With several Tennessee theaters prepping new productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic The Sound of Music over the upcoming months, one would be well-advised to make the trip to Crossville to see director Weslie Webster's (and music director Ron Murphy's) take on the Von Trapp family musical. Webster, one of Cumberland County Playhouse's most accomplished leading ladies, takes the helm of The Sound of Music with clear-headed confidence and commitment, giving the time-honored musical the added gravitas-the dramatic heft-of historical context, which all too often is glossed over and regretfully forgotten in lesser revivals.
The Sound Of Music returns to Crossville on February 10, as the Cumberland County Playhouse revives the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical directed by Weslie Webster, with musical direction by Ron Murphy, and starring Lindy Pendzick (named to First Nights Top 11 of 2011 for her performance in Little Shop Of Horrors) starring in the role of Maria.
The Sound Of Music returns to Crossville on February 10, as the Cumberland County Playhouse revives the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical directed by Weslie Webster, with musical direction by Ron Murphy, and starring Lindy Pendzick (named to First Nights Top 11 of 2011 for her performance in Little Shop Of Horrors) starring in the role of Maria.
ImprovBoston has set its sights on one of pop culture's biggest targets in the new year. Starting Friday, January 6 at 10 p.m. the comedy spot will run, My Dark Love: An Improvised Teen Gothic Romance! for seven weeks throughout January and February. My Dark Love as an improvised satire of Stephenie Meyer's beloved and hated Twilight Saga. It runs every Friday at 10 p.m. Tickets cost $16, $12 for students with ID. ImprovBoston is at 40 Prospect Street. Tickets are available online at www.improvboston.com or by phone at 617.576.1253.
ImprovBoston has set its sights on one of pop culture's biggest targets in the new year. Starting Friday, January 6 at 10 p.m. the comedy spot will run, My Dark Love: An Improvised Teen Gothic Romance! for seven weeks throughout January and February. My Dark Love as an improvised satire of Stephenie Meyer's beloved and hated Twilight Saga. It runs every Friday at 10 p.m. Tickets cost $16, $12 for students with ID. ImprovBoston is at 40 Prospect Street. Tickets are available online at www.improvboston.com or by phone at 617.576.1253.
The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) have announced nominations for outstanding achievement in television, news, radio, promotional writing, and graphic animation during the 2011 season. The winners will be honored at the 2012 Writers Guild Awards on Sunday, February 19, 2012, at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York.
There's just a few weeks left to go in voting for the 2011 Tennessee Awards and here is the latest update! Have you voted yet, and helped to spread the word to support your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Tennessee Award? There is no time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Monday December 05, 2011.
There's just 4 weeks left to go in voting for the 2011 Tennessee Awards and here is the latest update! Have you voted yet, and helped to spread the word to support your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Tennessee Award? There is no time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Tuesday November 29, 2011.
Voting is now well underway for the 2011 Tennessee Awards and here is the latest update! Now, it's time for you to get out and vote for your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Tennessee Award. No time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Monday November 21, 2011.
The Sanders Family of Smoke on the Mountain trilogy fame returns to Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse November 18 for their 12th season of A Sanders Family Christmas, taking audiences back to Mt Pleasant Baptist Church to celebrate Christmas 1941, just weeks after Pearl Harbor, for their final Saturday night singing before Dennis reports for basic training. The Sanders Family will share songs and testimonies; all the while Preacher Oglethorpe continues his pursuit of June (played by CCP favorites Jason Ross and Patty Payne).
Irvin and Crabtree, producing artistic director at CCP, lead a production company of 50 in the revivial, including Jason Ross, Weslie Webster, Daniel Black, Brenda Frye, Lauren Marshall, and Greg and Lindy Pendzick. Scenery is by Robert Cothran, head of design for a generation at Knoxville's Clarence Brown Company and UT Theaters. Crabtree and John Fionte co-direct, with music direction by Ron Murphy, Leila Nelson as choreographer, and Austin Price and Chaz Sanders as lead dancers.
After that huge success, BroadwayWorld.com announces two awards presentations for Tennessee theater this year, with awards to be presented for Nashville productions and for Tennessee productions outside Music City USA. You may make nominations throughout the month of October, with voting for the awards starting in November, and the announcement of winners set for Sunday, January 8, during Midwinter's First Night at The Keeton Theatre in Donelson. Details about that event will be announced in the coming weeks.
Nathaniel Hackmann and Britt Hancock, both skilled veterans of national theater tours, join some exceedingly talented Tennesseans - Nicole Bégué Hackmann, Jason Ross, Daniel Black and Leila Nelson - in Cumberland County Playhouse's summer musical Oklahoma!, running June 17-September 3 at the venerable Crossville venue.
Kinda wacky, definitely campy and darker than you might expect, Little Shop of Horrors - the musical about the flesh-eating plant and the denizens of Skid Row who bask in the glow of reflected celebrity - is brought to fun, frivolous and colorful life at Cumberland County Playhouse's Adventure Theatre, with a stellar cast dancing and singing their way throughout the show. Led by Greg Pendzick and Lindy Pendzick (yep, they're married) as flower shop schlemiel and amateur botanist Seymour Krelborn and the helium-voiced object of his affections Audrey, the ensemble of seven onstage personalities (and three very important offstage stars) tell the far-fetched story with a certain tongue-in-cheek delivery that works because they are playing the B-movie madness relatively straight.
There comes a moment in the current revival of Oklahoma! (now onstage at Cumberland County Playhouse through September 2) when Jason Ross, the actor playing peddler Ali Hakim comes onstage and action stops for a thundering ovation from the audience. Yep, Jason Ross is so popular with Playhouse audiences that he gets entrance applause - a sure sign that an actor has been doing something right so far as the audience is concerned. Sure, they love other Playhouse veterans just as much, but to say that Jason Ross is beloved by audiences is not, by any stretch of the imagination, hyperbole.
Could there possibly be a showtune more rousing than the eponymous 'Oklahoma!' from Rodgers and Hammerstein's historic musical - or an opening number more iconic or more easily identifiable than 'Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'? With lyrics and melodies so memorable that you're likely to find yourself singing along (perhaps even before you realize it!) anytime you hear them played, they are among the best-known songs in American musical theater.
By turns, Duck Hunter Shoots Angel will make you laugh out loud, consider deep and philosophical questions and, perhaps, even shed a few tears. Certainly, it's funny and heartwarming, and yet another example of writer Mitch Albom's estimable ability to provoke thought while entertaining - which, quite frankly, has become the stock in trade of the artistic collective at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse.
Nicole Begue Hackmann and her husband, Nathaniel Hackmann, are paired as Laurey and Curly in Cumberland County Playhouse's production of Oklahoma! opening Friday, June 17, in Crossville. In this teaser from the show, the Hackmanns sing 'Surrey With the Fringe On Top' from the timeless score.
While Little Shop of Horrors' Audrey II continues to rampage and rip up the Adventure Theatre at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse (the show runs through August 6), with Greg Pendzick, Lindy Pendzick, Jason Ross, Daniel W. Black and an all-star cast lending their estimable talents to the tale of murder, mirth and mayhem in the flower shop that figures prominently in the Alan Menken/Howard Ashman musical. Here's a glimpse at the production's 'Feed Me.'
Now that CCP's trio of actress playing the urchins - Leila Nelson, Joann Coleman and Ali Gritz - have been given the chance to put their own unique spins on their roles, we dragged them away from rehearsals (or was it a performance?) to give us their take on the whole Little Shop experience in Crossville.
