Dean Regan News

Julie Johnson stars as America's favorite country music sweetheart in Dean Regan's musical tribute, "A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline."

Les Michaels' Sundays in Summer Series welcomes the award-winning performer, Dean Regan in 'Give My Regards to Broadway' on Sunday, October 2, 2016 at 2 PM at the Arthur Newman Theatre in Palm Desert. Staged as a cabaret style concert, Dean's show is full of classic songs and new tunes currently on Broadway and features Charlie Creasy on piano. Tickets are available at the door for $11 cash only.

Bristol Riverside Theatre opens its 30th Anniversary Season with A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline by Dean Regan on September 27-October 16.

Les Michaels' Sundays in Summer Series welcomes the award-winning performer, Dean Regan in 'Give My Regards to Broadway' on Sunday, October 2, 2016 at 2 PM at the Arthur Newman Theatre in Palm Desert. Staged as a cabaret style concert, Dean's show is full of classic songs and new tunes currently on Broadway and features Charlie Creasy on piano. Tickets are available at the door for $11 cash only.

Bristol Riverside Theatre opens its 30th Anniversary Season with A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline by Dean Regan on September 27-October 16.

Julie Johnson stars as America's favorite country music sweetheart in Dean Regan's musical tribute, "A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline."

Julie Johnson stars as America's favorite country music sweetheart in Dean Regan's musical tribute, "A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline." Co-starring Steve Barcus, the musical will be presented by the Plaza Theatre and Mark Bell, at the Plaza Theatre in Garland November 11, 12, 13 and 18, 19 and 20, 2016.

Bristol Riverside Theatre announces the appointment of ANNE S. KOHN as managing director following a national search conducted by Management Consultants for the Arts, Inc.

Bristol Riverside Theatre announces two changes to its 30th Anniversary Mainstage season.  The season will kick off with A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline by Dean Regan on September 27-October 16.  Patsy Cline defined the term "crossover hit" by dominating country, blues, pop and gospel charts in the 1950s and early '60s. Featuring over 20 of Patsy's unforgettable hit songs, this toe tappin', foot stompin' tribute traces her career from the early days of singing in honky tonks, through her rise to fame at the Grand Ole Opry, to her triumph at Carnegie Hall. The production will feature BRT veteran Jessica Wagner whose portrayal of Patsy in Always, Patsy Cline was one of BRT's highest grossing productions.

A loving tribute to country music's most enduring superstar, the musical journey traces the legendary singer's rise from her hometown in Winchester, Virginia to the Grand Ole Opry, Las Vegas and Carnegie Hall. Patsy Cline defined the term 'crossover hit' by dominating country, blues, pop and gospel charts simultaneously in the 1950s and early '60s.

Russ Weatherford's 'Blacker,' a new play exploring Oscar Wilde's little-known brush with the Dreyfus Affair, begins an exclusive two-week engagement on Wednesday August 26 at Urban Stages, 259 West 30th Street. Directed by David Austin, and produced by Sandi Durell, the premiere of 'Blacker' plays through Thursday September 3. The official opening is also tonight, August 26, at 8pm.

'Blacker' by Russ Weatherford will be at Urban Stages for an exclusive engagement from Wednesday, August 26th through Thursday September 3rd.

Russ Weatherford's “Blacker,” a new play exploring Oscar Wilde's little-known brush with the Dreyfus Affair, begins an exclusive two-week engagement on Wednesday August 26 at Urban Stages, 259 West 30th Street.  Directed by David Austin, and produced by Sandi Durell, the premiere of “Blacker” plays through Thursday September 3.  The official opening is also on Wednesday August 26 at 8pm.  For tickets call SmartTix.com at 212/868-4444 or visit www.smarttix.com

We pride ourselves on our bounteous Southern hospitality here in Nashville, so who's gonna explain this: On Thursday, as thousands of country music fans gathered downtown for CMA Fest and thousands more fans of every musical genre you can think of were headed southward for the Bonnaroo Music Festival - just another summer in Tennessee, mind you - a truck spilled its load all over Interstate 65-S, adding to the hot, humid atmosphere with a whole mess of fish parts. Yep, you heard it right: smelly, disgusting fish parts baking on the hot asphalt under the blazing sun.

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…

New York Cabaret Community Honors Actor/Director/Photographer RUSS WEATHERFORD With All-Star Show at Metropolitan Room.