It's another busy theater week in Tennessee, and in Nashville there are an extra 50,000 to 100,000 country music fans jamming up traffic and increasing wait times at local restaurants, thanks to CMA Music Fest, which natives and longtimers will remember as Fan Fair. So while you're steering clear of our version of Broadway in downtown Nashville, which will be teeming with more people than you can shake a stick at (as my mama would say), you should instead make reservations to see some local talent onstage at some of the shows included in our Critic's Choice column today!
That will also explain my rapturous response to the performance of A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline, a dramatized tribute to the country music superstar that opened at Dickson's Gaslight Dinner Theater on Thursday, June 4, running for a much-too-short two weekends at what was once known as The Renaissance Center.
It's another busy weekend of new shows opening and many others continuing to delight audiences, with ACT 1's Dog Sees God and Street Theatre Company's Dogfight both opening tonight, while two shows that opened yesterday will continue to treat audiences to some especially wonderful music. Plus, there's a whole slate of shows being performed at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse, a revival of Osborne & Epplers' Southern Fried Nuptials down in Woodbury at the Arts Center of Cannon County, and John Chaffin's Cliffhanger enters its final weekend at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. Go to the theater, young man (and woman) and let yourself be transported to a whole new world of magic and enchantment!
Today, in a special edition of The Friday Five (on Wednesday), we introduce two actors from The Gaslight Dinner Theatre's upcoming production of A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline: Linda Sue Simmons (my favorite Miss Chattanooga of all time) and Curtis LeMoine-Reed. Directed by Greg Frey, the musical - filled with some of Patsy Cline's best-loved hits that will transport you back to her starry heyday in the 1960s - opens Thursday afternoon at The Renaissance Center in Dickson.
No matter what the calendar says, we're in early summer already - insofar as theater in Tennessee is concerned, at least - and there are four new shows opening this week that should command your attention. Along with a number of shows that are continuing their runs (like John Chaffin's Cliffhanger at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre), you have plenty of diverse and intriguing onstage offerings to keep you in the relative, air-conditioned comfort of a darkened theater. We've done the necessary research, made the calls to the people-in-the-know and have included the dates, the phone numbers and the websites to make it as easy as possible for you to buy tickets and go show some support for the arts while indulging in the magic of live theater…
According to the Daily Mail, Stephen Adly Guirgis's THE MOTHERF**KER WITH THE HAT is sailing across the pond this summer. And DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Ricardo Chavira has been tapped to star in the UK premiere of the play, beginning June 10 in the National's Lyttelton Theatre.
Honeysuckle Weeks, Charity Wakefield and Alec Newman will star in Melanie Marnich's These Shining Lives, set to kick off the first season at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park. Loveday Ingram will direct the show from tonight, May 8, with designs by Tim Shortall. The show runs through June 9, 2013.
According to the Daily Mail, Honeysuckle Weeks, Charity Wakefield and Alec Newman will star in Melanie Marnich's These Shining Lives, set to kick off the first season at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park. Loveday Ingram will direct the show from May 8, with designs by Tim Shortall. The show runs through June 9, 2013.
Vivian Sessoms, the critically-acclaimed songstress known for her rich, melodic and captivatingly soulful vocals, returns to Feinstein's at Loews Regency, 540 Park Avenue at 61st Street, for another highly-anticipated performance entitled 'Heart' on April 22, 2012 at 8:30 pm.
Vivian Sessoms, the critically-acclaimed songstress known for her rich, melodic and captivatingly soulful vocals, returns to Feinstein's at Loews Regency, 540 Park Avenue at 61st Street, for another highly-anticipated performance entitled 'Heart' on April 22, 2012 at 8:30 pm.
La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts is thrilled to announce the fifth production of National Theatre Live's second season - broadcast live from The Donmar Warehouse in London, internationally acclaimed actor Derek Jacobi stars as KING LEAR. KING LEAR will be broadcast on SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 at 2pm at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd. in La Mirada.
La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts is thrilled to announce the fifth production of National Theatre Live's second season - broadcast live from The Donmar Warehouse in London, internationally acclaimed actor Derek Jacobi stars as KING LEAR. KING LEAR will be broadcast on SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 at 2pm at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd. in La Mirada.
With his critically acclaimed production of King Lear soon to embark on a national tour, Michael Grandage today announces his farewell season as Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, stepping down from the role in December 2011.
The National Theatre has announced casting for its upcoming productions, starting with Moira Buffini's WELCOME TO THEBES which will run starting June 15. Nikki Amuka-Bird and David Harewood will star in the World Premiere of the play, which tells the Greek myth of the first democratically elected president of Thebes in a modernized way. The show will be directed by Richard Eyre and the cast will also feature Madeline Appiah, Rakie Ayola, Omar Brown, Jessie Burton, Jacqueline Defferary, Daniel Fine, Karlina Grace, Rene Gray, Tracy Ifeachor, Irma Inniss, Chuk Iwuji, Alexia Khadime, Ferdinand Kingsley, Aicha Kossoko, Simon Manyonda, Bruce Myers, Pamela Nomvete, Calre Perkins, Victor Power, Daniel Poyser, Joy Richardson, Vinette Robinson, Zara Tempest-Walters, and Michael Wildman.
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