Matt Logan News

Today's top stories: casting has been announced for the Broadway production of Company, and more!

BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge checks in with Espinosa, musical director James Sampliner and director Matt Logan as they take a break from rehearsals. Plus, watch as Eden joins James at the piano to perform 'I Never Knew His Name.'

Netflix announces the cast for original series 'Away' starring Hilary Swank and Josh Charles. Away centers on Emma Green, an American astronaut who must leave her husband and teenage daughter behind to command an international space crew embarking upon a treacherous mission. It is a series about hope, humanity and how we need one another if we are to achieve impossible things.

Cori Anne Laemmel continues to do amazing things at The Theater Bug a?' whether it's creating new and compelling art, engaging in revealing collaborations with other creative individuals, or, more importantly, providing a safe space for a new generation of young theater artists eager to transform their own lives through self-expression a?' and there is absolutely no reason to believe that she's anywhere near a stopping point. And, because of her sincere endeavors to give back in much the same way her own life has been enriched by theater, Nashville directors may rest assured that the bench of skilled and capable actors willing (yearning!) to take to the stage for years to come is indeed very deep.

As the biggest musical A.D. Players has produced in their 52 years, I believe that this production of WEST SIDE STORY has distinguished A.D. Players as an enormously capable participant in our city's musical theatre scene. In the show program, A.D. Players Executive Director Jake Speck and Artistic Director Kevin Dean discuss choosing their season for this past year, which WEST SIDE STORY was not originally a part of. Both individuals recount that though they were pleased with the season's selections, none of the titles scared them. In their mission to continue to set the bar higher, WEST SIDE STORY earned its place in the season. Pay attention, Houston. They're doing big things over at the George Theater, and you've got one more week to catch it!

Nashville theater has always been progressive. There have always been people and companies focused on the cutting edge, delivering productions that challenge and compel their audiences to think and to consider where they are now and where they will go in the future, and there is no question that such forward-thinking creative types will continue to wield influence in the theater community for as long as theater is to be created here, there and everywhere.

Josh Charles (The Good Wife) is set to star as Matt Logan (joining co-star Hilary Swank), a NASA engineer whose wife is commanding the first mission to Mars. He faces the already enormous challenges of dealing with the mission from home, while trying to raise their teenage daughter on his own, but when he goes through a life-altering experience in the first episode he will understand the true cost of what it means to be away from each other.

Theater Bug presents Showmance, book and lyrics by Cori Anne Laemmel and music by Cori Anne Laemmel and Eric Fritsch. This production of Showmance will feature two brand new, never heard before songs by Cori Anne Laemmel and Laura Matula. Showmance is directed by Cori Anne Laemmel with Music Direction by Laura Matula and Choreography by Bakari Jamal King. Rounding out our creative team are Nashville favorites Matt Logan (Set Design), Melodie Madden Adams (Costume Design) and Tyson Laemmel (Technical Direction).

With Joseph, which opened last night at Franklin's Jamison Theater inside The Factory at Franklin, further establishes its brand: presenting exceptional musical theater with production qualities that might rival Broadway, performed by a cast (a dreamcast, if you will) made up of actors from Nashville, New York and various and sundry points in between. The show's title role is entrusted to New York-based Jesse Michels, who oozes great charm and is fairly dripping in sex appeal which ensures the audience is riveted to his performance - but it's his gorgeous baritenor and prominent stage presence that makes certain this production of Joseph is so appealing and we daresay noteworthy.

It's a homecoming of sorts for Joey Barreiro this week as he and his castmates from the national tour of A Bronx Tale - the Broadway musical that's based on a one-man show created by actor/writer Chazz Palminteri - encamp at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center for a week-long stand.

Actors Bridge Ensemble's acclaimed production of Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves and Cumberland County Playhouse's rendition of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street were named as the top shows of the year during Midwinter's First Night, the annual tribute to theater in Tennessee, held at Nashville's The Larry Keeton Theatre last Sunday night, January 13. Photographer Rae Lynn Whetzel-Stickney captured many of the night's biggest moments with her camera, which are shared on BroadwayWorld Nashville today.

Actors Bridge Ensemble's critically acclaimed production of Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves and Cumberland County Playhouse's stunning mounting of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street were named as the top shows of the year during Midwinter's First Night, the annual tribute to theater in Tennessee, held at Nashville's The Larry Keeton Theatre Sunday night, January 13.

In anticipation of the gala 30th anniversary celebration of The First Night Awards, Tennessee's best and brightest in live theater were revealed tonight as First Night's Top Ten of 2018 - reviewer and critic Jeffrey Ellis' annual recognition for theater in the Volunteer State - were announced during a Facebook Live presentation from Nashville.

Matt Logan, the artistic director of Studio Tenn, will leave his position with the award-winning, professional theater company, effective November 2018, to 'pursue new creative opportunities.'

Remaining faithful to the original story conceived and written by Mary Shelley, Studio Tenn takes its audiences on an epic gothic - and highly theatrical - journey with Frankenstein, newly adapted by playwright A.S. Peterson and onstage at Jamison Theater through September 9. Mesmerizing and startling, it's a masterpiece of design and imagination.

Grease has been a part of the American musical theater vernacular for so long - it opened in Chicago some 47 years ago in the halcyon days of 1971 - that it's easy to overlook the show's impact on theater, in general, and audiences, in particular. Its multiple revivals on Broadway, in regional theater and in various community theater and high school drama settings probably makes you believe you've seen in far more often than you actually have (unless, of course, you watch the film treatment with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John over and over).

American Idol finalists - and real-life husband and wife - Ace Young and Diana DeGarmo will star as Danny and Sandy this spring as Studio Tenn's production of Grease hits the stage at Jamison Theater at the Factory at Franklin for a May 10-27 run.

American Idol finalists - and real-life husband and wife - Ace Young and Diana DeGarmo will star as Danny and Sandy this spring as Studio Tenn's production of Grease hits the stage at Jamison Theater at the Factory at Franklin for a May 10-27 run.

Marguerite Lowell's exquisitely crafted performance as Sister Aloysius will continue to reverberate long after the curtain has come down on Studio Tenn's remarkably prescient and timely production of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, which runs at Jamison Theatre in the Factory at Franklin through Sunday.

Ernie Nolan, executive artistic director of Nashville Children's Theatre, and Norma Luther, who took over ownership of Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre and spearheaded its renaissance in 2017, last night claimed top honors as "Theaterati of the Year" at Midwinter's First Night at Music Valley Event Center.