Nashville Rep Closes Out 2022-23 Season With Rousing Production of Tesori's VIOLET

With noteworthy performances across the board, Nashville Repertory Theatre's production of Violet - with a lovely, haunting and emotional score by Jeanine Tesori and a sometimes meandering, oftentimes difficult to follow, libretto by Brian Crawley, based upon Doris Betts' short story "The Ugliest Pilgrim" - closes out the company's 2022-23 season in impressive style that heralds great promise for what is still to come as the Rep moves forward into its 39th season.

Violet tells the story of a disfigured young woman who bears a scar as the result of a tragic accident involving an axe blade at 13 and who now sets out on a bus ride throughout the southeast - with particularly eventful stops in Nashville and Memphis - on a pilgrimage to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she expects to be healed by a duplicitous and conniving evangelical preacher (played by Ryan Greenawalt, in a performance that virtually stops the show with its unrelenting religious fervor and showbiz idolatry) in all his televised miracle-making glory. Along the way she makes the acquaintance of two young soldiers aboard the bus and, in the course of the journey, their lives are changed - if not for good, then forever.

While Tesori's score, inspired by its mid-1960s setting, is tuneful and entertaining, redolent with the blues, country and jazz music of the era that imbues the work with the necessary motifs to set Violet apart from her later scores (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Caroline, or Change, Shrek the Musical, Fun Home and Kimberly Akimbo show the depth and versatility of her work) - and which shows off to perfection the myriad talents of director Tracey Copeland-Halter's superb ensemble - sets the proper tone for Violet's pilgrimage, fueled by the character's abiding faith.

If only Crawley's libretto lived up to the promise of Tesori's musical score. Unfortunately, it doesn't. In his attempts to include far too many tangential scenes in order to draw audiences deeper into Violet's story, Crawley's storytelling suffers from too much exposition and a meandering timeline that is sometimes confusing, at best, and totally overblown at worst.

Thanks to musical director Randy Craft (who previously played the role of Monty in a Street Theatre Company production that starred Cathy Street in the title role), Tesori's score is performed by his onstage band with a deft blend of professionalism and passion that ensures each member of the cast is shown at their absolute best in this production.

Copeland-Halter showcases her actors' skills with finesse and great care, effectively skirting the musical's inherent melodrama for an iteration that instead is infused with heart and emotional depth.

Truth be told, Violet (with its all-Nashville cast) represents a high-water mark in local theater, with each cast member ideally cast in their roles and some performers delivering their best-ever performances (at least so far as we are concerned) on a Music City stage.

Led by a trio of outstanding lead performances from Kelsey Brodeur, Mike Sallee Jr. and Nathan Quay Thomas - we've never seen them better onstage, quite frankly - the production distinguishes itself thanks to the efforts of every person on the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Johnson Theatre stage.

Brodeur, whom we previously have seen in productions at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre and Cumberland County Playhouse in addition to Nashville Rep, takes on the challenging title role and delivers a pitch-perfect performance that brings all of her tremendous talents to bear in order to create a moving and memorable character. Without makeup to show Violet's physical scar, it is instead incumbent upon Brodeur to let her audience feel the impact of that scar through a performance that is somehow intimate, yet not overtly dramatic. She walks a very fine line with conviction and confidence and brings her gorgeous voice to Tesori's score with vigor and aplomb.

As Flick, the young Black soldier befriended by Violet on her pilgrimage, Mike Sallee Jr. delivers what is easily his best performance on the Rep stage: His Flick is proud and outspoken, direct and caring and, as his relationship with Violet deepens, authentic and genuine. Musically, Sallee has never sounded better and his "Let it Sing" is one of the show's highlights.

Nathan Quay Thomas, whom we first saw onstage while he was in high school, plays the role of Montgomery (or "Monty" to his friends) with great charm and total command of the stage, showing off his stage presence to perfection and making good on his youthful promise. His "Last Time I Came to Memphis" is another of the production's stellar musical moments.

Nashville Rep veteran Matthew Carlton gives an indelible performance as Violet's loving father, himself scarred by the accident that left his daughter's face disfigured. Riley West makes an absolutely stunning Rep debut as Young Violet, believable and yet somehow electrifying, as a younger version of Brodeur's character.

The aforementioned Greenawalt has never been so effective and so convincing as the Oral Roberts-inspired TV evangelist and Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva, as his TV church's most devout choir member Lula Buffington, practically blows the roof of TPAC with her rousing performance of "Raise Me Up." Beth Anne Musiker is given a showcase to put her versatility in the spotlight, playing an elderly seatmate on the first part of Violet's journey, as a Memphis hooker and as a choir member. Likewise, Piper Jones is in her usual exceptional voice, particularly during her turn as a Memphis singer of the blues, who makes me long for barbecue, the Delta and Beale Street all at once.

Austin Jeffrey Smith and Lawson Marchetti make notable Nashville Rep debuts, playing a variety of roles along the way, with Sheila D J Calloway and Yolanda Treece completing the ensemble with their beautiful voices.

Darren Levin's appropriately moody and atmospheric lighting design gives perfect illumination to Gary C. Hoff's simple yet inventive set (that's reminiscent of his scenic design for The Last Five Years of some seasons back) that provides the multiple settings for Violet's journey of hope and longing. Lori Gann Smith's costume design is period perfect with Sallee and Thomas' army uniforms of particular note.

After an acclaimed opening weekend, theater-goers have an additional six performances of Violet still to come this weekend. Do yourself the favor and go see it and anticipate what's coming next season.

Violet. Music by Jeanine Tesori. Lyrics and book by Brian Crawley. Based on The Ugliest Pilgrim by Doris Betts. Directed by Tracey Copeland-Halter. Musical direction by Randy Craft. Musical staging by Micah-Shane Brewer. Presented by Nashville Repertory Theatre at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Johnson Theatre, Nashville. Through May 21. For more information, go to www.nashvillerep.org. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes (with one 15-minute intermission).

photos by Michael Shane Evans

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