Julia Nettles News

First Night's Top Ten of 2017 - critic Jeffrey Ellis' annual review of the best in Tennessee theater - were revealed tonight during a live Facebook broadcast at 7:30 p.m. (CST), with Actor's Bridge Ensemble and Studio Tenn/TPAC leading the nods in this year's listing of categories.

Austin Jeffrey Smith, Taylor Tracey, Jenna Pryor and Julia Nettles will share the stage as co-hosts of 2017 Midwinter's First Night, set for Sunday, January 8, 2017, at The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson.

Austin Jeffrey Smith, Taylor Tracey, Jenna Pryor and Julia Nettles will share the stage as co-hosts of 2017 Midwinter's First Night, set for Sunday, January 8, 2017, at The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson. Midwinter's First Night is the annual presentation of First Night founder and executive producer Jeffrey Ellis' First Night's Top Ten of 2017 and the announcement of winners of the BWW Nashville Awards, voting for which continues through the end of December.

Summertime is here, what with Memorial Day and all that it encompasses, and we can think of no better seasonal activity than taking in some local theater. No matter where you are in the Volunteer State, Tennessee theater companies are ready and willing to help transport you to a different world, another time and place where your life can be is transformed magically on a stage very near you!

The summer theater season in Nashville begins tonight with a revival of Charles Busch's Psycho Beach Party, which turns the formulaic beach movie of the early 1960s on its ear with a skewed and definitely crazy take on the genre. Opening at the Darkhorse Theater - the latest offering from Bradley Moore's Music City Theatre Company - it features a talented cast bringing Busch's classically campy characters to life. Today, you can get to know Gerald Pitts and Elizabeth Turner better, just before calling to make reservations to see the show!

'Spring is here! Why doesn't my heart go dancing?' - or at least to the theater to be transported to a different world, another time and place where life is transformed and magic happens before your very eyes...

Charles Busch's Psycho Beach Party - described by director Bradley Moore as "a campy, over-the-top comedy that blends the beach setting of Gidget with the insanity of a John Waters' movie" - is next up for Music City Theatre Company, playing Darkhorse Theater June 2-12.

AMERICAN IDIOT is about a generation of youth disenchanted with the world around them, angry about things they don't understand, and scrambling to find their place in the world. A post- 9/11 look at America, AMERICAN IDIOT has more rage and love than most theatrical audiences are probably used to seeing.

AMERICAN IDIOT promises to be a different take on theatre for the Nashville theatrical community.

Circle Players present the Tony Award-winning hit musical AMERICAN IDIOT, based on Green Day's GRAMMY Award-winning multi-platinum album, featuring music by Green Day, lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong, and book by Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer. The show runs tonight, August 20, through August 30, 2015 at the Tennessee State University Strange Performing Arts Center's Cox-Lewis Theater, located on Alameda Street on TSU campus). Scroll down for a sneak peek at the cast!

Circle Players has taken on the task of being a regional premier of AMERICAN IDIOT.  Right here in Nashville, the disenchanted youth of Jingletown are coming to the stage. I was blessed enough to get a chance to converse with the director of Circle Players' production of AMERICAN IDIOT, as well as a couple of the cast members. First up is my chat with director Bradley Moore. I wanted to get an idea of why and how Moore approached the upcoming production of the show.

Circle Players present the Tony Award-winning hit musical AMERICAN IDIOT, based on Green Day's GRAMMY Award-winning multi-platinum album, featuring music by Green Day, lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong, and book by Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer. The show runs August 20-30, 2015 at the Tennessee State University Strange Performing Arts Center's Cox-Lewis Theater, located on Alameda Street on TSU campus). Scroll down for a sneak peek at the cast!

2015 First Night Honoree Martha Wilkinson holds the record for the most First Night Awards with nine. A frequent performer on the First Night stage -- including particularly show-stopping numbers such as her rendition of 'You'll Never Walk Alone,' while clad in a white ballgown and backed up by a chorus of Nashville theater's leading men -- she's one of Tennessee's favorites for certain. She was first recognized by the First Night Awards in 1989, when she won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical for her role in Circle Players' production of Pippin.

More than 150 people gathered at Nashville's venerable Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre Monday night for the announcement of honorees and award winners for the 2015 First Night Honors. Preview Party celebrants were treated to a bountiful buffet of entertainment as cast members from several musicals currently on the boards or upcoming on Middle Tennessee stages performed numbers from their shows

More than 150 people gathered at Nashville's venerable Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre Monday night for the announcement of honorees and award winners for the 2015 First Night Honors. Preview Party celebrants were treated to a bountiful buffet of entertainment as cast members from several musicals currently on the boards or upcoming on Middle Tennessee stages performed numbers from their shows.

Nine individuals who have taken leading roles in making live theater in Tennessee better and more magical have been named as members of the Class of 2015 Honorees for The First Night Honors, the annual celebration of all things theatrical held in Nashville every September.

Nine individuals who have taken leading roles in making live theater in Tennessee better and more magical have been named as members of the Class of 2015 Honorees for The First Night Honors, the annual celebration of all things theatrical held in Nashville every September.

Theater in Tennessee has never been busier nor has it been more diverse than what you'll find onstage this weekend throughout the Volunteer State. From frothy and fun summer musicals that are sure to make you think - like All Shook Up at Chaffin's Barn and A Chorus Line at Cumberland County Playhouse - to new plays from Shawn Whitsell (his latest, Songs For Our Sons, premieres at Darkhorse Theatre on Friday night) and emerging playwright Che Pieper (his new script based on the book The Man With the Light in His Window debuts at The Theater Bug this weekend)…the magic of live theater is all around you…even in this heat and humidity! So pull your seersucker suits and sundresses out of the closet, get all gussied up and make your way to the relative cool of a darkened theater for some midsummer magic!

The First Night Honors' Class of 2015 will be revealed next Monday night, July 27, as Nashville Theater's Big Reveal: The First Night Preview Party gets under way at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre at 6 p.m., featuring entertainment by the casts of some of the summer's biggest musicals throughout Tennessee.

Bradley Moore and Elizabeth Turner direct a cast of Nashville actresses in The Vagina Monologues next week. Among the actresses featured in the cast are Susan Adkins, Heather Vaughn Alexander, McKenna Driver, Lisa Fults, Savannah Hall, Jessica Hausberger, Aubrey Iwan, Karen Kirby, Amie Lara, Julia Nettles, Terry Occhiogrosso, Sarah Shepherd, Memory Strong, Mindy Tolbert and Elizabeth Turner. Music City Theatre Company will present Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues at Vibe Entertainment Complex Thursday, February 12 through Saturday, February 14, with a 7:30 p.m. curtain each night.