Erin Parker News

With a capacity crowd of 200 people on hand at The Keeton Theatre, First Night founder and executive producer Jeffrey Ellis, who covers theater, opera and dance throughout Tennessee for BroadwayWorld.com, unveiled his choices via First Night's Top 11 of 2011, while the winners of the BroadwayWorld.com Nashville and Tennessee Theatre Awards were announced by co-hosts Britt Byrd, Jamie Free, Katherine Sandoval Taylor and Lar'Juanette Williams.

Playwright Nate Eppler, Mas Nashville's FIVE, the Boiler Room Theatre, Lipscomb University's Hairspray, ACT 1's American Buffalo and the national touring company of Memphis, the Musical were the top winners at Sunday night's Midwinter's First Night at Nashville's Keeton Theatre, which also featured the presentation of the BroadwayWorld.com Nashville and Tennessee theatre awards.

Each one a force of nature in her own right, the five women of MAS Nashville unleashed their superpowers and talents upon a Nashville audience for the third time this week with their Christmas Holiday Hangover, a fast-paced (if over-long) tribute to the holiday season that allowed each of the women her moment in the spotlight and which proved, once again, that the quintet know exactly what their audience wants.

Nashville audiences can relax about one particular holiday detail: Those five wonderful women of Mas Nashville are plotting their comeback. Erin Parker, Laura Matula, Melodie Madden Adams, Cori Laemmel and Megan Murphy Chambers return to the stage of the historic Belcourt Theatre on Wednesday, December 28, for A ChristMAS Holiday Hangover, the latest cabaret conquest from the multi-talented quintet of Nashville performers.

Nashville audiences can relax about one particular holiday detail: Those five wonderful women of Mas Nashville are plotting their comeback. Erin Parker, Laura Matula, Melodie Madden Adams, Cori Laemmel and Megan Murphy Chambers return to the stage of the historic Belcourt Theatre on Wednesday, December 28, for A ChristMAS Holiday Hangover, the latest cabaret conquest from the multi-talented quintet of Nashville performers.

Almost one hundred and fifty years later, who knew that the final actions and decisions of General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War, paired with the relationship between the North and the South in the 1800s, could mirror, parallel and relate to the feelings of a modern day couple facing their own decision? Catherine Bush, the prolific playwright, did.

Nashville theater-goers may have experienced the second coming on Monday night - what with the return of those FIVE divas with their Encore performance - and while it might not have been part of that much-discussed rapture we've heard so much about of late, they certainly responded rapturously to the entertainment provided by the quintet of versatile triple threats.

Nashville's show-stopping quintet of captivating, sexy, sultry, uber-talented women of FIVE - known among the intelligentsia as Melodie Madden Adams, Megan Murphy Chambers, Cori Laemmel, Laura Matula and Erin Parker - reclaim the stage Monday, June 27, with Five: An Encore Performance, building on the momentum that started in March with their debut performance at Street Theatre Company.

Saving Old Smokey, a new play from Ron Osborne, the playwright of First Baptist of Ivy Gap and Showtime at First Baptist, playing at Barter Theatre June 9 through August 13. The plot for the world premiere production of the play? According to a press release, 'When a group of women from East Tennessee set their hearts on reopening Old Smokey a mountain-top country store, they are determined that plotting strangers and even the forces of nature cannot come between them and their dream.'

Disney's Beauty and The Beast is now 'like you've never seen it before,' according to Richard Rose, producing artistic director at Barter Theatre, where the award-winning musical is onstage through August 13.

The quintet of captivating, sexy, sultry, uber talented women of FIVE return to the stage on Monday, June 27, with Five: An Encore Performance, hot on the heels of their near-legendary debut performance in March, this time presented onstage at Nashville's historic Belcourt Theatre in Hillsboro Village.

Nashville theatre-goers are a pretty lucky lot, with a great deal to be thankful for actually, what with the wealth of talent you can find in our little burg. We may be known around the world as Music City USA, but those of us in the know can rightfully and justifiably attest to the fact that you could refer to us just easily as 'Theater City USA.' Certainly, you'd be hard-pressed to find any city around the globe with more musical talent than you'll find in Nashville, which means, of course, that musical theater here is really good - even when it's bad (and do you really need me to list examples? I think not, but I can if called upon to do so...), it's far better than you'd find anywhere else. Nashville is packed with talented people - it's that simple.

Nashville theatre-goers are a pretty lucky lot, with a great deal to be thankful for actually, what with the wealth of talent you can find in our little burg. We may be known around the world as Music City USA, but those of us in the know can rightfully and justifiably attest to the fact that you could refer to us just easily as 'Theater City USA.' Certainly, you'd be hard-pressed to find any city around the globe with more musical talent than you'll find in Nashville, which means, of course, that musical theater here is really good - even when it's bad (and do you really need me to list examples? I think not, but I can if called upon to do so...), it's far better than you'd find anywhere else. Nashville is packed with talented people - it's that simple.

Cori Laemmel is one of those actresses you're instantly drawn to onstage: When she comes on, there's an indefinable quality about her that rivets your attention to her, regardless of the role she's playing. Offstage? Well, you find yourself in that same, almost indefinable, realm of being unable to stop watching her: She's charming, as sweet and disingenuous as anyone could possibly be, funny and slightly goofy - and absolutely, completely, no-doubt-about it a star-in-the-making. Seriously, she's got mad talent and remarkable skill. The fact that she is pursuing her theatrical dreams in Nashville is just so much luck for those of us fortunate enough to revel in the spectacle that is she.

So far as I can tell, the best way to handle the situation - on Monday night, March 28, five of Nashville's most talented young divas aka Cori Laemmel, Erin Parker, Laura Matula, Megan Murphy Chambers and Melodie Madden Adams will be performing a cabaret entitled FIVE - is to send five other young divas (I'd suggest sequestering Laura Thomas Sonn, Heather Trabucco, Stacie Riggs, Jennifer Richmond and Erica Haines Cantrell, just off the top of my head) to an undisclosed location - there's got to be a bunker around here somewhere, what with Oak Ridge so close by - just in case someone drops a bomb on Street Theatre Company

FIVE features the talents of Erin Parker, Melodie Madden Adams, Megan Murphy Chambers, Cori Laemmel and Laura Matula. Born as the brainchild of Parker, FIVE is the culmination of her desire to showcase local Nashville talent and creativity and grew from her aims at putting on her own one-woman show.

In what could well be the most talked-about theatrical event of the new year, Street Theatre Company presents Chess in Concert February 24-27, featuring some of Nashville's best known stage talents and including a chorus of more than 40 voices. And it seems, in talking to some of the artists most intimately involved in the creative process that will culminate in this weekend's five performances, that it is a process they'd definitely sign-up for again - and it's clear that Nashville audiences will be talking about it for a long time after the curtain rings down Sunday night.

Make no mistake about it: Street Theatre Company's Chess in Concert is filled to overflowing with an embarrassment of riches. If for no other reason, you should see the concert (onstage through Sunday, February 27) for Laura Matula's bravura performance as Florence Vassy - the American chess champion's second who falls into a torrid affair with his Russian counterpart - which is as stunning as any star turn you will see by any woman in musical theater anywhere. (There. I've said it and I mean it with all my heart: Laura Matula has a spectacularly expressive voice and her dramatic performance in this role is richly shaded and nuanced. In short, she should be a very big star!)