CRITICS' CHOICE: What's Happening This Week?

Disney's Newsies claims Nashville as their own hometown with a weeklong run at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center beginning Tuesday (plus there's a fascinating exhibit at the Tennessee State Museum in TPAC's basement that commemorates Nashville's role as a printing center), Osborne and Eppler's Southern Fried Nuptials takes the stage in Woodbury with its own special blend of down-home humor amid the craziness of wedding preparations in a Mississippi town, and local favorite Geoff Davin unveils his latest theatrical creation - Adamenses Huckster - backed up by an ensemble of Nashville's favorite divas, directed by the ultimate diva herself, nine-time First Night Award winner Martha Wilkinson. and there's plenty of theater continuing this week (with shows at Chaffin's Barn,Murfreesoboro's Center for the Arts and Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse, where they continue to celebrate their golden anniversary) to keep you occupied all week long...heck, we can keep you busy all summer!

The only thing funnier than a Southern funeral is a Southern wedding! Arts Center of Cannon County in Woodbury presents Southern Fried Nuptials, written by Nashville's own Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler, and running May 29 through June 13, with curtain at 7:30 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinee performances on May 31 and June 7.

The charmingly funny Frye family is back and this time they are going to get married. Or maybe not? The engagement of Attie VanLeer and Harline Frye has been on again, off again more times than a drunken frat boy on a mechanical bull. Now half the town has been invited, the dress has been fitted, the flowers have been ordered and the gifts are piling up in the living room. Will they or won't they? You'll have to find out in this hysterical hit comedy from the authors of Southern Fried Funeral.

Directed by Donald Fann and produced by Brittany Goodwin, Southern Fried Nuptials features many familiar faces including Melanie Nistad, Rachel Parker, Brittany Goodwin, Mike Reed, Greg Ray, Candilyn Ford, John Goodwin, Hunter Thaw, Terri Ritter, Bobby Ray and Donna Seage. Ticket prices are $13 with discounts available for seniors and full-time students.

This production is sponsored by First National Bank and will be on stage May 29 through June 13, at the Arts Center of Cannon County, 1424 John Bragg Highway, just west of the town of Woodbury, approximately 20 minutes from Murfreesboro, Manchester, and McMinnville and one hour southeast of Nashville. Box office hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Tickets are available now by calling the box office at 615-563-(ARTS)2787 or online at artscenterofcc.com, and (subject to availability) at the door one hour prior to show time.

Inspiration for an original musical can be found just about anywhere, if you are to believe the history of musical theater: Show Boat came from an Edna Ferber novel, Oklahoma from a play called Green Grow the Lilacs and Kinky Boots from a rather obscure British film, proving that the genesis for a new show may be found just about anywhere. It can even be found in ways more personal and certainly more intimate, like Geoff Davin's inspiration for his new musical with the enviable title of The First Church of Mary, The Repentant Prostitute's FIFTH ANNUAL Benefit Concert, Revival, and Pot Luck Dinner

Subtitled "a play about Faith, Narcissism, & Red Velvet Cake," The First Church of Mary (which is how we will refer to it hereafter) allows Davin to don a wig and heels - "yet again," according to the show's press release - to play his newest creation Adamenses Huckster, the protagonist of his "new play (with music)."

"A few years ago I had a bit of a bad church experience," Davin says. "So this is very loosely based on that experience. I thought it would be therapeutic to write about it. But I didn't want to write something super heavy. And I think laughing is a very healing thing. So that was my spark of inspiration.

"With that said...this piece is in no way anti-church or anti-religion. It's not 'anti' anything. What it is is 'pro-you.' It's all about learning to think for yourself. Trusting yourself. Finding faith in yourself. That is what I hope the take away will be."

Directed by nine-time First Night Award winner Martha Wilkinson, The First Church of Mary stars an impressive cast of Nashville favorites, including Megan Murphy Chambers, Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva, Brooke Leigh Davis and Rosemary Fossee, in addition to the versatile and imaginative Davin (whose previous onstage forays, if one needs further proof of his range, include the critically acclaimed role of Dr. Frank N Furter in Boiler Room Theatre's The Rocky Horror Show and Nashville Rep's productions of Death of a Salesman and A Christmas Story).

Working with Wilkinson and that starry ensemble has allowed Geoff Davin, writer, to gain a different perspective on his creation. "As the writer...you live so long with these words and voices in your head. You hear them a certain way. But I love it when the actors discover aspects of the character that you (the writer) didn't even know were there."

The show takes place on the evening of First Church's fifth annual benefit concert, revival and pot luck dinner. Audiences can expect a concert of 11 exciting soul/gospel infused songs written and/or arranged by Davin with additional contributions from local songwriters Nicole Boggs, KelleyAnn Hocter, and David Mescon.

Davin's irreverent reverend will offer up some preaching that's not intended for the faint of heart, accompanied by a dinner of barbecue from Drifter's that includes both meat and vegetarian options (hey, the show's being performed in East Nashville, so what else could you expect?).

Performances take place at BLDG Nashville, located in the Five Points area of East Nashville, with performances set for May 29-31. All tickets purchased now through tomorrow (May 24) are $38. All tickets purchased after May 24 will jump up to $45. The ticket price includes a full barbecue dinner (vegetarian options available as well) catered by Drifters Nashville. The dinner includes pulled pork or barebecued chicken, macaroni and cheese, and slaw. The vegetarian option substitutes fried tofu for the pork or chicken. And like every good church potluck in the South, there's plenty of iced tea to be had, and you can even sneak in a bottle of your favorite libation, without fear of any church roofs collapsing on your drunken head. Go to www.repentantprostitute.com for details and to purchase tickets!

Disney Theatrical Productions and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center announce that the Tony Award-winning smash hit musical, NEWSIES, will make its Nashville debut with a limited one-week engagement at TPAC's Andrew Jackson Hall, May 26-31. Tickets are available at TPAC.org, by phone at (615) 782-4040, and at the TPAC Box Office, 505 Deaderick Street, in downtown Nashville. For group tickets, call (615) 782-4060.

Newsies, the new American musical, features a Tony Award-winning score with music by eight-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman, a book by four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein and is produced by Disney Theatrical Productions. Newsies is directed by Tony nominee Jeff Calhoun and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, who won a 2012 Tony Award for his work. The entire creative team has reunited to bring the break-out smash musical to audiences across North America.

"This season has been filled with Tony Award-winning shows, and introducing Nashville to the inspirational production of Newsies is the perfect way to close our year of top-notch Broadway entertainment," says Kathleen O'Brien, TPAC president and chief executive officer. "This show comes to us straight from Broadway during its very first national tour, and it has the high-energy that all of Disney's productions bring, from high-energy choreography to fantastic songs. With the storyline of the little guy trying to beat big odds, everyone in the family will enjoy this show."

When it opened on March 29, 2012, Newsies was intended for a Broadway run of only 101 performances. The show's fiercely devoted fans had other ideas, however; they propelled the show to a run of 1,005 performances with attendance of more than one million and a gross of over $100 million.

While on Broadway, Newsies set and broke seven Nederlander Theatre house records and became the highest-grossing show from the 2011-12 Broadway season. The show received 23 major theatrical nominations, including eight Tony Award nominations, and won Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Score and Choreography.

Set in New York City at the turn of the century, Newsies is the rousing tale of Jack Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and leader of a ragged band of teenaged 'newsies,' who dreams only of a better life far from the hardship of the streets. But when publishing titans Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise distribution prices at the newsboys' expense, Jack finds a cause to fight for and rallies newsies from across the city to strike for what's right.

Newsies is inspired by the real-life 'Newsboy Strike of 1899,' when newsboy Kid Blink led a band of orphan and runaway newsies on a two-week-long action against Pulitzer, Hearst, and other powerful newspaper publishers.

The stage version introduces seven brand-new songs by the original team of Menken and Feldman while keeping many of the beloved songs from the film, including "Carrying the Banner," "Seize the Day," "King of New York," and "Santa Fe."

Since the film's 1992 theatrical release and subsequent DVD release, Newsies has grown into a cult phenomenon, and for years had been the single most requested title of all the Disney musical films not yet adapted for the stage. The film featured a screenplay by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White (Tarzan, 102 Dalmatians).

One of Nashville's most innovative theater companies - Five Dollar Recession Theater Company - has outgrown its original name to become Verge Theater Company just in time for its premiere production of Steven Dietz's The Nina Variations.

Continuing through May 30 at Belmont's Black Box Theater on Compton Avenue, The Nina Variations is directed by Jaclynn Jutting, head of the BFA Directing Program at Belmont University, and starring Holly Butler, Justin Hand, Kristin McCalley Landiss and Nettie Kraft.

"We were the Five Dollar Recession Theater Company but it's time to grow," says company founder Nettie Kraft. "The need for affordable theater, opportunities for young artists, expanding the theater audience, and reflecting the changing demographic of Nashville is here. Verge wants to help instill theater into this vibrant city in a powerful and lasting way.

"Our inaugural play is a contemporary, non-linear look at one of the most profound plays of Modern theater, Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. Dietz has taken the iconic final scene between Treplev and Nina and reimagined it into a treatise on love, memory, and whether we "write" our lives or have the narrative defined for us."

Tickets are pay-what-you-can with suggested prices based on age and income. For more information, go to www.vergetheaterco.org.

GroundWorks Theatre bids farewell to the Nashville theater scene with the debut of its final production: Starlite Waltz. Founded in 2004 by theatre veterans Bob and A. Sean O'Connell and handed over to Jonathan and Myra Stephens in 2012, GroundWorks Theatre "has been the source of much joy for many actors, writers, directors and hopefully audience members over the past eleven years," according to artistic director Myra Stephens.

"But the fact is, a theatre as a man, cannot live on joy alone, or love, or even hard work. Because we had all of that and more, and it just wasn't enough," she continues. "Unfortunately it came down to money, because everything always does, doesn't it? It reminds me of a joke I once heard about a farmer who won the lottery. A reporter asked him what he was going to do with all that money. The farmer thought for a moment and then he put his hands in his pockets, looked the reporter square in the eye and said, 'Wellll... I guess I'll just keep on farming 'till the money runs out.'

"That's how a small theatre company is - you pay the rent, you pay the royalties, you pay the expenses (and trust me I've become an expert on doing things on the cheap), you pay the theatre company ten percent and then you pay the actors, director and crew if there's any money left over. Sometimes there is and sometimes there isn't. Just know that we will miss all of our wonderful Nashville audiences."

Which brings us to the 1989 SARTS Award-winning play, Starlite Waltz written by Keith Trawick. The show opens at the Darkhorse Theatre Friday, May 22, and playing weekends through Saturday, May 30. In Starlite Waltz, Candy and Rhonda deal with life at the Starlite Motel and Supper Club, waiting on tables and the chance to get up on stage and show the world what they can do. But life isn't easy. Candy has run away from an abusive husband and Rhonda is running as fast as she can in her search for Mr. Right, which can wear a girl out, if you know what I mean. Can they run fast enough and in the right direction to make it all happen? Come find out.

Morgan Robertson, as Candy is relatively new to Nashville from Belhaven University where she majored in Theatre. Brooke Gronemeyer as Rhonda was recently seen in Pull-Tight's production of Catch Me if You Can. Both women appeared in GroundWork Theatre's recent production of Being Ebenezer. Brad DeVore, Fred Brown, Christopher Sax and Jonathon Stephens round out the cast. The play is directed by Myra Stephens.

Evening performances are at 7:30 p.m. and are on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The matinee performance is at 2:30 p.m. and is on Sunday, May 24. Ticket prices are $15 Adult and $12 Seniors (60+) and Students. It is suggested that tickets be purchased in advance as they sell briskly. Tickets may be purchased online at www.groundworkstheatre.com

After 22 years , the ever-popular Smoke on the Mountain returns to Cumberland County Playhouse - Tennessee's Family Theater - for a summer run through October 10.

Now in its 22nd consecutive year at CCP, Smoke continues to play to sold-out crowds and delight audiences again and again. "It's always huge fun to direct Smoke," says Smoke's director Weslie Webster. "Each year, I get to welcome new talent to the cast, plus I get to work with veteran actors who have performed in this show hundreds of times."

In fact, the multi-talented Daniel Black has, at one time or another, appeared onstage as every male member of the Sanders family as well as Rev. Oglethorpe. "Even though when I went on as Mervin, it was in A Sanders Family Christmas," laughs Black. "I think that might still be some kind of record."

Smoke takes place on a Saturday night in Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, and the Reverend Oglethorpe has invited the Sanders Family Singers to provide an uplifting evening of song. The audience becomes the congregation as two dozen traditional and original hymns weave together with stories of witness from family members, along with a healthy dose of laughter. Though the Sanders Family try to appear perfect in the eyes of a critical congregation - who are skeptical about the whole notion of a "Saturday Night Sing" - one thing after another goes awry and they reveal their true and hilariously imperfect natures. The honesty, humor (sometimes unintentional!) and faith of this Southern mountain family and the church's new preacher connect strongly with audiences of all ages and faiths, who find themselves part of a very special afternoon or evening.

Leading the 2015 cast are Playhouse favorites Patty Payne as June Sanders, Jason Ross as Mervin Oglethorpe, and Daniel Black as Burl Sanders; among the three of them, they've appeared in well over one thousand performances of Smoke since the show opened in the Adventure Theater in 1994. The cast also includes Lauren Marshall, who does double duty as Vera Sanders and the show's Music Director. John Dobbratz will appear as Uncle Stanley, with Chance Wall as son Dennis and Ellie Burnett as Dennis's twin sister Denise.

Smoke on the Mountain opens May 22 and runs through October 10. Call (931) 484-5000 for tickets and information or visit www.ccplayhouse.com.

Also playing at the Playhouse are Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash, featuring Kellye Cash, through June 9; Singin' in the Rain, through July 12. Mary Poppins opens on the Mainstage on June 12.

Circle Players concludes its 2014-15 season with its production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, continuing through this weekend at Pearl Cohn Comprehensive High School.

The 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE is an upbeat ending to Circle Players' 65th season. It's the story of an eclectic group of six pubescents who vie for the spelling championship of a lifetime. While candidly disclosing hilarious and touching stories from their home lives, the 'tweens spell their way through a series of (potentially made-up) words hoping to never hear the soul-crushing, pout-inducing, life un-affirming "ding" of the bell that signals a spelling mistake. SPELLING BEE is a riotous ride complete with audience participation!

Music and Lyrics by William Finn; book by Rachel Sheinkin; conceived by Rebecca Feldman; additional material by Jay Reiss. Circle Players' production of SPELLING BEE is directed by Josh Waldrep with music direction by Rolin Mains; produced by Erin Richardson and Antonio Nappo.

Performances are May 21-31, (Thursday-Sunday), with a special Saturday matinee on May 30, and PWYC (Pay-what-you-can) on Thursday, May 28. For tickets, go to www.circleplayers.net.

Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts continues its run of the Frank Wildhorn musical Bonnie and Clyde through May 31. Described as an "electrifying story of love, adventure and the crimes that captured the attention of the country is fearless in its betrayal of the reckless young lovers," Bonnie and Clyde features a score of songs by Wildhorn and Don Black.

Bonnie and Clyde is the tale of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, the two small-town nobodies in West Texas who became two of America's best known folk heroes and the Texas law enforcement's worst nightmares. When Bonnie and Clyde meet, their mutual cravings for excitement and fame immediately set them on a mission to chase their dreams. Their bold and reckless behavior turns the young lovers' thrilling adventure into a downward spiral, putting themselves and their loved ones in trouble with the law. Forced to stay on the run, the two lovers resort to robbery and murder to survive. As the infamous duo's fame grows bigger, their well-known inevitable end plays out for all to see.

The Center for the Arts' production of Bonnie and Clyde is directed by Kim Powers, with musical direction by Charlie Parker and choreography by Emily Davis. Starring in the title roles are Michael Adcock as Clyde and Jamie Lawler as Bonnie, with Patrick Kramer, Corey Shadd, Britt Byrd and Gary Davis. Rounding out the 28 person cast are numerous ensemble members who also double as multiple characters.

Bonnie and Clyde runs through May 31, with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $13 for Seniors, Students and Military and $11 for children age 12 and under. Tickets can be purchased on the Center's website - www.boroarts.org - by calling (615)904-2787, or by stopping by the Center during business hours.