Summer Stages: Top Theatre Picks for Nashville

Summer is already in full swing in the South. Back yard cookouts and swimming pools, summer camps and vacations are happening everywhere you look. I often find theatre slightly more difficult to find during the summer, so I've done a little research to help you find a good show when you need one. Cause after all, sometimes a nice air conditioned theatre is just the place to be on a humid summer day in Tennessee.

Starting just this week, War Horse will be at TPAC's Andrew Jackson Hall in Nashville, TN - June 3 through June 8, 2014

A heart-warming tale of loyalty and friendship, and winner of five Tony Awards®, War Horse tells the story of young Albert and his beloved horse Joey. When Joey is sold to the cavalry and shipped from England to France, he is soon caught up in enemy fire, and fate takes him on an extraordinary journey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in no man's land. But Albert cannot forget Joey, and, still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a treacherous mission to find him and bring him home. Based on the beloved novel by Michael Morpurgo, this powerfully moving and imaginative drama, filled with stirring music and songs, is a show of phenomenal inventiveness that currently is playing to packed houses in London and around the world. At its heart are astonishing life-sized puppets created by South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company that bring to life breathing, galloping, charging horses strong enough for men to ride.

Recommended for audiences aged 10 and up.

*Descriptions taken directly from TPAC website. For more information click HERE.

Also early in the summer season, The Boiler Room Theatre opens their new season with Bonnie & Clyde: The Musical.

BONNIE AND CLYDE is a thrilling and sexy musical with a non-traditional score, combining blues, gospel and rockabilly music.

The edge-of-your-seat musical about the real life story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow is subtitled "America's Most Wanted Musical," the riveting tale takes place during the Great Depression. It follows the criminal duo as they long for a life of adventure outside of rural America, eventually becoming the nation's most notorious outlaws of their time. The musical focuses on the relationship of the ill-fated Texas couple who find themselves racing to the top of the Public Enemies list.

*Description taken directly from The Boiler Room Theatre's website. For more information click HERE.

Street Theatre Company brings angst and rock to the summer season with Passing Strange.

June 13-28 - PASSING STRANGE A tale of a young African American man's journey to discover who he is and to find meaning in life. The New York Times calls it "...a welcome anomaly on Broadway," this charming mix of performance art, philosophical existentialism, comedy, and rock, this coming of age story will have audiences redefining what the American musical means to them.

*Description taken directly from the Street Theatre Company website. For more information click HERE.

If you're looking for a little bit of a drive out of the Nashville area, consider heading to Crossville to The Cumberland County Playhouse. There are always several shows running in rep, but their smash show of the summer appears to be Shrek: The Musical.

Shrek The Musical plays June 13 - August 31

In a far-away kindgom turned upside down, things get ugly when an unseemly ogre-not a handsome prince-shows up to rescue a feisty princess. Music by Jeanine Tesori Book & Lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire Based on the Dreamworks Animation Motion Picture, and the book by William Steig

*Description taken directly from The Cumberland County Playhouse website. For more information click HERE.

Moving on in the summer, Lakewood Theatre Company brings comedy with The Red Velvet Cake War running July 18 - August 3

In this riotously funny Southern-fried comedy, the three Verdeen cousins-Gaynelle, Peaches and Jimmi-could not have picked a worse time to throw their family reunion. Having "accidentally" crashed her minivan through the bedroom wall of her husband's girlfriend's doublewide, Gaynelle is one frazzled nerve away from a spectacular meltdown. But the cousins can't back out of the reunion now. Unfortunately, they face an uphill battle as a parade of wildly eccentric Verdeens gathers on the hottest day of July, smack-dab in the middle of Texas tornado season.

*Description taken directly from The Lakewood Theatre Company website. For more information click HERE.

Head back to Tennessee Performing Arts Center in July to see Lisa Lampanelli: Fat Girl Interrupted - One-Woman Theatrical Show July 25 through July 26.

Lisa Lampanelli stars in the developmental production of her new one-woman theatrical show Fat Girl Interrupted. The production, which is written by Ms. Lampanelli and 700 Sundays writer Alan Zweibel, will be helmed by Tony Award-winning director John Rando. In her first theatrical production, Lisa will reveal the woman behind the comic, and her struggle with food, men and body image. In turns hilariously funny, surprisingly touching and totally relatable, Fat Girl Interrupted will show a side to Comedy's Lovable Queen of Mean that few would guess exists.

*Description taken directly from TPAC's website. For more information, click HERE.

Round out your summer by heading back to the great outdoors. The Annual Shakespeare in the Park production this year will be As You Like It and will play Thursdays through Sundays (and Labor Day Monday) August 14-September 14 at Centennial Park.

Americana music infuses The Nashville Shakespeare Festival's 27th Annual Shakespeare in the Park production. Directed by Denice Hicks, As You Like It features songwriting legend David Olney in the role of Amiens, playing his own original songs written for the show. Music director Stan Lawrence leads an authentic old time jam band with players from the Musical Heritage Center in Pegram Tennessee. Inspired by the optimistic comedies of the 1930s, and set during the Great Depression, costumed ushers will invite the audience to join the actors in our version of a "Hooverville", where even in the toughest times, songs are sung, stories are told and there's always time for a little buck dancing.

*Description taken directly from The Nashville Shakespeare Festival's website. For more information click HERE.

So, if you ever though theatre took a break in the summer time, I hope I've helped to dispel this myth. Don't let summertime get in your way of seeing a few great shows!

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