Billy Ditty News

When the last performers had sung the final song and the late honoree had been feted, the crowds at Belmont University's Troutt Theatre for the presentation of First Night, the Nashville Theatre Honors' 2011 Gala Concert, headed downtown to Cummins Station for the After-Party at The Listening Room Cafe.

Melodie Madden Adams takes to the stage as her fictional alter ego in The Linda Lane Show: Pageants, Prayers & Pianos, presented by MAS Nashville on Monday, September 19 at The Basement. In her new one-woman cabaret show, Madden Adams takes her audience back to the 1960s to embody the fictional Linda Lane - described as 'a journey of song and storytelling' - a simple girl with a simple dream.

Hosted by Jennifer Richmond and Trey Palmer, First Night, the Nashville Theater Honors Gala was preceded by the Red Carpet Event just before the tribute concert on a rainy Sunday, September 4, at Belmont University's Troutt Theatre.

With almost 150 performers taking to the stage of Belmont University's Troutt Theatre on Sunday night, September 4, members of the theater community throughout Tennessee joined together to fete the six members of the 2011 Class of First Night Honorees.

The Boiler Room Theatre (at The Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Rd, Bldg 6) brings the cult favorite stage show to Franklin for the first time.

Studio Tenn launches its eagerly anticipated sophomore season in its new home at the Franklin Theatre, kicking off the company's second act with a sparkling revival of one of musical theater's best-loved shows: Guys and Dolls, the 'musical fable of Bradway' based on a story and characters of Damon Runyon, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows.

Led by the charming Debbie Kraski, who commands the stage with grace and wit as the show's wacky protagonist, director Jenny Noel's talented cast delivers a pleasant and amusing summer diversion by way of John Patrick's Everybody Loves Opal, now onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre.

N. Richard Nash's The Rainmaker has been a part of our collective pop culture and theatrical canon for years and is probably best known because of the 1956 film version that starred Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster, which has cast its indelible shadow on every intervening stage production since its initial release. That being said, who could have everexpected the emotional wallop packed by the superb revival now onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, directed by Sam Whited? Quietly and gracefully, the impact of The Rainmaker remains as potent as it has ever been and it is performed by a thoroughly committed cast of Barn veterans and newcomers all focused on the task at hand.

Chaffin's Barn, the venerable Nashville theatrical venue where you get top-flight productions served up alongside some mighty tasty roast beef, is on a roll this year. Coming off the success of its excellent production of 'Til Beth Do Us Part, Chaffin's mines their estimable comedy vault to bring back Larry Shue's Southern-fried and Georgia-bred classic The Foreigner - and audiences will be flocking to the Barn for a thoroughly delightful experience.

That Melodie Madden Adams, the actress and singer in question, gave a wonderful performance is unquestionable - and not unexpected - and her ease in becoming Margaret is a very good example of actress and character being perfectly in-sync: 'I have an insane love for anything vintage,' she explains, making the role perfect for her. In fact, when she's not onstage (she'll start rehearsals very soon for her role as Lenny in Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart at Boiler Room Theatre), she's busily attending to the affairs of her online company, www.pinkcupcakevintage.com. And she thinks 'one of the most underestimated talents in this town is Billy Ditty.'

At first blush, Beth Bailey - the anti-heroine of 'Til Beth Do Us Part, the new comedy from the crackerjack writing triumvirate otherwise known as Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten - is a Southern-bred, country-fried rube with questionable fashion taste and amazing organizational skills. Delve a little bit deeper and you'll find that she's a manipulative, conniving bitch of a 100% cotton barracuda. And played by Kim Thornton Nygren, she's one heck of looker with a flair for over-the-top pratfalls and expert timing.

Thanks to the efforts of playwright Lydia Bushfield and a talented cast of actors and musicians, Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre takes audiences on a sentimental journey back to the American homefront during World War II with I'll Be Seeing You, a musical revue that features some of the best-loved tunes from that time. Wonderfully evocative, Bushfield's sweetly crafted - if somewhat overly earnest and perhaps a little mawkish - script tells the stories of three women keeping the homefires burning while their men are off to war, making the world a safer place.

With an imaginative staging and details-oriented direction by Matt Logan, with the superb musical direction of Nathan Burbank and the spirited choreography of Ashley Anderson McCarthy (who does double duty as 'Minnie Fay' in the cast - and has never looked lovelier onstage), Studio Tenn's first official season kicks off in high style with this charming production that is as colorful and heartwarming as any we've seen.

There comes a moment late in act two of the Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre production of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming when now-married, about-to-give-birth daughter June Sanders Oglethorpe delivers a beautiful monologue in which she talks about her love for her family, her excitement at being a new mother, her devotion to her preacher husband's work and what it means to leave home and family for a new life adventure.

This confluence of events and elements has resulted in the perfect summer diversion at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, Nashville's venerable theatrical venue, with their production of Ray Cooney's Funny Money. Directed with a certain twisted grace by the multi-faceted Nate Eppler and performed by a top-notch band of actors, Funny Money is - put simply - delightfully daft and expertly played.

It's 1939 and producer David O. Selznick (played by Derek Whittaker) finds himself under the gun: He only has seven days to fashion a shooting script for his epic film version of Margaret Mitchell's worldwide bestseller. Virtually every writer of note (including Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald) has submitted a treatment of the novel only to have Selznick - whose reputation as a controlling perfectionist remains intact in this play - reject every one of them

It's a completely winning production from top to bottom: Osborne's direction is sure-handed and confident, his players' readings of their roles pitch-perfect and the technical elements and design aesthetic for the piece are delightfully on-target. It's essential, of course, in a comedy of British origins for the pacing to be quick, effortless and skilled or else the whole blessed thing becomes a bloody mess. Osborne obviously approaches the play with affection and skill, assembling a strong cast of players to bring Coward's near-iconic characters to life.

The Boiler Room Theatre (in The Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Road, Bldg Six, Franklin, 37064) opens its 10th Anniversary season with the classic musical 'Fiddler on the Roof.'

The Boiler Room Theatre (BRT), Williamson County's residentprofessional theatre company, will open its 10 th season on Feb. 5, 2010 with Fiddler onthe Roof for a run through Feb. 27 at the theatre, located in the historic Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Rd., Building Six, in Franklin, Tenn.

The Boiler Room Theatre (in The Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Road, Bldg Six, Franklin, 37064) opens its 10th Anniversary season with the classic musical 'Fiddler on the Roof.'