CRITIC'S CHOICE: We're Back With Some Tips for Fall

We're back (using the royal "we" and telling people how to act and what to see)! After an extended absence due to The Last Five Years (we directed it to boffo notices from our critical colleagues), The 2015 First Night Honors (which played to SRO crowds at Chaffin's Barn in September) and a sense of overwhelming malaise and ennui (we are ever so dramatic at times), BWW Nashville's Critic's Choice is back on the interwebs, offering you our insights and advice on the shows that are coming up and what you should try to find time to see - or to avoid at all costs, depending on our perspective.

There's the definite feeling of autumn in the air: the sun's rays are slanted, you definitely need a sweater in the early morning hours, every retailer is pushing Halloween like nobody's business (and, yes, Christmas wares are starting to appear on store shelves) and theater companies are well into their new seasons, with a plethora of new and intriguing shows to pique your interest and enough snarky reviews to start rumors anew.

Meanwhile, we are in the planning stages for Midwinter's First Night (Sunday, January 10), which will include the presentation of the BWW Nashville Awards (you have until Halloween to make nominations before voting starts in early November...that should scare you enough to get back in the saddle, so to speak!) and the eagerly anticipated announcement of First Night's Top 10 of 2016 (bribes are encouraged and appreciated). Details about the show - including our amazing quartet of co-hosts and the even more amazing poster artwork by Michael Adcock - will be announced just in time for Halloween costume ideas! Also in 2016: we'll be directing Beth Henley's The Miss Firecracker Contest, running April 14-30, at The Larry Keeton Theatre. In other words, we'll continue blurring the ethical lines until the day we die - while increasing the sales of voodoo dolls locally.

Opening today (Thursday, October 15) at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre is Alone Together, directed by Lydia Bushfield. Starring Charlie Winton and Bonita Allen, the show opens with a brown bag matinee at noon, followed by the gala opening night (the buffet opens at 6 p.m., curtain at 8 p.m.) and includes an hors d'oeuvres buffet, dinner and a glass of champagne for every audience member over 21! Call (615) 646-9977 for reservations - and be quick about it!

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.

The Robertson County Players opens their final production of the 2015 season - Ron Osborne's First Baptist of Ivy Gap, directed by Connie Smith - at the Springfield High School Theater, 5240 Highway 76 East, with curtain at 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday (through October 24), and a special Saturday matinee this weekend, October 17, at 2 p.m.

Here's a synopsis of the play, supplied to us by the director herself: "During WWII, six women gather at the church to roll bandages and plan the church's 75th anniversary. Overseeing things is Edith, the pastor's wise-cracking wife who dispenses Red Cross smocks and witty repartee to Luby, whose son is fighting in the Pacific; Mae Ellen, the church's rebellious organist who wants to quit but hasn't the courage; Olene, who dreams of a career in Hollywood; Sammy, a shy newcomer with a secret; and Vera, an influential Baptist with a secret of her own. When Luby learns her son has been wounded, she confounds the others by blaming the vulnerable Sammy.

"Twenty-five years later, the "First Baptist Six" reunite. Back to reconcile with Luby - whose son died of his wounds - is Sammy, whose own son is now in Vietnam; and Olene, whose flashy show business career will set the town on its ear. There to welcome them are Vera, her secret still safe; Mae Ellen, still rebellious and still looking for an escape; and Edith, whose biggest challenge isn't the church's upcoming centennial but revelations that shake relationships formed over a quarter of a century. With humor and pathos, these six very different women find comfort, forgiveness and redemption in each other."

Tickets to First Baptist of Ivy Gap are available at www.ticketsnashville.com: $15 each for adults, $10 each for students K-12.

Verge Theater Company opens Allison Moore's Slasher on Friday night, October 16, running through Halloween night at Main House, 709B Main Street in Nashville - the entrance is in the alley, but you don't need a special password...ten bucks will do the trick (or $15 on Halloween) - go to www.vergetheaterco.org for details.

In Slasher, Sheena works at a crappy restaurant while going to school and supporting her family. When she's offered the part of "last girl" in a slasher film she jumps at the chance. Her pain addled, pill-popping, scooter driving, feminist mother isn't going to let the movie Blood Bath turn her daughter into a victim, figurative or literal, and will protect her no matter the cost. Throw in an overzealous church group, a desperate director, a bag of Sonic tots, and hold on because it's gonna get bloody. This dark comedy is an immersive theater event (wear comfortable shoes) with a donation bar available to those over 21.

Nettie Kraft does double duty in the Verge Theater Company version of Slasher: she not only directs, but is also in the cast! Among the other local favorites onstage with her are Ashley Glore, Tamara Todres, Kristin McCalley Landiss, Aaron Roston, Michael Joiner, LaTrisha Talley, Fiona Soul, Grace Mason, Christy White and Audrey Johnson.

The eye-popping artwork for the production (Verge Theater Company's second show) was created by Dean Tomasek, which gives some indication of just how promising the show is!

Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts presents The Addams Family, A New Musical - the Broadway musical by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (Jersey Boys) and Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party) - October 16 through November 1.

The weird, wacky and well-known Addams Family, who first appeared in cartoons by artist Charles Addams in The New Yorker magazine (where they made their debut in 1938), are brought to life in the musical via an original story that juxtaposes the other-worldly Addams family against a typical, perhaps "normal" family whose son becomes involved romantically with Wednesday Addams.

It could be every father's nightmare: Wednesday Addams has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family - and it's breaking her father's heart. Wednesday confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now Gomez must do something he's never done: keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the family on the fateful night thy host a dinner for Wednesday's "normal" boyfriend and his parents.

The Addams Family is directed by Renee Robinson, and includes several well-known Murfreesboro actors including David Cummings as Gomez Addams, Alexius Frost as Morticia, and Shelby Jones as Wednesday Addams. The family is rounded out by Slate Bowers as Pugsley, Miranda Johnson as Grandmama, John Frost, Jr. as Uncle Fester and Matthew Wells as Lurch. Payton McCarthy is featured as Lucas - Wednesday's boyfriend, with Stephen Belk and Kat Manning as his parents. The cast is filled with numerous singers and dancers playing ancestors of the infamous family, who will have you wanting to join them by the end of the opening number.

The Addams Family will run October 16 through November 1, 2015 with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. A special matinee performance has been added on Saturday, October 31 - aka Halloween - during which patrons are encouraged to come to in costume. After the show trick or treating and costume contests will take place in the Gallery. Tickets for the performances are $15.00 for adults and $13.00 for seniors, students and military and $11.00 for children age 12 and under. Tickets can be purchased on the Center's website at www.boroarts.org, by calling (615) 904-2787 or by stopping by the Center during business hours. Group ticket rates are available. The Center for the Arts is located at 110 West College Street in Murfreesboro.

Got a hankering for some really good barbecue - and some excellent theater, as well? Then perhaps a road trip to Memphis is in order for this weekend and the opening of Chambers Stevens' It's Who You Know.

Chambers Stevens is a bona fide Hollywood multi-hyphenate - actor-comedian-acting coach-author - who somehow has encapsulated all of that and more in his new one-man show It's Who You Know, premiering at Memphis' Evergreen Theatre, 1705 Poplar Avenue, October 15-18. Tickets are available online at www.ItsWhoYouKnowOnTour.com.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, October 15-17, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 18.

"Most of us have had brief brushes with a celebrity," Stevens suggests. "Maybe a star is in town shooting a movie and we whip out our cell phone to take a discreet - or not so discreet photo. Maybe they pop up in odd places we don't expect to see them. But when one lives in Hollywood, the brushes with celebrity are more frequent, and often bring hilarious results."

Stevens, in fact, has a personal file box that's fairly bulging with the anecdotes he's collected over his 40 years both in and out of the business which forms the basis for his latest one-man show that is different at every performance. Stevens describes the show as being like "sit-down comedy."

Inspiration for the show, says Stevens, came from a close encounter with filmmaker Steven Soderbergh at a screening of the movie director's documentary And Everything is Going Fine, about humorist Spalding Gray. Soderbergh told Stevens about a film, Personal History of American Trash,where Gray pulls scripts of plays he had been in, from a box, and proceeds to tell anecdotes about his experiences in those plays.

"I thought that would be a perfect idea now," Stevens says. "No one would care about plays, but because I live in Los Angeles, it would be cool to talk about celebrity encounters."

Chambers, a 2012 First Night Honoree, brings the show to Music City in early 2016, so this would be the perfect opportunity to get a leg up on everyone else and see the show that has all the cool kids talking about it...you can also plan a visit to The Pink Palace aka The Memphis Museum, to see some nifty stuff and pay homage to the founder of the Piggly-Wiggly Supermarket chain, and watch the ducks march to the fountain in the lobby of The Peabody Hotel. We are feeling nostalgic and sentimental.

Seven actors (including our favorite Angela Gimlim) take the term "Party hard like the Bard" quite literally: Inebriated Shakespeare is a true case of SUI, Soliloquy Under the Influence!

The company of Inebriated Shakespeare will perform an abridged version of Much Ado About Nothing. Two of the actors will take four (or more) shots at the beginning of the show and then other cast members may drink shots as well, at the whim of the audience. Their task: to get through the show. Anything may happen!

Performances take place at Kavanagh's Irish Pub (owned by theater legend Ann Street Kavanaugh and her husband, Tom Kavanaugh, a true-green Irishman) at 1209 North Mt. Juliet Road in (appropriately enought) Mt. Juliet. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Showtime is 9 p.m. To get your tickets, go to www.brownpapertickets.com and get thee hence.

Coming up at TPAC on Tuesday night is the national touring company of Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella (featuring Broadway's own Blair Ross, who has a whole bunch of friends in Music City, dating back to her time spent in Nashville some years ago - and a big passel of family here, due to, well, birth, genetics and stuff...), the 2013 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical from the creators of South Pacific and The Sound of Music, which plays the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall for a limited, one-week engagement October 20-25, 2015.

With its fresh new take on the beloved tale of a young woman who is transformed from a chambermaid into a princess, the hilarious and romantic Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella combines the story's classic elements - glass slipper, pumpkin, and a beautiful ball along with some surprising twists. More than just a pretty face with the right shoe size, this Cinderella is a contemporary figure living in a fairytale setting. She is a spirited young woman with savvy and soul who doesn't let her rags or her gown trip her up in her quest for kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. She longs to escape the drudgery of her work at home and instead work to make the world a better place. She not only fights for her own dreams but forces the prince to open his eyes to the world around him and realize his dreams, too.

"Cinderella received rave reviews on Broadway, as it should. The sets are incredible and the costume changes will leave you speechless," said Kathleen O'Brien, TPAC's president and chief executive officer. "Of course, the Rodgers and Hammerstein music is a major element of this production. This is a classic story that audiences will certainly recognize, but they should also expect some surprises."

Cinderella has music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, a new book by Douglas Carter Beane, and original book by Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is directed by Mark Brokaw, and choreographed by Josh Rhodes. Music adaptation, supervision, and arrangements are by David Chase, and orchestrations are by Danny Troob. One of Rodgers + Hammerstein's most popular titles, Cinderella was written for television, which debuted in 1957 and starred Julie Andrews. In 2013, the show made its long-overdue Broadway debut. Beane's book for Cinderella blends masterfully with the musical's cherished score with songs including "In My Own Little Corner," "Impossible/It's Possible," "Ten Minutes Ago," and "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?"

Tickets are available at www.TPAC.org or by phone at (615) 782-4040, and at the TPAC Box Office, 505 Deaderick Street, in downtown Nashville. For group tickets, call (615) 782-4060.

Nashville Repertory Theatre's critically acclaimed (we haven't seen it, but our critical colleagues are peeing all over themselves about it, so we trust their judgment) production of the Tony Award-winning comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, continues this week, running through October 31, in the Andrew Johnson Theater at Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

This Tony Award-winner is a tragicomedy of Shakespearean proportions: Known for their minor roles in Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are at the center of the story this time, finding themselves continually befuddled by their circumstances, never sure of what they're supposed to be doing. Here, in the scenes behind the Hamlet story, the duo hilariously questions their every action, feeling like maybe they are being manipulated (they are) but worrying that to resist may be interfering with fate. Whether you're a Hamlet lover or not, this is a comedy that will tickle your funny bone while making you wonder if any of us are actually the star of our own story.

René Copeland, Nashville Rep's producing artistic directoer, says, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a brilliant classic of tragicomedy that is absurd and funny most of all. It's a great and accessible way to dabble in the Elizabethan era, which is fun for our designers, and satiates my desire to present a classic when we can."

Nashville Rep's cast for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead includes Matt Garner (Guildenstern), Patrick Kramer (Tragedian), Steven Kraski (Tragedian), John Mauldin (Polonius), Jeremy Maxwell (Tragedian), Tony Morton (Claudius), Shelean Newman (Gertrude), Matthew Rosenbaum (Hamlet), Patrick Waller (Rosencrantz), Jacob York (Player) and acting interns Isaiah Frank (Alfred), Andrew Johnson(Tragedian) and Delaney Keith (Ophelia).

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is written by Tom Stoppard and is directed by René D. Copeland. Nashville Rep's Producing Artistic Director is René D. Copeland. Designers are Gary Hoff (Scenic/Properties Designer), Trish Clark (Costume Designer), Darren Levin (Lighting Designer) and Kyle Odum (Sounds Designer). Technical Director is Tyler Axt. For details, go www.NashvilleRep.org, then go see the show!

ACT 1's production of Deathtrap, written by Ira Levin and directed by Susan Cole continues its run through Saturday, October 17, featuring Joel Diggs as Sydney, Dante Greco as Clifford, Christi Dortch as Myra, Judy Jackson as Helga, and Michael Welch as Porter.

Curtain is at 7:30 p.m. October 15-17, at Darkhorse Theater; tickets are $15 each and are available online at www.act1online.com.

We were less than enthusiastic about the show when we reviewed it: "For a thriller to engage and enthrall its audience, it is essential that it have good pacing. ACT 1's Deathtrap moves glacially through its two-and-one-half hours of hoary theatricality with a complete and utter absence of charm and intrigue (although, to give credit, the scene in which a presumed dead character comes "back to life," so to speak, did make me jump - and I knew it was coming! - so kudos for that), leaving one to wonder how they'll ever recover that time in their lives. Certainly, whenever a character takes down a crossbow from the wall (in order to commit murder, however fictional) and you wonder just how much he would charge you to direct the weapon toward your very own Grinch-sized heart...well, something's very wrong."

We are always happy to give anyone the benefit of the doubt, however, and we have been told that the show has shown steady improvement over the course of its run and that things are clicking along at a good pace now.

Tennessee Women's Theater Project's production of Lauren Gunderson's The Taming continues at the Z. Alexander Looby Theater through Sunday, October 18.

A TWTP press release said "The Taming is a laughter-filled mashup inspired by Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew that mixes the rough-and-tumble of contemporary partisan politics with the glitz and glam of the Miss America pageant, and adds some sharply observed truths about the nation's founding fathers and the Constitutional Convention."

Colette Divine plays Patricia, ruthlessly practical legislative aide to a conservative U.S. Senator. Colette played many characters in the world premiere of TWTP's Voices of Nashville at the Looby Theater and on tour, and in the 2015 revival. The others in the cast are new to the company: Cate Jo plays Bianca, a scandal-mongering liberal blogger whose favorite endangered species is threatened by the Senator's latest bill. Cate appeared in the recent Vanderbilt production of Top Girls. Brooke Gronemeyer plays Katherine, the reigning Miss Georgia; she's hellbent on being crowned Miss America - and to change the course of the nation. Brooke recently was in Actors' Bridge Ensemble's Hearts Like Fists.

Truth be told, we didn't love the show, but Gronemeyer's performance is worth the ticket price, for certain: "Maybe I'm just a harder sell - or perhaps it's because I think HBO's Veep skewers contemporary politics and American culture far more effectively - but I only laughed out loud (LOL'd, for you social media-obsessed theater-goers) twice. Both of my favored lines were delivered by the deliciously vapid, yet amazingly well-read and altogether fictional Miss Georgia character (played gleefully by Brooke Gronemeyer, in a pitch-perfect performance that is worth the price of the ticket), in which she claimed to have changed her official platform from "Sunglasses for Babies" to updating the United States Constitution, and her statement that she might be a beautiful woman clad in formalwear, yet she refused "to be fucked with..." or words to that effect."

Should you see it? We'll let you make that call.

The always-delightful Tonya Pewitt is joined by Keeton Theatre newcomer Scott Chevalier to lead the cast of The Music Man - directed and choreographed by Stephanie Jones-Benton with music direction by 2014 First Night Honoree Ginger Newman - tonight entering the second of its three-weekend run at The Larry Keeton Theatre, 108 Donelson Pike.

Featuring a cast of almost 30 song-and-dance types, Meredith Willson's The Music Man is Americana at its best and although the production is not perfect, there's still so much to love about the show (not the least of which is the roast beef, mashed potatoes and fudge pie they're serving up prior to the 7 p.m. curtain every night - or at 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoons) and Jones-Benton and Newman have made certain to deliver a production that will have your toes tapping...

From our review: "Sweetly sentimental in its quaint way - a lovely slice of Americana writ large upon the musical theater stage - The Music Man is clever and heartwarming, its rather simple story of life in River City, Iowa, still engaging and certain to set your feet to tapping as you hear Willson's score ("(Ya Got) Trouble," "Good Night, My Someone," "Seventy-Six Trombones," "Marian the Librarian," "Will I Ever Tell You" and "Till There Was You" are musical theater standards) performed with confidence by the 28-member cast...

"Chief among the show's attributes is the exceedingly lovely and tremendously talented Tonya Pewitt, who may have been destined to play librarian Marian Paroo. Pewitt's voice has always been a favorite among Nashville's musical theater leading ladies, but hearing her glorious soprano singing Marian's songs will leave you presuming the score was written expressly for her. Her beautiful voice is exquisitely supported by her onstage presence, making Pewitt's Marian a memorable reiteration of the beloved character."

Thumbs up or thumbs down? Definitely our thumbs are pointing skyward on this one!

Led by a pair of stellar performances from Aaron Solomon and Darryl Deason, Arts Center of Cannon County's production of Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men retains its crackling intensity some 61 years after it premiered on television and 58 years since the acclaimed film version starring Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb. Adapted for the stage by Sherman L. Sergel, the play's themes remain imminently relevant in the 21st century, brought to life under Terry Deason's direction.

The show continues in Woodbury through Saturday night and is well worth the drive through the gorgeous Middle Tennessee fall landscape.

In our review, we wrote: "Overall, each of Deason's actors is superbly cast in their roles, bringing the 12 jurors in Rose's fictional murder trial to life with commitment and focus. So seamlessly do the actors become their characters that audiences may lose themselves in the minutiae of the courthouse deliberations, becoming a part of the vociferous struggles to mete out justice to the accused (whom we never meet, but get to know throughout the two hours of the play)."

The Arts Center of Cannon County is located at 1424 John Bragg Highway; for tickets, call (615) 563-2787 and for more information about upcoming shows, go to www.artscenterofcc.com.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...or, rather, at Towne Centre Theatre in Brentwood...The Addams Family - directed by Jim Himelrick, with musical direction by John Ray and choreography by Lindsay Carter - continues its run through October 24. April Presley, 2015 First Night Star Award winner, produces.

The Addams Family features an original story and it's every father's nightmare. Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family - a man her parents have never met. And if that weren't upsetting enough, Wednesday confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he's never done before - keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for that whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday's "normal" boyfriend and his parents. Mark Buchanan and Leslie Berra star as Gomez and Morticia in a cast that includes Greg Wagner as Uncle Fester, Katie Callaway as Wednesday, Courtney Taylor as Grandma, Will Lasley as Pugsley, John Ray and Benton Quarles (10/15-16) as Lurch, Seth Thomas as Mal Beineke, Amanda Grace Creech as Alice Beineke and Cameron Bortz as Lucas Beineke, Portraying the ancestors are Drew Baggett, Bella D'Aprile, Lorelei McDaniel, Lexi Nimmo, Hannah Oakley, Reilly O'Connell, Perry Poston, Neely Scott, Linda Slayton and Kelly Whitlow.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.townecentretheatre.tix.com or by calling (615) 221-1174. Show times are 8 p.m. for evening performances and 2:30 p.m. for Sunday. Doors open 30 minutes prior to curtain. Tickets are $16 for students, $18 for seniors 60 and over, and $20 for adults. Towne Centre Theatre is located at 136 Frierson Street in Brentwood.

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