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!
Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre (CVRep) is once again proud to present award winning performer Scott Dreier in Doris and Me as the first of its Summer Cabaret Series.
The Chicago Dancemakers Forum (CDF) is delighted to announce today the four recipients of its 2015 CDF Lab Artist Awards. Each Chicago-based artist will receive $15,000 as well as 12 months of mentorship and peer support. Choreographers Baraka de Soleil, Jamal "Litebulb" Oliver, Benjamin Holiday Wardell, and Sara Zalek were selected by an esteemed panel comprised of local and national dance leaders, artists, scholars and arts administrators, following a rigorous, two-round application process. Each grantee was identified as being within a key moment in their artistic development, demonstrated a clear vision, a solid body of work, a compelling line of inquiry, and a firmly grounded work ethic.
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. Thus, we are happy to present a new feature: The Nashville Theater Calendar, a comprehensive - maybe even exhaustive (lord knows we're exhausted from putting it together, gathering all the info from all over the interwebs!) - listing of theatrical openings for the 2015/16 season. We'll update the calendar every Monday, clearing out the shows that have closed and adding additional information on the shows still to come.
What better way to celebrate the Tony Awards than with your fellow theatre nerds! A special free event, Imagine Productions hosted the First Annual Tony Awards Watch Party on Sunday, June 7, at Wall Street Night Club.
With the daily downpours in Kansas City, the only way to see a full moon is in the audience of The Full Monty at the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre. Karen Paisley directs the comical musical with book by Terrence McNally, music and lyrics by David Yazbeth, and musical direction by Loren Bridge. The Full Monty runs through June 14 at the theater located at 3614 Main.
Based on Sophocles' Greek myth Oedipus and set in a contemporary African-American gospel church service, this production will move and thrill you with electrifying vocals. Scorned and aged, Oedipus arrives at Colonus where he will die as fate foretold. But before his demise, he must tell his side of events. His journey toward truth, self-understanding, and forgiveness comes with soaring songs and an ending to lift the soul.
That will also explain my rapturous response to the performance of A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline, a dramatized tribute to the country music superstar that opened at Dickson's Gaslight Dinner Theater on Thursday, June 4, running for a much-too-short two weekends at what was once known as The Renaissance Center.
The Full Monty, which opened Maine State Music Theatre's fifty-seventh season, has all the makings of a new hit for the company! The rollicking, sometimes raucous story of unemployed Buffalo steel workers who create a male strip act to make money has characters to embrace and identify with, clever and provocative dance numbers, music which underscores advances the dramatic development of the script, and one of the most anticipated final numbers in all of Broadway musicals. In addition, at MSMT in a shared production with Lancaster's Fulton Theatre, the David Yazbek -Terrence McNally show is blessed with a stunning ensemble and witty, heartfelt direction and choreography by Donna Drake.
It's another busy weekend of new shows opening and many others continuing to delight audiences, with ACT 1's Dog Sees God and Street Theatre Company's Dogfight both opening tonight, while two shows that opened yesterday will continue to treat audiences to some especially wonderful music. Plus, there's a whole slate of shows being performed at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse, a revival of Osborne & Epplers' Southern Fried Nuptials down in Woodbury at the Arts Center of Cannon County, and John Chaffin's Cliffhanger enters its final weekend at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. Go to the theater, young man (and woman) and let yourself be transported to a whole new world of magic and enchantment!
Setting the tone for another season of great entertainment under the stars, Shakespeare Orange County (SOC) launches Summerfest 2015 at the Garden Grove Amphitheatre on June 13 with its 2nd Annual 'Fun-raising' event.
Accomplished actress Roberta E. Bassin, known for her work in the cult classic “Barfly” and Clint Eastwood's acclaimed “J. Edgar,” will appear in TNT's hit procedural, “Major Crimes” for its season opener, at 9 p.m.,Monday, June 8.
Comix at Foxwoods presents comedy icon and king of the celebrity roast, Jeff Ross for a one-night-only performance at the Fox Theater at Foxwoods tonight, June 5, 2015 at 8:00 p.m.
The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director; Andrew Levine, Executive Director), and producers Amy Engelhardt and Heather Shields, will present the June installment of the game show for musical theatre lovers called Tune in Time, hosted by Emily McNamara, with Musical Director Nate Buccieri and annoyingly insistent timekeeper Sheila Head on Monday, June 8, 2015 beginning at 7:30 p.m. at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peters (Citicorp Building, entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue).
Jenny Norris Light plays Sarah Brown, with Michael Maupins as Sky Masterson, Hallie Long as Miss Adelaide and Brian Best as Nathan Detroit in The Larry Keeton Theatre's eagerly anticipated production of the classic Broadway music Guys and Dolls. Directed by Ginger Newman (who doubles as musical director as well), with choreography and staging by Cary Street, the musical that introduced the theatrical standards 'Bushel and a Peck,' 'Adelaide's Lament' and 'Luck Be A Lady Tonight' to Broadway audiences runs at the Keeton Theatre tonight, June 4, through June 20.
Today, Loki Films and THIRTEEN's American Masters series announced they are co-producing a new documentary about television legend Norman Lear (born July 27, 1922).
DALLAS, JUNE 2, 2015 – The Dallas Opera is thrilled to announce the Co-Chairs for the eagerly anticipated 2015-2016 FIRST SIGHT/FIRST NIGHT events: Ellen and Don Winspear; Honorary Co-Chairs are Mrs. Micki Rawlings and The Honorable Michael S. Rawlings.
Today, in a special edition of The Friday Five (on Wednesday), we introduce two actors from The Gaslight Dinner Theatre's upcoming production of A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline: Linda Sue Simmons (my favorite Miss Chattanooga of all time) and Curtis LeMoine-Reed. Directed by Greg Frey, the musical - filled with some of Patsy Cline's best-loved hits that will transport you back to her starry heyday in the 1960s - opens Thursday afternoon at The Renaissance Center in Dickson.
