Jeffrey Ellis - Page 120

And that, gentle readers, is just the first problem with ACT 1's season-opening production of Ira Levin's Deathtrap, a sturdy, if perhaps shopworn, theatrical thriller now onstage through October 17 at Darkhorse Theater. Directed and produced by Susan Cole, Deathtrap features a notable cast of experienced local actors who seem to be trapped in a plodding, uninteresting production of a play that's well past its projected shelf life. There's a lack of polish (whether among the actors' performances or on the surface of set pieces) and a pervasive sense of not knowing the time, place and environs in which Deathtrap takes place that is disconcerting and off-putting.

Today, our Friday Five features focuses on the pair of actors portraying the scions of the Addams Family: daughter Wednesday and son Pugsley. Read all about the actors portraying the two iconic characters – Katie Callaway and 2014 First Night Most Promising Actor Will Lasley – then ring up the box office and secure your tickets to the show which promises to be one of Towne Centre's finest…

Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts presents The Addams Family, A New Musical - the Broadway musical by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (Jersey Boys) and Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party) - October 16 through November 1.

There's a definite feeling of autumn in the air in Middle Tennessee - despite this week's warmer temperatures and plenty of sunshine - and as the calendar moves forward toward Halloween and the time of ghost stories and other sinister tales comes the opening of playwright David Alford's SPIRIT: The Authentic Bell Witch Experience, the final event of this year's Bell Witch Fall Festival in his hometown of Adams, Tennessee.

Opening tonight at The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson is a sparkling new revival of Meredith Willson's The Music Man, directed and choreographed by Stephanie Jones-Benton, with musical direction by Ginger Newman. Featuring a roster of the Keeton Theatre's favorite stars, the show runs through October 28.

Ask people involved in theater around Nashville to list some of their favorites who have moved on to seek fame and fortune in other places, one name that almost always pops up is Deonte Warren. A graduate of Belmont University's musical theater program, he's worked throughout the country, ensuring that his name is known all accross the USA, eventually making his mark in New York City and then heading south to Orlando, Florida, where he is currently "spreading magic" and beguiling audiences at Walt Disney World's Festival of the Lion King.

Chambers Stevens is a bona fide Hollywood multi-hyphenate - actor-comedian-acting coach-author - who somehow has encapsulated all of that and more in his new one-man show It's Who You Know, premiering at Memphis' Evergreen Theatre, 1705 Poplar Avenue, October 15-18. Tickets are available online at www.ItsWhoYouKnowOnTour.com.

Chambers Stevens is a bona fide Hollywood multi-hyphenate - actor-comedian-acting coach-author - who somehow has encapsulated all of that and more in his new one-man show It's Who You Know, premiering at Memphis' Evergreen Theatre, 1705 Poplar Avenue, October 15-18. Tickets are available online at www.ItsWhoYouKnowOnTour.com.

It's all in the timing. No matter if you're delivering a joke, performing a new play or just putting something noteworthy out into the ether, the key to success is often just a matter of good timing. Case in point: the recently crowned Miss America 2016 came into the pageant as Miss Georgia - and in Lauren Gunderson's play, The Taming (now onstage at Nashville's Z. Alexander Looby Theatre in the "first east of the Rockies" production from Tennessee Women's Theater Project), we are treated to the "art imitates life" scene in which Miss Georgia becomes Miss America.

There's a very good chance that Belmont University musical theater student Grace Williams is going through some separation anxiety this week. Along with her castmastes and the creative team, she bade farewell to Gypsy – the stunning revival of the iconic Broadway musical mounted by Franklin-based Studio Tenn – on Sunday after a run that drew unanimous acclaim from the critics and inspired audience accolades throughout the run. As a member of the show's ensemble, Grace played a variety of roles in director Matt Logan's imaginative staging of the show.

Jury deliberations get under way tonight in Woodbury as the Arts Center of Cannon County opens its production of the stage classic 12 Angry Men, directed by Terry Deason (who counts among her castmembers her husband, 2015 First Night Honoree Darryl Deason) and running at the theater through October 17. Former TV and radio personality Aaron Solomon stars alongside a cast filled with familiar faces from the Middle Tennessee theater community, including our two other Friday Five personalities Gerold Oliver and Byron Whiting.

Today, we focus our Friday Five spotlight on the intriguing Deathtrap trio of Christi Dortch, Dante Greco and Judy Jackson, as interesting a bunch of actors as you'll find in Nashville. Get to know them better, then book your seats to see Deathtrap…

Tennessee Women's Theater Project launches its 2015-16 season with the fast-paced, irreverent comedy The Taming by Lauren Gunderson. The production opens tonight at Nashville's Looby Theater, running weekends through October 18. Which means it's a matter of perfect timing for actress Colette Divine and director Maryanna Clarke to take on our Friday Five questions and to give us some insight into their theatrical lives.

With almost 400 people in the audience, the leading lights of Tennessee theater were heralded with the presentation of the 2015 First Night Honors Gala, Sunday night at the iconic and historic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in Nashville. Hosted by Geoff Davin, Stephanie Jones-Benton and Erica Patterson, the event featured musical numbers by more than 100 performers in tribute to the Class of 2015 Honorees.

Take Neal Buckley, for example: A senior musical theater major at Belmont, he's onstage through this weekend in Studio Tenn's Gypsy (at Jamison Hall at The Factory at Franklin), playing Yonkers (one of Dainty June's peripatetic Farmboys) and later this semester he stars as Phil Davis in Belmont University Musical Theatre's production of White Christmas. Already on the Madison, Mississippi native's burgeoning resume, you'll find such disparate roles as Montparnasse in Les Miserables, Benjamin in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Dean Hyde in All Shook Up.

Nan Gurley's stunning performance of Mama Rose is reason enough to see Studio Tenn's 2015-16 season opening production of Gypsy - the legendary backstage musical about the rise to stardom of Gypsy Rose Lee - but there is so much more to be found in director Matt Logan's sumptuously appointed show than her career-crowning portrayal of the near-mythical character.

When word spread quickly among Nashville's theater community that Nan Gurley had been cast as Mama Rose in Studio Tenn's 2015-16 season opening production of Gypsy, the response was universal: artistic director Matt Logan once again had proven his brilliance. Simply put, Nan Gurley - a member of Nashville theater's first family - was the perfect choice to play the overpowering and flawed mother of stripper/entertainer/author/raconteur Gypsy Rose Lee.

You don't have to be an aficionado of Dirty Dancing, the 1987 film starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey as a mismatched romantic duo brought together by some sexy dance moves at a Catskills resort, to find yourself loving every moment of Dirty Dancing, The Classic Story On Stage, now ensconced at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall through Sunday.

With almost 400 people in the audience, the leading lights of Tennessee theater were heralded with the presentation of the 2015 First Night Honors Gala, Sunday night at the iconic and historic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in Nashville. Hosted by Geoff Davin, Stephanie Jones-Benton and Erica Patterson, the event featured musical numbers by more than 100 performers in tribute to the Class of 2015 Honorees.

With almost 400 people in the audience, the leading lights of Tennessee theater were heralded with the presentation of the 2015 First Night Honors Gala, Sunday night at the iconic and historic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in Nashville. Hosted by Geoff Davin, Stephanie Jones-Benton and Erica Patterson, the event featured musical numbers by more than 100 performers in tribute to the Class of 2015 Honorees.