CRITIC'S CHOICE: Get Ahead of the Holiday Rush

Turkeys are on-sale at your local supermarket, so there's no better way to know Thanksgiving is just around the corner - yep, less than two weeks away! - which means that local theater companies will be unleashing their holiday season productions with enough productions of A Christmas Story (both the musical and the play), It's A Wonderful Life and Ebenezer Scrooge-led shows that you could shake a stick at!

In the meantime, you might do some time traveling back to the golden era of Broadway during the Jazz Age, compare dysfunction with the Weston clan of Pawhuskey, Oklahoma, or find yourself caught up in the crinolines and harmonies of the girl groups of the 1950s and 1960s with The Marvelous Wonderettes. It's a hectic time in theater as we hurtle toward the most wonderful time of the year...so go see a show and lose yourself in a world of make believe!

Meanwhile, we are in the planning stages for Midwinter's First Night (Sunday, January 10, 2016 - for the love of God, where is the time going people?), which will include the presentation of the BWW Nashville Awards (the nomination period has come to an end, and voting starts next week) and the eagerly anticipated announcement of First Night's Top 10 of 2016 (bribes are encouraged and appreciated). Justin Boyd, Britt Byrd, Katherine Morgan and Taylor Novak join me to host the event, which will include a performance by 2013 First Night Honoree Chambers Stevens, who will be in town with his latest one-man show (It's Who You Know) and the cast of Circle Players' Sister Act will give you a tantalizing glimpse of their show that will open later that week! Kudos to the ever-helpful and multi-talented Michael Adcock, who provides the snazzy Midwinter artwork.

Here, gentle readers, are our much-considered suggestions for immersing oneself in something stageworthy over the coming days:

Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts presents The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, opening tonight and running through November 22. Director Dalton Reeves reimagines this popular modern classic for the 70th anniversary of Williams' autobiographical masterpiece.

Williams' play was the show that propelled his meteoric rise in American theater. Premiering in Chicago in December 1944, the production was nearly closed after just one week due to poor audience turnout. However, enthusiastic reviews by critics stimulated sold out performances and, three months later, Menagerie moved to New York. It won Williams the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play and became his first Broadway success, opening at the Playhouse Theater in March 1945 and closing over a year later in August 1946.

A memory of Saint Louis during the 1930s, Menagerie is an emotionally devastating portrait of hope. Aspiring poet Tom Wingfield dreams of adventure while reluctantly supporting his overbearing mother Amanda and debilitatingly shy sister Laura. Pushed by his mother, he brings home a gentleman caller to try to coax his sister from her fragile private world. Menagerie "captures better than any play... the claustrophobic reality of family life, with its jostling interests, imposing expectations, burdensome concern and overwhelming love" (Los Angeles Times).

The cast features Kara Kemp - playing the dysfunctional mother Amanda Wingfield, Jess Townsend as the painfully shy Laura Wingfield, Shane Lowery portraying the escapist Tom Wingfield, and Joseph Stanley as Jim O'Connor, the gentleman caller.

Premiering tonight, eight Belmont University seniors take on the adventures of wonderland in Alice, a newly written variation of Alice in Wonderland. The Belmont University Black Box Theatre will be transformed as an all-female cast shares the story of Alice Pleasance Liddell and her friend Lewis Carroll.

The story begins in London, England where we first meet young Alice. Having been brought up in a strict household she does not know the power that her imagination holds. When Lewis Carroll comes into her life, he reminds her that not all books have to come in black and white.

Senior Ara Vito, double major in English and Theatre, wrote the new adaptation and has had the opportunity to see this project through from the very start. Not only did she write the play that will come to life on the stage, but she is also the assistant director of the production. She has melded her passions for writing and theatre to create this senior capstone project.

The cast includes seven theatre performance majors, each her senior capstone requirement. They are directed by Brent Maddox, a Belmont professor who is head of the performance program.

Madeline Marconi plays Alice and Morgan Conder is playing the role of Lewis Carroll. The rest of the cast, who play many different roles throughout the show, include Kristen Ladd, Austin Williams, Nyazia Martin, Johnna McCarthy and Caitlyn Weaver.

Alice opens tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Belmont Black Box Theatre on Compton Avenue and runs until Saturday, November 21. Tickets are $5 each, but are free to all Belmont students. Seating is limited and tickets are available online or at the door. Call the Belmont University Box Office for ticket information at (615) 460-8500. Concessions will be served before the show and during intermission. All proceeds support Belmont's theatre honor society, Alpha Psi Omega.

Nashville Opera presents Philip Glass' Hydrogen Jukebox, opening tonight at the Noah Liff Opera Center, promising a production that is "pure theater," according to Nashville Opera's Reed Hummell.

Audiences are invited along for an intimate voyage through the cultural landscape of America from the 1950's through the 1980s. Delving into such topics as life, death, the atomic bomb and potential annihilation, Eastern philosophy, sex, drugs, rock and roll, war, and significant political events, Hydrogen Jukebox is a kaleidoscope of societal phenomena. Above all, though, Hydrogen Jukebox tries to portray the American People-a collective of individuals searching a better way towards understanding, meaning, and happiness in hectic and often confusing times.

This electrifying opera - featuring a haunting, dynamic score by Philip Glass and the prophetic poetry of Allen Ginsberg - promises to overwhelm your senses with a poignant experience that is at once passionately nostalgic and strikingly relevant. Approximate running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes (with one 20-minute intermission)

Opening tonight at Clarksville's Roxy Regional Theatre is The Secret Garden, starring Nashville's own Virginia Richardson as young Mary Lennox in the award-winning musical.

The haunting moors of England will come to life at the Roxy Regional Theatre in the enchanting musical The Secret Garden, based on the enduring family classic penned over a century ago by Frances Hodgson Burnett (who moved with her family from her native England to Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1865), this Tony Award-winning musical, with book and lyrics by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Normanand music by Lucy Simon, will be directed by Tom Thayer.

Richardson stars as eleven-year-old orphan Mary Lennox, who comes to live with her mysterious Uncle Archibald and her sickly cousin Colin. With the help of her charming new friend, Dickon, Mary rejuvenates the house, its inhabitants and its neglected secret garden in this heartwarming tale of forgiveness and renewal.

Ryan Bowie stars as Archibald Craven, Tanner Sigears as Colin, and James Hansen as Dickon, the cast also includes Kelley Barker, Leslie Greene, Sean Michael Jaenicke, John McDonald, Lindsay Nantz, Val Roche, Matthew Smolko and Jonathan Whitney, with Tom Thayer on piano.

A special Thanksgiving performance on Thursday, November 26, at 7 p.m. will include complimentary pie and coffee with the cast. The Secret Garden plays November 13, 14, 20, 21 and 27 at 8 p.m., November 19, 25 and 26 at 7 p.m. and November 21 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25 (adults) and $15 (ages 13 and under) and may be purchased online or by phone at (931) 645-7699.

Opening Sunday, November 15, at The 4th Story Theatre at West End United Methodist Church, is The Hurting Part, running through November 22. A new play by Silas House, The Hurting Part is set in the small Dayton, Ohio, apartment of Thelma and Simeon Smallwood, December of 1962, as they struggle with the values of family and home, love and loyalty. Through the universal story, audiences are reminded of deep detachment and homesickness in our lives when Christmas feels like the reliving of them all over again.

The cast includes Nancy Hawthorne, Adam Troxler, Molly Weinberg, Christopher Wagner, 2015 First Night Most Promising Actor Logan Dowlen, Sheridan Hitchcox and Jessica Undis. Kirk McNeill and John McGuire directs, with Martha Ann Pilcher as producer.

On Monday night, First Night Award-winning director Stella Reed helms a stage reading, presented by Metro Parks and Kennie Playhouse Theater, at East Recreation Center, 600 Woodland Street, of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, for one night only.

August Wilson's Tony Award-nominated Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is set in Chicago in the 1920. Ma Rainey and her band are there for a recording session, but issues of race, art, religion and the historic exploitation of black recording artists looms large over the scene. Directed by First Night Award winner Stella Reed, the cast includes Sam Dressler, Stella Reed, Howard Snyder, Clark Harris, Michael McLendon, Darlene Knight, Joel Diggs, Laurens Jones, Omar Lagualdi, Kenny Dozier and Robb Douglas. Tickets are $7 and the reading is recommended for mature audiences. Curtain is at 7 p.m.

Opening that very same night at Belmont University's Troutt Theater, is Shawn Knight's Homicidally Ever After, running through November 18, in which audiences are welcomed to the third annual meeting of the Union of Fairy Tale, Nursery Rhyme, and Children's Story Characters!

Will Prince Charming be reelected President of the Union? Will a villain interrupt the proceedings and curse everyone? Will a plucky sidekick bring groan-inducing jokes? One can only hope... Join the membership for an evening of murder and mystery where YOU try to solve the case by scouring a crime scene, bribing key characters, and solving puzzles to find clues.

The show is free, and attendance is limited to 100, so arrive early, and help us catch the killer! The show runs Monday, November 16, 7:30 p.m.; Tuesday, November 17, 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday, November 18, 9 p.m.

ACT 1's production of August: Osage County, directed by Bradley Moore, opened last weekend, continuing through next weekend at Darkhorse Theater, featuring a stellar cast of local actors.

Tracy Letts' acclaimed play about a dysfunctional family coming to terms with one runs through November 21, and is ACT 1's second show of the 2015-16 season. In August: Osage County, the mystery of their missing father brings three sisters to the home of their mother, Violet an acid-tongued, pill-popping cancer patient. Daughters Barbara, Karen and Ivy - along with their significant others and various other kinfolk - feel the full force of their dysfunctional matriarch's venom, as Violet tells every one of them exactly what she thinks of them.

Moore has assembled a reputable group of storytellers/actors to bring this story of family dysfunction to life onstage, including Debbie Kraski as Violet Weston, Layne Sasser as Mattie Fae Aiken, David Arnold as Charlie Aiken, Dietz Osborne as Bill Fordham and Cat Arnold as Barbara Fordham. Completing Moore's ensemble are Rob Wilds, Taylor Novak, Jenna Pryor, Jess Miller, Elizabeth Ayers Turner, Dollie Mayfield, Gerald Pitts and Kurt Jarvis.

From our review: "Darkly comic and strongly compelling, August: Osage County - the 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winner for drama that claimed the Tony Award for best play - is a portrait of family dysfunction at its worst (or best, depending on your way of thinking), replete with physical and mental abuse, incest, addiction, racism and so much more to elicit the most visceral of reactions. But there's no feeling that Letts threw everything but the kitchen sink into his script; rather, the fissures in the Weston family structure go far deeper, with one horrifying experience or bone-chilling episode leading to the next - and as each rock is turned over, metaphorically speaking, what is found underneath may seem more unsavory than anything that could be imagined.

"Yet somehow, the story as told onstage is not repulsive. Instead, the playwright draws in his audience with a tautly written, if sometimes over-indulgent, script that manages to entertain while challenging any sense of decorum, or thoughts of "family," that one might have. Take my word for it (from a man who had an amazingly difficult, if altogether necessary, no-holds-barred fight with my alcoholic father, as he lay dying in a hospital bed - but that's fodder for my own play, I suppose), your upcoming family reunion will take on the confectionary air of sunshine, rainbows, lollipops and pumpkin spice lattes in comparison to what transpires in August: Osage County. Unless, of course, you're f-ing your simple-minded first cousin or your mom is taking a deadly cocktail of hydrocodone, oxycontin, Percocet, Percodan, Darvon and Darvocet, with a little Xanax thrown in for a fillip of equilibrium."

For ticket information and other details, go to www.act1online.com. August: Osage County is intended for mature audiences.

Directed by Melissa Bedinger Carrelli, The Belle of Amherst is described as "a theatrical exploration of the private life of poet Emily Dickinson," played by Caroline Davis through November 22, at The Filming Station downtown.

A true nonconformist, Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) is recognized as one of the finest, most influential and singular voices in the English language. Drawing from her poems, diaries and letters, playwright William Luce's one-character show (which premiered in 1976) brings Dickinson to life by using a stream-of-conscious flow of prose and verse. Fifty-three at the play's introduction, the notoriously reclusive Dickinson welcomes the audience to her home in Amherst, Massachusetts, and reveals her longing to become a famous poet, shares recipes and small-town gossip, and paints lyrical portraits of her family. The twists and turns of her narrative include childhood flights of fancy, reactions to literary criticism, her naturalist view of the infinite Universe, and, ultimately, her acceptance of Immortality.

Here's our take on the production: "Caroline Davis' tour-de-force performance as American poet Emily Dickinson distinguishes the current production of William Luce's The Belle of Amherst - onstage through November 22 at The Filming Station Downtown, in a delightful revival helmed by veteran director Melissa Carrelli - and, clearly, is reason enough to make seeing the show an absolute must for theater devotees.

"But it's also the play's history, its very pedigree to be exact, that should prompt a visit to the home of Demetria Kalodimas' production company over the next three weekends. Opening on Broadway in 1976 and ensuring the luminous Julie Harris one of her Tony Award wins, The Belle of Amherst is exquisitely written, certain to make even the most anti-intellectual audience member fall at least a little bit in love with the famously reclusive and guarded Dickinson.

"Dickinson is 53 at curtain (after a fashion, since there is no curtain in the intimate confines of The Filling Station - which also housed In Another Life and Maverick Entertainment Partners' debut production of Chambers Stevens' Twain and Shaw Do Lunch a year ago) and with the expert guidance of Luce's script, which attentively and lovingly focuses on her life, we are taken on an adventurous journey, getting to know the very real and genuine woman behind the English classroom icon we supposed her to be for most of our lives."

The practically perfect in every way Mary Poppins continues to work her magic in Woodbury this weekend as the Arts Center of Cannon County's production of the musical continues its run. Directed by Allison Hall, with musical direction by Haley Ray and choreography by Regina Wilkerson-Ward, this family musical features the delightful songs from the popular Disney film including "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Supercalifragilisticexpialidcious" and "Chim Chim Cheree."

Starring Alice Matlock Clements and Scott Willis, Mary Poppins is the winner of 44 major theatre awards from around the globe, Mary Poppins has captivated audiences for generations, and now the enchanting story, unforgettable songs and breathtaking dance numbers will dazzle and delight theatre goers of all ages. Believe in the magic of Mary Poppins and discover a world where anything can happen if you let it! Performances run November 6-21. Call (615) 563-2287 for tickets.

Mary Hutchens, last seen onstage as Fiona in Shrek the Musical for Dickson's The Renaissance Players, stars as Eliza Doolittle in Murfreesboro Little Theatre's production of My Fair Lady, running through November 22.

Directed by theatre veteran Melvin C. Spring, with musical direction and accompaniment by MLT President Charlie Parker, Andy Ford stars as Henry Higgins, with Hutchens making her MLT debut as Eliza Doolittle. My Fair Lady features Perry Poston as Colonel Pickering, Zach Kelley as Freddy, Rob DeHoff as Alfred P. Doolittle, Rae Ellyn Kelley as Mrs. Eynsford-Hill, Janice Denson as Mrs. Pearce, Heather Gardner as Mrs. Higgins, Steven Luster as Harry, and Jacob Kight as Jamie. Rounding out the cast are Alyssa Brangenburg, Alex DeHoff, Aylee Gardner, and Raeley Underwood.

The quintessential girl group quartet, comprised of Catherine Birdsong, Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva, Darci Wantiez and Stephanie Jones Benton star in Springhouse Theatre Company's production of The Marvelous Wonderettes, running through November 15, in the company's Black Box Theatre in Smyrna.

Take a journey with The Marvelous Wonderettes and enjoy an evening of the music of the 1950s and '60s. You'll be caught up in the nostalgia and theatricality of the entertaining musical review, which is a kind of salute to the girl groups of that bygone era. Make no mistake about it, this stellar cast will knock your socks off. Curtain is at 7:30 p.m. November 13 and 14, with a 3:30 p.m. matinees on November 15.

Bullets Over Broadway, the recent Broadway musical based on the Woody Allen film of the same name (and featuring Allen's script for the tale of mobsters and chorus girls on the Great White Way), settles in at TPAC's Andrew Jackson Hall through Sunday, November 15.

Written by Woody Allen (Death Defying Acts, Writer's Block) and based on the screenplay by Allen and Douglas McGrath for the 1994 film, Bullets Over Broadway tells the story of an aspiring young playwright newly arrived on Broadway in 1920s New York who is forced to cast a mobster's talentless girlfriend in his latest drama in order to get it produced Bullets Over Broadway features Michael Williams as "David Shayne," Emma Stratton as "Helen Sinclair," Jeff Brooks as "Cheech," Bradley Allan Zarr as "Warner Purcell," Michael Corvino [who last season performed in Nashville Opera's production of Florencia en el Amazonas) as "Nick Valenti," Hannah Rose Deflumeri as "Ellen," Rick Grossman as "Julian Marx," Jemma Jane as "Olive Neal," and Rachel Bahler as "Eden Brent."

It's one of the most eagerly anticipated musicals in the 2015-16 Broadway at TPAC season, ian escapist and old-fashioned musical that's filled with high-spirited music and dancing - guaranteed to delight and to entertain, we guarantee!

Here's what we had to say about our opening night experience: "Gimme a chorus line of gorgeous girls with gams up to here, a tap-dancing mob of darkly handsome wise guys, a serious lady of the theater whose teeth marks may be found all around a stage set - place them amid a whimsical and altogether unbelievable plot as thin as the best of the old-time movie musicals, complete with a score of tuneful hits from the jazz age, then throw 'em a laugh-out-loud funny script by Woody Allen - and I am in musical theater nirvana. (You really should read that first sentence with all the dramatic portent one can muster!) And through Sunday, at least, so you can be as well, since Bullets Over Broadway, the musical directed and choreographed on Broadway by Susan Stroman, will continue its run in Andrew Jackson Hall at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

"With performances by a talented cast of newcomers and slightly more seasoned actors with presence to spare, Bullets Over Broadway moves along at a grand pace to thoroughly engage you in the hilarious, if slightly nefarious, hijinks that transpire onstage when the make-believe worlds of gangsters, chorus girls and theatrical types collide in a fictionalized take on Grand Guignol drama.

"The luminous Emma Stratton, whose performance as Helen Sinclair delightfully pays tribute to the grand ladies of both the stage and screen, leads the cast with a spot-on portrayal that will lead you to various heights of theatrical escapism in the very best sense. "

Nashville Children's Theatre acclaimed revival of Charlotte's Web, starring Jamie Farmer, Shawn Knight, Brian Russell, Eric Pasto-Crosby, Amanda Card and David Compton bring the E.B. White classic to life through December 6.

White's Charlotte's Web has been named "the best American children's book of the past two hundred years" by the Children's Literature Association. NCT's acclaimed stage version of this timeless story has won the hearts of children and their families like no other play in our repertoire. We welcome Fern, Charlotte, Wilbur, and Templeton back to our stage every few years, inviting new generations of children and their families to share this remarkable story together, told as only NCT can tell it.

It is deep in the early, just before dawn, and Fern's delightful little runt pig, Wilbur, appears to be headed for the dinner table - and not in a good way - when he is saved through the remarkable literary efforts of a spider named Charlotte. Wilbur may be "Terrific," and he certainly is "Some Pig," but it is up to Charlotte to tell it to the world. This long time family classic is a beautiful story of friendship and sacrifice, and in Nashville Children's Theatre's acclaimed production, when that wonderful spider sets about her devoted work, you will believe in the miracle of Charlotte's Web.

For details, go to www.nashvillechildrenstheatre.org!

Circle Players' production of John Steinbeck's literary classic Of Mice and Men, completes its three-weekend run at Nashville's Z. Alexander Looby Theatre Saturday night, directed by Daniel DeVault and Heather Vaughn Alexander. Mitchell Stevenson and Tony Nappo star as George and Lennie, the two itinerant workers and pals whose woeful life and tragic experiences have made Steinbeck's novel - and its subsequent interpretations - among the best-loved tales found in all of American arts and letters.

Other cast members include Eric Butler, Morgan Fairbanks, Joseph Lovell, Ethan Treutle, Nick Boggs, Ron Veasey, Christian McLaurin and Craig Hartline. Of Mice and Men runs through November 15. For tickets and further information, go to www.CirclePlayers.net

From our review: "Playing at Nashville's Z. Alexander Looby Theatre, in a production co-directed by Heather Alexander and Daniel DeVault for Circle Players, Of Mice and Men is a still effective, even moving, literary work. It continues to challenge viewers as Steinbeck's leading characters George Milton and Lennie Smalls strive to eke out a living in spite of the harshness of the world in which they live. But the source material shows signs of aging in Circle's production; in short, it is very much the product of its time and place. Contemporary audiences may blanch at the naked truth as told in Of Mice and Men: Women are creatures to be disdained, operating solely on their feminine wiles with which they entrap men unable to shrug off their carnal desires, men who succumb to their baser instincts in an effort to fulfill some primal need to somehow find intimacy in their lives; and African-Americans are objects of derision, considered wild and socially unacceptable in the brusquely unyielding world of their Caucasian bosses."

Completing its run at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre is Alone Together, directed by Lydia Bushfield. Starring Charlie Winton and Bonita Allen, the show opened a couple of weeks ago. You can call (615) 646-9977 for reservations. In addition to the aforementioned Winton and Allen, the cast includes Brett Cantrell, Austin Olive, Andy Griggs and Corinne Bupp. Cantrell, Bupp and Winton were last onstage at the Barn in Arsenic and Old Lace.

Up next is an original holiday production - Yule Y'all - written and directed by the busiest woman in the dinner theater business, aka Ms. Bushfield. It opens next Thursday night, with a cast that includes Martha Wilkinson, Jennifer Richmond, Jeremy Maxwell, Steven Kraski, Craig Hartline (who's playing The Boss in Of Mice and Men), Daniel Keith Bissell and Lisa Marie Wright!

Finishing up its run in East Nashville this weekend, N&XT presents Manuscript at Gallery Luperca, 604 Gallatin Avenue, Suite 212, , starring Parker Arnold as David, Jesse W. Smith as Chris and Sadie Elizabeth Hart as Elisabeth.

In the bedroom of a Brooklyn Heights brownstone, three ambitious college freshmen confront the discovery of an unpublished manuscript that can guarantee success. It's winter break; the parents are out of town; and David is the host of this gathering. His best friend, Chris, is coming over with his new girlfriend from college, Elizabeth. Elizabeth is a famous author and David an aspiring one. They've come to party before a fancy holiday ball. But when Chris makes a run to get their drugs for the evening it becomes clear that David and Elizabeth have a secret history. To make matters worse, Chris returns with shocking news and a stack of pages that will change their lives forever. It appears that their supplier, a famous and famously reclusive author, has died of a drug overdose. After discovering the body, Chris managed to salvage the only copy of his final work from the scene. As the bright young things scrap over what to do with the manuscript, their plotting is by turns hilarious and startlingly cruel. They spin out of control on their manipulative quest for fame and, ultimately, revenge. Little is what it seems, and no one can be trusted as plot twists pile up, and the play hurtles towards a surprise ending.

Manuscript runs through November 14: Thursday-Saturday at 7 p.m. Go to www.nandxt.com for more information.

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