Nashville Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 9

BWW Review: Dreams Can Come True At THE BROADWAY PRINCESS PARTY
by Jeffrey Ellis - November 17, 2018

But in the rarefied world of make-believe and magic aka musical theater, in which comedy and tragedy are equally celebrated and where a memorable song can lift one's spirits soaring toward the heavens, a princess means so much more: The princess of musical theater legend and lore is able to transfor...

BWW Review: Chase Miller's Star Burns Bright in Chaffin's Barn's ELF THE MUSICAL
by Jeffrey Ellis - November 16, 2018

Throughout the past year, I've written quite often about Nashville's Chase Miller and his tremendous talents, remarkable stage presence and startling ability to successfully morph from one character to another completely unlike the first (or any to follow). Miller is rather insanely talented and any...

BWW Review: IRVING BERLIN'S WHITE CHRISTMAS Brings Musical Theater Joy to the Holiday Season
by Jeffrey Ellis - November 14, 2018

If there is a musical theater moment more joyous that what occurs at the top of Act Two in Irving Berlin's White Christmas, then we must respectfully demand it be performed in front of us as quickly as possible. Certainly, we recognize there is much joy to be found in musical theater, but sitting in...

BWW Review: HELLO, DOLLY! Claims the Stage at Arts Center of Cannon County
by Jeffrey Ellis - November 13, 2018

Not often does it happen that a young actor walks away with a show lock, stock and barrel - especially if he's in the company of some of the most experienced veteran actors to be found on local stages. But that is exactly what happens in Arts Center of Cannon County's current 2108 mainstage season f...

BWW Review: Nashville Children's Theatre's THE LITTLE MERMAID is Utterly Delightful
by Jeffrey Ellis - November 09, 2018

It should come as no surprise whatsoever that the opening night audience for NCT's holiday season offering of Disney's The Little Mermaid rewarded the cast and crew with loud cheers, sustained applause and, more importantly, their rapt attention - were it not for the fact that last night's audience ...

BWW Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at Murfreesboro Center For The Arts
by Payton McCarthy - November 04, 2018

When one hears the name, William Shakespeare, one often thinks of tragic lovers, murderous revenge, or tormented royals. If you have not yet become a converted worshipper of The Great Bard, you may even dread the idea of sitting through what you may expect to be hours worth of old, confusing languag...

BWW Review: IRVING BERLIN'S HOLIDAY INN Kicks Off The Holiday Season With Style at Cumberland County Playhouse
by Jeffrey Ellis - November 04, 2018

What better way to leave behind the turmoil of the modern world than by indulging in a bright, shiny new musical burnished with the warm glow of nostalgia and featuring a score by the inimitable Irving Berlin? We can't imagine anything more fun - or more timely, for that matter - than a couple of ho...

BWW Review: Lipscomb University Theatre's GODSPELL Filled With Heart and Soul
by Jeffrey Ellis - November 03, 2018

Patriq James' graceful portrayal of Jesus Christ in Lipscomb University Theatre's production of Godspell - now onstage in Collins Alumni Auditorium on the school's Nashville campus - shines like a beacon in the very center of the show, providing the very heart of every story told by director Scott B...

BWW Review: Radical Arts' EVIL DEAD, THE MUSICAL is Bloody Good Halloween Fun
by Jeffrey Ellis - October 28, 2018

Forget about those whiny, cry-baby Walking Dead fans and the increasing din of their lamentations regarding the imminent demise of Rick Grimes from their universe and instead focus your attention and horror film-inspired energies on Evil Dead, The Musical - a wickedly wild and ridiculously off-kilte...

BWW Review: After 30 Years, PHANTOM Has Lost None of Its Gilt-Edged Luster
by Jeffrey Ellis - October 27, 2018

Thirty years after its Broadway premiere - and just two-and-a-half years since its last run at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center - Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera returns to Music City in celebration of that momentous anniversary with another stand in Andrew Jackson Hall, r...

BWW Review: Street Theatre Company's BROOKLYN: THE MUSICAL Caps a Remarkable 2018 Season at STC
by Jeffrey Ellis - October 26, 2018

Part contemporary fairy tale/part modern day parable about lost love, missed chances and the cruelty of fate, Brooklyn: The Musical, is given a startlingly good production by Nashville's Street Theatre Company, with strong direction by Bakari King (the much-in-demand peripatetic - and multi-hyphenat...

BWW Review: Nashville Ballet Brings SEVEN DEADLY SINS To Life at TPAC
by Cillea Houghton - October 23, 2018

Always finding unique ways to tell the stories of the world, the Nashville Ballet offered the SEVEN DEADLY SINS for the second year in a row, artistically exploring the darkest depths of our souls....

BWW Review: Director McDonald Raises the Bar With CCP's Remarkable SWEENEY TODD
by Jeffrey Ellis - October 21, 2018

Fog comes billowing out over the footlights, bringing with it a pervasive sense of foreboding that sets the tone for the next three hours of what is - without any fear of exaggeration - the most satisfying theatrical experience of 2018. Eye-poppingly gorgeous, with a design aesthetic that's perfectl...

BWW Review: Nashville Rep's Stunning and Provocative A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2
by Jeffrey Ellis - October 15, 2018

Nora's back - and she's pissed! Some 15 years after Henrik Ibsen's proto-feminist Nora Helmer came to the momentous decision to leave her controlling husband at the end of A Doll's House - and some 140 years after she first stepped in front of the footlights at Copenhagen's Royal Theatre in 1879 - s...

BWW Review: THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG Delivers the Comedy Goods for Nashville Audiences
by Jeffrey Ellis - October 10, 2018

Everything that could conceivably trip up seasoned performers - who've been reciting monologues in front of their bathroom mirrors since they were toddlers, bring down a set considered to be a landmark in design for the stage (or in the history of architecture since the Greeks built their first temp...

BWW Review: Circle Players' HAIR Captures a Moment in Time With Absolute Confidence
by Jeffrey Ellis - October 08, 2018

Hair is a great big hit on the symbolic and mostly imaginary bong that is theater in Music City - or anywhere else artists come together to share the largesse of their own indomitable spirits. The resulting production will leave you inspired, maybe even more readily equipped with the realities of li...

BWW Review: Posner's STUPID FUCKING BIRD Launches ACT 1's 30th Season
by Jeffrey Ellis - October 08, 2018

There is a wonderful scene in act two of Aaron Posner's Stupid Fucking Bird - the first production of ACT 1's 2018-19 season - during which actors Tamara Scott and Diego Gomez, playing mother and son, launch into a years-in-the-making confrontation that gives both actors an opportunity to prove thei...

BWW Review: AND THEN THERE WERE NONE knocks 'em dead at The Arts Center Of Cannon County
by Payton McCarthy - October 07, 2018

Ten strangers are assembled to Indian Island as the guests of the mysterious U.N Owen (or 'unknown') in Agatha Christie's legendary classic, And Then There Were None. However, as the initial dinner party is interrupted by the prerecorded voice of the group's absent host accusing each individual of m...

BWW Review: Towne Centre Theatre's THE BAD SEED Offers 1950s-Flavored Seasonal Fun
by Jeffrey Ellis - October 06, 2018

A word to the wise is sufficient: Never turn your back on Rhoda Penmark. No matter how well-behaved, how polite or how sickeningly sweet she may seem, the little girl with the larcenous heart simply cannot be trusted and it is at your own peril that you decide to trust her - the fact that she is a f...

BWW Review: Kristin Chenoweth Delivers Show-Stopping Performance with the Nashville Symphony
by Cillea Houghton - October 02, 2018

When Kristin Chenoweth stepped on to the Schermerhorn Symphony Center stage in a Nashville Predators jersey for the second installment of her three-night stay with the Nashville Symphony, there was no question she was representing team Music City....

BWW Review: THE BOYS IN THE BAND at Barbershop Theatre is one party you will NOT forget!
by Payton McCarthy - September 28, 2018

Fifty years following the premiere of Mart Crowley's iconic pre-stonewall comedic drama about a group of gay men living in New York, The Boys in the Band offers an interesting perspective to modern audiences of the many issues which tend to plague a group of people who are seen as “different”, and h...

BWW Review: Spectacular Cast Gives Chaffin's Barn's NEWSIES A Fresh Appeal
by Jeffrey Ellis - September 22, 2018

For plenty of fast-paced action, along with some stellar performances by a fresh-faced cast of eager young theatrical triple threats and a coterie of Nashville stage favorites, one need look no further than Disney's Newsies, the latest onstage offering from Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, the iconic ...

BWW Review: Life Springs Eternal in Nashville Children's Theatre's TUCK EVERLASTING
by Jeffrey Ellis - September 19, 2018

Ernie Nolan and his stellar crew of theatrical collaborators at Nashville Children's Theatre once again prove their mettle with a production worthy of adulation and acclaim, thanks to their world premiere of the TYA (theater for young audiences) version of the recent Broadway musical Tuck Everlastin...

BWW Review: CFTA's HEATHERS: Who Knew High School Could Be So Much Fun?
by Jeffrey Ellis - September 16, 2018

Heathers, the off-Broadway musical by Laurence O'Keefe and Kevin Murphy based on the 1989 cult classic film of the same name, wraps up its sold-out run today at Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts, offering audiences an outrageously fun and on-target treatise on mean girls and caught up in the gravit...

BWW Review: Springhouse Theatre's MARY POPPINS Features Strong Leading Performances
by Jeffrey Ellis - September 15, 2018

Despite some opening night technical problems, inconsistent sound issues and a lack of confidence performing Elizabeth Krebs' choreography, Mary Poppins - the musical theater version of the Disney film that was inspired by P.L. Travers' stories which, in turn, were loosely inspired by her own childh...