Jeffrey Ellis - Page 139

Casting is complete for the world premiere of An American Country Christmas Carol, a new musical that will be presented in a staged reading at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre on December 5, 6 and 12 at 8 p.m. Heading the cast as Ebenezer Scrugg is Larry Tobias, whose selected credits include the national tour of Stand By Your Man and numerous productions of Ring of Fire. In Nashville he has been seen as Pap in Tennessee Rep's Big River and in Studio Tenn's Our Town.

Street Theatre Company presents its original production of classic O. Henry stories, written and adapted for the stage by Nashville playwright Scott Hutcheson (of the recently produced Alice in Wonderland, a Musical), and presented for a holiday season run December 10-18. This cast features 20 area teenagers and eight children, as well as Judy and Ken Jackson, two of Nashville's favorite adult actors.

Casting is complete for the world premiere of An American Country Christmas Carol, a new musical that will be presented in a staged reading at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre on December 5, 6 and 12 at 8 p.m. Heading the cast as Ebenezer Scrugg is Larry Tobias, whose selected credits include the national tour of Stand By Your Man and numerous productions of Ring of Fire. In Nashville he has been seen as Pap in Tennessee Rep's Big River and in Studio Tenn's Our Town.

Amid all the hoopla of the approaching holiday season, Lakewood Theatre Company promises that Hello Christmas! An Evening in December with Mark J Thomas and Friends is the perfect show to inspire the holiday mood. 'It is part Trans-Siberian Orchestra, part Radio City Music Spectacular, and part Bing Crosby Christmas special, with comedy and original music to celebrate the season,' promises producer Asa Ambrister.

Visiting - or, more accurately, revisiting - the fine folks of Tuna, Texas, during the holiday season is akin to seeing all those crazy old friends or wacky members of your own family. You might be a little embarrassed by their antics, but you remember them lovingly and you're sure to have a great time when in their company, no matter how off-kilter they might be.

Theater-goers in Nashville have a new holiday tradition to embrace this season with Tennessee Repertory Theatre's wonderfully staged and acted revival of last season's critically acclaimed stage adaptation of A Christmas Story. Adapted by Philip Grecian and based on the iconic 1983 movie script by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown and Bob Clark, all the beloved characters and their wacky situations (yep, that famous fishnet-stocking-clad lamp aka 'a major award' is onstage) are brought to life - and, rest assured, you'll have even more fun than you would hunkered down in front of the TV.

Forget the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade or schlepping to the mall to shop 'til you drop on Black Friday, the best - and definitely the most joyous - way to welcome the holiday season is a trip to Crossville for Cumberland County Playhouse's gloriously rapturous production of She Loves Me, the lovely and lyrical musical from Joe Masteroff, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick.

Donelson's Larry Keeton Theatre will present the turn-of-the-century classic Meet Me in St. Louis, November 5-21, directed and choreographed by Kate Adams-Johnson, with music direction by Ginger Newman. The show, based on the beloved 1944 MGM movie, contains many of the popular songs from its film counterpart including 'The Trolley Song', 'The Boy Next Door', 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' and 'Meet Me In St. Louis.'

Barbara Rucker, who enjoyed a successful career as an actress in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles before making her way to Tennessee, leads the cast in Towne Centre Theatre's holiday season production of the latest Southern-bred comedy from Jones/Hope/Wooten, The Hallelujah Girls, which opens at the Brentwood theater Friday night, November 19, continuing through December 11.

Truth be told, 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' is one of my all-time favorite holiday songs - sweetly sentimental, blending holiday hope with a certain melancholic sensibility that is perfect for the season. Thankfully, Casey Gilbert's rendition of the song (long associated with the unparalleled Judy Garland) in The Keeton Theatre's production of Meet Me in St. Louis is beautifully sung and Kate Adams-Johnson directs that particular scene with a seasoned hand and an imaginative, visual aesthetic.

Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre offers up two home-grown productions for the holiday season, with Martha Wilkinson's It's A Wonderful Wife, running November 18 through December 31 on the mainstage of the venerable dinner theater, and John Chaffin's The Late, Late Show in residence on the Backstage at the Barn stage November 23-December 31.

Street Theatre Company presents its original production of classic O. Henry stories, written and adapted for the stage by Nashville playwright Scott Hutcheson (of the recently produced Alice in Wonderland, a Musical), and presented for a holiday season run December 10-18. This cast features 20 area teenagers and eight children, as well as Judy and Ken Jackson, two of Nashville's favorite adult actors.

Amid all the hoopla of the approaching holiday season, Lakewood Theatre Company promises that Hello Christmas! An Evening in December with Mark J Thomas and Friends is the perfect show to inspire the holiday mood. 'It is part Trans-Siberian Orchestra, part Radio City Music Spectacular, and part Bing Crosby Christmas special, with comedy and original music to celebrate the season,' promises producer Asa Ambrister.

Barbara Rucker, who enjoyed a successful career as an actress in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles before making her way to Tennessee, leads the cast in Towne Centre Theatre's holiday season production of the latest Southern-bred comedy from Jones/Hope/Wooten, The Hallelujah Girls, which opens at the Brentwood theater Friday night, November 19, continuing through December 11.

Now onstage at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse is Sanders Family Christmas, the second part of the trilogy, in which the gospel-singing family returns to Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church for a Christmas Eve singing in 1941, just two days before son Dennis ('He's the boy!') leaves to join the Marines and go off to the big adventure that is World War II. The Playhouse has been very good to the Sanders Family over the years (in fact, next year Smoke on the Mountain will start its 18th annual season at the venue) and, in turn, the Sanders Family has been very good to the Playhouse, bringing in countless devoted and new fans for the theater. And it's easy to see why.

Brigadoon, onstage at Cumberland County Playhouse through November 21, could well be one of the closest-to-sheer-perfection musical theater experiences I've ever had, beautifully played and exquisitely staged, performed by a phenomenally gifted cast led by the multi-talented Britt Hancock (who sings, act and dances with vigorous conviction) as Tommy Albright. If you are a true lover of musical theater, you really must go see it before Brigadoon once again disappears into the mist.

Directed with his customary flair and oh-so-obvious affection for the material by NCT producing artistic director Scot Copeland, it's one of the sweetest shows you'll ever witness. But Seussical's sweetness isn't of the cloying variety that sets your teeth on edge; rather, NCT's Seussical is slightly satirical and wonderfully warped (just as you would expect from a show based upon the writings of the time-honored Dr. Seuss) and is brought to life by an ensemble of performers at the top of their game.

Donelson's Larry Keeton Theatre will present the turn-of-the-century classic Meet Me in St. Louis, November 5-21, directed and choreographed by Kate Adams-Johnson, with music direction by Ginger Newman. The show, based on the beloved 1944 MGM movie, contains many of the popular songs from its film counterpart including 'The Trolley Song', 'The Boy Next Door', 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' and 'Meet Me In St. Louis.'