Jeffrey Ellis - Page 23

Why am I writing about my obvious journalistic shortcomings now for what could be construed for the third time? Street Theatre Company's production of the Hunter Bell-Jeff Bowen musical [title of show] opens tonight to run through June 23 - and last night I was part of the preview audience, having been invited to come review the show for those of you still reading (all the while scoffing at my apparent self-indulgence and wishing I would just get to the point).

There comes a moment late in act two of Waitress, the Jessie Nelson-Sara Bareilles musical now onstage at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall, when Desi Oakley - the actress portraying Jenna Hunterson, the show's very pregnant heroine - finds herself bathed in the bright glow of a spotlight and she delivers the show's stirring and emotionally driven climax: a performance of Bareilles' plaintive pop ballad "She Used to Be Mine," arguably the score's best-known and most beloved song.

At first blush, it would be easy to say that there's not much action packed into Annie Baker's The Flick - now onstage in a noteworthy production from Nashville's Verge Theater Company at Belmont's Black Box Theater - but that is, in fact, a pretty simplistic take on a story that is as complex and as diverting as real life itself. And just like life, Baker's Pulitzer Prize-winning script packs a whole lot of drama into its storyline, which is brought to life by a superb cast of actors under the direction of Jaclyn Jutting.

Grease has been a part of the American musical theater vernacular for so long - it opened in Chicago some 47 years ago in the halcyon days of 1971 - that it's easy to overlook the show's impact on theater, in general, and audiences, in particular. Its multiple revivals on Broadway, in regional theater and in various community theater and high school drama settings probably makes you believe you've seen in far more often than you actually have (unless, of course, you watch the film treatment with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John over and over).

Nashville Repertory Theatre's Ingram New Works Festival - Nashville's annual celebration of new plays and playwrights - returns to Music City May 9-19. The festival gives local audiences an opportunity to hear fresh work created by exciting new voices, while making new friends while connecting via new works for the theater.

Nashville Repertory Theatre's Ingram New Works Festival -- Nashville's annual celebration of new plays and playwrights - returns to Music City May 9-19. The festival gives local audiences an opportunity to hear fresh work created by exciting new voices, while making new friends while connecting via new works for the theater.

Filled to overflowing with youthful energy and plenty of showbiz razzle-dazzle, CoPlayers Theatre's production of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown - directed and choreographed by the peripatetic Tosha Pendergrast, easily the busiest musical theater choreographer in Middle Tennessee - does what so many other renditions of the show have failed to do over the years: Thoroughly entertain me! And, in so doing, Pendergrast and her ensemble of impressive young actors have erased from my preferred Charlie Brown vocabulary such words as boring, vapid and stultifying, instead replacing them with electrifying, engaging and fun (which normally should be written in all caps and followed by a surfeit of exclamation marks)!

Nashville Repertory Theatre will open its 2018-19 season - its 33rd - with a production of the Broadway hit musical Avenue Q, opening on September 8 at the Andrew Johnson Theatre at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

Now onstage at Brentwood's Towne Centre Theatre, Ludwig's Shakespeare in Hollywood (not to be confused with the musical Shakespeare in Love, which is based on an Oscar-winning film) once again takes audiences to 1934 to tell the story of the mirthful hijinks surrounding Austrian stage director Max Reinhardt's efforts to film an adaptation of his Hollywood Bowl production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Reinhardt's film treatment of the work is, perhaps, more critically acclaimed now than when it was first released back during the heady days of Hollywood's golden era and the director has been lauded with praise for his one and only film that starred several silver screen legends in roles that went creatively against type, presenting the actors with tremendous challenges.

Distraction Theatre Company inaugurates its third season with a third play from The Reduced Shakespeare Company - The Complete World of Sports (abridged) - taking on the complete world of sports and announcing a new collaboration with another non-traditional venue partner for the production. The latest show from Distraction runs April 20-28.

The year is 1934 and Shakespeare's most famous fairies, Oberon and Puck, have magically materialized on the Warner Bros. lot as director Max Reinhardt stages his film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, resulting in what is described as a "hilarious comic romp" - Shakespeare in Hollywood - from playwright Ken Ludwig.

Helen Olaketi Mariah Shute-Pettaway, a 2011 First Night Honoree and one of Nashville's most revered actresses, will take on the iconic role of Regina Giddens in the ACT 1 production of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. Directed by 2014 First Night Honoree Jeffrey Ellis, senior contributing editor for BroadwayWorld.com, The Little Foxes runs at Darkhorse Theatre May 4-19.

No matter how many times you see Wicked, no matter how many actresses defy gravity to soar as Elphaba or how numerous the renditions of 'Popular' you may hear Galinda sing, make absolutely no mistake about it: Wicked is a musical theater masterpiece. Winnie Holzman's engaging book (based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, which was in turn inspired by the original L. Frank Baum story about the wonderful wizard of Oz) and Stephen Schwartz's memorable score ensure that for generations to come, audiences will continue to be dazzled and delighted, thrilled and moved by the story of two very different individuals who become lifelong friends, proving that no obstacles in life are insurmountable.

Leah Lowe directs Jaclyn Backhaus' Men on Boats as Actors Bridge Ensemble and Belmont University Department of Theatre and Dance celebrate their 11th annual collaborative production with the Nashville premiere, running April 13-15 and April 19-22 at the Belmont Black Box Theater.

Lipscomb University Theatre has only just announced its 2018-19 season and Beki Baker, chair of the Lipscomb University theatre department, says student response already has shown “an overwhelming amount of excitement.”

Theater's power to illuminate and to elucidate even while offering diverting entertainment has perhaps never been felt so strongly as in Nashville Repertory Theatre's engaging version of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's Inherit the Wind, a fictionalized account of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, now onstage at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theatre through April 25.

We Southerners take our literary history seriously, whether it's a book, a poem, a novel or a play - no matter the genre, we are proud to read about our way of life and the things that we believe make us so very special. Such is the case with Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias, which debuted in 1987 to near unanimous acclaim only to gain in popularity and adulation in the intervening three decades. Whether it's a feature film, a made-for-TV movie or live onstage, Harling's tale of six Louisiana women and their shared experiences captured in a series of snapshots from their lives is beloved and somewhat revered.

There's really nothing better than a musical theater-inspired epiphany: On opening night of Belmont University Musical Theatre's altogether invigorating and exhilarating On The Town (which plays Belmont's Troutt Theatre through this Sunday, March 25) I was struck by the similarities - both structurally and musically - to the Gershwin masterpiece An American in Paris.

Talented students from 26 Tennessee high schools will seize the opportunity to improve their skills - and perhaps to be recognized for their theatrical and musical talent - as part of the fifth annual Nashville High School Musical Theater Awards, aka The Spotlight Awards.

Studio Tenn's 2018-19 season promises "yet another year of original works, family classics, musical masterpieces and Broadway blockbusters," as the company celebrates its ninth season.