Paula Vogel's INDECENT Is Nashville Repertory Theatre's Best Production of The Last 10 YearsFebruary 5, 2024It is a chilling reminder of the hardships of life, the capricious nature of humankind and the cruelty to which people are still subjected today. And that, quite frankly, is why you should make it a point to see Nashville Repertory Theatre’s stunning production of Indecent, which is at once warmly amusing, heartbreakingly authentic and horrifically prescient more than a century after many of the events depicted took place.
Review: GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY May Have Been Created Expressly For Nashville Audiences
February 2, 2024Perhaps without knowing it, McPherson, the show’s creative collective and everyone involved with bringing Girl From The North Country to the stage have created the perfect musical for Nashville’s discerning theater audiences, people who know a thing or two about appreciating music, art and live performance. Only when you begin to leave the theater, perhaps awestruck by what you have just experienced, will you realize the gravity of what you have just seen.
GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY's Jennifer Blood On 'A Show Like No Other You've Ever Seen'January 30, 2024Calling Girl From The North Country a 'jukebox musical' is not only a misnomer, but it completely misses the point of Irish playwright/director Conor McPherson’s acclaimed Broadway musical that features a score by Bob Dylan, according to actress Jennifer Blood, who plays Elizabeth Laine in the national touring company that begins its weeklong stand at Nashville’s Tennessee Performing Arts Center tonight.
Broadway at TPAC Opens 2024 Live Theater in Nashville With 'Startling, Stunning, Sexy' FUNNY GIRLJanuary 3, 2024What a way to open a brand-new year of live theater in Nashville: in Funny Girl, audiences may have found exactly what they were longing for as Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s touring presentation provides a portentous kick-off to 2024. In fact, we can’t recall a standing ovation more gratifyingly sincere and genuine in the 35+ years we’ve been reviewing shows at TPAC than the one with which the company was rewarded on opening night in Andrew Jackson Hall. It was appreciative and effusive – downright enthusiastic and straight from the heart – the thunderous and sustained reaction to two-and-a-half hours of gloriously exhilarating musical theatre straight out of the golden age.
Nashville Repertory Theatre's Beautifully Conceived Gift of A CHRISTMAS CAROL Radiates WarmthDecember 4, 2023Nashville Repertory Theatre, in their tradition of celebrating this festive time of year, draws upon the sense of family that pervades our theater community by presenting a sumptuously appointed production of a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ venerable Christmas tale – A Christmas Carol – written and directed with heartfelt emotion to match the demands of the season by Micah-Shane Brewer.
Geoff Sobelle's FOOD Defies Description, But Still We Make an AttemptDecember 3, 2023Now onstage at Oz Arts Nashville in a ten-performance run through Sunday, December 10, FOOD both defies description and demands it: if, for example, you are like me and found yourself so caught up in the sheer spectacle and drama of Sobelle’s stunning performance on opening night only to be unable to really talk about it for at least half an hour after...
Geoff Sobelle Is Not a Foodie, No Matter How Good His FOOD Might BeNovember 30, 2023Although Geoff Sobelle’s life currently focuses on food – or, more aptly, FOOD – he admits that he’s never considered himself a “foodie.” In fact, he’s never really used the term. “I have two toddlers at home,” he says. “So, we don’t go out to restaurants very much at all, and that seems a big part of being a foodie. With toddlers, my life has changed.”
COLLEGIATE THEATRICS: Logan Purcell of Middle Tennessee State UniversityNovember 29, 2023We continue to celebrate the return of Collegiate Theatrics with an interview featuring one of our favorites from the theatre department at Middle Tennessee State University in nearby Murfreesboro: Logan Purcell, a native of Gallatin, Tennessee, who will be graduating in 2025. We know Logan from his onstage appearances in MTSU’s productions of Fun Home, Cabaret and Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella in which his talents were on prominent display.
A Nashville Theater Tribute: GIVING THANKS FOR DENICE, Part 3November 22, 2023Denice Hicks is a national treasure who's been hiding out in plain sight in Nashville, Tennessee, for more than a quarter century. One of the most sought-after actors and directors in town, she has appeared on virtually every stage and her exquisite talents have been enjoyed by audiences and fellow theatre-types since her first Music City appearance as a cast member at the now-defunct Opryland USA theme park.
A Nashville Theater Tribute: GIVING THANKS FOR DENICE CONTINUESNovember 21, 2023News spread quickly among Nashville-area theaterati in January 2016: Denice Hicks would be taking the stage of Belmont University’s Troutt Theater to take on what could conceivably be her greatest theater challenge: Playing King Lear in the Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s production of the Shakespeare tragedy which had opened a week earlier.
COLLEGIATE THEATRICS: Connor Adair of Lipscomb UniversityNovember 20, 2023Today, we continue to celebrate the return of Collegiate Theatrics featuring one of our favorites from the theatre department at Nashville’s Lipscomb University: Connor Adair, a native of Edmond, Oklahoma. Throughout his time on-campus, he’s become a stalwart company member of virtually every Lipscomb University Theatre production we’ve reviewed, most recently taking on a significant supporting role in their acclaimed production of Big Fish.
A Nashville Theater Tribute: GIVING THANKS FOR DENICENovember 20, 2023With the season of Thanksgiving at hand, we celebrate Denice Hicks with A Nashville Theater Tribute: Giving Thanks for Denice, a multi-part retrospective of some of our favorite stories and interviews with her from over the years. We begin our special season of giving thanks for her theatrical legacy, abiding love and continuing presence in our lives with some thoughts from some of her closest friends and artistic collaborators…
Belmont University Musical Theatre's HELLO, DOLLY! Boasts An Embarrassment of RichesNovember 18, 2023It only takes a moment whenconductor Jo Lynn Burks raises her baton and the first notes of the overture are heard to remember that Herman’s score includes a treasure trove of Broadway chestnuts, including “So Long, Dearie,” “Before the Parade Passes By,” “Elegance,” “It Only Takes A Moment,” “Put On Your Sunday Clothes,” as well as the title tune.
COLLEGIATE THEATRICS: Alex Vanburen of Austin Peay State UniversityNovember 16, 2023Today, we continue to celebrate the return of Collegiate Theatrics featuring one of our favorites from the theatre department at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville: Alex Vanburen, a native of Johnson City, Tennessee, who graduated from APSU last May. We first met Alex when they auditioned for a role in our January 2020 production of La Cage Aux Folles for Circle Players, a role for which they won much acclaim, and whom we most recently saw onstage at Clarksville’s Roxy Regional Theatre, playing Riff Raff in the company’s latest iteration of The Rocky Horror Show.
COLLEGIATE THEATRICS: Emma Bastin of Middle Tennessee State UniversityNovember 15, 2023Today, we herald the return of Collegiate Theatrics – our first interview with a university-level actor since before the pandemic – featuring one of our favorites from the theatre department at Middle Tennessee State University in nearby Murfreesboro: Emma Bastin, a native of Lebanon, Tennessee, who will be graduating next spring.
Rob McClure's Stunning Performance in MRS. DOUBTFIRE is the Perfect Post-Pandemic PanaceaNovember 9, 2023Rob 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.
Take A Holiday of 'Pure Imagination' With NCT's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORYNovember 8, 2023While the debate rages on about the proper time to start celebrating the holidays, Nashville Children’s Theatre may have devised the ideal plan with their current onstage offering – the world premiere of the theater-for-younger-audiences version of the recent Broadway musical Charlie and The Chocolate Factory.