One of the most interesting ironies of the American cinema is that the now-classic holiday television vehicle, the 1946 Frank Capra film, ‘It’s A Wonderful Life,’ was not initially successful, either financially or critically, despite its director and its star, James Stewart. While it was nominated for five Academy Awards, it failed to win any; critics in the post-war years were generally complimentary, but found it too “simple-minded” and overly sentimental. Falling into Hollywood’s version of obscurity, the film languished and its copyright was eventually allowed to expire in 1974, an event that ironically set the stage in the 1980s for its subsequent television appearances and belated popularity.
The current River & Rail Theatre Company production, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play’—an adaptation by Joe Landry— runs at the Old City Performing Arts Center through December 22.
Theatre
“What are we doing here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in the immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come … ”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
Review: River & Rail’s ‘It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play’ – A New Holiday Tradition?
Review: TKD’s ‘My Three Angels’: Criminally Fun
BY HAYLEY WILSON The Christmas season is upon us, which means a slew of…
Review: ‘Tina: The Tina Turner Musical’ at the Tennessee Theatre
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, now in its second National Tour run, is making a stop in Knoxville this week for eight performances at the Tennessee Theatre. This quintessential biographical jukebox musical follows the rise and rock queen-dom of Anna Mae Bullock, who would eventually triumph as the super-star Tina Turner.
Review: CBT’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ Returns — And So Should You
The current Clarence Brown Theatre version of A Christmas Carol which opened this past weekend is an adaptation by Edward Morgan and Joseph Hanreddy with music by John Tanner. This popular version first appeared on the CBT stage in 2016 and returned for three more years before the pandemic closure of 2020. It returned in 2023 and has now been freshened and energized for a 2024 run through December 21. Those theatre-goers who may have seen the production last year, or before, will certainly want to consider a return. This 2024 staging is CBT’s best by far—both in performances and visual delights.
Opening This Week: CBT’s Grand Tradition – ‘A Christmas Carol’
It seems inevitable that we find ourselves talking about traditions this time of year. Our…
Review: Chris McCreary’s ‘Hot Nostalgia’: Burning Questions for Past, Present, and Future
For one night only, writer and performer Chris McCreary presented his solo show Hot Nostalgia, a metatheatrical and eclectic mix of monodrama, stand-up, and sketch comedy. Collectively produced by First Take Co. and Free Women Waltzing Club and hosted at local multiuse artist venue SpaceCraft, Hot Nostalgia is a warm and engaging show that is both deeply reflective and hilariously irreverent, representing the best of Knoxville’s local arts scene and the community efforts and spaces that make it happen.
Review: Theatre Knoxville Downtown’s ‘The Elephant Man’
Theatre Knoxville Downtown presents Bernard Pomerance’s 1977 The Elephant Man. Directed by Sarah Campbell and set during Victorian-era London and Belgium, The Elephant Man recounts the life of Joseph Merrick, a man known for his physical deformities the cause of which modern medicine still does not fully understand.
Review: ‘How To Defend Yourself’ in the Lab Theatre at CBT
The Clarence Brown Theatre presents a troubling and thoughtful recent play, Liliana Padilla’s 2018 How to Defend Yourself, to UTK’s campus, directed by Jayne Morgan. How to Defend Yourself is about just that — a group of college students who join a self-defense class in the wake of the sexual assault of one of their friends. Collaborating with both community and campus resources, CBT’s How to Defend Yourself has an important message for everyone, but one that seems particularly relevant to UTK’s campus community: both students and educators.
Review: Knoxville Opera Finds Treasure with ‘The Pirates of Penzance’
Although the American musical theatre has had a colorful existence of innovation and evolution, it owes that existence to the genre of operetta that graced stages of England and Europe in the last half of the 19th Century. Admittedly, though, time and changing theatrical sensibilities have relegated the bulk of operetta to the dusty shelves of yesteryear, their music and topical stories existing only as curiosities for historians. There are exceptions to that fact—most notably the English operettas of librettist William S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan and their topsy-turvy world of comic satire that mocks twisted logic and laughable human conceits. Along with some significant attention from Broadway producers, U.S. opera companies have been drawn to the works as a way of expanding their repertory into lighter fare to contrast with their traditional operatic offerings, retaining the emphasis on impressive voices and eye-catching staging. That is certainly the case with Knoxville Opera and their delightful and incredibly entertaining production of The Pirates of Penzance at the Tennessee Theatre.
Review: Marble City Opera’s Haunting ‘dwb (Driving While Black)’
Marble City Opera’s latest production is ‘dwb (driving while black)’, a one-act opera that dives headlong into the inherently intensifying anxiety faced by Black families as children approach driving age and face the intersection of modern mobility and the horrors of profiling and racist policing. With music by Susan Kander and a libretto by Roberta Gumbel, the 45 minute work features three performer/musicians: Mother (soprano Allison Sanders), Cellist (Cremaine Booker), and Percussion (David Verin). ‘dwb’ is directed by Ivan Griffin, who previously directed MCO’s The Christmas Spider.
