Jeffrey Ellis - Page 132

Directors and producers in the Nashville region are seeking actors for upcoming productions of American Idiot, August: Osage County, The Last Five Years, Heathers the Musical and The Music Man. We've gathered the details together here to make your planning easier. This is planned as a regular feature and we invite you to send your audition announcements to Jeffrey Ellis, senior contributing editor, at jeffreyellis37215@att.net for inclusion in this column.

Jenny Norris Light plays Sarah Brown, with Michael Maupins as Sky Masterson, Hallie Long as Miss Adelaide and Brian Best as Nathan Detroit in The Larry Keeton Theatre's eagerly anticipated production of the classic Broadway music Guys and Dolls. Directed by Ginger Newman (who doubles as musical director as well), with choreography and staging by Cary Street, the musical that introduced the theatrical standards 'Bushel and a Peck,' 'Adelaide's Lament' and 'Luck Be A Lady Tonight' to Broadway audiences runs at the Keeton Theatre tonight, June 4, through June 20.

Today, in a special edition of The Friday Five (on Wednesday), we introduce two actors from The Gaslight Dinner Theatre's upcoming production of A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline: Linda Sue Simmons (my favorite Miss Chattanooga of all time) and Curtis LeMoine-Reed. Directed by Greg Frey, the musical - filled with some of Patsy Cline's best-loved hits that will transport you back to her starry heyday in the 1960s - opens Thursday afternoon at The Renaissance Center in Dickson.

No matter what the calendar says, we're in early summer already - insofar as theater in Tennessee is concerned, at least - and there are four new shows opening this week that should command your attention. Along with a number of shows that are continuing their runs (like John Chaffin's Cliffhanger at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre), you have plenty of diverse and intriguing onstage offerings to keep you in the relative, air-conditioned comfort of a darkened theater. We've done the necessary research, made the calls to the people-in-the-know and have included the dates, the phone numbers and the websites to make it as easy as possible for you to buy tickets and go show some support for the arts while indulging in the magic of live theater…

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

For, make no bones about it: The First Church of Mary, The Repentant Prostitute's Fifth Annual Benefit Concert, Revival and Pot Luck Dinner (or “Prostitute's Picnic,” as it was called by director Martha Wilkinson in her pre-show welcome to the congregants gathered at BLDG Nashville for opening night) deserves bigger audiences, more vociferous acclaim and a life far beyond the walls of the intimate venue in which it was first introduced to the public-at large.

No matter how well you know a show - how easily you can recall plot points or parrot dialogue - it's sometime good to revisit a musical even if you've seen it countless times. Oftentimes it rekindles your love for a show or, hell, it just reminds you how much fun you have every time you see a new revival. So, kudos to director Josh Waldrep and his merry band of mischief makers who bring The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee to the stage to conclude Circle Players' 65th season.

The weekend is upon us and that means that tonight is opening night for a couple of new shows (with performances continuing through the weekend) and closing performances of several others, including Newsies (at TPAC), Circle Players' The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and the farewell production of GroundWorks Theatre's Starlite Waltz. Meanwhile, John Chaffin's Cliffhanger continues at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre and Cumberland County Playhouse continues its 50th anniversary season with a whole slate of terrific shows.

Subtitled 'a play about Faith, Narcissism, & Red Velvet Cake,' The First Church of Mary (which is how we will refer to it hereafter) allows Davin to don a wig and heels - 'yet again,' according to the show's press release - to play his newest creation Adamenses Huckster, the protagonist of his 'new play (with mus

Jenny Norris Light plays Sarah Brown, with Michael Maupins as Sky Masterson, Hallie Long as Miss Adelaide and Brian Best as Nathan Detroit in The Larry Keeton Theatre's eagerly anticipated production of the classic Broadway music Guys and Dolls. Directed by Ginger Newman (who doubles as musical director as well), with choreography and staging by Cary Street, the musical that introduced the theatrical standards "Bushel and a Peck," "Adelaide's Lament" and "Luck Be A Lady Tonight" to Broadway audiences runs at the Keeton Theatre June 4-20.

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to BroadwayWorld Nashville's latest installment of The Friday Five on Thursday: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find onstage throughout the Volunteer state. Today, our spotlight focuses on Rosemary Fossee and Megan Murphy Chambers, two of the powerhouse talents slated to appear in the world premiere of Geoff Davin's original show The First Church of Mary, The Repentant Prostitute's FIFTH ANNUAL Benefit Concert, Revival, and Pot Luck Dinner, directed by nine-time First Night Award winner Martha Wilkinson and starring Davin, Fossee, Chambers, Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva and Brooke Leigh Davis (the latter two recently took part in Friday Five festivities, leading to today's subjects Fossee and Chambers).

You don't have to be a devotee of Chekhov - you don't even have to be a fan of live theater necessarily - but it clearly helps if you are in the audience for Verge Theater Company's production of Steven Dietz's The Nina Variations, which is sometimes whimsical and oftentimes dramatic in the rich tradition of Russian literature.

Christopher Gattelli's superb choreography - spirited and athletic, amazingly theatrical and awe-inspiring - may be reason enough to see Disney's Newsies, the show now ensconced at TPAC's Andrew Jackson Hall through Sunday, where it's entertaining audiences and eliciting some of the loudest responses we've ever heard in that cavernous space.

Disney's Newsies will claim Nashville as their own hometown with a weeklong run at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center beginning Tuesday, Osborne and Eppler's Southern Fried Nuptials takes the stage in Woodbury, and local favorite Geoff Davin unveils his latest theatrical creation - Adamenses Huckster…and there's plenty of theater continuing this week to keep you occupied all week long!

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening around us that it's difficult to keep track of it all. Thus, we are happy to present a new feature: The Nashville Theater Calendar, which is a comprehensive listing of theatrical openings,that will be updated each week, for the 2015/16 season.

Subtitled 'a play about Faith, Narcissism, & Red Velvet Cake,' The First Church of Mary (which is how we will refer to it hereafter) allows Davin to don a wig and heels - 'yet again,' according to the show's press release - to play his newest creation Adamenses Huckster, the protagonist of his 'new play (with mus

It's the official kick-off to summer, what with the Memorial Day Weekend upon us already - seriously, where did the time go? - and while we're certain your calendar is filled with cookouts, fireworks (we don't save all the sparklers for July 4th do we?) and swimming (if it warms up enough here in frosty Tennessee, where it's in the 50s as I type). But being the theatrical fanatic that we (using either the editorial "we" or the royal "we"…just take your pick) are, we would like to humbly suggest you make your way to the theater in the next few days to get some artistic inspiration.

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to BroadwayWorld Nashville's latest installment of The Friday Five: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find onstage throughout the Volunteer state. Today, our spotlight focuses on Justin Hand, who plays Treplev, and director Jaclynn Jutting from Verge Theatre's production of Steven Dietz's The Nina Variations, opening tonight at Belmont's Black Box Theatre.

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to BroadwayWorld Nashville's latest installment of The Friday Five: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find onstage throughout the Volunteer state. Today, we focus our virtual spotlight on Brooke Gronemeyer and Morgan Robertson, the stars of Starlite Waltz, the latest - and, unfortunately, last - production from GroundWorks Theatre, headed by artistic director Myra Stephens and managing director Jonathan Stephens, who took over the company from founders Sean and Bob O'Connell (2011 First Night Honorees).

Two of Nashville's best-known young actors, Lucy Turner and Paige Glasser, lead the cast of Mama's Girls - an original play by Marilyn Barner Anselmi, directed by Vickie Bailey - which is slated for a staged reading as part of Tennessee Women's Theater Project's Women's Work Festival this Friday night, May 22.