Lynn Yates News

There's just two weeks left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Washington, DC Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

Constellation Theatre Company continues its 2018/19 Season: Epic Love with Elton John and Tim Rice's epic musical Aida. Aida will perform from October 11 - November 18, 2018 at Source, at 1835 14th Street NW, Washington DC 20009.

Led by a trio of veteran Nashville-area actors - Dan Zeigler, Pat Street and Lynn Yates - the quartet of eponymous characters is completed by Ryan Chavez Richmond, who is quickly making a name for himself (and gaining more than a little notoriety along the way) on local stages. The four of them are joined by Jeanne Valcarcel Drone as Cassandra and Nikki Gavin as Nina in Durang's rollicking comedy that is sure to make you laugh uproariously one moment and bring tears to your eyes in the next.

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.

Once again, it's that time of year: a period of reflection and introspection that gives us all the perfect opportunity to express our gratitude for the things in our lives that have meant the most to us in 2015. We reached out to members of our theater community, to inquire about that which they are thankful for and we got some very heartfelt, considered romances that, leavened by the humor injected from some of our favorite people, gives us added insight into the psyche of the artistic and creative-minded people who make theatrical magic every day…

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…

We pride ourselves on our bounteous Southern hospitality here in Nashville, so who's gonna explain this: On Thursday, as thousands of country music fans gathered downtown for CMA Fest and thousands more fans of every musical genre you can think of were headed southward for the Bonnaroo Music Festival - just another summer in Tennessee, mind you - a truck spilled its load all over Interstate 65-S, adding to the hot, humid atmosphere with a whole mess of fish parts. Yep, you heard it right: smelly, disgusting fish parts baking on the hot asphalt under the blazing sun.

It's another busy theater week in Tennessee, and in Nashville there are an extra 50,000 to 100,000 country music fans jamming up traffic and increasing wait times at local restaurants, thanks to CMA Music Fest, which natives and longtimers will remember as Fan Fair. So while you're steering clear of our version of Broadway in downtown Nashville, which will be teeming with more people than you can shake a stick at (as my mama would say),  you should instead make reservations to see some local talent onstage at some of the shows included in our Critic's Choice column today!

A jammin' new musical with live accompaniment featuring the timeless music and lyrics of Bob Marley, Bob Marley's Three Little Birds shares the legendary reggae artist's message of peace and love with a new generation of songbirds. Opening the day after what would have been the singer and songwriter's 69th birthday, Bob Marley's Three Little Birds performs at The New Victory Theater on 42nd Street in Times Square from February 7 - 23, 2014.

Director Lisa Gillespie is responsible for my most recent serving of Steel Magnolias (onstage at Boiler Room Theatre in Franklin through September 8), which like all richly decadent Southern delicacies, sates something within me that yearns for a memory-laden repast-serving up Harling's artful blend of comedy and drama that is so redolent of my upbringing. In fact, every new production of Steel Magnolias that I see reminds me of a family reunion, where the same stories of kinfolk and friends are told time and again, providing a rich heritage from which to draw sustenance.

First Night Award-winning Boiler Room Theatre is looking ahead to its 2013 season, unveiling the seven shows that will make up the company's Lucky 13th Season. The 2013 season shows have been announced via social media this week, with each day featuring the announcement of another title in BRT's slate of shows.

The Boiler Room Theatre (BRT), Williamson County's original and longest-running professional theatre company, will stage Robert Harling's classic comedic drama Steel Magnolias in August. The production will run from tonight, August 17th through September 8that the theatre's iconic namesake venue in the historic Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Rd., Building Six, in Franklin, Tenn.

Apparently, it is Elvis Week in Nashville (at least according to the fine folks at Loveless Cafe), so before we head out to the theater for a full weekend of show openings and the like, a trip to West Nashville for a slice of the Loveless' Elvis pie is in order (for the uninitiated, that's peanut butter, banana, bacon and homemade whipped cream-the four basic food groups, according to The King.), so before we slip into a diabetic coma, here's installment #7 of Music City Confidential, all the news that's fit to print from onstage, offstage, backstage and beyond…

The Boiler Room Theatre (BRT), Williamson County's original and longest-running professional theatre company, will stage Robert Harling's classic comedic drama Steel Magnolias in August. The production will run from August 17th through September 8that the theatre's iconic namesake venue in the historic Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Rd., Building Six, in Franklin, Tenn.

We've been doing our part to prepare ye the way, watching the action onstage, taking some furtive peeks backstage, listening to all the offstage gossip and venturing beyond the confines of the theater to gain the informed knowledge to see more shows in the Volunteer State than you ever thought possible. So, good people of the theaterati, read on and get all the information you need to know in this, our latest installment of Music City Confidential. This is #6…

Now, we're the last to try to stir up trouble or to further flame the fires of jealousy or envy, but we thought we'd share with you some photographs of some of those lovely ladies who could delight their audiences just by standing there-but whom inspire and encourage us all with their superb onstage talents. So, here's our recommendation, take a look at these photographs, then find out on which stages you can find these women this summer, then make a reservation and go to the theater…

Who's who in Tennessee theater? Sometimes, without a program in your hand, it's difficult to know who's playing whom-hence, our newest feature: Hey, Jef, Here's My Headshot...featuring some of the Volunteer State's best-known-or soon-to-be-known all over the freakin' world-thespians. And have you ever wondered who the amazing photographers are who make them look so damn good? We're gonna tell ya…Today's actor/subject/model is the beautiful, talented and very busy Lynn Yates, photographed by Nora Canfield (www.msdigphotography.com).

Do the names 'Joe Shepherd' or 'Corey Caldwell' ring a bell? No? Well, I just bet their voices would: Both men have been featured in numerous radio and television commercials, whether as the voice of Brentwood Jewelers (in the case of Corey Caldwell) or as the creator of a Peabody Award-winning program in Washington, D.C. (as Joe Shepherd was).

John Bishop's The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 is a deliciously campy send-up of movies, mysteries and musicals - and now, thanks to a top-flight production from Brentwood's Towne Centre Theatre, local audiences can once again revel in the play's cleverly constructed, though thoroughly implausible, plot brought to life by an accomplished cast.