First Night's Top Ten of 2010: The 'Esoteric' Lists

Not all of the Top Ten Lists announced at Winter's First Night on Sunday, January 9, were serious, high-toned salutes to all that is special and spectacular about live theater in Nashville. Sure, most of them were heartfelt and memorable, but some were (how shall I put this?) off-kilter, tongue-in-cheek and just plain fun. And not all the lists were limited to only ten entries; in fact, some had many more than that. But, for your reading pleasure, we present them to you without any real explanation. You'll have to figure that all out for yourself!

• First Night's Top Ten Divas-to-Be of 2010 aka The Martha/Rona/Shelean/Ginger/Carolyn/Linda Sue Award: Stephanie Jones Benton; Britt Byrd; JoAnn Coleman; Elliott Cunningham; Rosemary Fossee; Cori Laemmel; Mary McCallum; Mariah Parris; Scott Rice; Jennifer Richmond; Laura Thomas Sonn; and Lisa Marie Wright.

• First Night's Top Ten Men Who Could Be as Big As Martha If They'd Only Try Harder: Ryan Bowie; Britt Hancock; Ciaran McCarthy; Bakari Jamal King; Dietz Osborne; Trey Palmer; Darin Richardson; Ben Van Diepen; Joshua Waldrep; Patrick Waller; and Jeffrey Williams.

• First Night's Top Ten New People I Fell in Love With in 2010: Molly Breen; Tracey Barnes Hughes; Shannon McMinn Hoppe; Anthony Just and Lisa Marie Wright; Cori Laemmel; Matt Logan; Scott Logsdon; Mary McCallum; Corrie Miller; First Night Red Carpet hosts Trey Palmer and Jennifer Richmond; Daniel Sadler; Laura Thomas Sonn; and Ben Van Diepen and JoAnn Coleman.

• First Night's Top Ten People Whose Bathwater I Would Drink aka The Ginger Newman Award: Cori and Tyson Laemmel; Ciaran McCarthy and the casts of Nine, Rent and every other musical I saw at Boiler Room Theatre; Jennifer Richmond; Laura Thomas Sonn; The cast of Into the Woods at Roxy Regional Theatre; The casts of Brigadoon and She Loves Me at Cumberland County Playhouse; The cast of Potty Talk from Rhubarb Theater Company; The guy who played Zach in the national tour of A Chorus Line, who has the best butt in the history of mankind.

• First Night's Top Ten Best Suck-Ups of 2010: Melissa Bedinger Hade; Cori Laemmel; Trey Palmer; Jennifer Richmond; Kaine Riggan; Benjamin T. Van Diepen (but not JoAnn Coleman); Joshua Waldrep; Laura Thomas Sonn; and Lisa Marie Wright.

And, finally, one more list that is actually fairly serious and very sincere...

• First Night's Top Ten Unsung Heroes of 2010: Steve Bianchi, Nashville Children's Theatre; Sam Hahn, Cumberland County Playhouse; Mike Fernandez, David Lipscomb University Theatre; Greg Greene and Wes Driver, Blackbird Theatre Company; Don Griffiths, Belmont University Theatre; Tracey Barnes Hughes, Cumberland County Playhouse; Brad Kamer, The Keeton Theatre; Jessika Malone, Belmont University Theatre; Jim Manning, Circle Players; Jake Speck, Studio Tenn; Steven Steele, Street Theatre Company; and Lisa Tuck and Eric Ventress, First Night, The Nashville Theatre Honors.

   pictured: Laura Thomas Sonn and Cori Laemmel