Jeffrey Ellis - Page 143

Disturbingly dark and awesomely foreboding, evil is certain to lurk behind the walls of the House of Usher. Springing from the fertile imagination of legendary American author Edgar Allan Poe, and re-created now as an opera by the wildly expressive Philip Glass, Nashville Opera's production of The Fall of the House of Usher represents a courageous leap of artistic faith for the company's creative brain trust. And with its mesmerizing staging conceived by director John Hoomes and production designer Barry Steele, Nashville Opera soars - bringing a brilliant production to the stage of the James K. Polk Theatre at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Shocking and riveting, provocative and challenging, this opera leaves its audience stunned and spent, grateful to have witnessed an artistic triumph of such extraordinary proportions.

Shelean Newman, known to Nashville audiences from her storied performances on area stages in productions of such musicals as The Sound of Music, West Side Story, Evita and more, has recently released her second CD for GrandVista Music entitled Snowfall, a collection of some of the season's most apropos songs, along with some surprising selections that fit perfectly into our idea of what the winter holiday season is all about. Snowfall is a follow-up, if you will, to Newman's exquisitely sung first collection for the record label, titled appropriately enough Anything Goes, a collection of standards and showtunes from such composers as Cole Porter, Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer and George and Ira Gershwins.

Internationally renowned musical theatre producer/director Hugh Wooldridge will lead a master class on musical theatre for Tennessee Repertory Theatre on Monday, November 30, from 6 to 9 p.m. Most recently, Wooldridge adapted and directed the Tim Rice/ABBA musical, Chess in Concert, at London's Royal Albert Hall, with a cast that included Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal and Marti Pellow.

In this musical sequel to Smoke on the Mountain, the Sanders family returns to Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, home of the Mount Pleasant Pickle Factory for Christmas Eve in 1941. Reverend Oglethorpe, of the Mount Pleasant Baptist Chruch, has invited them to sing and witness, getting his congregation into the down-home holiday spirit before the boys, including one of the Sanders' own, are shipped off to serve in World War II. The show's score features more than two dozen Christmas carols - many of them vintage hymns - and hilarious yuletide stories from the Sanders family keep the audience laughing, clapping and singing along with some bluegrass Christmas favorites.

With the holiday season just around the corner, Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre has a special gift all wrapped up for the Nashville theatre-going public with their production of Christmas Belles, opening November 19 and running through December 31. The hilarious Futrelle sisters and all the other denizens of fictional Fayro, Texas return in this holiday-themed sequel to the smash hit comedy, Dearly Beloved by the playwriting trio of Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten. Directed by Nate Eppler, the cast features some of Nashville's best-loved actors and promises to be one of the hottest tickets in town this season.

David Williams and Cat Eberwine give such winning performances as Seymour and Audrey in the Senior Center for the Arts' production of Little Shop of Horrors, now onstage at Nashville Dinner Theatre through November 15, that it's easy to overlook some of the production's other, more obvious, shortcomings. Williams and Eberwine are sublimely off-kilter as the oddest of couples in the Alan Menken-Howard Ashman musical, with an onstage chemistry that makes them completely believable and altogether lovable in their cartoonish roles.

Auditions have been set for Sunday, November 15, for the Amun Ra Theatre production of Nashville playwright Carolyn German's Signs of a New Day: The Z. Alexander Looby Story. German's play, which she will also direct, is the story of the life of renowned civil rights attorney Z. Alexander Looby. Auditions will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. (CT) at Amun Ran Theatre Playhouse, 2508 Clifton Avenue, and appointments are strongly suggested. To reserve an audition time, call ART at (615) 329-4228, between the hours of 1 and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Amun Ra Theatre's jeff obafemi carr came off the roof and hit the ground running, with the fifth anniversary production of the company's Black Nativity by Langston Hughes as the first offering in the 2010 season. Black Nativity will feature the children of the Amun Ra Performing Arts Academy, alongside some of the stars of previous Black Nativity productions of the past five years. Black Nativity runs December 18-20 at the Shamblin Theatre on the campus of David Lipscomb University. This marks the first year the show will be produced on the Lipscomb campus, and the university is a major sponsor of the event. Lipscomb staff and students will have the opportunity to work with ART's professional crew, which includes nationally recognized lighting designer Scott Leathers.

un Ra Theatre will hold auditions for its 2010 season, which will include the company's fifth annual production of Langston Hughes' Black Nativity and all of the plays to be presented in the soon-to-be-announced 2010 season, featuring two world premiere dramas and several local premieres. Auditions will be held on Sunday, November 15, from 3 to 6 p.m. at the ART Playhouse, 2508 Clifton Avenue, Nashville. To reserve an audition slot, actors are asked to contact ART at (615) 329-iACT (4228) between the hours of 1 and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

If there are a million stories in the Naked City, then surely there have to be at least half a million in the Music City - and a couple dozen of those stories are recounted in The Nashville Monologues, the new play onstage through next weekend at Darkhorse Theatre.

Jean Shepherd's classic memoir of growing up in the 1940s Midwest - A Christmas Story - will usher in the holiday season at Tennessee Repertory Theatre, as the venerable Nashville professional company presents the stage adaptation of the film cult classic for a November 21-December 19 run at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theatre.

Opening weekend of the Roxy Regional Theatre's production will feature two very special evenings: opening night is 'Pay What You Can' night, where each audience member decides their own ticket price. Saturday's performance features a themed dinner at Lovin' Spoonful Café at 6:30 p.m., and then a performance at the Roxy. The Louisiana-inspired menu features andouille sausage gumbo, mixed green salad with orange-honey dressing, Creole corn bread and pineapple-apple bread pudding with bourbon sauce.

AUDREY II, the people-eating plant who stars in Little Shop Of Horrors, the frightfully freaky rock musical, has invaded Donelson's Senior Center for the Arts (SCA), for a run through November 15 at Nashville Dinner Theatre. Directed by veteran Nashville director Tim Larson, Little Shop introduces audiences to Seymour, an ill-fated florist shop worker who pines for fortune, fame and his flame, comely co-worker, Audrey. He later discovers an alien plant with a hankering for human blood and a dastardly desire to overtake the world. A perilous pact is made between the two, and mayhem ensues.

Even the presence of Melissa Gilbert - who so memorably played 'Half-Pint' in the Little House TV series of the 1970s and '80s and now is cast as Caroline Ingalls - can't save this musical from mediocrity. Try as they might, Gilbert and her castmates unfortunately just can't get past Sheinkin's overly earnest and plodding book, Portman's completely unmemorable score or Di Novelli's clumsily crafted lyrics. Sheinkin's book does offer some glimmer of hope: There are some lovely moments to be found in the script, but they are too few and far between. Portman's score fares worse, since there is not one melody that can be recalled and all the musical numbers sound alike. Di Novelli's lyrics are even worse. When 'I'm sick with wind sickness' is the only lyric you can remember, you know the show's in trouble. And, clearly, the material is not served well by director Francesca Zambello's seemingly uninspired staging (save for some creatively conceived horse-racing sequences).

Burr's even-handed direction and his unerring eye and ear for what is truly funny ensure that King's circa 1940s script is winningly interpreted and offers further proof that good farce, no matter its age, remains highly entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny. With Burr's expertly cast ensemble enacting the ridiculously absurd situations, you have a winning combination that will delight audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

Since its preeminence among the city's artistic entities became de facto, Nashville Ballet has consistently launched the real artistic season in Music City each year -- and with the return of Giselle to the company's program after a seven-year hiatus, the 2009-2010 season is off to a rousing start. One of the most beloved works from the classical repertoire, Giselle is a challenging undertaking for any company, but thanks to the vision of artistic director Paul Vasterling, Nashville Ballet's production is a visual feast, featuring stunning costumes, evocative lighting and gorgeous scenery.

Kidman, who is a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations, hoped to use her celebrity to help focus Washington lawmakers' attention on the issue of violence against women. The subcommittee was holding hearings Wednesday on the 'International Violence Against Women Act' which is expected to be voted on by members of Congress within the next several weeks.

Memphis and Nashville will be on the travel itinterary of National Endowment for the Arts chair Rocco Landesman in November as part of his 'Art Works' Tour announced Wednesday. Landesman announced the launch of his nationwide tour as he delivered the keynote address to close the 2009 national Grantmakers in the Arts Conference: Navigating the Arts of Change in Brooklyn, New York.

'This is a show about agoraphobia, adultery, '80s nostalgia, strippers, roadkill and hysterical pregnancy...it's everything a musical should be,' according to Cathy Sanborn Street, executive artistic director for the company. Directed by Larry Tobias, performances will be held at 'Armadillo Acres,' located at 1031 Elm Hill Pike, just off the Fessler's Lane exit of I-24. Curtain is at 8 p.m. for Friday and Saturday shows; at 5 p.m. for Sunday performances.

Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) and Nashville Children's Theater are partnering to present the Fresh Filmmakers Competition for students between the ages of 13 and 18 years old-this time with a 'diary' twist. The call-for-entries continues through January 4. Finalists will be screened at NCT on Saturday, February 6, 2010, as part of a joint evening that will include a performance of The Diary of Anne Frank.