Ginger Rogers News

CAPA has moved its box office operations into the space previously occupied by the Ohio Theatre gift shop (39 E. State St.). Dedicated to Barbara and Dr. Ralph Lach in 2010, the new CAPA Ticket Center is located just a few feet from its previous location (from the east side of the Ohio Theatre marquee to the west side). The space was redesigned to enhance customer service and provide patrons with a user-friendly and efficient ticket-buying experience.

CAPA has moved its box office operations into the space previously occupied by the Ohio Theatre gift shop (39 E. State St.). Dedicated to Barbara and Dr. Ralph Lach in 2010, the new CAPA Ticket Center is located just a few feet from its previous location (from the east side of the Ohio Theatre marquee to the west side). The space was redesigned to enhance customer service and provide patrons with a user-friendly and efficient ticket-buying experience.

McGovern creatively opens and closes the musical with an image that evokes all the glitter and glamor of old Hollywood: the presentation of the Academy Awards in 1941, the year that Ginger Rogers beat out such adversaries as Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Joan Fontaine and Martha Scott for the best actress Oscar for her performance of "knocked-up shopgirl" Kitty Foyle.

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to Nashville.BroadwayWorld.com's latest installment of The Friday Five: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find on stages in the Volunteer State. Today-which is Thursday, not Friday, a fact of which I am well aware-we focus our spotlight on Jessica Wockenfuss, the lovely star of Cumberland County Playhouse's Backwards in High Heels, which opens tomorrow night (which actually is a Friday-July 27) and continues through November 2.

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to Nashville.BroadwayWorld.com's latest installment of The Friday Five: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find on stages in the Volunteer State. Yes, I'm well aware that the calendar says today is Wednesday, but there's a method to my madness: Opening Friday night at Cumberland County Playhouse in Crossville is Backwards in High Heels: The Ginger Rogers Musical which stars today's Friday Fiver-Douglas Waterbury-Tieman-in the pivotal role of Fred Astaire!

Welcome to the fifth installment of Music City Confidential, my column to collect the flotsam and jetsam, informationally speaking, of theatre in Tennessee. Sorry for the long delay since the last installment, but I've been theatering my butt off all over the Volunteer State in search of intriguing gossip and riveting news stories just for you, my gentle readers.

Jeremy Benton has come a long way since he was dancing around in the backyard of his family's home in Springfield, Tennessee. In fact, way back when-before he even had his first dance class with Cherri Coleman at the Springfield School of Classical Dance-for all he knew he might have even created or invented what he later learned was referred to as "tap."

The economy is the worse it's been in fifty years and a bunch of Delawareans decide to cheer things up by staging a musical at Longwood Gardens. Sound familiar? This is how The Brandywiners got their start in the Great Depression when Frances Tatnall and W.W. (Chick) Laird staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirate of Penzance way back in 1932. Of course, it didn't hurt that Pierre du Pont, owner of Longwood Gardens at the time, was Lairds's uncle and had just built Longwood's beautiful Open Air Theatre. Now, 80 years later, and in the midst of another economic turndown, The Brandywiners are doing it again with Hello, Dolly! , one of the greatest American musicals of all time. Opening in 1964, Hello, Dolly! set a record for Tony Awards (10) and performances (2,844). The title role of Dolly was originated by the legendary Carol Channing, and has been played by a who's who of female stars including Barbra Streisand, Mary Martin, Ginger Rogers, Betty Grable, Pearl Bailey, Ethel Merman and even Phyllis Diller. Hello, Dolly! is a lavish Broadway-style musical that is as humorous as it is heart warming. Based on Thorton Wilder's The Matchmaker, it tells the story of Dolly's matchmaking mis-adventures in New York City just before the dawn of the 20th century. In keeping with the times, Director Cal Bracken has given The Brandywiners' production a feminist twist to an otherwise over-the-top sexist plot line. The women in this show do more than "clean out the stables" as they join the budding suffragettes demanding respect and equal rights. In another timely line, two of the characters sing "JP Morgan scrapes and bows to us" as they try it impress their girl friends. In true Brandywiners' fashion, this production brings eye-catching costumes, a professional orchestra and a cast of nearly sixty talented performers singing and dancing their hearts out. The Brandywiners' shows come as close as you can get to touring Broadway show quality and at less than half the price. Hello, Dolly! is playing July 26-28 and August 2-4 at Longwood Gardens Open Air Theater. Tickets are available by calling 800 338 6965 or through www.brandywiners.org.

During her recent show at 54 Below, Rebecca Luker's renditions of 16 Jerome Kern songs-some of which were more obscure pre-1920 ditties-were lovely and engaging. But as a complete nightclub performance, Luker's show was neither a compelling one-woman concert nor captivating cabaret.

Ginger Rogers danced her way into the hearts of millions-and into the arms of Fred Astaire-in some of filmdom's best-loved musicals. Beginning July 27, Cumberland County Playhouse gives you the chance to see Ginger's awe-inspiring story brought to life in Backwards in High Heels, a new musical set to some of the 20th century's best-known music.

Charles Osborne, star of Modesto Performing Art's 'Anything Goes,' talks to BroadwayWorld about his role as Billy Crocker and what audiences can expect from the Cole Porter Musical.

Musical Theater and dance join hands again this year at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse as CCP dancer/performers Leila Nelson and Aven Chadwell lead the performance education initiative for the theater's education department.

SpeakEasy Stage Company of Boston puts its own twisted spin on Douglas Carter Beane musical spoof of disastrous 1980 roller disco film XANADU

Third Street Theatre, the West Hollywood 99-seat Equity Waiver theatre that brought LA the critically-acclaimed smash hit Falsettos, presents three limited engagement fundraising gala performances of The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown tonight, May 4th, tomorrow May 5th and Sunday, May 6th. Each night will bring audiences a fresh mix of Broadway, film and television talent with hosts Jane Lynch, William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman, and a cast that includes Tracie Thoms (Rent), Shoshana Bean (Wicked), Lindsay Pearce (The Glee Project) and Chase Williamson (Spring Awakening). Every performance will be immediately followed by a catered reception and a hosted wine bar.

Musical Theatre Guild, the winner of the Los Angles Drama Critic's Circle Margaret Harford Award for sustained excellence in the theatre, has announced an exciting quintet of shows to celebrate its seventeenth season of Broadway in Concert musicals.

Third Street Theatre, the West Hollywood 99-seat Equity Waiver theatre that brought LA the critically-acclaimed smash hit Falsettos, is pleased to announce three limited engagement fundraising gala performances of The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown on May 4th, 5th and 6th. Each night will bring audiences a fresh mix of Broadway, film and television talent with hosts Jane Lynch, William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman, and a cast that includes Tracie Thoms (Rent), Shoshana Bean (Wicked), Lindsay Pearce (The Glee Project) and Chase Williamson (Spring Awakening). Every performance will be immediately followed by a catered reception and a hosted wine bar.

Randy Skinner will direct and choreograph Infinity's stage production of 'Dames At Sea', 'Annapolis's Tap-Happy, Navy-Crazy Musical,' which comes to the CTA Theatre Complex (near Sandy Point State Park) this season.

On Tuesday night at the Iridium Jazz Club, precocious, yet polished 20-year-old crooner Nicolas King conquered a packed room filled with freshly-minted MAC Award winners, veteran cabaret performers, a burgeoning legion of fans, beaming family members, and his mentor and friend Liza Minnelli (who attended the show with actor Tony Danza).

Vicki Lewis (Damn Yakees, Chicago) and Tony Winner Gary Beach (The Producers, La Cage aux Folles, Beauty and the Beast) star in 'It's Gettin' Hot in Here, Take Off Your Sunday Clothes.'