First Take Co. brought fan-favorite showtunes to Pretentious Beer Co.’s back patio on Sunday, April 21, for the 2024 season premiere of their annual summer concert series, ‘Scruffy City Sings’. This month’s theme was Music Theatre Mixer, and area musical theatre fans came out to belt out some classic tunes and celebrate all that Knoxville’s theatre scene has to offer.
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: Clarence Brown Theatre’s ‘Kinky Boots’ – An Exhilarating Romp
As its final pick of the company’s season, the Clarence Brown Theatre opened its production of Kinky Boots on Friday evening. As it turns out, this production owes most of its genetic underpinning to that Broadway show thanks to director Rusty Mowery, a CBT alumnus and Broadway success story.
Review: Theatre Knoxville Downtown’s ‘Art’ Frames the Value of Friendship
What is the value of friendship, and by what means can we measure it? Director Tom Eubanks’ production of Art at Theatre Knoxville Downtown, which opened last Friday, brings this question to the forefront and complicates it in humorous and touching ways.
Review: A ‘Lear’ for America’s Political Wounds, Past and Present
This production of William Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ by The WordPlayers Theatre Company and Pellissippi State Community College’s Theater Department draws awareness of our own American political turmoil, both historic and present.
Review: ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ at the Tennessee Theatre – Timely and Strong
Currently making a week-long run in Knoxville at the Tennessee Theatre, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ stars Richard Thomas as Atticus Finch in an engrossing and atmospheric production that now enjoys an inescapable timeliness and relevance.
Review: CBT’s ‘Anon(ymous)’ Frames the Odyssey through the Lives of Refugees
Packed with as many action-filled moments as somber reflections on global conflict, playwright Naomi Iizuka’s Anon(ymous), which opened last Friday at Clarence Brown Theatre’s Lab Theatre, is a rollercoaster ride of lightness and darkness, of hope and despair. This thoughtful and resonant production offers an important observation
Review: ‘Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune’ – The Audience as Voyeur
The audience became a voyeur in this superbly compelling and impressive performance of Terrence McNally’s ‘Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune.’ The two-character play was being given 5 performances in a “secret location” by Amber Collins Crane and Gregory Crane as the title couple with direction by David Ratliff.
New to Knoxville — Theater 23 Launches With Arlene Hutton’s ‘As It Is In Heaven’
Trying out the theatrical waters in Knoxville is a new enterprise, Theater 23, headed up by its Founding Artistic Director, Tom Eubanks, a recent Knoxville transplant from California. Their first production will be ‘As It Is in Heaven’ by Arlene Hutton directed by Eubanks and performed at the Old City Performing Arts Center.
Review: CBT’s ‘The Giver’ – Warning of a Dystopian World and a Ray of Hope
The current Clarence Brown Theatre production of ‘The Giver’ which opened last week, is a stage adaptation by Eric Coble that was commissioned and premiered by the Oregon Children’s Theatre in 2006.
Review: Regency Magic Abounds at the Jane Austen Regency Ball
Jane Austen’s beloved world blossomed into vivid life this past Saturday during the Jane Austen Regency Ball, an interactive theater experience presented by The University of Tennessee English Department and Knoxville’s First Take Theater Company.
