Jeffrey Ellis - Page 124

Nicole Begue Hackman is so perfectly cast as Eliza Doolittle in Lerner and Loewe classic My Fair Lady at Cumberland County Playhouse that all those other characters that people the musical may seem superfluous, despite the splendid performances of the rest of the cast. Oh, certainly, their characters aren't really extraneous, but Hackman's portrayal of the Cockney flower girl is so spot-on, so multi-dimensional and delightful - and she sings the role so exquisitely - that you may just find yourself aching to attend the races at Ascot or to hear your favorite opera Aida at Covent Garden when you are transported by onstage magic to 1912 England.

The historic Franklin Theatre, which re-opens June 3 after extensive renovations, today announced that critically acclaimed Studio Tenn - the professional theater troupe headed by Matt Logan and Jake Speck - will be the resident live theatre company at the venue, presenting classic plays and musicals as part of the new mission to offer the highest quality live entertainment in Middle Tennessee.

The quintet of captivating, sexy, sultry, uber talented women of FIVE return to the stage on Monday, June 27, with Five: An Encore Performance, hot on the heels of their near-legendary debut performance in March, this time presented onstage at Nashville's historic Belcourt Theatre in Hillsboro Village.

Like Rodney Dangerfield before him, Frank Wildhorn gets no respect in musical theater circles. Despite the relative success of his first widely known work for musical theater - Jekyll and Hyde, a popular if not exactly critical success - Wildhorn's subsequent musicals have been met with lukewarm praise, at best, including his just-closed Wonderland, which got some of the season's most scathing reviews on Broadway. The Roxy Regional Theatre, never a company to let reviews influence their show selection, brings Wildhorn's Tony Award-nominated The Civil War to the stage in Clarksville, in a largely successful and watchable production featuring a young, committed and capable cast.

Jack's Tale, a musical based on the Appalachia folk tales of the Scots-Irish heritage, is the final production of Nashville Children's Theatre's 2010-11 season. Written by NCT producing director Scot Copeland and by musician Paul Carrol Binkley, this homespun adventure tale features actors who are also musicians. The cast floats between acting and playing music and sometimes both at the same time.

Director Kate Adams-Johnson, aka Nashville's busiest choreographer, is putting yet another cast through the paces in preparation for another opening night. But this time, she's serious. Very serious. The show, you see, is every dancer's favorite musical: A Chorus Line. Kate's cast is a blending of familiar faces and newcomers and so over the next few weeks, you'll get to know the members of The Keeton Theatre's cast - as you'll see, some of them have much to learn about being interviewed by 'Nashville's favorite theater critic.' Next up is Chad Ray...who has quickly learned his way around a tricky interviewer on just his second show...

Atlanta matron Daisy Werthan and her driver and best friend Hoke Colburn are hitting the road again in a production of Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy, which tours to three small Tennessee towns over the next few weeks in a new production from Melanie Johnson Roady's Mel O'Drama Theater.

ACT 1 brings its successful 21st season to a close May 20-28, with Much Ado About Nothing, a Shakespearean comedy filled with wit, romance, and villainy. Brittany Carlton directs the show which is set in Messina, Italy.

For the 2011 Professional Intern Showcase at Tennessee Repertory Theatre, the play selection is one that hits pretty close to home for a lot of Tennesseans: Ellen Byron's Graceland, a play about two women and their love of The King himself, Elvis Presley, and their sojourn to his legendary home in Memphis.

Out Front on Main, Inc. presents a showcase of challenging and thought provoking one act plays opening Thursday, May 19. Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, directed by Ryan Daniel, and Therac 25, directed by Buddy Jones, will run through June 5, with performances Thursdays-Sundays at 7:30 p.m.

Audrey, that flesh-eating plant that has made Little Shop of Horrors both a film and stage hit, sets down roots in Crossville beginning May 19, continuing through August 6, at Cumberland County Playhouse. Directed by John Fionte, with music direction by Ron Murphy and choreography by Leila Marshall, Little Shop stars the wife-and-husband team of Lindy and Greg Pendzick as the woman who lends her name to that monstrous plant and her dweeby suitor, Seymour, the budding horticulturalist whose experiments result in some unexpected flower shop carnage.

Director Kate Adams-Johnson, aka Nashville's busiest choreographer, is putting yet another cast through the paces in preparation for another opening night. But this time, she's serious. Very serious. The show, you see, is every dancer's favorite musical: A Chorus Line. Kate's cast is a blending of familiar faces and newcomers and so over the next few weeks, you'll get to know the members of The Keeton Theatre's cast - as you'll see, some of them have much to learn about being interviewed by 'Nashville's favorite theater critic.' Next up is Erin Spencer...who should know the drill by now...

Bonnie Keen is, without doubt, one of the most fearless actors to ever take the stage in Nashville. With a gorgeous voice and a talent that is worthy of praise, she will do whatever it takes to connect with her audience, lacing her performances with warmth, wit and wonder. The first time I saw Bonnie onstage was years ago, back in the day, when she played the Witch in Circle Players' production of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods; she was mesmerizing. Savvy and smart, she knows what works and what doesn't work onstage and in that role, in which she goes from ugly and twisted to beautiful and elegant, she displayed a range that other actors envy. At the time she did Into the Woods, she was taking a break from her burgeoning recording career: She's an award-winning member of the contemporary Christian music trio First Call.

Tennessee Women's Theater Project has returned to Nashville's Z. Alexander Looby Theater for the fifth year running - continuing through Sunday, May 22 - for its annual Women's Work festival of performing and visual arts created by women. The festival cuts a broad swath across styles and genres to offer eleven completely different programs: poetry and essays; one-woman shows; staged readings of new plays; film, dance, music and a display of visual art works in the theater lobby. Women's Work ends its 2011 reign with Lauren Schmitzer's Chlamydia is Not a Flower (and other love lessons I missed). Schmitzer, a Nashville writer and former music journalist for Billboard and MTV, holds a BA in English from Vanderbilt University and, as she proudly says, 'this is my first play,' which she has entrusted to director David Williams to bring to the stage on Sunday night.

As powerfully moving as it has ever been, Les Miserables - the epic musicalization of Victor Hugo's classic novel by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil - returns to the Tennessee Performing Arts Center for an eight-performance stand this week, in a visually commanding , artfully re-imagined and dynamic production celebrating the show's 25th anniversary on American stages.

3Ps Productions and Street Theatre are proud to announce two focused talkbacks during the run of the critically acclaimed Long Way Down currently running at Street Theatre Company, 1933 Elm Hill Pike, Nashville.

Director Kate Adams-Johnson, aka Nashville's busiest choreographer, is putting yet another cast through the paces in preparation for another opening night. But this time, she's serious. Very serious. The show, you see, is every dancer's favorite musical: A Chorus Line. Kate's cast is a blending of familiar faces and newcomers and so over the next couple of weeks, we're introducing the members of The Keeton Theatre's cast to you. As you'll see, some of them have much to learn about being interviewed by 'Nashville's favorite theater critic.' First up is Andy Mann...

Street Theatre Company is presenting a free public performance of the play, No More Secrets, on Monday, May 23 at 6 p.m. at the Martha O'Bryan Center in East Nashville. No More Secrets is being presented through the partnerships of the Metro Nashville Arts Commission and the Martha O'Bryan Center.

Shakespeare meets the Hatfields and the McCoys this summer in Tennessee Shakespeare Festival's family-friendly The Comedy of Errors, running June 17-July 10 in Bell Buckle on the campus of the Webb School. Tennessee Shakespeare Festival's latest production, The Comedy of Errors - described as 'a rollicking version of William Shakespeare's madcap tale of mistaken identity, set in the highlands of 1880s West Virginia.'

David Compton returns to a role he first played almost a quarter-century ago and Rona Carter plays a man who is transformed into an ass in Nashville Children's Theatre's upcoming production of Robin Goodfellow, playwright Aurand Harris' unique take on Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream. Opening on Tuesday, April 19, Robin Goodfellow runs at NCT through May 15.