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Knoxville

Listen Now!

The World Premiere Recording is available digitally and on major streaming platforms. 

 

Order the CD!

 

 

A NOTE FROM AHRENS AND FLAHERTY

 

Dear Friends,

Thanks for wanting to know more about our newest show, KNOXVILLE, which opened this April at Asolo Rep after a two-year hiatus. We and Ragtime director Frank Galati reunited to create this new adaptation of James Agee's Pulitzer Prize-winning work and we're delighted to share the results with you.

 

Below you’ll find a wealth of articles, photographs, reviews, and video. You’ll also find information on the World Premiere Original Cast Recording on Broadway Records, that was released Oct 21, 2022. 

 

Please enjoy this visit to KNOXVILLE!

 

All our best!

Lynn and Stephen

 

 

 

 

Original Cast Album

After a triumphant world premiere at Asolo Rep, 

Knoxville Original Cast Recording released digitally on Friday, Oct. 21

 

 

Asolo Rep is proud to announce that the original cast recording of Knoxville will be available digitally on Friday, Oct. 21, and on physical CD on Friday, Nov. 11. The album is available through all major digital music services and the CD is now available for pre-order at broadwayrecords.com.

 

Based on the novel by James Agee, Knoxville played a critically acclaimed world premiere run at Asolo Rep in April and May of 2022. The project reunited Frank GalatiStephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, the Tony Award®-winning creative team behind Broadway’s Ragtime.

 

Based on James Agee’s autobiographical, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Death in the Family, the story begins as Agee struggles to write his greatest work – about the event that touched his young life and the effect it had on his mother, his town and his own future. A powerful illumination of the forces that shape who we are, Knoxville is a universal coming-of-age story about family, faith and love – and about the boy who will grow up to write it.

 

The cast of Knoxville is led by Broadway veterans Jason Danieley (Pretty Woman), Hannah Elless (Bright Star), Paul Alexander Nolan (Slave Play), Ellen Harvey (How to Succeed…), Nathan Salstone (Harry Potter) and Joel Waggoner (School of Rock). Rounding out the cast are Jack CaseySarah AiliAbigail StephensonNatalie Venetia BelconDwelvan DavidScott WakefieldWilliam Parry and Barbara Marineau.

 

The world premiere of Knoxville was made possible by a generous grant from The Roy Cockrum Foundation.


From Van Dean, Tony and Grammy Award-winning producer

“Given that their landmark musical, Ragtime, was my inspiration for pursuing a life in the theater, I'm beyond proud to have produced multiple very different Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty projects: Anastasia (the Broadway show and album), Once On This Island (Broadway revival album), Legacy (album of two song cycles) and Nice Fighting YouA 30th Anniversary Celebration (cabaret performance series at 54 Below and the double live CD that followed). I am also a producer on their forthcoming Broadway-bound musical, Little Dancer.

They have an incredible musical track record (one of the longest-running writing collaborations in Broadway history!). I believe KNOXVILLE to be one of their finest scores which is a bold statement given all of the outstanding work they have done in their 40-year history together. The score is exquisite and contains songs that stay in the ear and move the heart. I’m in love with this score and show!”

Reviews

Sarasota Herald-Tribune (click here for complete review)

 

“An eloquently emotional reflection about what matters most in our lives – the bonds of faith, family and love that sustain. A poem, a love song, a paean and an elegy all in one. Ahrens and Flaherty only enhance their reputation as one of the finest teams creating music for the stage."

 

Sarasota Magazine (click here for complete review)

 

Knoxville will make you cry. It will make you laugh. It will make you care. And it deserves to have a long life in future productions. A triumphant example of delayed gratification."

 

Venice Gondolier Sun (click here for complete review)

 

“One of the finest productions to be seen here on the Cultural Coast. 'Knoxville' began as a Pulitzer-winning story by Agee but Galati, Flaherty, Ahrens and the entire creative team at the Asolo made it so much more.”  

 

Photos

 

 

Videos

 

 

 

 

Previews

American Theatre Magazine

 

Tampa Bay Times 

 

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

 

Scene Magazine

 

The Observer

 

The Observer (second story)

 

Sarasota Magazine

 

Playbill

 

Axios Tampa Bay

 

WBIR-NBC (Knoxville, TN)

 

WBIR.com (online interview with Roy Cockrum)

 

Registry Tampa Bay

 

WTSP-CBS (Tampa, FL)

 

Cast Announcement