Jeffrey Ellis - Page 105

Memory Strong, Kandace Williams, Circle Players' cast of Company and The Keeton Theatre's reveal of their 2012 season will highlight Midwinter's First Night, to be held Sunday, January 8, at The Keeton Theatre in Nashville, for the presentation of the BroadwayWorld.com Nashville Theatre Awards and the BroadwayWorld.com Tennessee Theatre Awards.

If there is an onstage moment more breathtaking, more purely theatrical, than the one during Nashville's Nutcracker when the green upstage curtain falls at the end of the exquisitely danced "Waltz of the Flowers," I simply cannot recall it nor would I want to-for it is during that brief respite from an evening filled with stunning artistry and the revelatory staging of this time-honored holiday classic that you find yourself thoroughly done in, overwhelmed by the riches of the production that once again proves Nashville Ballet the city's leading arts entity.

Hosted by country artist and Tony-nominated Broadway star Laura Bell Bundy, and taped at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee, nearly 700 Belmont University student musicians will join the Belmont School of Music faculty and the Nashville Children¹s Choir for 'Christmas at Belmont.' The annual production of traditional carols, classical masterworks, world music and light-hearted seasonal favorites will air on PBS stations nationwide beginning Thursday, December 22. Please check local listings to confirm air dates and times. Nashville Public Television (NPT-Channel 8) will air 'Christmas at Belmont' on Thursday, December 22 at 8 p.m. (CST) and re-broadcast the concert on Christmas Day at 7 p.m. (CST).

Restaging Studio Tenn's A Christmas Carol for the company's new home at the lavishly restored historic Franklin Theatre, director/designer Matt Logan manages to give new and invigorated life to the time-honored tale while interpreting it in a manner that is tremendously appealing and accessible, adding an almost cinematic flow to the proceedings. A revival of Studio Tenn's 2010 A Christmas Carol, Logan's staging is altered somewhat to accommodate the confines of the new venue, as well as to capitalize on the strengths of his cast, which includes an artful blending of new and returning players.

Bob Gunton, the musical theater star who was Tony Award-nominated for his turn as Broadway's original Juan Peron in Evita, returns to his Tennessee theatrical roots next May in one of the highlights of the 2012 season at Cumberland County Playhouse which is announced today. Gunton stars in Walking On Water, "an evening of musical theater and song," opening May 18 at the Crossville theater where he debuted in 1965 in Tennessee, USA!, Paul Crabtree's musical homage to his home state.

GroundWorks Theatre greets the holiday season with Robert A. O'Connell's original comedy The Very Different Christmas Dinner, running December 9-18, at Darkhorse Theater.

When director Paul Cook held auditions for Circle Players' production of Stephen Sondheim's Company, he had no trouble finding a devoted and enthusiastic cast for the show, which opens January 6 at the Keeton Theatre.

Sideshow Ensemble is comprised of 12 self-proclaimed theatre 'freaks' that form a proverbial melting pot of emerging Nashville artists. Sideshow, a ten-month training immersion and theatrical cross training program, strengthens the core disciplines and bolster additional skills by providing opportunities for the 'freaks' to train and exhibit skills outside of their current artistic disciplines. The Flu Season will be their first foray into full-scale production together.

Truth be told, seeing Martha Wilkinson in a black pageboy wig while she delivers a wonderfully droll comic character performance might be worth the price of a ticket to Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre's revival of Boeing-Boeing, the Marc Camoletti farce (adapted by Beverly Cross) under the direction of Charles Burr that is running throughout the month of December. But Wilkinson's superb performance notwithstanding, there's much more to love about the show.

With a plethora of theater productions of A Christmas Carol filling local stages throughout December, you'd be hard-pressed to not find yourself in the audience of one of those productions. But if you have the presence of mind-and a ticket-you'd search far and wide for a more pleasing rendition of Charles Dickens' iconic work than the one now onstage at Hendersonville's Living To Go Church courtesy of the new Actors Point Theatre Company, which is dedicated to bringing professional theater to Sumner County.

Dance-the quality of performance, the merits of the performers, the creativity of the choreographers-at Middle Tennessee State University has certainly improved since the last time I reviewed the fall dance concert at MTSU. Of course, it was 32 years ago and the dance program at the university has grown by leaps and bounds.

Janie and John Chaffin and company have decked the halls and baked the cookies, so Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, the venerable Nashville theatre celebrating its 45th year of bringing the best of Broadway to Music City USA, ushers in yet another holiday season with three shows offered for audiences of all ages.

Obie Award-winning director Les Waters today has been named as the new artistic director at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Waters, who for the past eight years has been the associate artistic director at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, will begin transition to his new post effective January 9, 2012 and assume full-time duties at Actors Theatre in late March.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre will once again present the holiday cult A Christmas Story adapted by Phillip Grecian and based on the motion picture by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown, and Bob Clark. A Christmas Story runs December 8-22 at TPAC's Johnson Theater.

An Adult Guide to the Orchestra is described as 'a fun and witty look at symphony orchestras and the musicians who create the music.' Written by Sheldon Kurland, a classically trained musician who studied at Juilliard and was later known for his influence in bringing the lush string sound to Country Music in Nashville (Music City), during the heyday of "the Nashville Sound," this irreverent book casts a humorous light to the somewhat serious world of classical music.

Nashville Children's Theatre (NCT) will be revamped-for one night only-for the 21 and up crowd on the evening of Friday, December 9, when the theater holds Big Kid Night, "because kids shouldn't have all the fun," featuring a performance of Junie B. In Jingle Bells, Batman Smells!, starring Brooke Bryant as the irrepressible first grader Junie B. Jones.

Lakewood Theatre invites audiences to spend Christmas with Laura, Mary, Carrie, Ma, Pa Ingalls-along with a few surprise visitors-in A Laura Ingalls Wilder Christmas, a play with music, running at Lakewood Theatre December 2-17.

Featuring a cast of actors from throughout Middle Tennessee, The Renaissance Players will present the musicalized version of a holiday classic, A Christmas Carol, The Musical, December 2- 18 in the Anne Deason Performance Hall at The Renaissance Center in Dickson. The Charles Dickens classic gets the full Broadway treatment with music by Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid) and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens (Ragtime, Seussical).

Under the sure-handed direction of Morton, who has brought together an impressive cast of adult actors with two different casts of youngsters, the whole of Oliver! is remarkable, a thoroughly delightful evening of theater that allows those older thespians to show off their talents while showcasing the budding talents of her younger charges, who display stage presence and focus throughout the tune-filled musical. In fact, it is Morton's skilled and practiced eye in regards to casting that really sets this Oliver! apart from any of the others we've seen. Frankly, the woman knows what she's doing.

Directed by David Alford, who certainly knows his way around the breakroom (what with his own experiences playing Crumpet the elf, Sedaris' velvet smock/candy can tights-wearing doppelganger), The Santaland Diaries is the perfect seasonal antidote for the countless, treacly-sweet productions of A Christmas Carol that will dominate the Nashville theatrical landscape over the coming weeks.