Scott Rice

It was a part of life only understood completely, if experienced, and its impact continues to be felt today in ways you can sometimes predict, although oftentimes it invokes unexpected memories that take you completely unaware. That explains why I’ve taken so long to compose this review of Falsettos – which ends its three-weekend run this weekend at Nashville’s The Barbershop Theatre in another superb Street Theatre Company musical production – and which I saw last week during its last Sunday matinee performance.

Brilliant social commentary or sophomoric lowbrow humor? Just what is it that makes Urinetown the Musical such a hit with audiences and theater companies a?' is it the biting satire delivered in Greg Kotis' book and lyrics and in Mark Hollmann's music and lyrics, or is it (in the case of Nashville Repertory Theatre's 35th season opening production) director Jason Tucker's fast-paced and quick-witted vision that's nothing short of mesmerizingly entertaining? We'll leave that up to you to decide a?' well, actually, we won't since that's why I am paid the big bucks to tell you what to think a?' but rest assured that no matter the reason, odds are you're going to love Nashville Rep's iteration of Urinetown and you'll want to score tickets before the show evaporates into the creative ether encircling Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Johnson Theatre.

Now onstage through Mother's Day (Sunday, May 12) in a much anticipated and gleefully subversive production from Nashville Opera, The Cradle Will Rock remains hard to define: It could be described as a work of art whose meaning, its very raison d'etre, can be bent to suit any conceivable justification. Variously, Blitzstein described his 1937 work as a 'play in music' or an 'opera for actors' and its history clearly paints it as either or even as both.

You'd be hard pressed to find a seasonal outing quite so much fun, a Christmas party more tantalizingly outrageous or performances more outlandish than in A Tuna Christmas, the holiday-themed comedy that features the denizens of Tuna, the third-smallest town in Texas, in all their Lone Star State finery, searching for a missing husband, attempting to ferret out "the Christmas Phantom" and hoping for that perfect photograph for next year's greeting cards.

Just in time to lift your spirits in the wake of a bruising presidential election season, Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre - the iconic theatrical venue, which for 50 years has delighted Nashville audiences on the chow-and-bow circuit - provides ample laughs and plenty of guffaws (along with a bountiful buffet) with their latest version of Red, White and Tuna, which transports audiences to the third smallest town in Texas for yet another down-home, Independence Day-flavored adventure.

R. Scott Rice, a former Air Force telecommunications specialist and executive head of an international engineering group, has completed his new book 'Timelines Intertwined': a gripping science fiction novel that demonstrates in catastrophic detail that certain aspects of existence should not be tampered with, time being one of them.

It's already heating up in Nashville and it's not even summer yet! But Nashville area theater companies are hard at work to ensure that audiences have a lot to choose from in the way of live theater presented in cool, darkened theaters. Here are our suggestions for the most eagerly anticipated shows of the sultry summer season…

In a town where everyone from your next-door neighbor to your favorite barista - from your dental hygienist to your manicurist, your seatmate on the bus, your friendly neighborhood bartender and maybe even the guy who does your taxes - is a songwriter, you'll find that there's never a shortage of opinions on the topic of favorite songs. Ask a cross-section of Nashville theater-types what their favorite love song is from the annals of musical theater and you're going to get a barrage of answers.

The Boiler Room Theatre, Williamson County's original and longest-running professional theatre company, will stage Dumb and Dumber star Jeff Daniels' hilarious comedy, Escanaba in da Moonlight. The production will run from tonight, May 31st through June 15th at the theatre's iconic namesake venue in the historic Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Rd., Building Six, in Franklin, Tennessee.

The Boiler Room Theatre, Williamson County's original and longest-running professional theatre company, will stage Dumb and Dumber star Jeff Daniels' hilarious comedy, Escanaba in da Moonlight. The production will run from May 31st through June 15th at the theatre's iconic namesake venue in the historic Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Rd., Building Six, in Franklin, Tennessee.

Nashville actor/singer/musician Geoff Davin has released his latest music video 'White Beat,' written by the multi-talented performer himself. The star of Boiler Room Theatre's The Rocky Horror Show and Circle Players' Company, the versatile Davin surrounds himself with an all-star cast of some of Music City's favorite stage stars. For more information, go to www.GeoffDavin.com.

Nashville audiences-and chattering, anticipatory theater critics-will be given the opportunity to weigh in with their own impressions of Pacific Overtures, thanks to an ambitious production from Blackbird Theater, the acclaimed company now in its sophomore season at David Lipscomb University's Shamblin Theatre.

In a town where everyone from your next-door neighbor to your favorite barista - from your dental hygienist to your manicurist, your seatmate on the bus, your friendly neighborhood bartender and maybe even the guy who does your taxes - is a songwriter, you'll find that there's never a shortage of opinions on the topic of favorite songs. Ask a cross-section of Nashville theater-types what their favorite love song is from the annals of musical theater and you're going to get a barrage of answers.

Beautifully conceived by an ambitious, driven director and artfully brought to life by a stellar cast of actors, Pacific Overtures-the musical by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman-seems, at first, an unlikely choice for the sophomore season of Nashville's Blackbird Theater. Yet when you consider the company's prior offerings (which include Twilight of the Gods, an original play by Wes Driver and Greg Greene, the company's co-founders; Tom Stoppard's intellectually compelling Arcadia; and G.K. Chesterton's rarely produced Magic), it fits perfectly into the Blackbird canon. And, like those earlier productions, Pacific Overtures is another artistic triumph, the realization of a long-held dream by director Greene to bring his favorite work for musical theater to the stage.

Nashville audiences-and chattering, anticipatory theater critics-will be given the opportunity to weigh in with their own impressions of Pacific Overtures, thanks to an ambitious production from Blackbird Theater, the acclaimed company now in its sophomore season at David Lipscomb University's Shamblin Theatre.

Nashville audiences-and chattering, anticipatory theater critics-will be given the opportunity to weigh in with their own impressions of Pacific Overtures, thanks to an ambitious production from Blackbird Theater, the acclaimed company now in its sophomore season at David Lipscomb University's Shamblin Theatre.

With a cast filled with some of Nashville's most talented stage performers, director Paul J. Cook's version of Company-now onstage at The Keeton Theatre in a sparkling new production from Circle Players-is brimming over with theatrical riches. But if you had to pick just one from among this cadre of showstopping stars, I'd pick one Ms. Debbie Kraski, whose Joanne in as memorable as any you might have seen, and as heartbreakingly genuine as any you might ever have hoped to witness.

Named as First Night's Outstanding Musical of 2011 was Lipscomb University Theatre's production of Hairspray, directed and choreographed by Justin Boccitto. ACT 1's production of American Buffalo, directed by Ryan Williams, claimed top honors as First Night's Oustanding Play of 2011, and the national touring company's Memphis, the Musical, which played Andrew Jackson Hall at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, was named as First Night's Outstanding Touring Production of 2011, besting productions of Spring Awakening, In The Heights, Wicked and Les Miserables.

With a capacity crowd of 200 people on hand at The Keeton Theatre, First Night founder and executive producer Jeffrey Ellis, who covers theater, opera and dance throughout Tennessee for BroadwayWorld.com, unveiled his choices via First Night's Top 11 of 2011, while the winners of the BroadwayWorld.com Nashville and Tennessee Theatre Awards were announced by co-hosts Britt Byrd, Jamie Free, Katherine Sandoval Taylor and Lar'Juanette Williams.

Playwright Nate Eppler, Mas Nashville's FIVE, the Boiler Room Theatre, Lipscomb University's Hairspray, ACT 1's American Buffalo and the national touring company of Memphis, the Musical were the top winners at Sunday night's Midwinter's First Night at Nashville's Keeton Theatre, which also featured the presentation of the BroadwayWorld.com Nashville and Tennessee theatre awards.