GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI for April 19, 2017

GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! And a gracious good morning to Kate Adams Kramer, our very first Theaterati cover girl! Today we are pondering the theatrical question of "Kevin Spacey...Tony Awards host...what the hell?" Perhaps you might opine about that bit of news and share your impressions with us: we promise not to tell a soul!

We're sending out warm (and sincere) first night wishes of "Break a leg!" to our very own David Alford, who makes his Broadway debut tonight in THE LITTLE FOXES, as well as to the cast and crew of director Mark Creter's FIRST DATE, the recent Broadway musical receiving its regional premiere, also opening tonight in Derryberry Hall on the campus of Tennessee Tech University up in Cookeville. Meanwhile, Nashville Ballet and its talented coterie of dancers and creative types, like Paul Vasterling, Mollie Sansone, Jon Upleger, Kayla Rowser and all those other magnficent dancers who are repping Nashville at the John F. Kennedy Center's DANCE ACROSS AMERICA this week and taking the town by storm, we suspect. GOODNIGHT MOON continues at Nashville Children's Theater (starring Rona Carter McLaughlin, Amanda Card, Bobby Wyckoff, Shawn Knight and Samuel Whited), while Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre's THE NERD picks back up tomorrow night for its final weekend (Brett Cantrell, Joel Diggs, Corinne Leidhecker, Martha Wilkinson, John Mauldin, Tony Nappo star).

Today in theater history...these shows bowed on Broadway on this date: WAITING FOR GODOT (1956); THE ELEPHANT MAN (1979)--recently given a sumptuous revival by Studio Tenn, starring Taylor Novak and Brent Maddox; THE PRODUCERS (2001); CLYBOURNE PARK (2012), which had its regional premiere shortly after it closed on Broadway at Nashville Rep, starring Shannon McMinn Hoppe, Derek Whittaker, Shelean Newman, Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva, Tony Morton, Nate Eppler and Steve Parnell; FUN HOME (2015), which comes to Nashville October 10-15 as part of the 2017-18 Broadway at TPAC series. And remember this, gentle readers, no matter where in the world you find yourselves today: CELEBRATE THE MAGIC OF LIVE THEATER!