Bright
BWW Review: Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva's Dazzling and Stunning Billie Holiday Can't Be Missed
BWW Review: Theater Bug's Funny and Wry New Musical IF I WERE YOU
BWW Review: Ryan Bowie Brings Back His Amazing HEDWIG To The Roxy
BWW Review: KB Productions' THE WATER'S EDGE by Theresa Rebeck
BWW Review: SOMETHING ROTTEN! Wows Nashville Audiences During Show's TPAC Run
BWW Review: Street Theatre Company's Social Media-Inspired PIPPIN
BWW Review: So Good It's Addictive...ACT 1's REEFER MADNESS
BWW Review: SISTER ACT Heralds A Return to the Glory Days at Chaffin's Barn
BWW Review: Knight's Performance Elevates Verge Theater Company's THE WHALE
BWW Review: EMERGENCE Exudes Artistic Expression and Individuality
BWW Review: BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL Captivates Nashville
LaChanze, DeBose & Lever to Take on Title Role in Donna Summer Musical
Regional Roundup: Top New Features This Week Around Our BroadwayWorld 9/22
