Paul Vasterling News

If it's Tuesday, then that means a return to one of our most popular features in the BroadwayWorld: the takeover of our @BWW_Nashville Twitter account by yet another luminary from our community. Today (which according to experts is @BWW_Nashville Twitter Held Hostage Day 9), Nashville Ballet's Julia Eisen, the Chapel Hill, North Carolina native who has been an integral part of the company's success since 2010, has our password and a license to thrill and delight.

Good Morning, Theaterati! It's May Day: May 1, 2017, and we're asking the musical question…What if you have five members from two casts of Million Dollar Quartet together backstage after a performance of the show, might it more accurately be known as $1.25 Million Dollar Quartet?

Nashville Ballet will explore two contemporary dance styles in one performance-a ballet set to brand-new music by acclaimed singer-songwriter collective Ten Out of Tenn and another featuring an iconic Aaron Copland score-at the world premiere of Seven Deadly Sins with Appalachian Spring May 5-7, 2017, at TPAC's Jackson Hall.

Nashville Ballet boldly steps into the future with a 2017-2018 performance season that promises to showcase the full spectrum of the art, from the pinnacle of classical ballet to fearless contemporary works. The upcoming season will be rounded out by the return of highly anticipated fan favorites and the 10th year of Nashville's Nutcracker.

Nashville Ballet steps into its future with a bold 2017-2018 performance season that showcases the full spectrum of the art, from the pinnacle of classical ballet to fearless contemporary works.

Nashville Ballet will make its debut appearance at the famed John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. to perform The Ben Folds Project April 17-23, 2017, as a part of the Ballet Across America series. Illustrating the most exciting, innovative dance happening across America today, the program is curated by major stars of the ballet world: American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancer Misty Copeland and New York City Ballet Resident Choreographer and Soloist Justin Peck.

In its ongoing effort to profile how dance pairs with every style of music, Nashville Ballet will pay homage to the diverse musical genres that earned Nashville the title of "Music City," at its premier fundraising event Ballet Ball, held on March 4, 2017, at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

Celebrating innovation and diversity in American ballet, the Kennedy Center presents the return of its weeklong Ballet Across America series, April 17 and April 19-23, for seven performances in the Opera House. Last seen in 2013, and illustrating the most exciting, creative dance happening across America today, this season's engagement explores new directions in the art form through programs curated by two of the biggest superstars in the ballet world: dancer-choreographer Justin Peck and principal dancer Misty Copeland.

In its ongoing effort to profile how dance pairs with every style of music, Nashville Ballet will pay homage to the diverse musical genres that earned Nashville the title of "Music City," at its premier fundraising event Ballet Ball, held on March 4, 2017, at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

Nashville Ballet's smash-hit Johnny Cash ballet returns by popular demand this Valentine's Day withSugar + The Hi-Lows to pay tribute to The Man in Black's iconic life and legacy. The Johnny Cash piece joins the lineup for Nashville Ballet's annual contemporary Attitude series February 9-12, 2017, at TPAC's Polk Theater.

Studio Tenn and Tennessee Performing Arts Center's joint venture to produce Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita in Nashville resulted in the production claiming the top prize as "Outstanding Musical of The Year" at Sunday's Midwinter's First Night event at The Larry Keeton Theatre. Nashville Repertory Theatre's production of Nate Eppler's original play Good Monsters took the title of "Outstanding Play of The Year" in the annual ceremony that dates back to its origins in 1989.

Since its debut in 2008, Nashville's Nutcracker – choreographer Paul Vasterling's holiday-scented love letter to his adopted hometown – has delighted thousands of audience members eager to experience this particularly rapturous paean to this most wonderful time of the year. Eager to set off on a journey of wonder and delight, to be swept away to a fanciful world of dashing princes and beautiful fairy princesses brought to life vivdly by the accomplished dancers of Nashville Ballet's various companies, audiences for nine successive years now have allowed themselves to be caught up in the spectacle of the production which never fails to enthrall and to entertain.

Nashville's Nutcracker, Nashville Ballet's longstanding holiday tradition returns to Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall, running December 3-23 for the ninth consecutive year, featuring the Nashville Symphony and weaving together the vibrant history of the city with one of ballet's most beloved and timeless tales.

Here are our suggestions - our choices, as it were - for the shows to catch, the people to see, before Monday morning rolls around. Again. When work beckons, we promise you'll have so much more interesting water cooler chatter to share that you'll be the envy of everyone at the office:

Nashville Ballet will unearth the sinister side of human nature with Something Wicked, an experimental adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, just in time for Halloween October 20-22, 2016, at TPAC's Polk Theater. While the ballet explores the story's classic themes of power and fate, Nashville Ballet's version delves deeper into the role of the three witches.

From the very first moment - when principal guest conductor Nathan Fifield raises his baton and the musicians of the Nashville Symphony play the very first notes of Prokofiev's lush score - it becomes apparent that Nashville Ballet's Cinderella is going to be something very special. And so it goes for the next two-and-one-half-hours: All the way to the final tableau in which the lovely young woman (danced with power and grace by the always-superb Kayla Rowser) finds herself upon a swing in an altogether bucolic setting, with the comforting and loving arm of her dashing prince (Judson Veach, handsome and steadfast) gently caressing her.

As assured and confident as any long-running musical now - or ever, for that matter - on Broadway, the altogether worldly and completely engaging production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita, playing at Andrew Jackson Hall through September 18, gives Nashville audiences the kind of exceptional theater experience they've come to expect from Studio Tenn.

Nashville Ballet brings the magical fairytale Cinderella to life September 16-18, 2016, at TPAC's Polk Theater as the opening performance of its 2016-2017 season. The family friendly classical ballet features a Cinderella who's not afraid to take fate into her own hands, two stepsisters hilariously played by men and an adorable youth cast of 5 to 7 year olds.

At its sixth consecutive year celebrating National Dance Day with a free day of dance on Saturday, July 30, Nashville Ballet will offer a preview of its new fall adult class DANCEFIX, a high-energy,           adult dance workout class.

Nashville Ballet announces the launch of its Young Men's Scholarship Program beginning August 2016, which will provide comprehensive ballet training for males age 6-18 of all experience levels. The program will offer students one full academic year of tuition-free training, followed by merit-based scholarships.