Jeffrey Ellis

The production’s use of the songs of Bob Dylan offers audiences a unique perspective on his body of work, hearing some of his more familiar songs as if new and as yet to be experienced. If anything, Girl From the North Country gives aficionados and even those totally unfamiliar with the depth of his songwriting talents an opportunity to luxuriate in the poetry of his words, and to listen to the musicality of his compositions with an open mind and heart.

I can honestly say I didn’t know just how much I wanted to love Funny Girl – I’d never seen a completely staged live performance, had read all the scuttlebutt about its creaky plotline and structure and its idealized, if fantastical, portrait of its central characters, was clued in to all the controversy connected to its recent Broadway revival – I felt informed and eminently prepared to see what they had in store for audiences in 2024. My reaction? I loved everything about it! Truth be told, It fed my musical theater-loving soul, and I fell head-over-heels with its stars and their outsized talents (They sing! They dance! They charm!). Hell, if I weren’t already booked, I’d see every performance while they’re in town and so, certainly, should you.

Rob McClure’s masterful turn onstage as the redoubtable title character is reason enough to make sure you see Mrs. Doubtfire, The New Musical Comedy, now onstage at Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Andrew Jackson Hall through Sunday. But odds are you’ll find so much more to love about this musical adaptation – from the “hometown” team that gave us Something Rotten, the endearing paean to musical theater – of the classic film comedy that, truth be told, McClure’s bravura performance will be the icing on the cake (or, more probably, the buttercream sandwiched between two layers of luscious Victoria sponge) of this delightfully theatrical confection.