Lauren Marshall News

Weslie Webster and Ron Murphy combine efforts once again to bring a special benefit cabaret for the Shanks Center for the Arts-Art Isn't Easy, set for tonight, April 28-featuring some of Cumberland County Playhouse's finest performers for an evening of music, dance and more.

Weslie Webster and Ron Murphy will combine efforts once again to bring a special benefit cabaret for the Shanks Center for the Arts-Art Isn't Easy, set for Saturday, April 28-featuring some of Cumberland County Playhouse's finest performers for an evening of music, dance and more.

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.

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.

Make no mistake about it: The leading men (aka Britt Hancock and Daniel W. Black) in Cumberland County Playhouse's production of the Kander and Ebb musical Chicago very nearly steal the show right out from under their leading ladies. In fact, it is safe to say that Hancock and Black deliver two of the best portrayals of their characters (Hancock is Billy Flynn, Black is Amos Hart) in the history of theater - or the world, for that matter.

Cumberland County Playhouse's CHICAGO is the talk of the town...you don't want to miss out on the fun so call and get your tickets now at 931-484-5000 or www.ccplayhouse.com. Enjoy this little tease and then grab your friends and come on down. Rated PG13.

Summer in Tennessee sizzles as Cumberland County Playhouse turns up the heat with its production of Kander and Ebb's Chicago, opening July 21 in an all-new staging that brings the 1920s roaring back. Chicago features music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb (the team behind Cabaret, Steel Pier and The Scottsboro Boys). In this video, get to know the Men of Chicago!

Summer in Tennessee sizzles as Cumberland County Playhouse turns up the heat with its production of Kander and Ebb's Chicago, opening July 21 in an all-new staging that brings the 1920s roaring back. Chicago features music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb (the team behind Cabaret, Steel Pier and The Scottsboro Boys).

Get a unique insight into Cumberland County Playhouse's CHICAGO Leading Ladies as they take a break from the nights rehearsal. Rehearsals are in the early process but it is already shaping up to be a fantastic show that you will not want to miss! Opening July 21, 2011 at the Cumberland County Playhouse. Get your tickets now by calling 931-484-5000 or www.ccplayhouse.com.

Nicole Begue Hackman is so perfectly cast as Eliza Doolittle in Lerner and Loewe classic My Fair Lady at Cumberland County Playhouse that all those other characters that people the musical may seem superfluous, despite the splendid performances of the rest of the cast. Oh, certainly, their characters aren't really extraneous, but Hackman's portrayal of the Cockney flower girl is so spot-on, so multi-dimensional and delightful - and she sings the role so exquisitely - that you may just find yourself aching to attend the races at Ascot or to hear your favorite opera Aida at Covent Garden when you are transported by onstage magic to 1912 England.

Old-fashioned and sweetly sentimental, The Silver Whistle is a gentle theatrical comedy about a group of downtrodden senior citizens during the Great Depression who are yearning to find something to lift them out of their own collective doldrums and allow them to once again be vital, productive human beings. Luckily, for this particular group of seniors - all of whom live in the 'old people's home' of the Church of John in some unnamed American city - their ho-hum existence is upended by the unexpected arrival of Oliver T. Erwenter, a fast-talking, silver-tongued huckster, who may have discovered the Fountain of Youth.

Everyone warned me: from the very first person who heard I would be seeing Tuesdays With Morrie at Cumberland County Playhouse to the stage manager I saw in the lobby just before heading into the Adventure Theatre where Daniel Black and John Fionte hold sway as sportswriter Mitch Albom and his mentor Morrie Schwartz in Albom's sharp and sentimental play, directed by Nicole Begue. They all warned me.

Nashville's divas proved their mettle and showed their immense talents in 2010 while assaying some of the most challenging and best loved roles in all of musical theater. Ranging from classic musical comedy heroines that any actress would love to play to newer, more contemporary characters, Music City's women were given the opportunity to showcase their multitude of talents on various stages while again proving they are capable of virtually anything - and everything. Here are our choices for the top ten musical performances by an actress 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:

Forget the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade or schlepping to the mall to shop 'til you drop on Black Friday, the best - and definitely the most joyous - way to welcome the holiday season is a trip to Crossville for Cumberland County Playhouse's gloriously rapturous production of She Loves Me, the lovely and lyrical musical from Joe Masteroff, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick.

Now onstage at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse is Sanders Family Christmas, the second part of the trilogy, in which the gospel-singing family returns to Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church for a Christmas Eve singing in 1941, just two days before son Dennis ('He's the boy!') leaves to join the Marines and go off to the big adventure that is World War II. The Playhouse has been very good to the Sanders Family over the years (in fact, next year Smoke on the Mountain will start its 18th annual season at the venue) and, in turn, the Sanders Family has been very good to the Playhouse, bringing in countless devoted and new fans for the theater. And it's easy to see why.

When the show finally ended on Sunday night, September 19, and First Night revelers made it to their cars, they headed downtown to Hard Rock Cafe Nashville, located at the corner of Broadway and First, for the After-Party. Although the show ran long (as awards presentations tend to do) at four hours, a hale and hearty crowd of theater-types partied until the early morning hours of Monday, September 20 in the Reverb Room and on the rooftop balcony overlooking the glittery Nashville downtown and the Cumberland River with the soaring Nashville skyline in the background.