Lynn Ahrens News

Ten versatile and talented Nashville area men took on roles in musical theater that other actors would love to play, proving once again that country music isn't the only genre that makes this Music City USA. Musical theater is alive and well in Tennessee and with the plethora of talent to be found on Volunteer State stages, actors can display their tremendous range while singing and dancing. These men comprise the list of the ten best performances by actors in musicals in 2010...

Ragtime: The Musical will open at the Mesa Arts Center (1 E. Main Street, Mesa AZ 852091) on January 27 and will run through February 6, 2011.

Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook, which explores the best of the golden age of musical standards through to the best in current songwriting, will bring to the stage some of today's most gifted interpreters of song. Week Three is a Grammy Awards fest, as three of the four acts are current and past nominees. On February 2nd one can experience life in the Piedmont hills of the Carolinas via the vibrant sound of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. This three-piece string band plays old-time roots music with virtuoso playing of the banjo, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, jug and more. Next up is the crown princess of bossa nova, Bebel Gilberto. Gilberto has taken classic bossa nova rhythms and mixed them with modern pop - for a sound that is up for a Grammy this year. On February 4th perennial Grammy nominee Joan Osborne will perform an emotionally-charged work she has written with Jack Petruzzelli: Love and Hate - A Song Cycle. On February 5th, actress/singer Anika Noni Rose, a Tony winner for Caroline, Or Change, will make her eagerly-anticipated solo concert debut.

Upcoming MTI Shows - 1/09 for Tokyo

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) presents the World Premiere of A SMALL FIRE, a new play by Obie Award winner Adam Bock (The Drunken City at PH, The Receptionist, The Thugs, Swimming in the Shallows).

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College continues its 2010-2011 Target FamilyFun series with Theatreworks USA's production of Seussical on Sunday, January 30, 2011 at 2pm.

Playwrights Horizons announced in December that it had commissioned FAR FROM HEAVEN, a new musical with book by Tony Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain), music by Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens) and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens, The Grapes of Wrath).

A Christmas Carol will close at the Gateway Playhouse on January 2, 2011. Originally presented by Radio City Entertainment at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, where its historic ten year run delighted audiences and critics alike, this A Christmas Carol is a delightful, enchanting and mesmerizing production. It has every bit of entertainment you could want for the holidays.

Toby's Dinner Theatre of Baltimore - A Christmas Carol runs Nov 13,2010 - Jan 2,2011.

Broadway favorites Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley, are set to debut their new concert entitled, HE SAID/SHE SAID in 2011. The husband-wife team, who currently star in Broadway's NEXT TO NORMAL, begin performances at Axelrod Performing Arts Center on February 5 at 8 PM.

Gateway Playhouse is set to celebrate the holiday season with the timeless family favorite, A Christmas Carol, The Musical.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) presents the World Premiere of A SMALL FIRE, a new play by Obie Award winner Adam Bock (The Drunken City at PH, The Receptionist, The Thugs, Swimming in the Shallows).

Upcoming MTI Shows - 12/26 for Tokyo

Arvada Center Announces Cast for A CHRISTMAS CAROL, THE MUSICAL-Joseph Dellger to Play Ebenezer Scrooge

Civic Theatre School, the Lehigh Valley's premier children's theatre school will end registration for its Winter 2011 session on Wednesday, December 22nd.

'A Christmas Carol' sings!

Upcoming MTI Shows - 12/19 for Tokyo

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) announced today that it has commissioned FAR FROM HEAVEN, a new musical with book by Tony Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain), music by Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens) and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens, The Grapes of Wrath). The musical is being adapted from the acclaimed, award-winning 2002 Focus Features/Vulcan Productions motion picture Far From Heaven, written and directed by Todd Haynes.

THE SPITFIRE GRILL will be presented by Four Seasons Theatre in partnership with Madison Theatre Guild December 3-18, 2010 in the Drury Theatre. Music and Book are by James Valcq with Lyrics and Book by Fred Alley.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) announced today that it has commissioned FAR FROM HEAVEN, a new musical with book by Tony Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain), music by Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens) and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens, The Grapes of Wrath). The musical is being adapted from the acclaimed, award-winning 2002 Focus Features/Vulcan Productions motion picture Far From Heaven, written and directed by Todd Haynes.