Jeffrey Ellis - Page 26

First Night's Top Ten of 2018 - critic Jeffrey Ellis' annual review of the best in Tennessee theater will be revealed tonight during a live Facebook broadcast at 8 p.m. (CST), with the hosts of Midwinter's First Night (Ashley Wolfe, J. Robert Lindsay, Tosha Pendergrast and Ben Pendergrast) announcing the productions and performances recognized among the best of 2017.

Watershed Public Theatre announces the return of A Victorian Christmas Carol with Charles Dickens to Columbia State Community College's Ledbetter Auditorium for a limited run December 14-17. Their adaptation, a storyteller version of A Christmas Carol as narrated by Charles Dickens, offers a fresh look and musical twist to the classic holiday play.

Nashville Children's Theatre (NCT), the nation's oldest professional theatre for young audiences announces the return of its holiday event Cinderella, in what will be the third and final year NCT has produced this wintertime Cinderella. The production runs December 14-21 at Nashville Children's Theatre.

Nashville Ballet celebrates 10 years of Nashville's Nutcracker through December 23, at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall with all-new magical elements to mark the occasion. Since its world premiere in 2008, Nashville Ballet artistic director and CEO Paul Vasterling's original take on the holiday season classic has cemented its place as one of Music City's most beloved traditions and the 2017 staging had its opening night on Saturday, December 2.

With a new year quickly approaching, staff members at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre are already hard at work on the first production of 2018 and recently announced plans to give the old girl an update following a momentous first year of Norma Luther's ownership of the venerable theater. On opening night of the holiday season musical A Wonderful Life, Luther announced that the company currently In its 51st year of bringing professional theater to Nashville will temporarily close its doors to undergo significant renovations to ensure its history continues for at least another half-century.

Nashville audiences love their traditions whether they be of a theatrical bent or of a more personal nature so it should be noted that the holiday season in Music City is now upon us with the arrival of one of the most beloved theater traditions: Nashville Repertory Theatre's annual staging of A Christmas Story (the tale of young Ralphie, his long-suffering mother, his old man and his younger brother Randy), which offers up a timeless tale of Christmas in the heartland that is overflowing with nostalgia and a whole lot of heart.

George Bailey's story is a universal one, so much so that some 70 years after the film treatment of It's A Wonderful Life debuted, the tale of an upstanding citizen faced with failure and ruin, has become one of the most beloved holiday-season tales of all time. But the initial reaction of movie-goers to the film, although not nearly so dire as some cinema historians would have you believe, is considered one of the best-reviewed movies of all time.

Nashville Shakespeare Festival invites lovers of theater and The Bard to herald the arrival of 2018 and to celebrate the company's 30th Anniversary Season with a sneak peek of the upcoming production of Hamlet during their fifth annual Winter Shakespeare Open House at Belmont University's Troutt Theatre on Sunday, December 31, from 1 to 4 p.m.

Betty Jean, Cindy Lou, Suzy and Missy known collectively as The Marvelous Wonderettes join forces once more some 10 years after their first appearance as a singing girl group at 1958's Springfield High School Prom to help usher in the Christmas season at Harper's Hardware Shop in the spirited and sparkling holiday season musical revue Winter Wonderettes, playing The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson November 30-December 17.

Though definitely hard to believe, fall semester 2017 is quickly drawing to a close even if it seems it just got under way moments ago and college students like Belmont University's talented theater major Astrid Rotenberry, it's time to remain focused and to keep their eyes on the proverbial prize.

As difficult as it is to fathom, some 27 years ago my first review of Les Miserables the internationally renowned musical based upon the iconic 1861 Victor Hugo novel about a reformed bread thief who is pursued over the decades by a relentless lawman in post-Revolutionary France was published, yet one thought remains consistent and steadfast. If faced with someone who claims to dislike musical theater, take them to see Les Mis (as the theatrical juggernaut is known throughout the world thanks to countless revivals, regional production, televised spectacles and one Oscar-winning film) for its epic storytelling, emotionally driven character studies and a lush and memorable score that is sure to win over the most hardened opponents of the art form.

It should come as absolutely no surprise that the current production onstage at Massey Performing Arts Center in Nashville, courtesy of the astonishing Belmont University Musical Theatre program, is possibly as good or even better than any show we've seen put on over the years by the venerated musical theater training school. In fact, BUMT has produced so many remarkable performers over the years that we may all rest assured that musical theater in America (if not the world) will continue to grow and prosper, thanks to the continued supply of new blood from Belmont.

With a sense of the sweeping epic about it and a darkly romantic story to tell The Hunchback of Notre Dame ( a new musical based on the Victor Hugo novel and songs from the Disney film ) offers an intriguing retelling of the story of Quasimodo, the hideously deformed and often reviled bellringer at Paris' Notre Dame cathedral, and Esmeralda, the fiery, passionate gypsy temptress with whom he becomes infatuated. Although set in the late 15th century, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, what with its themes of religious zealotry and bias and prejudice against an ethnic minority, remains eerily prescient and perhaps frighteningly contemporary given the tenor of the times in which we live.

Based on Hungarian playwright Miklos Lazlo's Parfumerie (which has also served as the inspiration for the movies The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Ole Summertime and You've Got Mail), She Loves Me is, for most musical theater aficionados, one of those infrequently-produced theatrical gems venerated by fans with much-played cast albums in their collections and beloved by audiences lucky enough to actually see the show onstage.

Offering a thoroughly delightful and completely entertaining story about welcoming new challenges and living life to its fullest, Mr. Popper's Penguins the charming musical onstage at Nashville Children's Theatre through December 3 also offers its young audiences an intriguing history lesson about life during the Great Depression.

There is a new vision of heaven tap-dancing its way through my brain replete with beautiful showgirls and handsome chorus boys performing a show-stopping version of George and Ira Gershwin's I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise from An American in Paris, the sumptuous musical now onstage at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall through Sunday, November 5 and, quite frankly, if that is not what paradise will look like should I arrive there after my untimely demise, I will simply refuse to stay. For if paradise isn't the gorgeous and glittery, utterly theatrical vision supplied by this altogether splendid production, I'll say to hell with it (and me, I suppose), because surely paradise is set to a lush and memorable Gershwin score. Anything else is simply a poor facsimile of the real thing. Est-ce que tu comprends?

Middle Tennessee State University's Theatre Department teams up with Nashville Shakespeare Festival for the upcoming production of Skakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by NSF artistic associate and MTSU adjunct professor of theatre Santiago Sosa. Midsummer runs November 9-12 at MTSU's Tucker Theatre.

And if there's any justice in the world of the performing arts, you can rest assured that Belmont University's Alex Drinnen one of the most accomplished and most often-cast young actors in Tennessee theater will be among the names of particular note. Today, he is in the spotlight as our latest scholar/actor to be profiled in our recurring features series Collegiate Theatrics.

For McGee Maddox the dancer/actor who plays Jerry Mulligan in the national tour of An American in Paris, which opens at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall on Tuesday, October 31 it's knowing that every Tuesday means a new venue, a new city and a new backstage crew that keeps him focused and the role fresh even after 128 performances.

Circle Players' 2017-18 season continues with the Nashville premiere of the Tim Larson-directed production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the epic musical based upon Victor Hugo's tale of hope, love and passion, which runs October 27-November 12 at the Z. Alexander Looby Theatre in Nashville.