Tammy Wynette News

On September 19th, the Broadway smash hit ONCE, opens at the Ivoryton Playhouse. On the streets of Dublin, an Irish musician about to give up on his dreams and a beautiful young Czech immigrant are drawn together by their shared love of music. Over the course of one fateful week, an unexpected friendship and collaboration quickly evolves into a powerful but complicated love story, underscored by the most beautiful, emotionally charged music.

Third Man recording artist Joshua Hedley's video for 'Weird Thought Thinker' is now available to view on YouTube. 'Weird Thought Thinker' is but one of the many highlights found on Hedley's critically acclaimed debut album, MR. JUKEBOX, available now via Third Man for streaming and download HERE.

Third Man recording artist Joshua Hedley has announced Apple Music's exclusive premiere of his latest video, 'Weird Thought Thinker,' streaming HERE. 'Weird Thought Thinker' is but one of the many highlights found on Hedley's critically acclaimed debut album, MR. JUKEBOX, available now via Third Man for streaming and download HERE.

Move over, Thelma and Louise!  When Lana Mae Hopkins, owner and proprietress of the Wishy Washy Washateria, hires Katie Lane Murphy to help out in the Laundromat, they soon find themselves up to their elbows in soap, suds, and cheatin' hearts.  Watch these two country angels join forces to turn their good ol' Laundromat into a boot-scootin' honky-tonk, exacting a touch of revenge against those that done 'em wrong, and all while guaranteeing each and every customer a good, clean time!  Take a ride to Nashville heaven in this new musical from from the author of THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES & LIFE COULD BE A DREAM.  

Imagine working in musical theatre, doing what you love with a good friend. Add in some classic and contemporary country music and you have the story behind the story of the musical Honky Tonk Laundry opening July 21 at The Show Palace Dinner Theatre. Millicent Hunnicut and Bridgette Karl star respectively as Lana Mae Hopkins, owner of the Wishy Washy Washateria and employee, Katie Lane Murphy. Both Millicent and Bridgette performed together at Show Palace in The Great American Trailer Park under the talented direction of Matthew Belopavlovich. Just like the characters they play, the actresses bonded and when an opportunity arose to perform the two-women show with Matthew as the director, the two jumped at the chance.

Four wildly talented actor-musicians deliver a toe-tapping, hand-clapping, sing-along summer experience for all generations in Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie, back by popular demand at People's Light. Folk revolutionary Guthrie showed you can strum a revolution with joy. Current troubadour David M. Lutken and friends celebrate the fascinating, beautiful, and sometimes tragic life of the legend who inspired Dylan, Springsteen, DiFranco, and an entire songwriting tradition. Featuring 15 instruments, 25 songs, and comprised almost entirely of Guthrie's own words, Woody Sez runs August 1-26 on the Leonard C. Haas Stage in Malvern.

getTV invites music fans of all ages to spend Sunday evenings this summer with one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, having sold more than 90 million records worldwide, Mr. Johnny Cash.  Known as “The Man in Black,” his TV series, which debuted in 1969 and ran for two seasons, featured high profile guest stars representing every style of popular music of the day. This summer, getTV will air episodes of “The Johnny Cash Show,” which haven't been shown on TV in decades, beginning July 8 at 10PM ET/9C.

London's Dirty Water Records, together along Metronomo Management (Lisbon), Peer Music and Alter-K Records (Paris) and in cooperation with Sony Music/Jive Epic, are pleased to announce the US and UK album release of 'Misfit' by European blues-punk sensation, The Legendary Tigerman (A.K.A. Paulo Furtado). 'Misfit' will be released on Dirty Water Records in the US and UK territories on August 24th, 2018 and will feature limited edition white coloured 12' vinyl coupled with four exclusive and unreleased bonus tracks entitled 'Misfit Ballads EP'.

For the 3rd consecutive year, Miranda Lambert's charitable organization, MuttNation Foundation, has proven that country fans have hearts as big as her home state of Texas by coming out and adopting 56 dogs during the 4-day event at the Music City Center – with over 150 MuttNation pups adopted at this event alone over the 3-year period.

MIKE JUDGE PRESENTS: TALES FROM THE TOUR BUS, chronicling the exploits of legendary music artists, will return for a second season later this year, it was announced today by Kary Antholis, president, HBO Miniseries and CineMax Programming. While the first season of the show spotlighted country musicians, the new season will focus on funk music greats, including James Brown, George Clinton and Bootsy Collins.

MIKE JUDGE PRESENTS: TALES FROM THE TOUR BUS, chronicling the exploits of legendary music artists, will return for a second season later this year, it was announced today by Kary Antholis, president, HBO Miniseries and CINEMAX Programming. While the first season of the show spotlighted country musicians, the new season will focus on funk music greats, including James Brown, George Clinton and Bootsy Collins.

For decades, Nashville America Records has been the label home for David Frizzell's individual projects as well as the renowned Frizzell & Friends collaborations produced by the country music icon. Those collaborations have included projects with Merle Haggard, Crystal Gayle, Johnny Lee, Gene Watson, T. Graham Brown, Lacy J. Dalton, Jimmy Fortune (Statler Brothers), John Cowan (New Grass Revival), and many more top names. After being invited by a friend to hear Sarah Patrick perform, Frizzell soon signed the young singer/songwriter to his label. Reminiscent of a young Loretta Lynn, Sarah writes songs about life's joys and challenges: love, motherhood, romance, heartbreak and disappointment.

Sordid Lives, a dark comedy by Del Shores, is playing at Out Front Theatre Company this month. BroadwayWorld caught up with T.K. Habtemariam, an Atlanta-based actor who plays Earl "Brother Boy" Ingram in Out Front's upcoming production, to talk about the show. I haven't seen this show before, but I've done a little bit of reading. So, it's about a woman named Peggy who trips over her lover's wooden legs in a hotel room and dies. Yeah. Exactly. And it's funny that her name is Peggy, too. It is? Yeah. I mean, because the fact that she dies because of the wooden legs. Peg-gy. That's really funny. I'm interested to know how your character figures into this story. Brother Boy…Earl Ingram… probably was a little bit before his time, and at the age of 18, he was kicked out of his household for being one big old queer boy. And he was actually put into a mental institution for wanting to either impersonate women or for liking someone of the same sex. And, essentially, back when I was 18, I had a friend named Wardell, and he found out that I had a crush on hi, and he beat me up to a bloody pulp, and my mother, Peggy, who ends up tripping over her lover's wooden legs, put me in a mental institution because she believes the world is not ready for me and my place in this world. But Wardell, 20 years later, ends up busting me out of the mental institution. This is kind of interesting because when I read about the show online, it sounded like a straight silly comedy, but now it sort of sounds like it tackles some real issues. Oh, it's definitely a black comedy, and it definitely tackles a lot of issues. It's traditionally an all-white cast, and we color-flipped the main family, and we've kind of found ourselves in a new definition of the kind of topics that it tackles It was written in the 90s, and it kind of reflects the Southern mentality form the 90s, but now that we're putting it in the context of a black family, there are so many other social issues that are underlying that wouldn't have been beforehand. That was one of the questions that I was going to ask was how the story has changed because of this casting. This is the first all-African-American cast ever, right? Yes. It is. And it's such an honor for me to say I'm the first African-American Brother Boy because Leslie Jordan originated the role, and I remember seeing this movie in high-school and revisiting, I was like "Oh, my goodness. I actually did see this movie." And it is definitely a fantasy in the sense of what anyone of color could get away with. If there was anyone who was queer and of color in a mental institution for being gay, I don't know if that person would still be alive. And Wardell, who busts into the mental institution, comes in with a gun and busts me out, and we both tell this white lady to get the hell out of this place. If that were to happen in the 90s in South Texas, I promise you they wouldn't be alive. And, you know, it does bring in the idea of the interracial relationship, but that's kind of at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to all of the other issues that we cover. Even though I would like to say that Brother Boy has access to mental healthcare and someone who's queer and of color…that's kind of like the last group of people who get healthcare. And also there are moments where black women talk back to white men. There are moments when a black woman tells off a white man. There are moments, when it comes to social diversity back then… You know, we think of period pieces like To Kill a Mockingbird where we are so used to saying, "Okay. Well, at this time, black people were called niggers, so we're just going to have to expect it, you know?" But when it comes to things like I'm a black male in a mental institution for fantasizing about country queens like Tammy Wynette, and I do believe that my character would probably identify as a trans person but back then "trans" wasn't in our vocabulary, so there's the interesting discussion there to happen. So, it just kind of flares up a lot of things that couldn't have happened back then, but today we're using theatre as a way to tell a story that probably wouldn't have ever happened to bring up discussions today. We've had lots of conversations as a team about what these things mean to us today, and a lot of things have to be dug up. For instance, there's a line where a character calls somebody a mulatto. When we think of a white-trash family, we kind of accept the fact that they're going to poke fum at somebody being mixed, but how does it look when a white person says that to a black person? There have been some modifications, of course, with the generosity of Del Shores, where we've kind of said, "Can you rework this or find a way to make this…" And he was into that? He was willing to make those changes? Oh, yeah! He had to think about the script and rework it and rewrite some lines. There are some lines where - I am a black person, and we have to take into consideration that I wouldn't just idolize Tammy Wynette, you know? There are so many other queens at that time. We found moments where I can bring up Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner because that would be reflective of the culture and of the time. When you first auditioned for the role, what was it about the role that really resonated with you? I think that number one is my character type. You always have to think about what kind of roles you are peaked for, in all honesty. I'm usually someone who's taking someone down or who is being taken down. My character-type is the "betrayer" or the "betrayed." And Brother Boy is that kind of character. And then, I do drag as a little side passion project here in Atlanta, and I work with a predominantly queer POC group called Southern Fried Queer Pride, and I've had opportunities to perform in drag, write drag shows, and the play is kind of an amalgamation of both theatre and drag. And it's a cult classic role! Why wouldn't I want to be a part of it? And once I started meeting my castmates and we had rehearsals and what not, the bigger picture started panning out and I stated to see, "Oh, okay. This is what this is really all about." Do you have any projects coming up this summer that we need to know about? There's a passion project that I'm working on. It's kind of like the second installation of it. It's called Weavestock, and it's going to be through Country Fried Queer Pride. It's going to be hopefully happening sometime in August, and it's a project that I'm writing, directing, and being a part of. It's kind of like a play on Woodstock and Wigstock, a phenomenon that happened in New York in the late 80s and early 90s. Lots of drag icons used to perform at Wigstock. Weavestock is basically a celebration of all-black drag. It moves like a jukebox musical where there are written scenes with drag performances. A lot of times, you know, you have to create your own opportunities. Right now, I'm working on cultivating my writing skills and my directing skills and just hoping to create more opportunities for myself herein Atlanta. Sounds like you're on the right track! Looking forward to seeing the show.

Amas Musical Theatre(Donna Trinkoff, Artistic Producer) and The Amas Musical Theatre Lab will present further staged readings of Play It by Heart, a new musical, with music by David Spangler, Jerry Taylorand Marty Dodson, lyrics byDavid Spangler, Jerry Taylor,R.T. Robinson, and Marty Dodson, and book byWilly Holtzman. Directed by Daniel Goldsteinwith music direction by Andrew Wilder, the readings (by invitation only) will be held on Thursday, May 17 at 1pm and 5pm at Opry City Stage (48th/49th& Broadway).

BWW:UK caught up with Luke Thomas, musical director of new theatre show Nashville Live to chat about the upcoming tour.

Direct from Music City, U.S.A, American country music spectacular Nashville Live is to get its UK premiere in June.

Celebrate the leading ladies of country music when Rubicon Theatre Company presents Broadway's Melissa Hammans in NASHVILLE GAL as part of the 2018 Janet and Mark L. Goldenson Broadway Concert Series.

Florida Studio Theatre announces its 36th annual Richard and Betty Burdick New Play Reading Series, which will present three new staged readings by modern American playwrights. Part of FST's Sarasota Festival of New Plays, this three-day series will take place in Bowne's Lab Theatre on April 29, May 6, and May 13 at 3 PM each day. This series is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. Reservations can be made online at www.floridastudiotheatre.org, by phone at (941) 366-9000, or by visiting the FST Box Office.

She plays guitar and is most comfortable in a t-shirt and jeans. She loves the music of Loretta Lynn and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Sarah Patrick doesn't just act country … she is country. And now, recording artist Sarah Patrick releases her first single this week on Nashville America Records.

The world premiere of playwright Yusuf Toropov's AN UNDIVIDED HEART receives a stunning mounting by The Echo Theater Company and Circle X Theatre Co. Director Chris Fields sure-handedly guides his talented cast through the involving story of a passionate young priest striving to do the right thing. In this case, publish an expose on the pedophilia prevalent in the Catholic church.