Weslie Webster News

After 30 years away from her first professional theater home, Tennessee theater icon Martha Wilkinson proves that you can go home again as she directs Cumberland County Playhouse's first show of the 2016 season: Church Basement Ladies, which opened at the Crossville theater last Saturday, January 16.

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.

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.

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.

From November 13 through December 19, Cumberland County Playhouse presents SCROOGE, THE MUSICAL.

From November 13 through December 19, Cumberland County Playhouse presents SCROOGE, THE MUSICAL.

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.

Recent Broadway hits Mamma Mia! and The Little Mermaid - along with the 23rd year of the downhome-flavored Smoke on the Mountain - are among the highlights of the 2016 season at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse, which was announced during a Wednesday morning press conference at the Playhouse in the midst of its 50th anniversary season.

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.

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.

In December 1963, Paul Crabtree's The Perils of Pinocchio opened in the auditorium of the Cumberland Elementary School and created a county-wide storm of enthusiasm that gave birth to the Cumberland County Playhouse two years later. Now, on September 25 the Playhouse will present an updated version of the beloved musical fantasy as part of CCP's 50th Anniversary Season.

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.

September 4 through November 6, The Foreigner returns to the Cumberland County Playhouse Mainstage! Says director Weslie Webster (Smoke on the Mountain, Wizard of Oz),"Ever since it was first performed at CCP in 1987, The Foreigner has been the most requested title - and the most popular production - in Playhouse history. And I'm just thrilled that I once again get to work with all the amazing actors who made the show a smash hit last year."

Cumberland County Playhouse's Triple Threat Education Department has announced the addition of two new classes for the spring of 2015. "We're thrilled to five new classes for adults beginning this month," says Education Director Weslie Webster. "These new classes will offer students the opportunity to brush up on the basics in several different areas"

Opening tonight, August 6, Cumberland County Playhouse presents a madcap adventure about love, life, and man's eternal love affair with golf, The Fox on the Fairway! Written by Ken Ludwig (Crazy for You, Lend Me A Tenor, Moon Over Buffalo), The Fox on the Fairway pulls the rug out from under the stuffy members of a posh country club. Filled with mistaken identities, slamming doors, and over-the-top romantic shenanigans, it's a fast-paced comedy that recalls the Marx Brothers' classics. This hysterical comedy is sure to be a hit with everyone who loved Suite Surrender or The Foreigner!

Opening August 6, Cumberland County Playhouse presents a madcap adventure about love, life, and man's eternal love affair with golf, The Fox on the Fairway! Written by Ken Ludwig (Crazy for You, Lend Me A Tenor, Moon Over Buffalo), The Fox on the Fairway pulls the rug out from under the stuffy members of a posh country club. Filled with mistaken identities, slamming doors, and over-the-top romantic shenanigans, it's a fast-paced comedy that recalls the Marx Brothers' classics. This hysterical comedy is sure to be a hit with everyone who loved Suite Surrender or The Foreigner!

And Sondra Morton, Jayme Smith and co. (that would be Act Too) stages their company's latest work at the historic Franklin Theatre - The Sound of Music - starring Kimberly Rye as Maria, Cameron Bortz as Rolf and the inimitable Matt Baugher as Georg Von Trapp. Check it out!

There are four new shows opening in the Middle Tennessee area this weekend, along with several other shows continuing their runs - Nobody's Perfect at Chaffin's Barn, KB Productions' The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife, Mary Poppins and Smoke on the Mountain at Cumberland County Playhouse, along with the final performance of Singin' in the Rain - so there's plenty of theater to keep you entertained through a hot July weekend. It's that time of year, so go have some fun!

Summer's theater lull has come to an end and Nashville/Tennessee audiences have a plethora of new openings to choose from iin the next fews days, leading to the season's busiest flush of new shows and productions. Whether it's a relatively new musical based on a fun film, the controversial revival of one of the late 20th century's most iconic musicals or the Nashville premiere of a new film starring some of the region's best known and most talented actors -- there's a lot of good stuff to be seen inside a theater...

Can you believe that it's already time to celebrate Independence Day - aka The Fourth of July - with the biggest-in-the-country fireworks display right here in Music City USA? We know how to celebrate America's Independence right here in Nashville and we expect even more tourists (playwright/actor/director/producer/bon vivant Del Shores is in town, for example, to get a taste of a down-home good time) than normal to fill our city's streets over the four-day holiday weekend.