Jeffrey Ellis - Page 83

Now onstage in a thoroughly effective production directed by Sondra Morton at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre, Parade is not your mama's or your granddaddy's musical comedy, to be certain.

Ten years after its debut on a Nashville stage-which led to an off-Broadway run-Jay Kholos' A Stoop on Orchard Street this weekend returns to the stage in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, kicking off a three-month run that will take the company, including many of Nashville's best and brightest, to Philadelphia, New York and other points northeastward.

Now onstage at Dickson's Renaissance Center, in a professional production at The Gaslight Dinner Theatre helmed by Pacer Harp, and featuring a cast of winning performers, 9 to 5: The Musical has Dolly's unmistakably sunny outlook-exemplified by her tuneful score for the show-and Patricia Resnick's sharply drawn characters and situations which are sure to please even the film's most ardent admirers.

Engrossing and compelling, John Logan's Red-which features a pair of tour-de-force performances from Ronnie Meek and Justin Boccitto under the focused and sure-handed direction of Mike Fernandez-is an altogether impressive third season opener for Nashville's Blackbird Theatre, the company that has firmly established itself as one of the region's most ambitious and most confident purveyors of quality theatricality.

For Tennessee theater audiences, this weekend presents a bounty of theatrical riches, with six shows opening: Blackbird Theatre's Red, Sideshow's Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake), Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre's Spreading it Around, Boiler Room Theatre's Parade, Tennessee Women's Theater Project's Shooting Star and Street Theatre Company's latest incarnation of Macabaret.

New BroadwayWorld.com Poll - What show are you most excited about seeing in the coming days?

Renowned soprano Jee Hyun Lim sings the pivotal role of Cio-Cio San in Nashville's 2012-13 season opening production of Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly, with tenor Cody Austin as Lieutenant Pinkerton and baritone Levi Hernandez as Sharpless.

Franklin's Historic Williamson County Courthouse will provide the unique and totally apropos setting as Studio Tenn Theatre Company's 2012-13 season continues with Twelve Angry Men, the classic courtroom drama, running October 18-27.

David McGinnis makes his ACT 1 directorial debut with the upcoming production of Michael Cristofer's Pultizer Prize-winning play The Shadow Box, running October 12-27 at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater.

Austin Price and Horace Smith star as Cumberland County Playhouse brings one of the most popular-and most frequently requested-titles its almost 50-year history back to the with an exciting new production of Big River, directed by BWW Nashville Theatre Awards winner Britt Hancock. Big River runs through November 2 in Crossville.

Boiler Room Theatre revives its award-winning production of The Rocky Horror Show for six performances in October, running October 26 through November 3, including two midnight shows and a special Halloween performance.

Dance Theatre of Tennessee launches its Ballet in the Park performance series September 28-October 1, with performances of Carmen at the Centennial Park Bandshell, in partnership with Metro Parks and Recreation.

Ronnie Meek and Justin Boccitto star in John Logan's Red, to be presented by Blackbird Theater October 18-November 3 at the Shamblin Theatre on the Lipscomb University campus.

Thanks to the sparkling, imaginative Studio Tenn revival of Smokey Joe's Cafe-the Tony Award-nominated musical revue that collects some 39 (although a couple were cut, so we'll place the number at 37 for this production) of those terrific Leiber and Stoller songs into one smooth, entertaining package- you can revel in the music and set your feet to tapping out the rhythms of your life...

In the wake of The Nutty Professor's successful premiere run at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Nashville remains "Musical City" for the upcoming season as touring shows come to town to entertain theater fans, with the companies of Anything Goes, Catch Me If You Can and Disney's The Lion King headed to the Volunteer State. And we're wondering what show you're most eagerly anticipating this season?

That notion is borne home stunningly by Katori Hall's acclaimed play The Mountaintop, now presented in its Nashville premiere-just 12 months after its critically lauded Broadway premiere with Samauel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett-in an astonishingly crafted production directed by Jackie Welch Schlicher and starring Mary McCallum and Rashad "thaPoet" Rayford.

Starring Amanda Morgan, Lital Abrahamson and Broadway veteran Bailey Hanks in the roles originated by Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Parton herself in the 1980 film, 9 to 5: The Musical provides the perfect vehicle for a musical score composed by Dolly herself, who may well be the most successful woman ever in country music.

Dolly Parton's "in the house," in spirit and in song, at Dickson's Renaissance Center with the debut of 9 to 5: The Musical at The Gaslight Dinner Theatre, running through October 13. The show, based on the hit 1980 movie starring Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, features a score by seven-time Grammy Award-winner Parton that includes the blockbuster title song plus 18 original numbers that mix Broadway with pop and Parton's signature witty lyrics.

The Servant of Two Masters, Carlo Goldoni's classic 1743 comedy-which provides the inspiration for Richard Bean's 2012 Tony Award-winning farce One Man, Two Guvnors-will be presented by Lipscomb University's theatre department, running September 21-23 and 27-29 at 7 p.m. each evening (with a matinee on Sunday, September 30 at 2:30 p.m.) at the university's Flatt Amphitheatre, adjacent to the Bennett Campus Center.

Starring Beth Woodruff, Amy Warren, Judy Tamble, Bob Buchholz and Pat Street, The Cemetary Club is described as a "bittersweet comedy that follows three good friends who meet once a month to pay their respects to their husbands, who are all buried in the same cemetery. Each handles grief in her own way. Doris holds desperately to memories of her husband and lives in the past; Lucille hits the dating scene with gusto; and Ida, who has a new suitor, struggles to decide if she is ready to open her heart to love once again."