Jeffrey Ellis - Page 3

Increasingly, it seems, all roads lead to Nashville – or at least everyone seems somehow to have a connection to our fair city. Case in point: Blaine Swen, the creator and director of The Improvised Shakespeare Company lives here – a fact unknown to me until I tracked him down to belabor him with questions about his company’s upcoming performances at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center on November 10 and 11.

That laughter you hear coming from within the Troutt Theatre on the Belmont University campus this weekend and next should probably come with a trigger warning. For no matter how rollicking, rambunctious and uproarious it truly is, it should be pointed out that what is transpiring on that stage over two weekends is, indeed, the stuff of post-traumatic stress – or, not to put too fine a point on it, it would be if the shenanigans weren’t brilliantly scripted, infinitely well-rehearsed and just the way it should be.

What rugby shorts did for Paul Mescal’s thighs in 2020’s Normal People, so do fishnet stockings do for Bradley Oosterink’s thighs in the Roxy Regional Theatre’s The Rocky Horror Show in 2023. Not that Mr. Oosterink’s thighs are the best things about the Roxy’s 11th annual iteration of the classically off-kilter and decidedly off-beat musical, but they are indeed a highlight.

As plans were under way for the eleventh year of The Rocky Horror Show at Clarksville’s Roxy Regional Theatre, Emily Ruck, the company’s interim artistic director, had the idea to assemble an all-woman team to bring a new perspective and to reinvigorate the classic show: the director, musical director and choreographer would all be women. More importantly, the creative triumvirate would be made up of women who are longtime friends, having met while working together on a show at The Roxy some seven years ago.

A musical retelling of producer Sam Phillips' serendipitous gathering of four of music's most notable Southern boys - Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley - at his Memphis-based Sun Records Studio on December 4, 1956, Million Dollar Quartet will set your feet to tapping out a steady rhythm from its very first moments (a performance of Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes” that very nearly blows the roof off Studio Tenn’s brand spanking new Turner Theater at The Factory in Franklin) and will keep your heart pumping right along to the very final notes of Jerry Lee's “Whole Lotta Shakin’” that closes out the concert musical that is directed by Studio Tenn artistic director Patrick Cassidy and featuring an exceptional cast of performers who pay homage to their eponymous counterparts with so much talent and commitment that you’re breathless – but still wanting more – by the time the curtain closes two hours later.

What if (of all the things possible in the mythical, magical world of musical theater) the four earnest boy singers of Forever Plaid hooked up with the vengeful Heathers, while at the same time Hedwig (of the Angry Inch fame) was getting busy with Carrie White (of the bucket of pig’s blood fame) and then their resulting progeny got together (or maybe they were all together in some orgiastic event of monumental proportions that also includes various and sundry characters and/or germane plot points from Be More Chill and The Toxic Avenger) – are you still with me, friends? – what would be the result?

Over the past three-and-a-half decades, I have had the privilege of seeing some remarkably talented and gifted young actors on every stage on the Belmont campus and never have I ever left a performance there without feeling inspired, absolutely certain that the future of theater as we know it is pre-ordained and so very hopeful.

In Ride The Cyclone, which debuted in 2008, members of the St. Cassian High School chamber choir of Uranium City, Saskatchewan, have died as the result of a freak accident on a roller coaster called The Cyclone. Now, each member is given the opportunity to tell their story in hope of winning a reward from a mechanical fortune teller: a return to life!

While we wait for Ethel Waters to get the large-scale showbiz treatment she deserves, Nashville audiences, for now at least, can show respect and give recognition to the legendary figure who is brought to life onstage once more by Connye Florance and Saaneah Jamison via the Kennie Playhouse Theatre production of Parr’s His Eye Is On the Sparrow: The Ethel Waters Musical. Director Kennie Dozier’s production is somewhat uneven, but his two leading ladies – the aforementioned Florance and Jamison – are mesmerizing, each one creating her own indelible portrait and unique interpretation of Ethel Waters in two acts that feature some of her best-known songs, tunes that are a part of the Great American Songbook and among the most haunting, most beautiful melodies ever written.

Baker’s superb direction brings all the various moving parts of this huge production together to deliver a gratifyingly heartfelt paean to the millions of working women (and men) who inspired the screenplay and musical book by Patricia Resnick. Baker’s vision for the piece, in concert with her team of collaborators, delivers a production of 9 to 5: The Musical that is delightfully fresh and new, eschewing the tendency of some directors to offer a rehash of what’s already been seen on Broadway, on tour or in regional theater.

Thanks to Andrew Maraniss’ best-selling book Strong Inside – adapted for the stage by Tyrone L. Robinson – Wallace’s storied basketball career in the Southeastern Conference and the details of his upbringing in the segregated South are now brought vividly to life onstage in a history-making production from NCT, the third-oldest theater for younger audiences in the United States. Founded in 1931 by members of the Junior League of Nashville, there can be no denying that NCT, like its hometown itself and one of its favorite sons (Wallace), has been reflective of the growing diversity of its people and the evolution of its cultural and educational institutions.

For more than 30-plus years, Jack E. Chambers has been a stalwart of the Nashville stage, working with virtually every theater production company to ever exist here during those three-plus decades. And although audiences have seen him in a wide variety of roles (he’s taken on all kinds of characters to exist in an ever-evolving plane of fictional existence), it is perhaps on now, in the fall of 2023, that they have the opportunity to see the once fresh-faced, just-out-of-college Chambers – now grown into the affable middle-aged actor they eagerly anticipate onstage – as the thoughtful, observant and creative everyman he is.

Street Theatre Company’s residency at The Barbershop Theatre continues in its expected fine form as the groundbreaking company heads into the 2023-24 season with a gloriously sung production of 35MM – A Musical Exhibition, a song cycle from one of musical theater’s contemporary power couples: composer/lyricist Ryan Scott Oliver (who’s been tapped for stardom by critics, grantors, showtune lovers and theater-goers alike) and his photographer husband Matthew Murphy (whose pictures provide the inspiration for this particular endeavor and who has become one of the most regularly sought-after production photographers in the business).

Street Theatre Company officially opens its 2023-24 season at The Barbershop Theatre with its production of 35MM, opening Friday night and continuing through August 26. Directed by Everett Tarlton, with music direction by Nick Benefield, 34MM features music and lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver, based on and inspired by photographs by Matthew Murphy.

Post-pandemic Nashville theater audiences have witnessed a groundswell of creativity as local companies have made the production of original works part of their programming initiatives. While the result might best be described as hit-or-miss depending on perspective, one company’s efforts have been constant, abiding and transformative. Tennessee Playwrights Studio, co-founded by Molly Breen and Kenley Smith, has led this creative renaissance since its very beginnings and over the past several years has been responsible for nurturing the talents of a wide array of artists. We could not be more grateful to TPS and its founders for everything they’ve accomplished; it is truly noteworthy.

It was a part of life only understood completely, if experienced, and its impact continues to be felt today in ways you can sometimes predict, although oftentimes it invokes unexpected memories that take you completely unaware. That explains why I’ve taken so long to compose this review of Falsettos – which ends its three-weekend run this weekend at Nashville’s The Barbershop Theatre in another superb Street Theatre Company musical production – and which I saw last week during its last Sunday matinee performance.

One of musical theater’s most beloved offerings, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music is again brought to life by Studio Tenn in a lovely – and certainly crowd-pleasing – production through July 16 at Christ Presbyterian Academy’s Soli Deo Center, which marks the welcome return to the Nashville stage of director/choreographer Emily Tello Speck, who helms this production with her confident style and considered artistic vision.

Imagine walking into Jackson Hall on opening night, as I did, thinking, “Why did the directors reimagine this pleasant, if somewhat plodding, old-school musical with an ensemble of multi-ethnic women, trans and non-binary actors cast in the roles of America’s founding fathers?” Then leaving the theater after the final curtain wondering, “why on earth would anyone ever feel the need to cast the roles with men?” and reveling in the fact that 1776 tapped into my heart in unexpected ways, eliciting an emotional and, I daresay, patriotic response.

Truth be told, this may be the most impressive assemblage of talent we’ve ever encountered on the Jackson Hall stage in our 30-some years of reviewing Broadway at TPAC. Seriously.

For years – for decades, really – I have advocated that Music City tourism would benefit from a sit-down production of a country music-themed musical, one that would appeal to a wide range of aficionados and would showcase the musical library of a beloved figure in the pantheon of Nashville music. Finally, Studio Tenn delivers the perfect vehicle for that with the world premiere production of Here You Come Again, featuring songs written by or recorded by Dolly Parton (the Patron Saint of Tennessee aka The Smoky Mountain Songbird).