Jeffrey Ellis - Page 100

Jake Speck and Matt Logan decided to add the musical to Studio Tenn's 2011-2012 season after the success of Guys and Dolls in August 2011, the debut theatrical production at the Franklin Theatre. The company has seen continued success with subsequent plays, A Christmas Carol-which sold out so rapidly that two encore performances were added-and The Miracle Worker, which wrapped up its run last weekend.

First Night Award-winning actress-cabaret artist, music director, conductor, all-around theater personality-Ginger Newman tackles the role of "Mama Rose" in the musical theater classic Gypsy to highlight the 2012-13 season at The Keeton Theatre, which celebrates its tenth year with shows to appeal to both theater and movie aficionados alike, featuring several local premieres heretofore unproduced by Nashville area companies.

In recognition of The Barn's 45 years of bringing the magic of live theater to the stage, we continue our special series of Onstage at The Barn: Memories from The First 45 Years, with actress Amanda Lamb, who made her debut at The Barn in the 2005, and who handled phone duties for the company for a number of years before heading back to graduate school. Luckily, for local audiences, she's still available to work on some shows from time-to-time and luckily, for us, she found time to offer her backstage/onstage/offstage memories of Nashville's legendary dinner theater.

In recognition of The Barn's 45 years of bringing the magic of live theater to the stage, we continue our special series of Onstage at The Barn: Memories from The First 45 Years, with actor Lane Wright, one of Nashville's most easily recognizable actors, who most recently starred in The Rainmaker and right now is onstage at Nashville's Z. Alexander Looby Theatre in The Disappearance of Janey Jones, presented by Tennessee Women's Theater Project (which is directed by Maryanna Clarke, herself a Barn alum).

Nashville actor Max Desir didn't expect to have such a personal connection to the character he would be playing in Circle Playears' upcoming revival of Titanic the Musical, when he was cast in the show, set to play James K. Polk Theatre at the Tennessee Peforming Arts Center just days before the centennial of the great ship's sinking in frigid ocean waters on April 14, 1912.

Lakewood Community Theatre Company 2011-voted Best Community Theatre Company in the 2011 Nashville.BroadwayWorld.com Awards-will host Into the Lakewood, a special networking event for the local musical theatre community and its supporters in celebration of the upcoming September, 2012 regional premiere of the critically-acclaimed original musical revue, The Gym.

In recognition of The Barn's 45 years of bringing the magic of live theater to the stage, we continue our special series of Onstage at The Barn: Memories from The First 45 Years, with actor Michael Edwards, who made his debut at The Barn in the 1970, continuing to work there until 1990. For many people from that era, Mike Edwards was-and still is, in so many ways-the face of Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, the actor most recognizable for the long list of roles he played there.

In recognition of The Barn's 45 years of bringing the magic of live theater to the stage, we continue our special series of Onstage at The Barn: Memories from The First 45 Years, with actor Mark Delabarre, who made his debut at The Barn in the 1997 production of Sugar Babies-the Broadway musical comedy hit that actually got its start at the Clarence Brown Theatre at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. And like Nancy Allen and Dietz Osborne (the first two Barn alums to take part in our continuing series), Delabarre's memories of working at the theater are vivid, funny and heartfelt.

Unseasonably warm weather in Middle Tennessee has ushered in the threat of severe storms and tornadic activity in the Nashville area today, March 2, forcing many of theater companies to cancel performances originally scheduled for tonight.

Now owned by the second-generation Chaffins-John and Janie, who were recognized among Nashville's Top Entrepreneurs of 2012 by Business Leader Magazine-The Barn has touched the lives of many, both onstage and off-, and today we continue our special series of Onstage at The Barn: Memories from The First 45 Years, with actor/director/playwright Dietz Osborne, who made his debut at The Barn in a 1998 production of Guys and Dolls-and up until recently, his was the voice you heard on the company's voice mail system directing you which number to push when you call in to make reservations, inquire about group events or to buy a gift certificate.

Today's spotlight falls upon Kay Ayers, one of Nashville's favorite and most versatile actresses, who this weekend completes her run as Melpomene in Boiler Room Theatre's production of Xanadu, in which she delivers a "deliciously wicked" performance (paired with Julie Brown-of "The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun" fame-doppelganger Jordan Tudor), which allows her to show off her gorgeous voice and her dead-on comic timing.

Now owned by the second-generation Chaffins-John and Janie, who were recognized among Nashville's Top Entrepreneurs of 2012 by Business Leader Magazine-The Barn has touched the lives of many, both onstage and off-, and today we launch our special series of Onstage at The Barn: Memories from The First 45 Years, with actress Nancy Allen, who first set foot on that magical levitating stage in a production of The Robber Bridegroom, directed by Rene Dunshee Copeland.

You won't find any dancing candelabra or see any anthropomorphic bombe chests bursting out in song in Nashville Children's Theatre's beautifully crafted adaptation of The Beauty and The Beast-written by producing artistic director Scot Copeland under the title Le Belle et la Bete-but what you will find is a heartfelt iteration of the timeless tale, one filled with romantic wonder and exquisite storytelling, based upon the "fairy tale" by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont.

Granted, Babes in Hollywood isn't for all theater audiences-although, frankly, it should be…what's with you people?-and you'll certainly love it more if you're at least somewhat informed about the Garland/Rooney film oeuvre or the legendarily close relationship the two young stars forged as children and continued throughout their lives. Although that friendship was abruptly ended in 1969 when Garland died in London (I remember reading the news in the Memphis Press-Scimitar as a sixth grader), I've no doubt Mickey Rooney still has conversations with his old pal, somewhere within the recesses of his memory and his heart.

Directed by John McDonald and starring Colin Ryan as Leontes, Evy Gildrie-Voyles as Queen Hermione and Brandon Meeks as Polixenes, The Winter's Tale also features Josh Bernaski as Antigonus, Ryan Bowie as Camillo, Hannah Church as Emilia, Jay Doolittle as the Shepherd, Ted Jones as Autolycus, Travis Kendrick as the Clown, Ashley Laverty as Paulina, Gregory Pember (by permission of Actor's Equity) as Florizel and Kendall Anne Thompson as Perdita.

The Arts Center of Cannon County in Woodbury invites theater-goers to "rediscover the grandeur of one of history's greatest love stories" via Lerner and Loewe's timeless musical Camelot-starring John Blankenship, Katherine Sandoval Taylor and Kinsey Brewer-opening March 9.

Latin Heat and other ballets-a celebration of dance, music and love-promises to be the hottest post-Valentine's Day ticket in Nashville, according to Christopher Mohnani, producing artistic director of Tennessee Dance Theatre.

I'm happy to report that director Clarke and her capable actors have delivered a well-paced, thoughtful iteration of Fawcett's work, one that is certain to promote conversation and introspection, and which TWTP audiences have taken to their collective heart. In fact, The Disappearance of Janey Jones fits perfectly into TWTP's mission of giving women their full voice via the theater arts while provoking thought and discussion through the company's continued examination of the very things in life that affect-and confound-us all.

When Patty Duke played the role of Helen Keller in the Broadway premiere of William Gibson's The Miracle Worker, she was ten years old, and when Madeleine Hall took the stage of the Franklin Theatre on Thursday night in the opening of Studio Tenn's exquisitely crafted revival of the modern American theater classic, she too was ten years old. And it should be noted that as portentous as Duke's debut came to be known, theater lovers still to come may very well consider Madeleine Hall's beautifully crafted performance just as revelatory and just as noteworthy.

Led by an ensemble that includes the always superb Michael Holder in the titular role of Tommy, the "deaf, dumb and blind kid" who becomes a "pinball wizard," setting off widespread public acclaim and becoming a cause celebre in the process, Tommy in Concert also features the inspired pairing of Holly Shepherd and Ben Van Diepen as Mrs. Walker and Captain Walker. Despite the age difference of the two actors-not to mention their youthfulness in relation to Holder's casting as their onstage son-Shepherd and Van Diepen are believably cast as young lovers who marry in the early days of World War II only to find that first blush of romantic dreaminess devolve into the nightmarish consequences that set the show's plot in motion.