Nashville Theater Reviews

Nashville Children's Theatre's World Premiere of FINDING NEMO Musical Is Captivating and Heartwarming
by Jeffrey Ellis - April 18, 2024

Captivating, heartwarming, colorful, imaginative and down-right magical, Nashville Children’s Theatre’s world premiere production – it’s 19th in the past few years since executive artistic director Ernie Nolan’s arrival – of the theatre for young audiences version of Disney-Pixar’s Finding Nemo is j...

Nashville Repertory Theatre's Stellar 39th Season Continues With Superb Prooduction of THE COLOR PURPLE
by Jeffrey Ellis - April 09, 2024

Led by a bravura performance from Carli Hardon, Nashville Repertory Theatre’s production of The Color Purple – the musical based on the beloved Alice Walker novel – is yet another extraordinary success from the professional company in the midst of its 39th season. Directed with complete self-assuran...

Chris Cooper And Cast Present 'Sublime' Version of [title of show] at MTSU
by Jeffrey Ellis - April 03, 2024

Cooper’s clear and focused direction of [title of show] ensures that the action that transpires over the course of 90-plus minutes holds your attention, reminds you of people you know and delivers a pretty spot-on depiction of what real life is all about. With the able assistance of musical director...

Could LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL Be Belmont University Musical Theatre's Best-Ever?
by Jeffrey Ellis - April 01, 2024

With its silver anniversary year within sight, Belmont University Musical Theatre concludes its 24th season with what is perhaps its best show yet: Legally Blonde, The Musical. Featuring a remarkable cast of student performers, including most of the Class of 2024, which is arguably the most accompli...

Street Theatre Company's THE TRAIL TO OREGON May Be Hard to Describe, But It's More Fun Than A Bout of Dysentery
by Jeffrey Ellis - March 12, 2024

The answer is none of the above, obviously – you and I are showing our age with those ridiculous suggestions – and any effort to explain The Trail to Oregon to you would contain spoilers, which people oftentimes don’t want to know, sending particularly disturbing and frankly threatening emails to cr...

Studio Tenn's DRIVING MISS DAISY Beautifully Captures The Spirit of Alfred Uhry's Play
by Jeffrey Ellis - March 11, 2024

Alfred Uhry is a Southern writer who knows our region better than most and he uses the power of his words and the artistry of his pen to create moments and scenes in plays and musicals that are as authentic as the little rivulets of condensation that snake their way down the outside of a glass of ic...

Review Round-up: JAGGED LITTLE PILL, THE 39 STEPS, MRS. KRISHNAN'S PARTY and THE REVOLUTIONISTS
by Jeffrey Ellis - March 11, 2024

In the aftermath of experiencing the Nashville premiere of Jagged Little Pill — the musical inspired by and featuring music from Alanis Morissette’s 1995 album of the same name, other songs written by her and including two created expressly for the production, and featuring a compelling, biting and ...

TINA: THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL Dazzles Nashville Audiences With Tribute to 'The Queen of Rock and Roll'
by Jeffrey Ellis - February 16, 2024

Now onstage at Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Andrew Jackson Theatre, through Sunday, February 18, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical gives the full biographical jukebox musical treatment to one of Tennessee’s most talented exports and favorite daughters. ...

Beki Baker Infuses Lipscomb University's ADA AND THE ENGINE With Sensitivity, Wit and Understanding
by Jeffrey Ellis - February 15, 2024

Meghan Wombles’ spirited portrayal of 19th century British genius Ada Byron Lovelace provides the very heart of Lipscomb University Theatre’s Ada and The Engine, currently onstage through February 18 at the Shamblin Theatre, in a beautifully conceived production directed by Beki Baker....

Francesca Noe and Nick Gehring's On-Stage Chemistry Brings The Sizzle to BONNIE & CLYDE
by Jeffrey Ellis - February 15, 2024

A musical theater version of the infamous pair’s ill-fated life together is brought to life in a highly romanticized, tuneful and fast-paced production of the Frank Wildhorn-Don Black-Ivan Menchell Broadway musical Bonnie & Clyde, which played just a month on the Main Stem, but has since enjoyed a s...

Nashville Children's Theatre's World Premiere of THE GINGERBREAD KID Sure Smells Swell And Is Loads of Fun
by Jeffrey Ellis - February 09, 2024

Should you feel the sudden urge to go home and bake some gingerbread upon leaving a performance of Nashville Children’s Theatre’s world premiere production of The Gingerbread Kid, rest assured it’s not a sign that you’ve developed cannibalistic tendencies. Rather, it’s part of a clever plot by direc...

Paula Vogel's INDECENT Is Nashville Repertory Theatre's Best Production of The Last 10 Years
by Jeffrey Ellis - February 05, 2024

It is a chilling reminder of the hardships of life, the capricious nature of humankind and the cruelty to which people are still subjected today. And that, quite frankly, is why you should make it a point to see Nashville Repertory Theatre’s stunning production of Indecent, which is at once warmly a...

Review: GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY May Have Been Created Expressly For Nashville Audiences
by Jeffrey Ellis - February 02, 2024

Perhaps without knowing it, McPherson, the show’s creative collective and everyone involved with bringing Girl From The North Country to the stage have created the perfect musical for Nashville’s discerning theater audiences, people who know a thing or two about appreciating music, art and live perf...

Broadway at TPAC Opens 2024 Live Theater in Nashville With 'Startling, Stunning, Sexy' FUNNY GIRL
by Jeffrey Ellis - January 03, 2024

What a way to open a brand-new year of live theater in Nashville: in Funny Girl, audiences may have found exactly what they were longing for as Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s touring presentation provides a portentous kick-off to 2024. In fact, we can’t recall a standing ovation more gratifyingl...

Audience of One Productions' ANASTASIA Takes Audiences On a Journey to the Past
by Jeffrey Ellis - December 05, 2023

Audience of One Productions’ stunning Anastasia, now onstage through December 10, is the perfect gateway: Beautifully directed with professionalism and a cinematic flair by Angie Dee, the romantic and historical musical is strikingly performed, emphatically sung and lyrically danced....

Nashville Repertory Theatre's Beautifully Conceived Gift of A CHRISTMAS CAROL Radiates Warmth
by Jeffrey Ellis - December 04, 2023

Nashville Repertory Theatre, in their tradition of celebrating this festive time of year, draws upon the sense of family that pervades our theater community by presenting a sumptuously appointed production of a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ venerable Christmas tale – A Christmas Carol – written...

Geoff Sobelle's FOOD Defies Description, But Still We Make an Attempt
by Jeffrey Ellis - December 03, 2023

Now onstage at Oz Arts Nashville in a ten-performance run through Sunday, December 10, FOOD both defies description and demands it: if, for example, you are like me and found yourself so caught up in the sheer spectacle and drama of Sobelle’s stunning performance on opening night only to be unable t...

Belmont University Musical Theatre's HELLO, DOLLY! Boasts An Embarrassment of Riches
by Jeffrey Ellis - November 18, 2023

It only takes a moment whenconductor Jo Lynn Burks raises her baton and the first notes of the overture are heard to remember that Herman’s score includes a treasure trove of Broadway chestnuts, including “So Long, Dearie,” “Before the Parade Passes By,” “Elegance,” “It Only Takes A Moment,” “Put On...

Cumberland County Playhouse's WHITE CHRISTMAS Helps Ease Your Holiday Season Worries
by Jeffrey Ellis - November 12, 2023

Less than 48 hours after opening night of Cumberland County Playhouse’s 2023 holiday season offering of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, we are happy/sad to report that tickets are mighty scarce as the sparkling production is almost certainly headed to a complete sellout....

Rob McClure's Stunning Performance in MRS. DOUBTFIRE is the Perfect Post-Pandemic Panacea
by Jeffrey Ellis - November 09, 2023

Rob McClure’s masterful turn onstage as the redoubtable title character is reason enough to make sure you see Mrs. Doubtfire, The New Musical Comedy, now onstage at Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Andrew Jackson Hall through Sunday. But odds are you’ll find so much more to love about this musical...

Take A Holiday of 'Pure Imagination' With NCT's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
by Jeffrey Ellis - November 08, 2023

While the debate rages on about the proper time to start celebrating the holidays, Nashville Children’s Theatre may have devised the ideal plan with their current onstage offering – the world premiere of the theater-for-younger-audiences version of the recent Broadway musical Charlie and The Chocola...

Middle Tennessee State University's RODGERS + HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA Proves Anything Is Possible
by Jeffrey Ellis - November 06, 2023

Today we celebrate our most recent sojourn with Cinderella and company, thanks to the sumptuously designed, beautifully staged and wonderfully sung Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, presented in an all-too-brief one-weekend run at Middle Tennessee State University’s Tucker Theatre in Murfreesboro....

Lipsomb University Theatre's Emotional and Whimsical BIG FISH THE MUSICAL
by Jeffrey Ellis - November 05, 2023

On its surface, there is so much about which to alternately fall in love with/wonder quizzically about in Big Fish, the musical with book by John August (based on his screenplay for the 2003 film version) and a score by Andrew Lippa, that there’s no wonder the show had trouble finding its audience o...

Playhouse 615 Wins Spooky Season With Suspenseful THE WOMAN IN BLACK
by Jeffrey Ellis - November 02, 2023

The play in question? The Woman in Black, adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from the book by Susan Hill, that finishes up its three-weekend run in Mt. Juliet with performances through November 5. Directed by Meriwether, whose director’s note offers the tale of his own fascination with the script and his...

Laughter Abounds In Belmont University's Zany and Uproarious THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG
by Jeffrey Ellis - October 29, 2023

That laughter you hear coming from within the Troutt Theatre on the Belmont University campus this weekend and next should probably come with a trigger warning. For no matter how rollicking, rambunctious and uproarious it truly is, it should be pointed out that what is transpiring on that stage over...