By Alan Sherrod It’s a bit ironic that Voltaire’s Candide, a novella that satirizes the 18th Century philosophy of optimism and its inevitable disillusionment, has required plenty of optimism and perseverance from those that have sought to turn it…
Review: Clarence Brown Theatre’s ‘Urinetown, the Musical’
One good rule of theatre: seize comic irony when it falls in your lap. As the audience arrived for the opening night of the Clarence Brown Theatre’s production of Urinetown, the Musical, they had to pass by the theatre’s new…
Review: CBT’s ‘The Dream of the Burning Boy’
Our perception of David West Read’s play, The Dream of the Burning Boy, in current production at Clarence Brown Theatre’s Lab Theatre, might have been quite different without the tragic mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland,…
Review: CBT’s ‘the strangers’
As way of preface, the strangers was commissioned by the Clarence Brown Theatre from playwright Christopher Oscar Peña for performance by eight of the UT Department of Theatre MFA acting candidates. The work was developed over a two year period…
Review: Clarence Brown Theatre’s ‘Alabama Story’
There is considerable humor, quaintness, and charm in Kenneth Jones’ play, ‘Alabama Story’, and in its current production, directed by Kate Buckley, at the Clarence Brown Theatre, in the play’s southeastern U.S. premiere.
Preview: ‘Alabama Story’ at CBT – A Play About Books, Censorship, and the American Condition
It would probably have been easy to thumb past the obituary of Emily Wheelock Reed in the New York Times in May 2000, its headline not really shouting out its significance: “Emily W. Reed, 89, Librarian in ’59 Alabama Racial…
Review: Warm Traditions Continue in CBT’s ‘A Christmas Carol’
Traditions are indeed powerful and compelling things in human civilization—and seem to exist for both good and ill, often happily defying logic. Our holiday traditions are perfect examples of both the very peculiar and the very satisfying, embracing happy memories…
Review: CBT’s ‘Blue Window’ Explores the Simplicity and Complexity of Everyday Lives
A focus on the ensemble has been a defining—and satisfying—characteristic of the Clarence Brown Theatre season so far—and it continues on that course with Craig Lucas’ Blue Window in the Lab Theatre of CBT. This vehicle, though, is a bit…
KSO and CBT To Team Up Again in 2018 With Bernstein’s ‘Candide’
(Above: CBT Artistic Director Calvin MacLean and KSO Music Director Aram Demirjian) Artistic collaborations may seem like natural extensions of a performing arts scene, but they aren’t necessarily that easy to accomplish for a number of reasons. However, in a…
Review – The Desperation of Inaction in Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters’
In many ways similar to how “Shakespearean” is an accepted adjective, so is “Chekhovian” in referring to the works of the playwright and short story writer, Anton Chekhov. However, while “Shakespearean” is an expansive reference by virtue of quantity, scale,…