First Night's Top Ten of 2018 To Be Revealed Tonight

First Night's Top Ten of 2018 - critic Jeffrey Ellis' annual review of the best in Tennessee theater - will be revealed tonight during a live Facebook broadcast at 8 p.m. (CST), with the hosts of Midwinter's First Night (Ashley Wolfe, J. Robert Lindsay, Tosha Pendergrast and Ben Pendergrast) announcing the productions and performances recognized among the best of 2017.

Winners of First Night Awards will be announced during Midwinter's First Night festivities on Sunday, January 28, at Music Valley Event Center in Nashville. That event will also feature live performances and "hijinks" starring the team of co-hosts and a coterie of local theater luminaries.

Tonight's reveal is essentially the announcement of nominees for First Night Awards recognition in the categories of outstanding plays, outstanding musicals, outstanding performances by actors/actresses and ensembles, outstanding directors, choreographers and musical directors. The history of First Night goes back to 1989 and the original presentation of the Dare Theatre Awards, which subsequently became known as the First Night Awards and is now primarily known for The First Night Honors, a Kennedy Center Honors-inspired presentation that has been on hiatus since the 2015 presentation.

Productions and performances honored occurred during calendar year 2017.

About Midwinter's First Night 2017:

J. Robert Lindsay, Benjamin Pendergrast, Tosha Pendergrast and Ashley Wolfe will share the stage as co-hosts of 2018 Midwinter's First Night, set for Sunday, January 28, 2018, at Music Valley Event Center in Nashville. Midwinter's First Night is the annual presentation of First Night founder and executive producer Jeffrey Ellis' First Night's Top Ten of 2018 and the announcement of winners of the BWW Nashville Awards, voting for which continues through the end of December.

"Mad, bad and dangerous to know," Midwinter's First Night is the cold weather follow-up - the more irreverent younger sibling, if you will - to the more august First Night Honors. The history of The First Night Honors and Midwinter's First Night goes back to the 1989 debut of The Dare Theater Awards, which subsequently became the First Night Awards and evolved into The First Night Honors which bowed in 2010.

Festivities get under way at 7 p.m. on Sunday, January 28, at Music Valley Event Center and will feature performances by some of the region's best-known stage performers.

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