BY ALAN SHERROD If you sat back, closed your eyes, and indulged your imagination for just a bit, it was entirely possible that the evening’s music could conjure up a vision of the blue hazy mountains of the Appalachians…
Review: ‘Men on Boats’ at Clarence Brown – Old History, New Perspective
BY ALAN SHERROD On its most basic level, the Jaclyn Backhaus play, Men on Boats, which opened Friday evening in the Lab Theatre of the Clarence Brown, is a retelling of the 1869 exploratory journey made by John Wesley…
Review: MCO’s ‘The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace’ Is Infinitely Charming
BY ALAN SHERROD In its ten years of existence, Marble City Opera has filled a niche in Knoxville’s music scene, a niche for which it seems it was destined. It has also earned a reputation for a mind-boggling variety…
Review: Lynn Nottage’s ‘Sweat’ at River & Rail Theatre Company
BY ALAN SHERROD If there is anything that we have learned from television, it is that the American neighborhood bar is more than just a convenient background venue for drama and comedy. It represents a social structure where, in…
Review: Spirits Abound in CBT’s Marvelous ‘Blithe Spirit’
By Alan Sherrod “Anybody can write books, but it takes an artist to make a dry martini that’s dry enough.” —Madame Arcati, Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit Pass on the dry martinis like those being served quite generously in Blithe…
Review: Dueling Sopranos Take Knoxville Opera’s ‘Maria Stuarda’ to Bel Canto Glory
History insists on reminding us that cousins and bitter enemies, Mary Stuart and Queen Elizabeth I, never met in real life. That fact did not prevent German philosopher and playwright, Friedric Schiller, from creating a drama that treated Mary, Queen…
Review in the Knoxville Mercury: Knoxville Opera’s ‘Tosca’
You’ll find a review of Knoxville Opera’s production of Tosca in this week’s Knoxville Mercury, online here. No umbrella required.
Review in the Knoxville Mercury: Storm Fizzles, Demirjian and KSO Dazzles
My review of last week’s Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Masterworks concerts featuring guest conductor Aram Demirjian and violinist Philippe Quint can be found in this week’s Knoxville Mercury. That concert featured works by John Adams, Ligeti, Bruch, and Beethoven.
In the Knoxville Mercury: Review of CBT’s ‘The Santaland Diaries’
In this week’s Knoxville Mercury, read my review of Clarence Brown Theatre’s The Santaland Diaries. Online here. Thanks for reading!