Friday, May 27, 2011
Arts and Entertainment Sondheim's Pacific Overtures ... in Nashville?!? Believe It!
Posted by Jim Ridley on Fri, May 27, 2011 at 9:07 AM
But evidently that wasn't crazily ambitious enough for the new company. So here comes news to make Middle Tennessee theater mavens gasp: For its just-announced 2011-12 season, on Feb. 9-19, 2012, Blackbird will tackle Stephen Sondheim's 1976 musical Pacific Overtures — one of the master's most acclaimed works, seldom performed regionally because of its scale and difficulty. A sort of nesting doll of cultural context, it's something like a Japanese take on an American musical about Commodore Perry's 19th century mission to the East and America's subsequent influence on Japan, for better or worse.
"We're really excited about this show — it's a story and score we're passionate about," Blackbird co-founder Greg Greene said via email. He's just as enthusiastic about the other show in the season: a rare production of Magic (Aug. 12-27), a 1913 comedy about spiritualism by the early 20th century intellectual G.K. Chesterton. That gives Blackbird reason to boast its upcoming season will consist of "two shows you won’t find within 500 miles or fifty years of here."
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