NASHVILLE INTERVIEWS

There's a new show premiering at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse: The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers by Lori Fischer, the author of last year's Barbara's Blue Kitchen. Fischer's latest musical follows the adventures of two singing sisters from Ashland City, Tennessee, and the people who lov...

Bradley Moore's Music City Theatre Company debuts its 12th production tonight - Amy Herzog's 4,000 Miles - starring Taylor Novak, Terry Occhiogrosso, Britt Byrd and Cate Eunyoung Jo. Playing Nashville's iconic Darkhorse Theater through April 9, the show is an eagerly anticipated part of the 2016 the...

Here's your opportunity to get to know two Katies and an Isaac in The Friday 5: Katie Bays (who shares the role Morticia with Lissa de Guzman), Katie Davis (who's playing Wednesday, along with Caitlyn Poryako) and Isaac Brotzman (cast with Zachary Martin Waters as Uncle Fester). Read on - and then s...

Today, in a preview of what's to come on the Scottish moors (where mayhem and hijinks reportedly ensue), Brett Cantrell and Evan Taylor Williams take their places in The Friday 5 spotlight, giving us some insight into their theatrical lives and sharing why they think Baskerville is a perfect show fo...

Should you ask Bryce McDonald to point out the year of his life in which it was changed - irrevocably, but most certainly, for the better - chances are he would have difficulty in pinning down the most significant time in his life. He might select 1984, the year he first attended a show at Cumberlan...

Opening tonight in Mt. Juliet is Encore Theatre Company's production of Marsha Norman's 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning 'night, Mother, starring Meigie Mabry and Elizabeth Hayes in a revival directed by Joel Meriwether. Today, Mabry and Hayes move into our Friday 5 spotlight, revealing what motivates th...

Like so many other college students before her, Emily Meinerding is back from an adventuresome spring break, all set to plunge headlong into the rest of her semester at Nashville's David Lipscomb University. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, the Lipscomb sophomore has already made a name of herself onst...

Nashville Repertory Theatre's unveils its production of the Kander and Ebb classic Chicago this weekend, as Music City is transformed into the Windy City - well, the Andrew Johnson Theatre at TPAC will be, at least - for a three week run of the show that asks the musical question "What price fame?"...

Garrett Marks, a 2013 magna cum laude graduate of Belmont University, left Nashville with two degrees in hand: a BFA in Dance and a BS in Entertainment Industry Studies - and hasn't slowed down since, it seems, although he maintains it took him a while to find his groove....

As the national touring company of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera continues its run at TPAC, a brand new theater company debuts in White House this weekend, with another much-anticipated production of The Phantom of the Opera, based upon the novel by Gaston Leroux and featuring music...

Whew! We need a vacation already, so you can only imagine how Cody, the guy with the enormous heart and brilliant imagination must feel! So, here's some quick and sage advice for you: Buy yourself some Cody Rutledge stock and watch its value increase, even as his reputation as both an actor and as a...

As the reputation of Nashville Ballet has grown over the years, so too have the company's dancers' resumes and notoriety. Case in point: NB principal Kayla Rowser has graced magazine covers, been the subject of numerous media reports and stories, and she has become, without question, one of the best...

Today, three of the folks most closely associated with the production - director Moore is joined by cast members Sarah Shepherd and Maggie Pitt - fall under our Friday 5 spotlight, allowing us to get to know more about what makes them tick and why each of them believe audiences should flock to Darkh...

Brooke Muriel Ferguson is the latest wunderkind from the Lipscomb University Department of Theatre to make her directorial debut at Towne Centre Theatre, helming the production of the murder mystery Murder's in the Heir that opens tonight in Brentwood....

Today, we introduce you to four cast members from In The Heights - Lipscomb University's Bekah Purifoy, Belmont University's Chris D. Lee and Arik Vega, and one of the newest members of the Nashville theater community, Ashley Wolfe. Purifoy is a 2015 First Night Most Promising Actor, while Lee and V...

Taking on a stage role that was indelibly created onscreen by Erich Von Stroheim has got to be a daunting experience, but Nashville actor Randal Cooper takes on the theatrical challenge in The Larry Keeton Theatre's production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, onstage in Donelson through Ma...

Doubtless, there's a lot of hustling, bustling and what-not going on at Murfreesboro's Center For The Arts today as the company prepares for tonight's premiere of the musical extravaganza Dreamgirls. Directed by 2013 First Night Most Promising Actor Matthew Hayes Hunter (who may or may not answer to...

Make no mistake about it: There is absolutely no way to avoid instantly liking Everett Tarlton - it's useless to even try. In fact, resistance is futile. The boy possesses so much innate charm that anyone - whether you're a director, a choreographer, an actor or even a critic - simply cannot resist ...

Vanderbilt University's Sadie Andros, one of the region's busiest and most acclaimed young actors - she was Psyche and Aphrodite in last fall's production of Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses and takes on the role of Olivia in this spring's Vanderbilt Players' production of Twelfth Night - is among tho...

Today, our Friday Five spotlight is focused on Molly Breen and Jessica Theiss who last night celebrated, along with the rest of their cast and crew, opening night of White Orchard Theatre's Feels Colder Than Love, conceived by – and directed by and designed by, with video production overseen by �...

One of the best parts of covering and reviewing theater in one region for almost 30 years is seeing new talent emerge from among the area's younger actors. Take, for example, Ryan Garrett - a 2012 First Night Most Promising Actor and a graduate of Williamson County's Centennial High School, he now s...

With his final semester of collegiate study still ahead, Millikin University student Joseph J. Bezenek is clearly looking forward, making plans for his future - but make no mistake about, the talented theater student who hails from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, still has his attention focused squarely ...

Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas becomes a part of Nashville holiday tradition, as the Broadway musical version of the timeless tale is brought to life on the stage of The Grand Ole Opry House through December 27, featuring an artful blending of local talents with out-of-town performers joi...

Everyone at Nashville's Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre is immersed in the trappings of the season, with the opening of Lydia Bushfield's newest Christmas-themed opus, the appropriately entitled Yule, Y'all! The show opened yesterday (nowadays, openings are two-show days at ye ol' Barn, with a matinee...

Thomas Harton has come a long way since his high school days in Nashville - and you can be certain that once he graduates from Oklahoma City University, he'll be going even further....