There are a few musicals that simply cry out “BROADWAY” at their very mention and, inarguably, Chicago is one of them. The original production of the John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Bob Fosse musical goes back 50 years to 1975, enjoying a New York run of 936 performances. A 1996 revival production of Chicago is still running on Broadway with more than 11,000 performances under its belt. That revival production with direction by Walter Bobbie and choreography by Ann Reinking (after Bob Fosse’s original choreography) has also spawned a number of National Tours, including the current one that is making a stop in Knoxville this week at the Tennessee Theatre for eight performances through Sunday, February 16.
Review: Knoxville Opera Offers a Deliciously Romantic ‘La Boheme’
According to those that count such things, Giacomo Puccini’s La Boheme is perennially in the top five of the “most produced” operas worldwide. Closer to home, Knoxville Opera’s own history suggests a similar calculation, the company having performed the work six times since 1982, with a seventh coming this past weekend at the Tennessee Theatre.
Review: KSO Offers a Chamber Classics Concert of Mozart, Cellos, and Brass
The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s Chamber Classics Series on Sunday afternoons has become quite popular, with audiences gravitating to music that really benefits from the intimate acoustic environment of the Bijou Theatre. Perhaps a more important asset, though, is that the series is an enticing showcase for the orchestra musicians who are featured as soloists or ensemble members. This past Sunday’s concert, “Mozart & More”, took that idea even further than usual, featuring the KSO’s Principal Second Violin Edward Pulgar as soloist and conductor in an after intermission performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major, K. 216. The first half of the concert featured delightfully different programming with two ensembles drawn from members of the orchestra: a cello quartet and a brass quintet.
Review: KSO Offers A Mahler Symphony No. 5 of Mythical Proportions
The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra has at last given Knoxville audiences something Mahler to talk about—Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 was the sole work on the weekend’s Masterworks concerts. Judging by the impressive attendance, anticipatory buzz, and post-concert ebullience, the KSO audience was ready for an event—and they got one, thanks to an epic performance by Maestro Aram Demirjian and the orchestra that was sprawling and ultimately triumphant, yet carefully detailed in all the appropriate places.
Review: TKD’s ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ – Reaping a Bitter Harvest
Sometimes, our memories, even of hard and testing times, return to us sweetly, like a fleeting song. That’s how playwright Brian Friel remembers one summer from his childhood in rural Ireland in 1936, a moment on the brink of devastating change to his family’s livelihood. Theatre Knoxville Downtown presents Friel’s play based on these memories, ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’, directed by Barry Wallace, a conflicting and bittersweet contemplation on memory, hope, and the painful inevitability of change.
Review: River & Rail’s ‘It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play’ – A New Holiday Tradition?
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.
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: 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: KSO Delights with Season Opener of Beethoven and Gershwin
The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra opened its 2024-25 season with George Gershwin’s Concerto in F and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, plus ‘Kauyumari’ by the contemporary Mexican composer, Gabriela Ortiz. Aram Demirjian conducted.