Will Sevier News

A perfect dozen of Nashville's favorite - and best-singing - actresses will claim the role of the iconic Fanny Brice in Keeping Scores Concert's upcoming Funny Girl in Concert, the inaugural production of the continuing concert series to be staged at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre. The twelve women portraying Fanny Brice at different times in her life - and in the musical's various scenes -include (in alphabetical order): Nancy Allen, Erica Haines Cantrell, Joann Coleman, Lindsay Terrizzi Hess, Catherine Mai Holder, Bonnie Keen, Cori Laemmel, Alex Maddox, Corrie Miller, Sondra Morton, Laura Thomas-Sonn and Heather Trabucco. Funny Girl in Concert will be presented for three performances at Boiler Room Theatre on April 29-30 and May 1. Joining Nashville's Funny Girls onstage for the concerts are Bakari King as Nicky Arnstein, Annette de la Torre as Mrs. Brice and Bryan Wlas as Eddie Ryan.

Of course, one way around that theatrical conundrum is to take the route that director Scott Logsdon and Keeping Scores Concerts at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre have embarked upon for three performances this weekend: Cast 12 different actresses as Fanny Brice, each one well-qualified to take on a particular song, allowing her to interpret, both musically and dramatically, the character of Fanny. And for support of the 12 actresses taking up the Fanny challenge, you'll need an amazingly gifted ensemble. The result? A wonderfully entertaining night at the theater, replete with outstanding performances from some of your favorite Nashville actors - and the chance to hear a beautiful, memorable score brought to life as it was meant to be heard by the team of composer Jule Styne, lyricist Bob Merrill and librettist Isobel Lennart.

Matt Logan could easily have rested on his laurels and simply re-staged the second offering of showHOPE's Cinderella, the Enchanted Edition in exactly the same manner as he did in 2010 - it was a magical evening, at the very least, and it would certainly be easier, acceptable even to his most loyal fans, to have done so. Instead, as expected, Logan, one of the region's finest and most inventive stage directors, chose to re-imagine his vision for Cinderella, giving it a more sophisticated presentation and breathing new vigor into the project while tapping heretofore unknown reserves of creativity among his cast and crew - and even himself.

A perfect dozen of Nashville's favorite - and best-singing - actresses will claim the role of the iconic Fanny Brice in Keeping Scores Concert's upcoming Funny Girl in Concert, the inaugural production of the continuing concert series to be staged at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre. The twelve women portraying Fanny Brice at different times in her life - and in the musical's various scenes -include (in alphabetical order): Nancy Allen, Erica Haines Cantrell, Joann Coleman, Lindsay Terrizzi Hess, Catherine Mai Holder, Bonnie Keen, Cori Laemmel, Alex Maddox, Corrie Miller, Sondra Morton, Laura Thomas-Sonn and Heather Trabucco. Funny Girl in Concert will be presented for three performances at Boiler Room Theatre on April 29-30 and May 1. Joining Nashville's Funny Girls onstage for the concerts are Bakari King as Nicky Arnstein, Annette de la Torre as Mrs. Brice and Bryan Wlas as Eddie Ryan.

Brought gloriously and vividly to life with effortless ease by director Jamey Green and his team of artistic collaborators, Annie Get Your Gun is the perfect chill-chasing harbinger of the new season, ushering in Spring with style, grace and good humor. At curtain, you'll find yourself shaking your head, wondering where the time went - so completely enthralled are you throughout the onstage proceedings. Kudos to Green (who pulls double-duty as music director - and conducts the superb onstage musical ensemble that includes some of Nashville theater's most accomplished players) and choreographer Pam Atha for their efforts, not the least of which is the perfect pairing of Corrie Miller and Matt Baugher as the musical's convincingly romantic leads.

Corrie Miller stars as the irrepressible Annie Oakley in Boiler Room Theatre's 11th season opening production of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, running February 11 through March 12 in Franklin.

The Boiler Room Theatre (BRT), Williamson County's resident professional theatre company, opens its 11 th season with Irving Berlin's classic musicalAnnie Get Your Gun opening February 11, 2011 at the theatre, located in the historic Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Rd., Building Six, in Franklin, Tenn. for a run through March 12.

Corrie Miller stars as the irrepressible Annie Oakley in Boiler Room Theatre's 11th season opening production of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, running February 11 through March 12 in Franklin.

The Boiler Room Theatre (BRT), Williamson County's resident professional theatre company, opens its 11 th season with Irving Berlin's classic musicalAnnie Get Your Gun opening February 11, 2011 at the theatre, located in the historic Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Rd., Building Six, in Franklin, Tenn. for a run through March 12.

Nashville's divas proved their mettle and showed their immense talents in 2010 while assaying some of the most challenging and best loved roles in all of musical theater. Ranging from classic musical comedy heroines that any actress would love to play to newer, more contemporary characters, Music City's women were given the opportunity to showcase their multitude of talents on various stages while again proving they are capable of virtually anything - and everything. Here are our choices for the top ten musical performances by an actress in 2010...

With an imaginative staging and details-oriented direction by Matt Logan, with the superb musical direction of Nathan Burbank and the spirited choreography of Ashley Anderson McCarthy (who does double duty as 'Minnie Fay' in the cast - and has never looked lovelier onstage), Studio Tenn's first official season kicks off in high style with this charming production that is as colorful and heartwarming as any we've seen.

Martha Wilkinson directs a cast of Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre favorites in the upcoming Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, the latest installment of the Sanders Family trilogy, conceived by Alan Bailey and written by Connie Ray. With Tim Fudge (who directed the last installment - Sanders Family Christmas - during the holiday season) as music director, the show runs July 22-August 28.

Martha Wilkinson directs a cast of Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre favorites in the upcoming Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, the latest installment of the Sanders Family trilogy, conceived by Alan Bailey and written by Connie Ray. With Tim Fudge (who directed the last installment - Sanders Family Christmas - during the holiday season) as music director, the show runs July 22-August 28.

There comes a moment late in act two of the Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre production of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming when now-married, about-to-give-birth daughter June Sanders Oglethorpe delivers a beautiful monologue in which she talks about her love for her family, her excitement at being a new mother, her devotion to her preacher husband's work and what it means to leave home and family for a new life adventure.

Martha Wilkinson directs a cast of Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre favorites in the upcoming Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, the latest installment of the Sanders Family trilogy, conceived by Alan Bailey and written by Connie Ray. With Tim Fudge (who directed the last installment - Sanders Family Christmas - during the holiday season) as music director, the show runs July 22-August 28.

Martha Wilkinson directs a cast of Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre favorites in the upcoming Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, the latest installment of the Sanders Family trilogy, conceived by Alan Bailey and written by Connie Ray. With Tim Fudge (who directed the last installment - Sanders Family Christmas - during the holiday season) as music director, the show runs July 22-August 28.

What with all the star power of the assembled cast - featuring such theatre luminaries as Heather Headley, Alli Mauzey, Jodi Benson and Anthony Fedorov - it should come as something of a surprise that showHOPE's concert version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella was very nearly stolen out from under them by some homegrown Nashville talent. No matter how you look at it, Cinderella was a completely magical and enchanting success, but had it not been for Nashville's very own Nan Gurley, Bonnie Keen and Carolyn German as Cinderella's nefarious stepfamily, the show wouldn't have been anywhere near as good as it actually was.

For Matt Logan, staging a special concert version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella is the culmination of a long-held dream of his to bring just such a production to his hometown of Nashville, perhaps best known as Music City USA. Now, with Nashville rebuilding after devastating floods in early May, the benefit performance for Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman's showHOPE organization is perhaps even more timely -- and it has certainly taken on a deeper meaning and a more compelling resonance.

Laura Thomas Sonn and Ciaran McCarthy lead the cast as Luisa and Matt, the star-crossed lovers in Boiler Room Theatre's production of The Fantasticks, opening Friday, March 19 and running through Saturday, April 17, at the theatre located in The Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Road, Building Six. Will Sevier stars as El Gallo.

McCarthy's boyishly appealing Matt, Sonn's winsomely beguiling Luisa and Sevier's beautifully sung El Gallo are, clearly, the lynchpins that guarantee audiences will respond favorably to the show, and they are given ample support from a gifted veteran cast assembled by Morton. Morton's direction is sure-handed and confident, with her obvious care and genuine affection for the piece apparent throughout the quickly moving production. Coupled with Green's exquisite musical direction and the accompaniment of his three-person band which ensures that the actors have the requisite musical underpinnings for their performances, The Fantasticks lends further credence to Boiler Room's ever-expanding reputation as a thoroughly professional theatrical venue in a city where musical theatre truly shines.