Jennifer Bennett News

Musical Theatre Guild, the winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle Margaret Harford Award for sustained excellence in the theatre, will continue their 2014-2015 season with the 1955 cult classic THE GOLDEN APPLE. The one-night-only concert will take place at the Moss Theatre at New Roads School in Santa Monica on Sunday, February 8, 2015 at 7:00 pm.

Since yesterday afternoon, when news of the death of Nashville theater stalwart Marianne Clark began making its way through the community, people have taken to social media to send their own farewells, to express heartfelt thoughts and to remember warmly the impact of Clark's stage career and the affects of the untimely demise of one of our own theatrical legends. You see, if Layne Sasser is Nashville's Betty White, as I maintain, and Nan Gurley is Meryl Streep, Denice Hicks is Emma Thompson and Vali Forrister is our answer to Susan Sarandon, then it would go that Marianne Clark was probably our version of Elaine Stritch.

Marianne Clark, longtime leader of Nashville's theater community, died Wednesday while doctors attempted to bring her out of a drug-induced coma after she suffered a heart attack Sunday night at home.

Clever and full of campy humor, the world premiere Scary Musical The Musical has a dangerously speedy pace that will surely keep you on your toes as you enjoyably try to figure out whodunit. Now at the NoHo Arts Center and produced by NoHo ACE, the new musical has brilliantly skilled direction and choreography from James Mellon and boasts a truly killer cast, through November 9.

Lexikat Artists and MB Artists in association with the multi-award-winning NoHo Arts Center Ensemble (NoHo ACE) are thrilled to announce that the world premiere musical, SCARY MUSICAL The Musical, book by Richard Hochberg, music and lyrics by Richard Hochberg and Michael Paternostro, musical direction by Brent Crayon, orchestrations by Kenny Seymour and directed and choreographed by James J. Mellon will let YOU choose the killer! With three different alternate endings, this is the first theatre production that asks you to TURN ON YOUR PHONES during the show to vote!

Lexikat Artists and MB Artists in association with the multi-award-winning NoHo Arts Center Ensemble (NoHo ACE) are thrilled to present a world premiere musical, SCARY MUSICAL The Musical, book by Richard Hochberg, music and lyrics by Richard Hochberg and Michael Paternostro, musical direction by Brent Crayon, orchestrations by Kenny Seymour and directed and choreographed by James J. Mellon. SCARY MUSICAL The Musical will begin previews tonight, September 12 at 8pm; will open today, September 19 at 8pm and run for eight weeks through Sunday, November 9, 2014 at the NoHo Arts Center, 11136 Magnolia Blvd. (at Lankershim) in North Hollywood.

Lexikat Artists and MB Artists in association with the multi-award-winning NoHo Arts Center Ensemble (NoHo ACE) are thrilled to present a world premiere musical, SCARY MUSICAL The Musical, book by Richard Hochberg, music and lyrics by Richard Hochberg and Michael Paternostro, musical direction by Brent Crayon, orchestrations by Kenny Seymour and directed and choreographed by James J. Mellon. SCARY MUSICAL The Musical will begin previews on Friday, September 12 at 8pm; will open on Friday, September 19 at 8pm and run for eight weeks through Sunday, November 9, 2014 at the NoHo Arts Center, 11136 Magnolia Blvd. (at Lankershim) in North Hollywood.

Director David McGinnis and his cast of nine actors bring Michael Cristofer's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Shadow Box to life in a solid and straightforward production that kicks off ACT 1's 2012-13 season at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater.

David McGinnis makes his ACT 1 directorial debut with the upcoming production of Michael Cristofer's Pultizer Prize-winning play The Shadow Box, running October 12-27 at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater.

A bevy of fabulous Broadway, Off-Broadway and Downtown performers gather together raise funds and awareness at OVER IT! A Benefit For Ovarian Cancer Awareness. Held at the Laurie Beechman Theater, whose namesake lost her battle with ovarian cancer, the evening's proceeds will go to the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative. OVER IT! will take place tonight, September 24th, 2012.

A bevy of fabulous Broadway, Off-Broadway and Downtown performers gather together raise funds and awareness at OVER IT! A Benefit For Ovarian Cancer Awareness. Held at the Laurie Beechman Theater, whose namesake lost her battle with ovarian cancer, the evening's proceeds will go to the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative. Singing the songs that inspire them most, the roster of singers includes Brian Bailey (Cats, The Wizard of Oz), Jennifer Bennett (Cats), Anne Brummel(Wicked), Canadian singing sensation Michael Hughes, Liana Hunt (Mamma Mia), Lisa Karlin (The Addams Family, Ragtime), Eric Michael Krop (Godspell), Annalyse McCoy (2/3 Goat), Cedric Neal (Porgy and Bess), Christine Pedi (Forbidden Broadway, Newsical), Molly Pope (The Material World), Allison Rogers (Giant), Gabrielle Ruiz (In The Heights, A Chorus Line), Lara Siebert (A Christmas Story, Hugh Jackman's Back on Broadway, Young Frankenstein) Antoine L. Smith(Memphis) and The Manhattan Dolls(Sarah Drake, Annemarie Rosano, Christine Tucker). Jason Wetzel serves as music director for the evening.'

Dressed to the nines-despite forecasts of thunderstorms and a tornado watch that hung over the region-theater people from throughout Tennessee gathered at Belmont University's Bill and Carole Troutt Theatre on Sunday night for the 2013 First Night Honors. Hosted by Holly Shepherd and Joel Diggs, the gala evening honored eight leading lights of Tennessee theater as they were recognized as members of the First Night Class of 2013 Honorees.

It's supposed to be 108 degrees in the Nashville area by week's end, which means stepping outside will likely leave you melted, quite literally and figuratively. But if you do have to venture out of doors, perhaps a trip to the theater is a good idea…it'll be dark and cool (with any luck, the AC will be working-and you know which theaters we're talking about) and you'll be entertained, perhaps even transported to another world. Or not. In the meantime, we present you with installment number four of Music City Confidential-our continuing effort to create a sense of community and build up some enthusiasm and excitement for the live theater industry here in our alarmingly sweaty region. So, press on, gentle readers and catch up on the latest adventures of the theaterati…

What better way to kick off Sunday-and to celebrate Father's Day!-than with the latest installment of Music City Confidential! Here's where you'll find all the news that's fit to print (or not-depending on your perspective) from Nashville's ever-growing, ever-fascinating live theater industry. Amid the florid prose and flowery praise, you'll find all the stories that don't quite fit anywhere else, some of 'em kind of gossipy, some of 'em stone-cold serious, some of 'em just lists of names you need to know. You'll also find photos from our new "Intermission@" series, details about the latest cast parties and various and sundry minutiae-the veritable flotsam and jetsam-from backstage, onstage, offstage and beyond…

A Fluid Movement Shakespeare Troupe brings one of the Bard's best loved and most produced works, MACBETH, to The Annenberg Theater for three performances, April 20 - 22. This is the fist time in years that The Annenberg Theatre, uniquely located within The Palm Springs Art Museum, has played home to Shakespeare. Theater Manager Dave Simpson says 'the museum believes Shakespeare and the classics are well suited to a museum theater and we are very interested in seeing how the public responds to classical theatre on our stage.'

A Fluid Movement Shakespeare Troupe brings one of the Bard's best loved and most produced works, MACBETH, to The Annenberg Theater for three performances, April 20 - 22. This is the fist time in years that The Annenberg Theatre, uniquely located within The Palm Springs Art Museum, has played home to Shakespeare. Theater Manager Dave Simpson says 'the museum believes Shakespeare and the classics are well suited to a museum theater and we are very interested in seeing how the public responds to classical theatre on our stage.'

A Fluid Movement Shakespeare Troupe brings one of the Bard's best loved and most produced works, MACBETH, to The Annenberg Theater for three performances, April 20 - 22. This is the fist time in years that The Annenberg Theatre, uniquely located within The Palm Springs Art Museum, has played home to Shakespeare. Theater Manager Dave Simpson says 'the museum believes Shakespeare and the classics are well suited to a museum theater and we are very interested in seeing how the public responds to classical theatre on our stage.'

Will Butler is pretty jazzed up about playing Eugene Morris Jerome in Circle Players' upcoming production of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs which might be due, in part, to the fact that he's pretty certain he's got all the lines down pat. But the real reason he's excited is that Brighton Beach marks his return-it's kind of a comeback for the young actor-to the Nashville stage since his "senior capstone project" at Belmont University in 2010.

Directed with care and attention to detail by Johnny Peppers, who is quickly becoming the go-to guy for Simon shows in Nashville (just prior to the opening of Circle's Brighton Beach Memoirs, his production of Barefoot in the Park for Franklin's Pull-Tight Players closed), the play features young Will Butler as the play's nominal lead-and stand-in for Simon himself, upon whose life the richly drawn characters and situations are derived-Eugene Morris Jerome, a 15-year-old Polish American Jewish boy living in Brooklyn with his parents, his brother, his aunt and her two daughters.

Will Butler is pretty jazzed up about playing Eugene Morris Jerome in Circle Players' upcoming production of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs which might be due, in part, to the fact that he's pretty certain he's got all the lines down pat. But the real reason he's excited is that Brighton Beach marks his return-it's kind of a comeback for the young actor-to the Nashville stage since his "senior capstone project" at Belmont University in 2010.