Today, we bring you a list of the most-read stories in our regional markets for the week of September 10 in another edition of 'Around BWW: Regional Highlights of the Week'. Browse over to your favorite far-away city/country to see what's making news, see what productions are playing around the country and overseas and get to know new performers! Enjoy this virtual trek around the globe and stay tuned for next week's recap of regional not-to-be-missed news!
Two of Cumberland County Playhouse's favorite actresses and singers-Weslie Webster and Brenda Frye-will be presented in a special 8 p.m. concert performance on Saturday, September 29, entitled interestingly enough An Evening with Brenda Frye and Weslie Webster.
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…
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…
McGovern creatively opens and closes the musical with an image that evokes all the glitter and glamor of old Hollywood: the presentation of the Academy Awards in 1941, the year that Ginger Rogers beat out such adversaries as Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Joan Fontaine and Martha Scott for the best actress Oscar for her performance of "knocked-up shopgirl" Kitty Foyle.
Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to Nashville.BroadwayWorld.com's latest installment of The Friday Five: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find on stages in the Volunteer State. Today-which is Thursday, not Friday, a fact of which I am well aware-we focus our spotlight on Jessica Wockenfuss, the lovely star of Cumberland County Playhouse's Backwards in High Heels, which opens tomorrow night (which actually is a Friday-July 27) and continues through November 2.
Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to Nashville.BroadwayWorld.com's latest installment of The Friday Five: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find on stages in the Volunteer State. Yes, I'm well aware that the calendar says today is Wednesday, but there's a method to my madness: Opening Friday night at Cumberland County Playhouse in Crossville is Backwards in High Heels: The Ginger Rogers Musical which stars today's Friday Fiver-Douglas Waterbury-Tieman-in the pivotal role of Fred Astaire!
Jeremy Benton has come a long way since he was dancing around in the backyard of his family's home in Springfield, Tennessee. In fact, way back when-before he even had his first dance class with Cherri Coleman at the Springfield School of Classical Dance-for all he knew he might have even created or invented what he later learned was referred to as "tap."
But The Music Man? Come on, the classic Meredith Willson musical chestnut is as corny and all-American as you can possibly get (let's face it, Willson is the master of that particular genre of musical theater occupied by The Music Man and The Unsinkable Molly Brown-plus he wrote the Oscar-nominated score for William Wyler's The Little Foxes, which is one of my all-time favorite movies: "The grits didn't hold they heat"), it's pure hokum and there is absolutely nothing at all cynical about it. So why the heck does it make me respond with some emotional fervor?
Ginger Rogers danced her way into the hearts of millions-and into the arms of Fred Astaire-in some of filmdom's best-loved musicals. Beginning July 27, Cumberland County Playhouse gives you the chance to see Ginger's awe-inspiring story brought to life in Backwards in High Heels, a new musical set to some of the 20th century's best-known music.
Musical Theater and dance join hands again this year at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse as CCP dancer/performers Leila Nelson and Aven Chadwell lead the performance education initiative for the theater's education department.
Today's spotlight hones in on a supremely talented trio of individuals from Cumberland County Playhouse in Crossville. The altogether amazingly talented Ron Murphy is the company's resident music director (who truly has his work cut out for him since musicals are the stock in trade at CCP), the beautiful and vibrant Lindy Pendzick (who we first saw onstage in Brigadoon and most recently as Maria in The Sound of Music-and she stars opposite her husband Greg Pendzick in the nostalgic comedy See Rock City) and the versatile and charming Michael Ruff (whose burgeoning resume includes starmaking turns in Duck Hunter Shoots Angel, Dreamgirls, Brigadoon and, most recently, as Hoke in Driving Miss Daisy, opposite Carol Irvin and Daniel W. Black).
Summer's here, and it's hotter than blue blazes in Tennessee, as theater companies from one end of the state to the other are hard at work to keep audiences engaged and entertained throughout what promises to be one long hot summer. But think of it this way, with yesterday's Summer Solstice-which means we've survived the year's longest day-everything will get just a little bit shorter, promising a respite from the heat and humidity. This week also marked the celebration of National Martini Day, so may we humbly suggest that you grab a shaker, add some ice, vodka and a whisper of vermouth and shake yourself up an ice-cold drink…
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. Art Isn't Easy: A Celebration of the Joys and Challenges of the Creative Life (the cabaret's title is taken from a lyric in the score of Stephen Sondheim's 1983 musical Sunday in the Park With George) will feature such Playhouse favorites Daniel Black, Lauren Marshall Murphy, Leila Nelson, Lindy Pendzick, Greg Pendzick, Austin Price, Michael Ruff 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. Art Isn't Easy: A Celebration of the Joys and Challenges of the Creative Life (the cabaret's title is taken from a lyric in the score of Stephen Sondheim's 1983 musical Sunday in the Park With George) will feature such Playhouse favorites Daniel Black, Lauren Marshall Murphy, Leila Nelson, Lindy Pendzick, Greg Pendzick, Austin Price, Michael Ruff and more.
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.
Cumberland County Playhouse audiences can journey with Alice down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass, into a magical land in the Playhouse's production of Wonderland, a vivid show of song, dance, and theatre, running April 26-28.
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.
Cumberland County Playhouse audiences can journey with Alice down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass, into a magical land in the Playhouse's production of Wonderland, a vivid show of song, dance, and theatre, running April 26-28.
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.
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