Melissa Silengo News

It was in Fall 1995 that I first was introduced to the gospel singing Sanders Family of “up near Siler City, North Carolina,” in a production of Smoke on the Mountain at Nashville's venerable Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. In 2023, the family returns again, as if by magic or perhaps accompanied by flights of angels, in a warmly nostalgic, sweetly sentimental and altogether lovely production from Studio Tenn -- playing through April 2 -- at the historic sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church in downtown Franklin, which stands in quite nicely for the First Baptist Church of Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, on a Saturday night in 1938.

In theater, as in life, it’s all in the timing: Bucket List Productions’ Assassins: The Musical opened its Nashville run at Darkhorse Theater on Friday, July 8, the same day that former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe died by an assassin’s gun. As news of Abe’s assassination reverberated throughout the world yesterday, it underscored the timelessness and the unfortunate relevance of the Stephen Sondheim-John Weidman musical outside the oftentimes fanciful, yet eerily prescient, world of musical theater.

In anticipation of the gala 30th anniversary celebration of The First Night Awards, Tennessee's best and brightest in live theater were revealed tonight as First Night's Top Ten of 2018 - reviewer and critic Jeffrey Ellis' annual recognition for theater in the Volunteer State - were announced during a Facebook Live presentation from Nashville.

Throughout the past year, I've written quite often about Nashville's Chase Miller and his tremendous talents, remarkable stage presence and startling ability to successfully morph from one character to another completely unlike the first (or any to follow). Miller is rather insanely talented and any director worth her or his salt would be deliriously happy to have the serious triple threat in any show on their drawing board.

Country comedy legend Minnie Pearl is brought to life thanks to Minnie Pearl: All The News From Grinder's Switch, a musical comedy revue making its debut this weekend at Nashville's Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in a very limited, four performance engagement through September 13. Directed with obvious respect by Joy Tilley Perryman and featuring a top-flight ensemble of tremendously talented actors, the newly created show from Belmont University professor and music historian Don Cusic takes a lovingly nostalgic look at the show business career of Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon, the Hickman County native who rose to the top ranks of country stardom with the comic creation of her alter ego.

High-spirited, energetic and enormously entertaining, Circle Players' Newsies is a certified hit - thanks in large part to the focused direction of Jim Manning, the athletic and challenging choreography of Tosha Pendergrast and the superb musical direction of DaJuana Hammonds - performed by an impressive cadre of actors young and old, a blend of familiar faces and Nashville stage newcomers, who infuse the show with all the spunk necessary to bring the turn-of-the-century newsboys and a smattering of historic figures to life.

George Bailey's story is a universal one, so much so that some 70 years after the film treatment of It's A Wonderful Life debuted, the tale of an upstanding citizen faced with failure and ruin, has become one of the most beloved holiday-season tales of all time. But the initial reaction of movie-goers to the film, although not nearly so dire as some cinema historians would have you believe, is considered one of the best-reviewed movies of all time.

Theater's power to transform and transport is astonishing and the capability of artists to create a sense of time and place, with words and music and theatrical wizardry to lend a tangible feeling to the experience can leave you breathless. Who'd have ever thought that such thrilling artistry, the very magic of make believe, could be so vividly expressed, so awesomely felt in two hours spent in a backwoods Southern church on a Saturday night in 1938? But that's exactly what happens in Smoke on the Mountain, Connie Ray and Alan Bailey's evocative, down-home musical that lovingly takes its audiences back home again in ways not even Thomas Wolfe may ever have imagined.

Musical theater lends itself to the "high concept" approach, to be certain, even if it doesn't always add to the overall success of a production. Case in point: Street Theatre Company's current revival of Stephen Schwartz's Pippin, onstage through June 25 at Holy Trinity Community Church in Nashville, which despite a cast of theatrical heavy hitters seems rather lost in a befuddling miasma of forced social media fun and games.

???????Children across the nation recently celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss with Read Across America Day. The Roxy Regional Theatre continues the celebration in Historic Downtown Clarksville with the staging of SEUSSICAL: The Musical, opening this Friday, March 17, and continuing through April 8.

Children across the nation recently celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss with Read Across America Day. The Roxy Regional Theatre continues the celebration in Historic Downtown Clarksville with the staging of SEUSSICAL: The Musical, opening this Friday, March 17, and continuing through April 8.

Nashville's historic and iconic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre - now led by Norma Luther, the gracious and charming new owner - launches its second half century on the venerated chow and bow circuit with a sparkling new revival of Neil Simon's equally historic and iconic The Odd Couple, now onstage through February 12. Directed by longtime artistic director and the doyenne of Music City theater, Martha Wilkinson, this iteration of Simon's hilarious play about two mismatched friends who attempt to navigate the waters of post-divorce life together is performed by a stellar cast of local actors who breathe new life into their characters and somehow manage to give audiences a fresh perspective on the enduring comedy.

With a cheerful attitude that knows no bounds, Eubie - the happiest elf at the North Pole - is determined to spread his apropos spirit of the season wherever he goes in Harry Connick Jr.'s The Happy Elf, now onstage at Clarksville's Roxy Regional Theatre in a delightful production directed by Ryan Bowie and starring the appealing John-Paul Fox in the eponymous role.

After the turkey is put away on Thanksgiving evening, bring your out-of-town guests downtown for family entertainment sure to get everyone in the holiday spirit. A new musical comedy by the Grammy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated composer and lyricist, Harry Connick, Jr.'s THE HAPPY ELF opens at the Roxy Regional Theatre today, November 24, at 7:00pm.

After the turkey is put away on Thanksgiving evening, bring your out-of-town guests downtown for family entertainment sure to get everyone in the holiday spirit. A new musical comedy by the Grammy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated composer and lyricist, Harry Connick, Jr.'s THE HAPPY ELF opens at the Roxy Regional Theatre on Thursday, November 24, at 7:00pm.

2015 First Night Honoree Martha Wilkinson directs - with musical direction by Tim Fudge, and choreography by Curtis Reid and Lauri Gregoire - the first collaboration from Music City Theatre Collective and Metro Parks Theatre Department of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, running at the Centennial Park Bandshell June 17-July 2.

Although the calendar tells us we're still in the spring season, things are quickly heating up in Nashville - theatrically speaking - and theater-goers have a plethora of shows coming up from which to choose, including some summer musicals that are sure to set feet a-tapping and a classic drama that's sure to provoke more thought and discussion than perhaps ever before.

Summertime is here, what with Memorial Day and all that it encompasses, and we can think of no better seasonal activity than taking in some local theater. No matter where you are in the Volunteer State, Tennessee theater companies are ready and willing to help transport you to a different world, another time and place where your life can be is transformed magically on a stage very near you!

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.