Jeff Boyet News

Tennessee Repertory Theatre will present its production of the Tony-nominated, toe-tapping musical Pump Boys and Dinettes created by John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel, and Jim Wann.

Feasting on the banquet that is the musical, magical prose of Tom Stoppard, the cast of Blackbird Theater Company's Arcadia delivers a pitch-perfect rendering of his intellectually stimulating play, under the fine direction of Ted Swindley. Certain to provoke thought and elicit a variety of responses, Arcadia is intricately crafted and imaginatively plotted, staged elegantly and confidently by the relatively new theater company in just its second production at David Lipscomb University's Shamblin Theatre.

Talk to cast members of Blackbird Theater Company's production of Arcadia and you get the idea that all this hard work we've heard so much about may actually be a whole lot of fun. And ask them why audiences should come see the show, which opens Friday night, February 25, at David Lipscomb University's Shamblin Theatre, and the answers you get may not be what you expect either.

Dedicated to her craft, she is an endearing blend of serious actress and sweet young woman. During her time on the Nashville stage, she's played a wide range of roles for a variety of companies, including Circle Players' production of Noises Off, Towne Centre Theatre's Moon Over Buffalo and Steel Magnolias, and Blackbird Theatre Company's Twilight of the Gods. And in each of those roles, she's epitomized 'versatility' with an exceptional performance every time she steps onto the stage.

Nashville's Blackbird Theater Company offers a second sneak-peek at its upcoming production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, featuring David Compton and Denice Hicks. Directed by Ted Swindley, this second production of Blackbird's inaugural season also features Amanda Card-McCoy, Jeff Boyet, Wes Driver, Britt Byrd and Scott Rice. Arcadia plays the Shamblin Theatre at David Lipscomb University February 25-March 12. For further information about Blackbird, visit the company website at www.blackbirdnashville.com.

Playwright/director Ted Swindley helms a much-anticipated production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, presented by Blackbird Theater at Nashville's David Lipscomb University's Shamblin Theatre February 25-March 12. Swindley's cast includes Denice Hicks, Amanda Card-McCoy, David Compton, Jeff Boyet, Wes Driver, Britt Byrd, Scott Rice and Brad Forrister. Curtain is at 7 p.m. for all performances.

Ten versatile and talented Nashville area men took on roles in musical theater that other actors would love to play, proving once again that country music isn't the only genre that makes this Music City USA. Musical theater is alive and well in Tennessee and with the plethora of talent to be found on Volunteer State stages, actors can display their tremendous range while singing and dancing. These men comprise the list of the ten best performances by actors in musicals in 2010...

'There are no small parts, only small actors,' goes the old theatrical saw that's tossed about willy-nilly to encourage budding thespians to take on roles they suspect might be beneath them and their lofty stature. But, of course, there's much truth to be found in the axiom and you will certainly see it brought to life in the efforts of the members of many acting ensembles, particularly those considered among the best in Nashville's 2010 theater season:

Theater-goers in Nashville have a new holiday tradition to embrace this season with Tennessee Repertory Theatre's wonderfully staged and acted revival of last season's critically acclaimed stage adaptation of A Christmas Story. Adapted by Philip Grecian and based on the iconic 1983 movie script by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown and Bob Clark, all the beloved characters and their wacky situations (yep, that famous fishnet-stocking-clad lamp aka 'a major award' is onstage) are brought to life - and, rest assured, you'll have even more fun than you would hunkered down in front of the TV.

Directed with his customary flair and oh-so-obvious affection for the material by NCT producing artistic director Scot Copeland, it's one of the sweetest shows you'll ever witness. But Seussical's sweetness isn't of the cloying variety that sets your teeth on edge; rather, NCT's Seussical is slightly satirical and wonderfully warped (just as you would expect from a show based upon the writings of the time-honored Dr. Seuss) and is brought to life by an ensemble of performers at the top of their game.

Photographer Stacy Battles, one of Nashville's best known celebrity photographers, was on hand to shoot the red carpet arrivals that heralded the return of First Night, after an absence of some 14 years. First Night is presented by Jeffrey Ellis, who covers Nashville theater for BroadwayWorld.com, and who is the founder of the awards celebration that was first held on September 17, 1989.

Nashville Shakespeare Festival kicked off its 23rd year of Shakespeare in the Park on Thursday, August 19, with the opening night of Love's Labor's Lost at Centennial Park. Photographer Rick Malkin, one of Nashville's busiest artists, captured some of the highlights of opening night with his camera, sharing them with Nashville.BroadwayWorld.com.

Most recently the audience development intern at Tennessee Repertory Theatre, Arkansas-born Barry Honold's next theatrical adventure is as production dramaturg for Nashville Shakespeare Festival's upcoming production of Love's Labour's Lost, the company's 2010 Shakespeare-in-the-Park presentation. Directed by company artistic director Denice Hicks, the production stars Tom Angland, Jeff Boyet, Shannon Hoppe, Nettie Kraft, R. Alex Murray, Eric Pasto-Crosby, Ricardo Puerta, Joseph Robinson and Brenda Sparks.

What with all the star power of the assembled cast - featuring such theatre luminaries as Heather Headley, Alli Mauzey, Jodi Benson and Anthony Fedorov - it should come as something of a surprise that showHOPE's concert version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella was very nearly stolen out from under them by some homegrown Nashville talent. No matter how you look at it, Cinderella was a completely magical and enchanting success, but had it not been for Nashville's very own Nan Gurley, Bonnie Keen and Carolyn German as Cinderella's nefarious stepfamily, the show wouldn't have been anywhere near as good as it actually was.

For Matt Logan, staging a special concert version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella is the culmination of a long-held dream of his to bring just such a production to his hometown of Nashville, perhaps best known as Music City USA. Now, with Nashville rebuilding after devastating floods in early May, the benefit performance for Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman's showHOPE organization is perhaps even more timely -- and it has certainly taken on a deeper meaning and a more compelling resonance.

The musical version of Mark Twain's classic tale sweeps audiences down the mighty Mississippi as the irrepressible Huck Finn helps his friend Jim, a slave, escape to freedom at the mouth of the Ohio River. Their adventures along the way are propelled by an award-winning score from Roger Miller, which provides a theatrical celebration of pure Americana.

But three other individuals are perhaps most responsible for the overall delight that is Tennessee Rep's 25th Anniversary season production: director Rene Dunshee Copeland, whose imaginative work helps to re-invent this musical on a basis that is at once more intimate while, somehow, is on a grander scale; music director Paul Carrol Binkley, whose concept for performing the work's music gives it the ideal down-home feel that only a band of expert Nashville players can give it; and design genius Gary Hoff, who transforms Johnson's black box space into something we've never seen in that venue before - the proscenium theatre you've only seen in your mind's eye - and who, in so doing, elevates Nashville theatrical design beyond its previous limits, fashioning it into something of opulently epic proportions.

The musical version of Mark Twain's classic tale sweeps audiences down the mighty Mississippi as the irrepressible Huck Finn helps his friend Jim, a slave, escape to freedom at the mouth of the Ohio River. Their adventures along the way are propelled by an award-winning score from Roger Miller, which provides a theatrical celebration of pure Americana.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre will present Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with music and lyrics by Nashville legend Roger Miller. Like Tennessee Rep, Big River-winner of seven Tony Awards--celebrates its 25th anniversary this season. Big River runs March 20 - April 10 at TPAC's Johnson Theater.

The musical version of Mark Twain's classic tale sweeps audiences down the mighty Mississippi as the irrepressible Huck Finn helps his friend Jim, a slave, escape to freedom at the mouth of the Ohio River. Their adventures along the way are propelled by an award-winning score from Roger Miller, which provides a theatrical celebration of pure Americana.