Jeffrey Ellis - Page 55

Evelyn O'Neal Brush stars in the title role of Lauren Gunderson's Emilie: La Marquise du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight, as Tennessee Women's Theater Project continues its ninth season of provocative professional theater with the Tennessee premiere of Gunderson's play. The production opens at Nashville's Z. Alexander Looby Theater on February 19, running weekends through March 6. 

Luckily, for audiences of Towne Centre Theatre's 2016 season-opening Black Tie Broadway, an original revue conceived by director/arranger John Ray, they are offered two hours of entertainment given a luxe treatment by a 13-member cast who are having a swell time singing the best of musical theater. Consistent and confident, Ray's cast bring a plethora of showtunes to the stage of the Brentwood theater - some you'll remember from the very first note, others you may be hearing for the first time.

No matter how hackneyed and corny the script, if you have an experienced ensemble of actors who are adept at physical comedy, who have perfected their timing through years onstage and who are relatively fearless in their approach to a script (any script, most likely), chances are you can deliver a show that audiences will find delightful. That's certainly the case with If The Shoe Fits, the comedy now onstage through February 13 at Gaslight Dinner Theatre, the company in residence at Freed Hardeman University's Renaissance Center in Dickson.

Make no mistake about it: There is absolutely no way to avoid instantly liking Everett Tarlton - it's useless to even try. In fact, resistance is futile. The boy possesses so much innate charm that anyone - whether you're a director, a choreographer, an actor or even a critic - simply cannot resist him. And audiences? Those poor souls have no hope whatsoever.

Theater's next generation of actors will come from all over the globe, to be certain, but one might find an impressive concentration of artists on the campus of the University of Southern California, where the list of candidates for the Master of Fine Arts in acting rivals any group to be found anywhere. Take Adam Lebowitz-Lockard, for example. A native of Philadelphia, he was an English major at Boston University and he boasts a noteworthy resume of onstage assignments all over the country that other young actors might envy.

Wayne Kirkpatrick - the award-winning, chart-topping songwriter, one of the co-creators of the Tony Award-winning Something Rotten on Broadway, and the recipient of a special 2015 First Night Honor - will be in the spotlight today night, February 4, at Lipscomb University during An Awkward Conversation With Wayne Kirkpatrick.

The Crucible, Arthur Miller's incisive drama about the Salem Witchcraft Trials - written during the turbulent times of the Hollywood Red Scare and the oppression of the McCarthy era in American politics - premieres at Lipscomb University's Shamblin Theatre for a February 19-28 run in a joint production of Blackbird Theater and Lipscomb University Department of Theatre.

Arnold Lobel's beloved characters hop from page to stage February 13 and 20 as The Arts Center of Cannon County presented A Year With Frog and Toad, the Tony Award-nominated musical with book and lyrics by Willie Reale and music by Robert Reale.

Jaclynn Jutting directs Belmont University's Department of Theatre and Dance's spring semester-opening production of Lynn Nottage's Las Meninas, a play they contend will 'grab the attention of any audience member, of any background, opening February 19 at Belmont's Troutt Theatre.

2014 First Night Honoree – and one of Nashville's most acclaimed actresses, cabaret artists and music directors – Ginger Newman is “ready for [her] close-up,” as Norma Desmond in The Larry Keeton Theatre puts the finishing touches on their upcoming production of Andrew Lloyd Weber's Sunset Boulevard.

Members of the theater family flung far and wide - or at least as far as trains, planes, ships and automobiles can take them - are mourning the sudden passing last Friday of Ron McIntyre Fender, the man known as the "Saint of Chattanooga" for his efforts on behalf of the homeless and beloved by theater folk all over the world for his warm, welcoming and abiding friendship from his days as an actor, director, stage manager, company manager and artistic director.

Thus, we are happy to present one of our most popular features: The Nashville Theater Calendar, a comprehensive - maybe even exhaustive (lord knows we're exhausted from putting it together, gathering all the info from all over the interwebs!) - listing of theatrical openings for the 2015/16 season. We'll update the calendar every Monday, clearing out the shows that have closed and adding additional information on the shows still to come

There's nothing like a good musical revue - replete with well-chosen songs, performed by a talented coterie of professional performers who are ably supported by a cast of fresh-faced youngsters showing off their burgeoning talents in concert with their more seasoned counterparts - and The Collective (Nashville's newest theatrical endeavor aka The Music City Theatre Collective) certainly delivers the goods with the debut of Showstoppers, presented this weekend at St. Philip's Episcopal Church's Dimmick Hall in Donelson.

Succinctly put, Susannah Smith White is a force of nature, the total embodiment of the adage about 'great things coming in small packages.' In fact, if the phrase hadn't become a cliche so long before her birth, I'd wager it was first uttered with her in mind.

Dealing with the heretofore difficult to discuss subjects of teenaged depression and suicide, 7 Ways to Sunday opens up a necessary dialogue that is sure to save lives (regardless of how melodramatic that sounds, could one come to any other realization after experiencing the altogether life-changing events depicted in the musical?) thanks to the brutal - yet somehow funny, moving and totally affecting - truths expressed in the latest work from Laemmel, Fritsch and the other artists who call The Theater Bug home.

Can there be a better way to capture Matilda's spirit so evocatively than in a sparkling new work for the musical theater? A musical journey through which we can chart her soulful, heartfelt ascent into a literary hierarchy in which readers can live vicariously? Matilda's forays into a fictional world of devil-may-care adventure, oftentimes aided by her gift for telekinesis or her penchant for clever tricks (like switching her father's hair oil with her mother's peroxide) - which is at once darker than other offerings of like ilk, yet somehow rather more confectionary than even the fluffiest of musical comedies - lend themselves exquisitely to Matilda the Musical, the critically lauded stage extravaganza that is somehow effervescently uplifting while remaining grounded.

Music City Theatre Collective - the brainchild of Nashville artists Curtis Reed, Jenny Norris-Light, Chase Miller and Martha Wilkinson, among others - will launch its highly anticipated and rather unique company this weekend with a series of performances designed to highlight the Collective's upcoming endeavors.

Vanderbilt University's Sadie Andros, one of the region's busiest and most acclaimed young actors - she was Psyche and Aphrodite in last fall's production of Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses and takes on the role of Olivia in this spring's Vanderbilt Players' production of Twelfth Night - is among those students juggling schedules while dazzling audiences with her onstage antics.

Thus, we are happy to present one of our most popular features: The Nashville Theater Calendar, a comprehensive - maybe even exhaustive (lord knows we're exhausted from putting it together, gathering all the info from all over the interwebs!) - listing of theatrical openings for the 2016 season. We'll update the calendar every Monday, clearing out the shows that have closed and adding additional information on the shows still to come.

Dancer. Actor. Singer. Artist. Educator. Teacher. No matter what term you use to describe her, Christen Heilman exemplifies the very best of what we've come to expect of creative people making their way, while challenging themselves creatively, through the Nashville performing community.