Larry Keeton News

BroadwayWorld presents a comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature THE HONEY TRAP in Boston, Glenn Close as the latest 'Women in Theater' profile in Connecticut, WEST SIDE STORY in Dallas and more. Check out our top features below!

If there was ever a local production of MY FAIR LADY that was sure to offer a treat to the Nashville theater scene, the current installment of the play at the Larry Keeton Theatre would be the one.

Erica Patterson takes on the iconic role of Eliza Doolittle in the upcoming production of Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady, running February 16-March 4 at The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson. Cavender Lane will play the supercilious Henry Higgins, with Chris Cavin as Colonel Pickering and Elliott Winston Robinson as Alfred P. Doolittle in the revival, directed by veteran Nashville director (and current senior contributing editor to BroadwayWorld.com/Nashville) Jeffrey Ellis.

Lerner and Loewe's classic Broadway musical My Fair Lady - based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion - opens tomorrow night at The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson, featuring Erica Patterson (and her understudy Ashley Wolfe, who takes on the iconic role for three performances) as Eliza Doolittle, surrounded by a bevy of Nashville's finest leading men, including Cavender Lane, Elliott Winston Robinson, Chris Cavin, Austin Jeffrey Smith and George Hardimon IV.

Erica Patterson takes on the iconic role of Eliza Doolittle in the upcoming production of Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady, running February 16-March 4 at The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson. Cavender Lane will play the supercilious Henry Higgins, with Chris Cavin as Colonel Pickering and Elliott Winston Robinson as Alfred P. Doolittle in the revival, directed by veteran Nashville director (and current senior contributing editor to BroadwayWorld.com/Nashville) Jeffrey Ellis.

Gracie McGraw, Molly Balsam and Jenna Pryor opened Act Two of the awards show with a medley of Hamilton-inspired songs.

A capacity crowd filled The Keeton to witness the no-holds-barred evening, hosted by Julia Marie Nettles, Jenna Pryor, Austin Jeffrey Smith and Taylor Tracey. Arron Holman worked the crowd during the evening to provide insight for the coming theatrical season in Nashville.

Studio Tenn and Tennessee Performing Arts Center's joint venture to produce Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita in Nashville resulted in the production claiming the top prize as "Outstanding Musical of The Year" at Sunday's Midwinter's First Night event at The Larry Keeton Theatre. Nashville Repertory Theatre's production of Nate Eppler's original play Good Monsters took the title of "Outstanding Play of The Year" in the annual ceremony that dates back to its origins in 1989.

First Night's Top Ten of 2017 - critic Jeffrey Ellis' annual review of the best in Tennessee theater - were revealed tonight during a live Facebook broadcast at 7:30 p.m. (CST), with Actor's Bridge Ensemble and Studio Tenn/TPAC leading the nods in this year's listing of categories.

First Night's Top Ten of 2017 - critic Jeffrey Ellis' annual review of the best in Tennessee theater - will be revealed tonight during a live Facebook broadcast at 7:30 p.m. (CST).

Erica Patterson will take on the iconic role of Eliza Doolittle in the upcoming production of Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady, running February 16-March 4 at The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson. Cavender Lane will play the supercilious Henry Higgins, with Chris Cavin as Colonel Pickering and Elliott Robinson as Alfred P. Doolittle in the revival, directed by veteran Nashville director (and current senior contributing editor to BroadwayWorld.com/Nashville) Jeffrey Ellis.

Austin Jeffrey Smith, Taylor Tracey, Jenna Pryor and Julia Nettles will share the stage as co-hosts of 2017 Midwinter's First Night, set for Sunday, January 8, 2017, at The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson.

Austin Jeffrey Smith, Taylor Tracey, Jenna Pryor and Julia Nettles will share the stage as co-hosts of 2017 Midwinter's First Night, set for Sunday, January 8, 2017, at The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson. Midwinter's First Night is the annual presentation of First Night founder and executive producer Jeffrey Ellis' First Night's Top Ten of 2017 and the announcement of winners of the BWW Nashville Awards, voting for which continues through the end of December.

Those wacky sisters of Hoboken are back on the job and back in the theatre in Nuncrackers - writer Dan Goggins' latest installment of the continuing saga of a group of down-on-their-luck nuns from New Jersey who are still trying to beef up their rolls, score some longed-for electronic gadgets and launching a cable access TV channel to hawk their own special brand of must-have holiday gifts - celebrating the Christmas season with a variety show that shows off their own questionable talents, along with those of a group of four children from the school at the Convent of Mount Saint Helen's.

Nuncrackers, described as "the fourth hilarious show" in Dan Goggins' long line of musicals featuring the "Little Sisters of Hoboken," takes the stage of The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson for a December 1-17 run, under the direction and musical direction of Ginger Newman, with choreography by Jamie London.

Here are our suggestions - our choices, as it were - for the shows to catch, the people to see, before Monday morning rolls around. Again. When work beckons, we promise you'll have so much more interesting water cooler chatter to share that you'll be the envy of everyone at the office:

Make no mistake about it, to know Lauri Gregoire is to love her - just ask the legions of people lucky enough to know her throughout her life, particularly those who have come to know her in the 20-plus years she's lived in Nashville. She's beautiful, to be certain, but perhaps more to the point, she is bright, clever, intelligent, empathetic, kind and committed to her family and friends, her career and business and to living the kind of life that has created a legacy of creativity and art in her adopted hometown.

There's something about Tonya Pewitt, a certain, almost indefinable, something that makes her an ideal musical theater leading lady (perhaps, we admit, that's a dated term in these politically correct times – we are, after all, in the 21st century and the election of the first woman president of the United States seems imminent – but in regard to Ms. Pewitt, we use the term affectionately, respectfully and even reverently), attributes that she has accumulated, if you will, in a lifetime spent as a fan of classic Broadway and film musicals. She's charming and oh-so-engaging, beautifully alive onstage in a way only great musical theater stars can be when the follow spot hits them upon their first entrance.

Two Broadway veterans join with a group of seven of Tennessee's most enduring, influential and outstanding theater artists to comprise the Class of 2016 First Night Honorees, who were revealed Monday night during the annual First Night preview party, hosted by First Night founder and executive producer Jeffrey Ellis.

Nashville's summer theater season continues its fast clip with tonight's opening of the blockbuster musical Thoroughly Modern Millie at The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson. Running through June 25, the tap-happy musical features Keeton favorite Stella London in the title role of Millie Delmount, with Austin Jeffrey Smith and Tyler Samuel playing Jimmy and Miss Dorothy, respectively.