Great local productions Saw Jesus Christ Superstar and the…read moremusic, singing and dancing was fantastic. I love the intimacy of the theatre seats to the stage

Well, I wish there was a way to review individual shows, but I guess that doesn't make sense since…read morethe productions are temporary. So, I will comment on the venue itself up here and place a block below for specific shows and will update that block whenever I see a new one! I'll put the run dates in the title line so you know whether or not to pay attention to it. Venue Review My wife and I absolutely love live theater and I think we've been to most of the theater venues in Memphis. We've seen many productions at the Playhouse on the Square and it is just a fabulous place to see a play, or even the ballet. It is not a huge venue so when I say, "There isn't a bad seat in the house." that is dead on. The seating is comfortable. The facilities are clean. The staff is always nice. And the productions are always top-notch! One thing about Playhouse and its surrounding theaters is the pricing for their shows is usually very reasonable compared to the competing theater across town. We always come in from the North, down Central and usually, we park in the parking garage near the square itself. This last time it was raining and we noticed there is actually a parking lot on the East side of the building! It is a nice parking lot and it is, of course, a much shorter walk than the walk from the garage! However, if you plan to eat before or after a show, the garage might be a better choice. Production Reviews Below Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - 1/19-2/18/2024 I am a HUGE fan of the 1971 film, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder (who isn't, right?). I think we all would like to forget the 2005 remake of the story with J. Depp, so to say I'm dubious when it comes to the treatment of this story is probably an understatement. Knowing I am such a fan of this story, my wife surprised me with tickets to this show. I've never seen it done live and I was excited but trepidatious because some of the stuff I loved about the 1971 movie, the special effects, the sets, just couldn't be duplicated on a live stage. That said, because I knew that going, in I was a bit forgiving and might have been a little excited to see how they adapted it. I was not disappointed one bit! Of course, the main storyline was the same, but there were nuances of modernization. The names of the children were the same and the core of their bad behavior too. However, their backstories and the style of their ultimate demises were slightly different. I won't give critical details away as I don't want to spoil it for you, but just as an example, Mike Teevee's problem is still sitting in front of a screen too much, but his addiction is to the Internet and video games rather than classic television. Clever. The young star of the show, Drake Shehan, was incredible and an absolute delight to watch! The young man could sing, and dance, and his acting quality was that of someone 10 years his senior! The rest of the cast was great as well, just a super ensemble. This was one of the best shows we've seen at Playhouse and they did a fantastic job of adapting this to the stage. You have a little more than a week to catch this and you should before it is gone!