Billy Ditty News

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.

Audiences in Nashville and Middle Tennessee will have a wealth of new offerings awaiting them at the theater this weekend, as companies throughout the region roll out the red carpet for the opening of no fewer than ten new productions. Ranging from the tried and true (Arthur Miller's All My Sons from Tennessee Repertory Theatre, Belmont University Theatre's Dancing at Lughnasa, Lakewood Village Theatre's A Few Good Men and Annie at Towne Centre Theatre) to edgier fare (like The Rocky Horror Show at Boiler Room Theatre and David Mamet's American Buffalo at ACT 1) and newer, less familiar works (Trying from Tennessee Women's Theater Project and the debuting Sideshow Fringe Festival, a new endeavor from Actors Bridge Ensemble that features all manner of new offerings, including a 48-hour playwriting competition from which I'll be tweeting live reviews while the shows happen on Saturday from 6 to 7 p.m.), audiences have a full slate of offerings from which to choose this weekend.

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.

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.

Annie, that spunky, optimistic and determined orphan who first appeared in the 'funny papers' of the nation's newspapers in 1924 - only to become one of the most beloved musical theater heroines ever to express her hope for 'Tomorrow' in song on Broadway - returns to that magical levitating stage of Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in a colorful and sprightly new revival helmed by the multi-talented Martha Wilkinson.

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.

Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler have quickly gained a reputation as Nashville's most accomplished playwriting team and, thanks to their latest effort - the winkingly titled Rear Widow, now onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre - the talented duo have scored their biggest success to date. Rear Widow is a fast-paced and completely entertaining salute to the film noir genre, brought winningly and charmingly to life by director Lauren Shouse and her superb cast of actors (which includes Martha Wilkinson, Jennifer Richmond and B.J. Rowell in addition to the two playwrights themselves).

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.