Lane Wright News

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

There are four new shows opening in the Middle Tennessee area this weekend, along with several other shows continuing their runs - Nobody's Perfect at Chaffin's Barn, KB Productions' The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife, Mary Poppins and Smoke on the Mountain at Cumberland County Playhouse, along with the final performance of Singin' in the Rain - so there's plenty of theater to keep you entertained through a hot July weekend. It's that time of year, so go have some fun!

Summer's theater lull has come to an end and Nashville/Tennessee audiences have a plethora of new openings to choose from iin the next fews days, leading to the season's busiest flush of new shows and productions. Whether it's a relatively new musical based on a fun film, the controversial revival of one of the late 20th century's most iconic musicals or the Nashville premiere of a new film starring some of the region's best known and most talented actors -- there's a lot of good stuff to be seen inside a theater...

Can you believe that it's already time to celebrate Independence Day - aka The Fourth of July - with the biggest-in-the-country fireworks display right here in Music City USA? We know how to celebrate America's Independence right here in Nashville and we expect even more tourists (playwright/actor/director/producer/bon vivant Del Shores is in town, for example, to get a taste of a down-home good time) than normal to fill our city's streets over the four-day holiday weekend.

Looking for a way to beat the heat this weekend? What's better than sinking into a seat in a darkened auditorium and letting the talented actors onstage whisk you way to a whole different world from the world iin which you toil Monday through Friday? Theater companies throughout the midstate are ready to dazzle you with their latest productions and here are some of this weekend's best bets...

Looking for an early summer diversion? We're happy to suggest some theatrical offerings to occupy your time, to keep you out of the heat and humidity - which seems to have really descended upon us this past week - and place you smack in the middle of a darkened auditorium that's certain to cool you down while entertaining you in high style…

For 49 years, Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre has provided a theatrical home for actors, directors, designers, stage managers and sundry other artists and techies who are striving to make a living in Nashville. In that time, the Chaffins have served up tons of roast beef and enough marinated mushrooms to fill countless swimming pools - but, more importantly, they've served up so many laughs and memorable onstage moments to keep us all in fine fettle for years to come.

Now that the dust has settled after the 2015 Tony Awards, we reached out to our readers, asking them to offer their opinions and insights on this year's show, hosted by Tony winners Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming, and how this year's crop of new plays and musicals resonate with viewers in the heartland and, perhaps more importantly, why the Tonys matter outside of New York City.

Despite knowing that the time would come, I am still staggered by the news of Arita Trahan's passing last weekend. Although she had moved from Nashville some years back - living in Los Angeles and Philadelphia after leaving Tennessee - she always remained a member of our theater family, one of the leading lights among the scores of talented people who have called our city home over the years.

In a town where everyone from your next-door neighbor to your favorite barista - from your dental hygienist to your manicurist, your seatmate on the bus, your friendly neighborhood bartender and maybe even the guy who does your taxes - is a songwriter, you'll find that there's never a shortage of opinions on the topic of favorite songs. Ask a cross-section of Nashville theater-types what their favorite love song is from the annals of musical theater and you're going to get a barrage of answers.

Inspired by all the seasonal festivities that abound, we asked people in the theater community to share their favorite things to see onstage during the run-up to Christmas…

The Boiler Room Theatre, Williamson County's original and longest-running professional theatre company, will stage Neil Simon's Promises, Promises featuring the music of the great Burt Bacharach. The production will run from tonight, June 28th through July 20th at the theatre's iconic namesake venue in the historic Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Rd., Building Six, in Franklin, Tennessee.

The Boiler Room Theatre, Williamson County's original and longest-running professional theatre company, will stage Neil Simon's Promises, Promises featuring the music of the great Burt Bacharach. The production will run from June 28th through July 20th at the theatre's iconic namesake venue in the historic Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Rd., Building Six, in Franklin, Tennessee.

ACT 1-winner of the 2011 First Night Award for Outstanding Play-will kick off 2013 with its presentation of Neil Simon's Broadway Bound, the final chapter of the playwright's trilogy based on his own early years.

ACT 1-winner of the 2011 First Night Award for Outstanding Play-will kick off 2013 with its presentation of Neil Simon's Broadway Bound, the final chapter of the playwright's trilogy based on his own early years.

Playhouse Nashville's popular Ten Minute Playhouse-named one of the Top 11 Theatrical Events of 2011 by The First Night Honors-returns December 9 and 10 with a fresh slate of 12 new plays by Middle Tennessee writers. Local actors interested in participating in the staged readings at Street Theatre Company are invited to attend an open casting call and rehearsal on Saturday, December 8, at noon.

Carol Irvin, who has been a mainstay at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse for more than 20 years, is the latest recipient of The First Night Robe,presented on Saturday, November 17, prior to curtain of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Earlier in the same week, Bralyn Stokes received the robe at Rhubarb Theater's Birds in Church, and Michael Holder and Josh Waldrep claimed it at Street Theatre Company's Miss Saigon in Concert.

There are some lovely moments to be found in Birds in Church, the latest production from Nashville's Rhubarb Theatre-a refashioning of the company's first production almost ten years ago, both of which feature vignettes selected from among playwright and former priest Joe Pintauro's Metropolitan Operas. There are lovely moments, to be certain, along with some that are almost riotously funny, genuinely moving and clearly provocative.