Bakari King News

Voting is now underway for the Nashville Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below!

Now onstage in a thoroughly effective production directed by Sondra Morton at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre, Parade is not your mama's or your granddaddy's musical comedy, to be certain.

For Tennessee theater audiences, this weekend presents a bounty of theatrical riches, with six shows opening: Blackbird Theatre's Red, Sideshow's Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake), Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre's Spreading it Around, Boiler Room Theatre's Parade, Tennessee Women's Theater Project's Shooting Star and Street Theatre Company's latest incarnation of Macabaret.

Theater people from throughout Tennessee gathered at Belmont University's Bill and Carole Troutt Theatre on Sunday night for the 2013 First Night Honors to pay tribute to a group of eight remarkable people who have made indelible marks on the theater scene throughout their storied careers. Hosted by Holly Shepherd and Joel Diggs, the gala evening honored the eight leading lights of Tennessee theater as they were recognized as members of the First Night Class of 2013 Honorees.

Dressed to the nines-despite forecasts of thunderstorms and a tornado watch that hung over the region-theater people from throughout Tennessee gathered at Belmont University's Bill and Carole Troutt Theatre on Sunday night for the 2013 First Night Honors. Hosted by Holly Shepherd and Joel Diggs, the gala evening honored eight leading lights of Tennessee theater as they were recognized as members of the First Night Class of 2013 Honorees.

Ariel Dorfman's Death and The Maiden, starring Phil Brady, Trish Crist and Bakari King, will be presented by Nashville's Rhubarb Theater August 23-25 at Darkhorse Theatre-with a special encore performance as part of the 2012 First Night Honors tonight, August 31, at Belmont's Black Box Theatre.

Ariel Dorfman's Death and The Maiden, starring Phil Brady, Trish Crist and Bakari King, will be presented by Nashville's Rhubarb Theater tonight, August 23-25 at Darkhorse Theatre-with a special encore performance as part of the 2012 First Night Honors on Friday, August 31, at Belmont's Black Box Theatre.

Ariel Dorfman's Death and The Maiden, starring Phil Brady, Trish Crist and Bakari King, will be presented by Nashville's Rhubarb Theater August 23-25 at Darkhorse Theatre-with a special encore performance as part of the 2012 First Night Honors on Friday, August 31, at Belmont's Black Box Theatre.

Eight exceptional educators from schools and performing arts centers around the country will work one-on-one with Broadway greats at the 3rd Annual FREDDIE G BROADWAY EXPERIENCE today, July 12th through July 15th. Again this year, the event has been underwritten by Myrna and Freddie ("G") Gershon, Chairman and CEO of leading theatrical licensor Music Theatre International (MTI).

Eight exceptional educators from schools and performing arts centers around the country will work one-on-one with Broadway greats at the 3rd Annual FREDDIE G BROADWAY EXPERIENCE July 12th - 15th. Again this year, the event has been underwritten by Myrna and Freddie ("G") Gershon, Chairman and CEO of leading theatrical licensor Music Theatre International (MTI).

Eight exceptional educators from schools and performing arts centers around the country will work one-on-one with Broadway greats at the 3rd Annual FREDDIE G BROADWAY EXPERIENCE July 12th - 15th. Again this year, the event has been underwritten by Myrna and Freddie ("G") Gershon, Chairman and CEO of leading theatrical licensor Music Theatre International (MTI). The weekend honors instructors and teachers who are working to make a difference for their students and communities through the process of staging musical theatre productions in their schools and educational theatre groups. The teachers will attend special workshops led by director Jeff Calhoun, lighting designer Ken Billington, music director Kristen Blodgett, choreographer Lisa Stevens and scenic designer Tobin Ost.

Martha Wilkinson is a force of nature-onstage, offstage, no matter where she goes, the woman is a force of nature and, throughout her career, she's taken on some of musical theater's most coveted roles proving along the way that she can do virtually anything. Now, in Tennessee Repertory Theatre's staging of Little Shop of Horrors, Wilkinson adds yet another stellar performance to her resume, playing the campy musical's offbeat heroine with the ease, grace and unerring comic timing that is her stock in trade. In short, Wilkinson's performance as Audrey, the flower shop girl with a penchant for ending up with the wrong guy, is one of the best we've seen of the role and its one that yet again establishes her as Music City's queen of musical theater.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre presents the America cult classic musical Little Shop of Horrors, music and lyrics by Alan Menken and book by Howard Ashman. Little Shop of Horrors runs tonight, April 28 - May 19 at TPAC's Johnson Theater.

Smokey Joe's Cafe is a show features nine performers, who take audiences back to the 1950s and 1960s with their renditions of many wonderful hits of the rock and roll era. Four of the male singers come together to form a group reminiscent of the two famous quartets Leiber and Stoller wrote for-the Drifters and the Coasters-while other cast members deliver songs made famous by some of the most powerful figures in the world of music, including Elvis Presley, Dion and Big Mama Thornton.

Now onstage at The Larry Keeton Theatre, in a winning production directed by Ginger Newman and choreographed by Kate Adams-Johnson, Smokey Joe's Cafe offers audiences one of the best nights of theater they'll ever have the pleasure of attending. Seriously! In fact, my love of the musical revue-which features 39 songs written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who provided much of the soundtrack for the lives led in the middle of the last century-is almost stupefyingly of the adoring variety. Truthfully, I can't pinpoint exactly what it is about Smokey Joe's Cafe that I love so much, but alas, there it is: I love the show without question (hell, I'd marry it if we could get a marriage license down here in the South) and I am particularly in love with the rendition served up by Newman, Adams-Johnson and company out in Donelson.

Smokey Joe's Cafe is a show features nine performers, who take audiences back to the 1950s and 1960s with their renditions of many wonderful hits of the rock and roll era. Four of the male singers come together to form a group reminiscent of the two famous quartets Leiber and Stoller wrote for-the Drifters and the Coasters-while other cast members deliver songs made famous by some of the most powerful figures in the world of music, including Elvis Presley, Dion and Big Mama Thornton.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre will present the America cult classic musical Little Shop of Horrors, music and lyrics by Alan Menken and book by Howard Ashman. Little Shop of Horrors runs April 28 - May 19 at TPAC's Johnson Theater (with preview performances April 26 - 27).

Today, the spotlight falls upon Holly Allen, who is currently playing the lead in Lipscomb University Theatre's production of Tina Howe's Pride's Crossing (running at the Shamblin Theatre through April 7).

Here's Bakari King singing 'Marvellaphony Organoni' from Punchinello...

Laura Matula sings 'Can You Unbreak a Heart' from Punchinello, music by Christopher Davis, lyrics by Frederick Richardson.