David Weinstein News

Looking ahead, you'll find a number of new productions on tap for your entertainment pleasure, thanks to the efforts of theater companies all over Middle Tennessee. Here's our calendar for November 5, 2018, to help you plot your course through the end of the year...

For Catherine Birdsong, the animated film version of The Little Mermaid - the 1989 Disney musical fantasy based on the story of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen - was the first movie she remembers ever seeing in a darkened cinema and it continues to elicit memories, to reverberate in her heart, particularly now that she finds herself in rehearsal for the debut of the stage musical at Nashville Children's Theatre.

Derby Dinner Playhouse will open their 2018-2019 Children's Musical Theatre Series with THE MUSICAL ADVENTURES OF FLAT STANLEY on October 6, 2018 as part of their Children's Musical Theatre Series. Public performances run October 6, 13, 20, 27, 29, November 3 & 10, 2018. For ticket information please call 812-288-8281 or visit www.derbydinner.com.

Ernie Nolan and his stellar crew of theatrical collaborators at Nashville Children's Theatre once again prove their mettle with a production worthy of adulation and acclaim, thanks to their world premiere of the TYA (theater for young audiences) version of the recent Broadway musical Tuck Everlasting. Based on Natalie Babbitt's 1975 novel - long considered one of the finest works ever written expressly for young readers - Tuck Everlasting is a thing of beauty, whether onstage or on the page, and audiences unfamiliar with either the book or the play are in for an emotional, thought-provoking journey that reverberates long after the final bows ring down the show's curtain.

The Kitchen mourns the recent loss and celebrates the legacy of composer, percussionist, visual artist, poet, and theorist Z'EV with a memorial evening, June 23, after his passing this winter. Beginning in the late 1970s, Z'EV (born Stephan Joel Weisser) created his own abstract percussion soundscapes out of found materials. In his long career, he conceived unique performance strategies, moving from his earlier "wild style" performances to mallet percussion in the mid-80s.

Town's murder mystery takes another turn and the Fine Arts Center presents a Disney classic!

With its vision focused squarely on the future, Nashville Children's Theatre (NCT) - the nation's oldest professional theatre for young audiences - last night revealed its upcoming "Season of Discovery," a slate of six challenging productions, along with an updated rendering of the company's iconic dragon logo.

First Night's Top Ten for 2018 - critic Jeffrey Ellis' annual review of the best in Tennessee theater were revealed last night during a live Facebook broadcast, with the hosts of Midwinter's First Night (Ashley Wolfe, J. Robert Lindsay, Tosha Pendergrast and Ben Pendergrast) announcing the productions and performances recognized among the best of 2017.

Based on Hungarian playwright Miklos Lazlo's Parfumerie (which has also served as the inspiration for the movies The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Ole Summertime and You've Got Mail), She Loves Me is, for most musical theater aficionados, one of those infrequently-produced theatrical gems venerated by fans with much-played cast albums in their collections and beloved by audiences lucky enough to actually see the show onstage.

Offering a thoroughly delightful and completely entertaining story about welcoming new challenges and living life to its fullest, Mr. Popper's Penguins the charming musical onstage at Nashville Children's Theatre through December 3 also offers its young audiences an intriguing history lesson about life during the Great Depression.

What do you get when you introduce a daydreaming house painter to a dozen delightful penguins? A flipper-flapping musical tale that will make you believe in the power of ingenuity and determination, according to Nashville Children's Theatre's executive artistic director Ernie Nolan, who describes it as a show packed with puppetry, humor, and heart, Mr. Popper's Penguins is bound to put a smile on your face.

What do you get when you introduce a daydreaming house painter to a dozen delightful penguins? A flipper-flapping musical tale that will make you believe in the power of ingenuity and determination, according to Nashville Children's Theatre's executive artistic director Ernie Nolan, who describes it as a show packed with puppetry, humor, and heart, Mr. Popper's Penguins is bound to put a smile on your face.

Nashville Children's Theatre, the nation's oldest professional theatre for young audiences today announces full casting and creative teams for the 2017-2018 season, opening the theater's 87th season - its first with programming designed by new executive artistic director Ernie Nolan.

SecondStory Rep Announces Season 19 Mainstage and Theater for Young Audiences Series

Kean University will host a panel on June 8, 2017 from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the STEM Building, Liberty Hall Center, 1075 Morris Ave Union, NJ 07083.

the young company Winter Festival includes four fully-staged productions: family-friendly The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley Junior takes us on an incredible adventure all across the globe, while The Emperor's New Clothes teaches us to open our eyes to what's right in front of us! Mary Poppins uses magic, common sense, and a spoonful of sugar to teach the entire Banks family to value one another. Lastly, the dark and edgy Sweeney Todd shows us just how far some will go for those they love.

There is perhaps no theme more deeply resonant in Disney's Beauty and the Beast than its treatment of the redemptive power of love to change any trouble soul - and thanks to Mike Fernandez's cinematic take on the musical theater classic and the superb leading performances of Bekah Purifoy and Scott Patrick Wilson, the new revival now onstage at Lipscomb University's Collins Alumni Auditorium has much to engage and intrigue audiences.

Have you decided on your Halloween costume yet? You better get to work since it's only four days until the big night is upon us and you won't want to caught with your pants down, so to speak. May we respectfully suggest a trip to your local, neighborhood theater? Not only will you be entertained, transformed and transported - we're willing to be on this happening - but you'll also probably get some great costume ideas in the process! And there is the added bonus that the theater company might be in the business of renting out costumes which would make your efforts even easier than you first thought…

Stages Theatre Company recently held auditions for their upcoming production of Disney's The Little Mermaid Jr. Over 160 youth actors turned out to audition for 20 roles in the stage musical adaptation with all the magic from the Disney classic.

Starting April 10, Valley Youth Theatre (VYT) brings a children's book character and the world's most-famous pen pal project to life when it presents The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley.