Joy Tilley Perryman

Described as “a story-telling phenomenon,” Listen to Your Mother debuted in 2010 and has been performed in more than 60 cities. This edition is presented by Tilley Perryman’s Joy’s Jubilations LLC, a new performing arts organization she founded to provide educational theater experiences for young people in the Gadsden area, with the goal of brining professional theater to the region within the next few years.

The winners have been announced for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Birmingham Awards, honoring the best in regional productions, touring shows, and more which had their first performance between October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2022.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 19th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Birmingham Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 12th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Birmingham Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 5th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Birmingham Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The first live standings have been announced for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Birmingham Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

Somewhere among the cards and letters, photographs and souvenirs from my misspent youth is a picture (circa 1978) of me clad in a powder blue tuxedo, with a ruffled-front shirt edged in the same hue, all capped off by an impossibly wide bow tie to match a?" my costume to serve as a groomsman in the wedding of two friends. That image has been prominent in my mind for the past 12 hours after experiencing déjà vu of a particular sort, thanks to a rousing, rollicking and downright rocking production of The Wedding Singer, the latest offering at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, which opened last night and continues through October 19 at the venerable Nashville venue.

Director Daniel DeVault has assembled a stellar cast for the latest production onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre a?" Steven Dietz's Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure a?" who bring the tale to life with enthusiasm and vigor that's leavened by enough humor to keep even the most discerning of theater-goers actively engaged in what transpires upon the magical floating stage at the venerable Nashville venue.

If there is a more perfect pooch to portray Annie's Sandy than Rufus Stewart, then his humans should produce said canine for an upcoming production of the beloved Broadway musical post-haste. Until such time as that occurs, we are simply going to claim Rufus as the quintessential canine co-star for any number of red-headed moppets singing about "Tomorrow" while palling around with FDR, Frances Perkins, Harold Ickes and others of their political ilk.

American playwright Neil Simon's prolific and wide-ranging contributions to theater range from the sublime (The Odd Couple and Rumors) to the ridiculous (Fools), with God's Favorite - now onstage through tomorrow - falling somewhere in the middle. While it's not one of the master craftsman's best scripts, it nonetheless is certain to provoke thought and when performed by a talented cast of actors, like it is in its current iteration at The Barn, it is certain to entertain and to evoke an emotional response.

It's another busy weekend in Nashville - but when is Music City not packed with events, festivals, affairs? - and we're back with our Critic's Choice recommendations to have you cut through the theatrical flotsam and jetsam and find a cultural opening that's a good fit for your harried lifestyle. Nashville Opera opens its staging of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock at Noah Liff Opera Center, Way Off Broadway Productions unveils its version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Music Valley Event Center, Street Theatre Company invites you to the see their staging of Lynn Nottage's Sweat at their new venue on Elm Hill Pike and Nashville Rep continues its celebration of 10 years of The Ingram New Works Festival at Nashville Children's Theatre.

As the magical floating stage descends from the upper recesses of Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, anticipation grows and attention is directed to the half dozen actors seated upon the stage, their chairs as unique as the performers themselves. Gathered together by director Joy Tilley Perryman, the dozen actors who will be seen and heard in the company's performance of Listen to Your Mother, a collection of monologues on the subject of parenthood and the myriad relationships to be found among parents and children, were each cast for his or her particular strengths, whether it's their ability to tell a story or to engage an audience.

Here in the south, we revere our mamas, y'all, often expressing our loyalty and devotion to the woman who raised us in a myriad of ways. Rarely a day passes that we don't give mama credit for teaching us a lot of things during our lifetime, whether it's the proper technique of frying chicken, how to starch a shirt and then iron it in such a way to rival the best professional launderers in the business or, perhaps most significantly, how to fold a fitted sheet properly.

Crafting a musical theater hit is a lot like alchemy - the ancient study focused primarily on creating gold from baser elements - and oftentimes no matter the ingredients, directors never quite achieve the outcome for which they strive. But in the case of director/choreographer Everett Tarlton's production of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate (now onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre through March 7), he has crafted something so special that it essentially defines the theatrical gold standard.

Throughout the past year, I've written quite often about Nashville's Chase Miller and his tremendous talents, remarkable stage presence and startling ability to successfully morph from one character to another completely unlike the first (or any to follow). Miller is rather insanely talented and any director worth her or his salt would be deliriously happy to have the serious triple threat in any show on their drawing board.

For plenty of fast-paced action, along with some stellar performances by a fresh-faced cast of eager young theatrical triple threats and a coterie of Nashville stage favorites, one need look no further than Disney's Newsies, the latest onstage offering from Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, the iconic Music City venue that's been entertaining audiences for more than half a century. In its way, The Barn (as it is affectionately known in these parts) and its laudable history ensure that its treatment of the popular musical theater title lend the show's historical basis more than a little gravitas in the making of a stage spectacle.

Country comedy legend Minnie Pearl is brought to life thanks to Minnie Pearl: All The News From Grinder's Switch, a musical comedy revue making its debut this weekend at Nashville's Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in a very limited, four performance engagement through September 13. Directed with obvious respect by Joy Tilley Perryman and featuring a top-flight ensemble of tremendously talented actors, the newly created show from Belmont University professor and music historian Don Cusic takes a lovingly nostalgic look at the show business career of Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon, the Hickman County native who rose to the top ranks of country stardom with the comic creation of her alter ego.

With a new year quickly approaching, staff members at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre are already hard at work on the first production of 2018 and recently announced plans to give the old girl an update following a momentous first year of Norma Luther's ownership of the venerable theater. On opening night of the holiday season musical A Wonderful Life, Luther announced that the company currently In its 51st year of bringing professional theater to Nashville will temporarily close its doors to undergo significant renovations to ensure its history continues for at least another half-century.

George Bailey's story is a universal one, so much so that some 70 years after the film treatment of It's A Wonderful Life debuted, the tale of an upstanding citizen faced with failure and ruin, has become one of the most beloved holiday-season tales of all time. But the initial reaction of movie-goers to the film, although not nearly so dire as some cinema historians would have you believe, is considered one of the best-reviewed movies of all time.

If not for the fact that she is already one on Broadway, it could be said that Rachel Potter's performance in Mamma Mia! - which opened last night at Nashville's historic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre - was, without doubt or without danger of fulsome exaggeration a "starmaking turn." With a glorious voice and stage presence to spare, Potter's Sophie seized control of the opening night audience from the very first moment she stepped onto the stage, never relinquishing control for one second, even when sharing the stage with the redoubtable Martha Wilkinson, the undisputed queen of musical theatre in Music City.