Tennessee Repertory Theatre has announced its 2008-2009 season of live, professional theatre. Included in the upcoming season are a Tony Award-winning musical, two Pulitzer Prize-winning dramas, two hilarious new comedies and an oft-requested holiday favorite.
“Tennessee Rep is very excited about next season’s shows,” says Producing Artistic Director Rene Copeland. “Each play has something special about it, and taken all together we have a terrific cross-section of offerings.
“Our goal is to provide a feast--a buffet--of good, strong, tasty choices for theatergoers, and we can promise audiences variety in the types of plays but dependable consistency in the high level of quality throughout the season,” Copeland continues. “This season is a combination of comedy and drama, classic and contemporary, reality and fantasy, horror and silliness, and there’s even a very new play and a revival of an old favorite. I’m very proud and pleased to be able to bring these plays to Nashville audiences, and if there’s a play on the list Nashvillians are not familiar with, we hope they are inspired to take a chance with us. Good acting, good sets, good costumes, good scripts, guaranteed. Tasty choices all!”
Tennessee Rep’s 24th season features the following:
- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler
- Moonlight and Magnolias by Ron Hutchinson
- Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
- Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire
- Darwin in Malibuby Crispin Whittell
Augmenting the above-mentioned shows, which comprise the season subscription package, Tennessee Rep will also offer a fully-mounted show as a Holiday Special: The Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris featuring the Middle Tennessee return of Matt Chiorini in the role of Crumpet.
In addition to its season and the holiday special, Tennessee Rep will see some changes and additions for the 2008-2009 season. Among these is the addition of “First Night” -- a special opening night with a festive party atmosphere. Tuesday night performances have also been added and additional subscription options including subscription options at a lower price.
As with all Tennessee Rep productions, the 2008-2009 season reflects a local product, with local actors, sets that have been designed and constructed locally, and costumes that were designed and crafted locally.
Play Descriptions:
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler
October 4 – 18
Johnson Theater, TPAC
When this show opened on Broadway in 1979, it won nine Tony Awards, including Best Book, Best Score, and Best Musical. Sondheim is regarded as a premiere American composer, and the quality of his work as a musician is so superb it is often presented by opera companies or in concert presentation as well.
A rare instance of a musical thriller, this chilling, suspenseful, heart-pounding masterpiece of murderous barber-ism and culinary crime tells the infamous tale of the unjustly exiled barber who returns to 19th century London seeking revenge against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. Sophisticated, macabre, visceral and uncompromising, Sweeney Todd nevertheless has a great sense of fun, mixing intense drama with howlingly funny moments of dark humor: audiences have found themselves laughing hysterically one moment and gasping in surprise the next.
Copeland Says: “Sweeney Todd is scary and fun and beautiful and awful and exciting and heart-wrenching all at once, and there’s not a more bountiful feast of sheer theatricality to be found. I mean, it’s a musical about a guy who kills people and his girlfriend who cooks them up into meatpies—it’s like telling scary stories around the campfire, and we relish the prospect of telling you this one!”