Julia Nettles News

With a new year comes a lot of new theater in Nashville and in 2015, area theater companies are heating up winter with some of the most compelling and challenging productions to grace local stages in quite some time. Already, Circle Players and Nashville Shakespeare Festival have upped the ante with their respective productions of Ragtime the Musical and Twelfth Night (NSF traditionally kicks off the dramatics with their winter production at Belmont University's Troutt Theatre), and in the coming weeks theater-goers will be treated to even more, top-notch, high-quality theatrics.

The Boiler Room Theatre, Williamson County's original and longest-running professional theatre company, will stage Mel Brooks The Producers featuring a classic score that audiences will be singing out the door. This story of two shysters trying to make a buck on Broadway, adapted from the classic movie by the same name, won more Tony Awards than any other musical, including Best Book, Best Score, and Best Musical. The production will run from October 18th through November 16th at the theatre's iconic namesake venue in the historic Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Rd., Building Six, in Franklin, Tennessee.

Legally Blonde, the Musical is as tuneful and entertaining as any musical could ever hope to be, and while the story seems lighthearted and fun, there's a definite message to be found in Heather Hach's book and the music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Neil Benjamin. Under Adams' laser-sharp direction-that is filled with a lot of heart and her unerring attention to detail-The Keeton Theatre's cast offers up a production of the show that's as good as it gets.

Dressed to the nines-despite forecasts of thunderstorms and a tornado watch that hung over the region-theater people from throughout Tennessee gathered at Belmont University's Bill and Carole Troutt Theatre on Sunday night for the 2013 First Night Honors. Hosted by Holly Shepherd and Joel Diggs, the gala evening honored eight leading lights of Tennessee theater as they were recognized as members of the First Night Class of 2013 Honorees.

Luckily (for me and for you, the rest of the audience who may or may not have seen the show in any of its multiple onstage incarnations), director Patrick Kramer, choreographer Kate Adams-Johnson and musical director Randy Craft have fashioned a rendition of Hairspray-that indomitable musical about one determined and ambitious Baltimore teenager in 1962-that fairly snaps, crackles and pops with its fresh delivery, its clever staging and the laudable and thoroughly committed performances of a cast of thousands.

The skies are blue, the corn is 'high as an elephant's eye,' and the cowboys and their girls are dancing and singing now at Pull-tight in preparation for the opening of Rodgers and Hammerstein's perennial favorite, Oklahoma! This exuberant and tuneful production tells the familiar story of Laurey (Rachel Melius) and Curly (Zach Pless) against the background of Oklahoma territory at the turn of the century. Curly is vying for Laurey's affections with Jud (Cody Muller), the brooding farmhand, as his rival. A secondary romance between Ado Annie (Megan Roddick) and Will Parker (Peter Horecka) is also developing, while the Persian peddler, Ali Hakim (Ryan Garrett), plays Ado's other suitor. Laurey's Aunt Eller (Christen Sottolano) acts as matriarch to all.

The skies are blue, the corn is 'high as an elephant's eye,' and the cowboys and their girls are dancing and singing now at Pull-tight in preparation for the opening of Rodgers and Hammerstein's perennial favorite, Oklahoma! This exuberant and tuneful production tells the familiar story of Laurey (Rachel Melius) and Curly (Zach Pless) against the background of Oklahoma territory at the turn of the century. Curly is vying for Laurey's affections with Jud (Cody Muller), the brooding farmhand, as his rival. A secondary romance between Ado Annie (Megan Roddick) and Will Parker (Peter Horecka) is also developing, while the Persian peddler, Ali Hakim (Ryan Garrett), plays Ado's other suitor. Laurey's Aunt Eller (Christen Sottolano) acts as matriarch to all.

Perhaps the most remarkable element of Circle Players' Fame, the Musical is its talented cast--an amazing amalgam of age-appropriate actors assaying the roles in this now-iconic tale of the last four years of New York's High School of Performing Arts. Credit director Tim Larson's casting abilities for this feat which, combined with strong production values, inventive staging and laudable choreography by Kate Adams-Johnson, makes the show an excellent choice to open Circle's 60th anniversary season.

July continues to be a busy month for Nashville-area theatre companies as five new productions are slated to open by week's end, including the world premiere of a new musical, the Nashville premiere of a new comedy by Sarah Ruhl and a production of Fame, the Musical, from Middle Tennessee's oldest community theatre organization.