2014-2015 Season

Tennessee Rep's 2014-2015 season is here! With classics like Sweeney Todd and Death of a Salesman to contemporary plays like The Whipping Man and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike , our new season has something for everyone.

Sweeney Todd

The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler
October 4–25, 2014
Previews: Oct. 2–3

Back by Popular Demand! The rare instance of a musical thriller, this chilling, suspenseful, heart-pounding masterpiece of murderous “barberism” and culinary crime tells the infamous tale of the unjustly exiled Benjamin Barker (aka Sweeney Todd). He returns to 19th century London seeking revenge against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. The enterprising (and unforgettable) pie-maker Mrs. Lovett helps Sweeney Todd exact his revenge in the most “delicious” of ways. Sophisticated, macabre, visceral and uncompromising, Sweeney Todd mixes intense drama with howlingly funny moments of dark humor.

“Tennessee Rep turned TPAC’s Johnson Theater sideways for its galvanizing mounting of the Sondheim classic. London looked foreboding and foggy per Gary Hoff’s compressed set, and a small but mighty cast acted, sang and played stagehands as well in a marvelously brooding production that was daring in conception and right on the mark in execution.” –Martin Brady, Nashville Scene (Best of Nashville, 2009)

The Whipping Man

by Matthew Lopez
February 7–21, 2015
Previews: Feb. 5-6

In the post-Civil War South, three men are tied to each other by history and faith, but are also bound by secrets. A badly wounded Jewish Confederate soldier stumbles home at war’s end to find his family has fled to the countryside. Remaining behind to greet him are two of his family’s former slaves... and a cobbled together Passover Seder. The three men unite to celebrate the holiday, even as they struggle to comprehend their new relationships at a crossroads of personal and national history.

“A compelling Civil War-era drama, filled with fine characterization and unexpected moments of humor.” — The New York Times

Death of a Salesman

by Arthur Miller
March 14–28, 2015
Previews: March 12–13

With its 1949 Broadway opening, Death of a Salesman struck a chord with audiences, and each generation since has embraced the play as an expression of their own struggle to achieve the American dream. In this Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero in Willy Loman—the aging, failing salesman who makes his living riding on a smile and a shoeshine. Death of a Salesman compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, within the unstable walls of a suburban American home.

“By common consent, this is one of the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theatre.” — The New York Times

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

by Christopher Durang
April 11–25, 2015
Previews: April 9–10

In this 2013 Tony Award-winner for Best Play, Christopher Durang takes characters and themes from Chekhov, pours them into a blender, and serves them up dry as only this master of comedy can. Classic Chekhovian themes of loss and longing are given utterly hilarious (and occasionally touching) twists. Against the bucolic plague of a farmhouse in Pennsylvania, the stage is set for an absurd weekend of angst, hilarity, and global warming.

“I can imagine many satisfied patrons leave the theater muttering, ‘Now if only real Chekhov plays were this funny, maybe I wouldn’t keep falling asleep.’”— The New York Times

Holiday Special:
A Christmas Story

adapted by Phillip Grecian from the motion picture by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown, and Bob Clark
November 39 – December 21, 2014
Preview: November 28

Please note that A Christmas Story may be purchased for a discounted price as part of 2014-2015 season subscription.

Nashville's All-American Holiday Tradition

Humorist Jean Shepherd's memoir of growing up in the Midwest in the 1940s follows 9-year-old Ralphie Parker in his unflappable campaign to get Santa (or anyone else) to give him a "legendary official Red Rider carbine-action 200 shot range-model air rifle." Ralphie pleads his case before his mother, his teacher, and even Santa Claus himself at Goldblatt's Department Store. The consistent response: "You'll shoot your eye out." This irresistible piece of Americana is guaranteed to warm the heart and tickle the funny bone.

"Thanks to Tennessee Repertory Theatre's wonderfully evocative production of the play, based on the iconic holiday movie, if I could possibly have another more satisfying theatre experience, I could scarcely dream it." - Jeffrey Ellis, broadwayworld.com