Jeffrey Ellis News

You might want to take note that Kathy Griffin will be making a guest appearance on Joan Rivers' Fashion Police on E! tonight (Friday, July 22), promising to be inappropriately funny and bitingly incisive while hanging out with Joan, George and either Kelly or Giuliana. Griffin reminded her audience at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall of that last night as she engaged in her trademark repartee before an audience filled with her deliriously attentive fans.

David De Silva, the man behind the creation of one of pop culture's most enduring tales of the individual's creative struggle for self-expression - known the world over as the film and stage musical, Fame - arrives in Tennessee today for the opening of Circle Players' regional premiere of Fame Forever: Talent Springs Eternal, which opens at Middle Tennessee State University's Tucker Theatre for a one-weekend run.

Don't tell the evangelical theater folks in Pigeon Forge, but Kathy Griffin's headed back to Tennessee and, this time, who knows whom she'll be telling to 'suck it'? Just a simple girl with a simple dream: the outspoken and outrageous comedy legend (surely, that will get me the exclusive and private interview I covet) brings her unique brand of comedy back to Nashville this summer for the first time since her last sold-out performance at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

For Damian Drake, one of Nashville Ballet's versatile and accomplished company members, 'a fantastic quality about dance as an art form is how it encompasses other artists to create together as a community,' exemplifying the collaborative nature of dance, whether classic or contemporary. As an integral member of the company, Drake has been featured in numerous works with the company since first joining the creative collective that has made Music City's homegrown ballet company one of the nation's artistic leaders - and one of the Nashville's best-attended performing arts groups.

Josiah Gibbs (Chris) and CJ Tucker (Ginger) discuss Steven Deitz's BECKY'S NEW CAR, directed by Vali Forrister for Nashville's Actors Bridge Ensemble, playing July 29 through Aug 7 at Belmont's Black Box Theater.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre will partner with the Nashville Scene for a special event to kick-off its 2011-12 season of live, professional theatre. The evening - titled Nashville Scenes - will feature staged readings of scenes from Tennessee Rep's upcoming season and heavy hors d'oeuvres and will be held Friday, August 5 from 6 to 8 p.m. at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theater (505 Deaderick Street).

With Griffin coming to Music City USA this week, you can be certain that Lisa Marie Wright will be asked to sign more autographs than normal, dodging the glare of television cameras and trying to elude the paparazzi. Luckily, she agreed to an interview with us from an undisclosed location where she whiles away her time eating bon-bons and reading movie magazines...either that, or she was at work, we forget...

Annie, the irrepressible orphan of newspaper comics-fame who has been delighting audiences onstage since the 1970s, makes her return to Nashville's Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre this summer, running July 28-September 3, in a new production of Annie directed by Martha Wilkinson, with music direction by Jaclyn Brown and choreography by Bakari King.

Rhubarb Theater Company will present the premiere of Nashville playwright Valerie Hart's Rising and Falling, August 12-20, at Darkhorse Theater.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music could very well be the most-often viewed of the legendary duo's iconic works for the musical theatre, what with the seemingly endless parade of televised airings of the acclaimed 1965 film version, the frequent professional revivals of the stage show and, of course, the fondness for the piece exemplified by the multiple stagings in little theaters all over the world. The musical's lush score, its likable heroine, its vaguely historic (if largely inaccurate) retelling of a true story and all those fresh-faced youngsters singing 'Do-Re-Mi' have made The Sound of Music a favorite of musical theater fans since its 1959 debut on Broadway.

To celebrate dance as an art form and fitness activity, Nashville Ballet will participate in National Dance Day on Saturday, July 30, by offering free sample classes and choreography provided by the hit realty show So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD).

The eleventh annual Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights (AFPP) will be held July 26 - August 6, at Barter Stage II during the Virginia Highlands Festival. 'Founded in 2001, the AFPP gives voice to the stories of our region, and the community is invited to take part in the development of brand new plays,' says Nicholas Piper, director of the AFPP.

Cumberland County Playhouse dance directors Eldar Valiev and Lilia Valieva will be feted with a 'farewell reception' to wish them well as they leave Clarksville to take over as artistic directors of the Festival Ballet of North Central Texas. The couple will also lead the 22-year-old professional company's training program. The reception will be held on Sunday, July 17, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the CCP Gazebo.

David Lindsay-Abaire's 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Rabbit Hole, opens at Murfreesboro's Out Front on Main on Thursday, July 14, for a limited two-week run.

Producing theater for younger audiences since 1931, Nashville Children's Theatre is the oldest children's theater in the United States, so you'd think the company had already done everything - at least once. But this summer, thanks to a new initiative of NCT's education department, students in grades 6 through 12 will perform a fully-staged production of Once Upon A Mattress July 29 and 30 as the culmination of the Emerging Actors summer drama camp.

Summer in Tennessee sizzles as Cumberland County Playhouse turns up the heat with its production of Kander and Ebb's Chicago, opening July 21 in an all-new staging that brings the 1920s roaring back. Chicago features music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb (the team behind Cabaret, Steel Pier and The Scottsboro Boys). In this video, get to know the Men of Chicago!

Nashville Ballet celebrates CHRISTMAS IN JULY with a special discount for tickets to its upcoming NUTCRACKER!

When Mandy Barnett takes to the stage of Nashville's revered Ryman Auditorium for a performance of Ted Swindley's 'musical play,' Always...Patsy Cline, she doesn't so much create a characterization of the legendary country superstar. Rather, she channels her. When Barnett sets foot on that stage, she is Patsy Cline so completely mesmerizing and on-point is her portrayal. Clearly, if anyone was ever born to play Patsy, it's Mandy Barnett, who seemingly has been destined to play Patsy Cline since birth.

Sideshow Fringe is a Nashville-based four-day performing arts extravaganza connecting adventurous artists with adventurous audiences and showcasing Nashville's diverse talent. This kick-off to Artober will be housed in the Belmont Black Box Theatre, Bongo Java After Hours and a neighborhood street venue. All Sideshow Fringe shows are 90 minutes or less, according to Jessika Malone.

Local teenagers involved with Act Too Players, a youth theatre program, have organized and put together a showcase of Disney songs with 100 percent of the proceeds going to support the Leukemia Foundation.