Christopher Bosen News

Steven Dietz's Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure has been performed all over the country, but when Nashville Children's Theatre presents it as the opening production of its 81st season, it will be the first time the play has been presented by a theatre for young audiences. And in another noteworthy first, the production marks the first time that Nashville Children's Theatre has mounted a show of some two hours in length.

With a cast led by Broadway veterans Jessica Grove (who ideally captures the spirit and charm of Maria in her thoroughly captivating performance) and Ben Davis (tall and commanding as the naval captain torn by conflicting loyalties and social upheaval), Logan presents The Sound of Music you would expect from him, although in no way can you call it predictable or expected. To the contrary, Logan excels at delivering the unexpected and while The Sound of Music is probably the one show you would expect to be played out in the traditional, often-seen manner you've encountered in numerous other productions, he manages to surprise and delight you with his vision, his concept and his daring.

For Jessica Grove, playing Maria Rainer in Studio Tenn's production of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music is, quite simply, a part of the natural evolution of theater. After all, she's already played Marta, Brigitta and Liesl-so playing the young novitiate who comes into the Austrian home of the Von Trapps to become governess to the seven children of the imperious Georg Von Trapp just makes sense.

Robyn Berg directs the sold-out Nashville production of Dustin Lance Black's 8, a play chronicling the historic trial in the federal constitutional challenge to California's Proposition 8, presented by Rhubarb Theater Company on Monday, May 7, at Darkhorse Theater.

Robyn Berg directs the upcoming Nashville production of Dustin Lance Black's 8, a play chronicling the historic trial in the federal constitutional challenge to California's Proposition 8, presented by Rhubarb Theater Company on Monday, May 7, at Darkhorse Theater.

In recognition of The Barn's 45 years of bringing the magic of live theater to the stage, we continue our special series of Onstage at The Barn: Memories from The First 45 Years, with actress Rona Carter McLaughlin, who is one of the most accomplished actors to be found on a Nashville stage, taking on a wide range of roles that have showcased her abilities to perfection. Today, Rona (who most often is seen onstage at Nashville Children's Theatre) adds her reminiscences of life at The Barn to the ones that we've been sharing since last week…

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.

The Ten Minute plays will be presented as staged readings performed and directed by volunteers from the Nashville theater community. Audiences in attendance will not only get to see exciting new plays, but will also be able to give the playwrights feedback following the readings.

The Ten Minute plays will be presented as staged readings performed and directed by volunteers from the Nashville theater community. Audiences in attendance will not only get to see exciting new plays, but will also be able to give the playwrights feedback following the readings.

Coming between Lips Together, Teeth Apart and Love! Valour! Compassion! in the canon of Terrence McNally's works, A Perfect Ganesh - despite its Pulitzer Prize nomination - remains relatively unknown, seldom produced and somewhat unappreciated by theater audiences. But if you share an appreciation for McNally's unique and contemporary world-view, you would be well-advised to take in Rhubarb Theater Company's impassioned revival of the play, now onstage at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater through April 23.

Trish Crist and Jaime Janiszewski should be artist's models: Crist, tall and titian-tressed, has a visage of timeless, classic beauty - she easily could have been the inspiration for all those towering statues of womanhood signifying liberty, freedom and all manner of other lofty aspirations. Janiszewski, softer and curvier, with an open face that always seems like it is about to break into an all-the-world-encompassing smile, could easily have posed for all of the world's great portrait painters of past and future centuries.