Gerold Oliver

Among attributes audience members have come to expect from a Nashville Children’s Theatre production – fired by significant amounts of imagination and enough creativity to empower the minds of every youngster who has ever been introduced to the transformative power of live theater by the artists of NCT – are unique approaches to live performance, replete with stunning visuals, the casting of actors who look like their young audiences, and refreshingly new and exciting concepts that breathe new life in ages-old tales.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 19th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 5th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

Wendy Kesselman’s new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank – which is based upon the acclaimed 1955 play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett and is an update of her 1997 script which has been widely produced since – is given a superb world premiere production by Nashville Children’s Theatre, which adds luster to the original work and makes it more accessible to contemporary audiences in director Ernie Nolan’s new iteration onstage through October 2.

There is no place more magical – no art form more transformative – than the theater and now, thanks to the continued creativity and sense of wonder shared by Ernie Nolan and David Weinstein (given an assist from a timeless tale by J.M. Barrie), audiences are treated to an exhilarating flight of fancy via the award-winning pair’s sprightly and sparkling new musical take on the story of Peter Pan: Wendy’s Adventure to Neverland.  

This is the last chance to vote for the 2021 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards! The 2021 Regional Awards honor productions which had their first performance between October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.

Cassidy has very cleverly reconfigured the piece to be presented as a radio play, presented in 1947 on local Franklin radio station, WAKM, adding some dialogue that rings authentic of the era and certain to gain a reaction from the play’s audience. In less capable hands, this new conceit could be considered too cute by half, yet Cassidy and his ensemble very confidently bring the show to life with a spirit heretofore unrealized.

Time is running out to vote for for the 2021 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards! The 2021 Regional Awards honor productions which had their first performance between October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.

Ragtime opened last night, featuring a cast of Nashville stage veterans and a sizable coterie of performers, heretofore unknown to local audiences, who are certain to become fast favorites. Taking a brief respite from their hectic schedules of rehearsals, fittings, photo calls, more rehearsals and getting to know one another, four of those newcomers – Shelby Denise Smith, Wood Van Meter, Kortney Ballenger and Steven McCoy – took the time to answer our questions to tell you why you need to score those tickets for Ragtime now if you haven’t already.

Ragtime, the Tony Award-winning musical about life in these United States during the very early years of the 20th century, is a richly drawn and evocatively told rumination on the pursuit of the American dream seen from the perspective of a diverse, multi-ethnic cast of characters. Now onstage through Sunday at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s James K. Polk Theatre, in a glittering and sumptuous revival from Nashville Repertory Theatre, Ragtime proves an ambitious choice for the company’s return to live performance after more than 18 months of darkness due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Opening Thursday night, November 11 and continuing for five performances through Sunday, November 14, Ragtime – the musical by Stephen Flaherty (music), Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) and Terrance McNally (book) which, in turn, is based upon E.L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel of the same name – promises to be a grand undertaking, which hopefully will blow away the cobwebs and the dust that’s collected in the past year-and-a-half during which the theater was dark and the company strived to remain relevant and productive amidst all the challenges that ensued.

The result is Outside of Here – a work that has evolved from conversations among Lee, Sternberg, Melinda Sewak and Claudia Barnett – which will premiere this Saturday, October 2, on NECAT, Nashville’s Education, Community and Arts Television Network. For 12 hours, one performer (Sternberg plays “Her”) will experience one story dozens of times with more than 30 different actors, who comprise a veritable who’s who of Nashville’s theater community.

Local Black-owned theatre company Kennie Playhouse Theatre is collaborating with Nashville Shakes to produce August Wilson's Jitney, which runs August 12-22 at oneC1TY in Nashville, and September 16 and 17 at Williamson County Performing Arts Center at Academy Park in Franklin, TN. 

Five-time Grammy Award-winning bassist Victor Wooten has joined the creative team of August Wilson's JITNEY, opening Nashville Shakespeare's annual Summer Shakespeare Festival. Wooten, also a songwriter and record producer who was ranked among the Top 10 Bassists of All Time by Rolling Stone Magazine, will compose original music for the show.

Dominique Morisseau's Pipeline, which continues Nashville Repertory Theatre's 35th season, is an emotionally driven work of contemporary eloquence and power, a play which audiences should experience in hopes of opening their eyes to the institutional prejudice and bias that exists in this country a?" whether we care to admit it or not. At least, that's the initial takeaway for theater-goers who are giving a cursory review of what they've just seen onstage at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Johnson Theatre.

One need venture no further than Street Theatre Company's Be More Chill a?" directed by Sawyer Wallace, it's one of the year's best musicals a?" for just such a theatrical adventure. Starring Seth Bennett, Briar Moroschak and Garett Scott, three up-and-coming performers for whom their futures seem unlimited, Be More Chill only recently closed out a Broadway run before its Nashville premiere, which continues through this weekend.

Oh, those wacky Brits: They love their comedy dry, broad and often rather lowbrow, they adore mistaken identities, hijinks in the bedchamber and a bit with a dog. And that, gentle readers, is exactly what is delivered in the deliciously irreverent, surprisingly heartfelt Shakespeare in Love - Lee Hall's stage adaptation of the 1999 Oscar-winning best film of the same name - now onstage at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Johnson Theatre in a sparkling new production from Nashville Repertory Theatre.

Today, in anticipation of their opening weekend, three members of Copeland's cast - Cailen Fu, Joseph Leitess and Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva - offer some background information on what shapes them as actors (including their most memorable "the show must go on" moments) and offer suggestions for why you shouldn't miss Shakespeare in Love in our latest Friday 5 (+1):

Shakespeare in Love - the final show of Nashville Repertory Theatre's 2018-19 season - opens Saturday night, March 23, at the Andrew Johnson Theatre at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, running through April 13. Replete with comedy, a secret romance, live music, a play-within-a-play, stunning costumes, swordfights, a hefty wager and Queen Elizabeth I herself, there's also the promise of a very cute dog to entice audiences to the theatre.

During the very first scenes of Ghost - the world premiere of the play by Idris Goodwin, based upon the 2016 book of the same name by Jason Reynolds, now onstage at Nashville Children's Theatre through February 3 - the audience becomes caught up in the emotional turmoil experienced by young Castle Cranshaw and his mom, Terri. As their world is upended by events taking place onstage, the story of Ghost is set in motion, hurtling toward a moment in which lives are changed and the future opens up in ways both unexpected and completely authentic.