Jeffrey Ellis - Page 50

As adept as he is on the drums - and make no mistake about it, Danny Young is headbangingly assertive and confident on the aforementioned drum kit - it might surprise you to know that at the ripe old age of eight, he actually started out as a singer in his family's quartet. And, to top it all off, he got his start in the business of show as a boy soprano.

There's a new show premiering at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse: The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers by Lori Fischer, the author of last year's Barbara's Blue Kitchen. Fischer's latest musical follows the adventures of two singing sisters from Ashland City, Tennessee, and the people who love them. Our question: Does Stratton's Diner (arguably the best burger joint ever in the history of the world) still exist in Fischer's depiction of the Cheatham County town? Director Bryce McDonald is being tight-lipped about it.

Bradley Moore's Music City Theatre Company debuts its 12th production tonight - Amy Herzog's 4,000 Miles - starring Taylor Novak, Terry Occhiogrosso, Britt Byrd and Cate Eunyoung Jo. Playing Nashville's iconic Darkhorse Theater through April 9, the show is an eagerly anticipated part of the 2016 theatrical season.

Here's your opportunity to get to know two Katies and an Isaac in The Friday 5: Katie Bays (who shares the role Morticia with Lissa de Guzman), Katie Davis (who's playing Wednesday, along with Caitlyn Poryako) and Isaac Brotzman (cast with Zachary Martin Waters as Uncle Fester). Read on - and then sang your tickets as quickly as possible!

Britt Byrd takes on the challenging role of Carnelle Scott in The Larry Keeton Theatre's upcoming production of Beth Henley's The Miss Firecracker Contest, running at the Donelson theater April 14-30 – the first presentation of a non-musical at The Keeton in quite some time, according to producer Jamie London.

Today, in a preview of what's to come on the Scottish moors (where mayhem and hijinks reportedly ensue), Brett Cantrell and Evan Taylor Williams take their places in The Friday 5 spotlight, giving us some insight into their theatrical lives and sharing why they think Baskerville is a perfect show for you. But, be forewarned: the altogether too-brief run is close to selling out, so securing your reservations for the rollicking mystery should be at the top of your "to-do" list.

In Robert and Willie Reale's whimsical show, Frog and Toad wake from hibernation in the Spring, plant gardens, swim, rake leaves, eat cookies, go sledding, and learn life lessons along the way. The two best friends celebrate and rejoice in their differences that make them unique and special. The jazzy, upbeat score bubbles with melody and wit, making A Year With Frog and Toad a musical sure to entertain the whole family.

Racing headlong toward graduation from Belmont University's acclaimed musical theater program, Zachary Waters (scion of the Calhoun, Georgia, Waterses) has a jam-packed week ahead even before he can take a breath and consider the gravity of his impending college commencement. This weekend, he opens in the role of Uncle Fester in BUMT's production of The Addams Family (running April 1-10 at The Troutt Theatre, with Waters' cast performing April 2, 8 and 10).

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.

Should you ask Bryce McDonald to point out the year of his life in which it was changed - irrevocably, but most certainly, for the better - chances are he would have difficulty in pinning down the most significant time in his life. He might select 1984, the year he first attended a show at Cumberland County Playhouse (it was Annie), or 1996 when he first stepped onto the CCP stage as a young man (in Oliver!) or it might be 1999, when he first began to train as a stage manager at the iconic Crossville theater (again, it was Annie) that has become 'home' for countless theater artists over the years.

Opening tonight in Mt. Juliet is Encore Theatre Company's production of Marsha Norman's 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning 'night, Mother, starring Meigie Mabry and Elizabeth Hayes in a revival directed by Joel Meriwether. Today, Mabry and Hayes move into our Friday 5 spotlight, revealing what motivates them to do theater and, perhaps more telling, suggesting why you should buy a ticket and see them in the play…

Actors Bridge Ensemble's 20th anniversary season continues in April with the Nashville premiere of Meg Miroshnik's The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, directed by Leah Lowe and running April 15-23 at the Belmont Black Box Theater.

Get ready for the battle of the sexes as only the greatest playwright of the English language could tell it, as William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew opens at Clarksville's Roxy Regional Theatre for five public performances in April.

On Friday, April 1, Cumberland County Playhouse presents the Southern Premiere of a new musical comedy by Lori Fischer (Barbara's Blue Kitchen) and Don Chaffer, The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers! CCP's producing director Bryce McDonald will direct the show, which had its world premiere at the Capital Repertory Theatre in 2013.

Nashville Ballet will conclude its 30th anniversary season with Carmina Burana, a collaboration of epic proportions, that will be performed at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall, April 22-24. In addition to Carmina Burana, the seasond finale features the world premiere of Nashville Ballet artistic director and CEO Paul Vasterling's Layla & The Majnun.

Directors and producers throughout Middle Tennessee are seeking actors for upcoming productions of The Little Mermaid (directed by Brittany Blaire Anderson for Circle Players) and Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, along with Nashville Shakespeare Festival's upcoming Shakespeare in the Park and Winter Shakespeare productions - and the folks from Disney are planning auditions coming up in April, so you know you want to put on your ears and welcome them to Music City... We've gathered the details together here to make your planning easier. So now you have no excuse: go follow your dream!

Like so many other college students before her, Emily Meinerding is back from an adventuresome spring break, all set to plunge headlong into the rest of her semester at Nashville's David Lipscomb University. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, the Lipscomb sophomore has already made a name of herself onstage with her critically acclaimed role in The Crucible, a joint production of Blackbird Theater Company and LU Department of Theatre, and as Sleeping Beauty in last fall's campus musical, Into the Woods.

As she gathered other artists around her to collaborate, Cathy Street's impact on Nashville theater became something that will be long remembered as she pursues theatrical adventures in the coming years. Today, we take a look at Cathy's years in Nashville, by letting her theater family express themselves about the impact she has had on their lives and what she means to them...

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.

Chicago is one of my favorite cities on the planet, so it goes that Chicago, the Tony Award- and Oscar-winning musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb, is also one of my favorite stage musicals. Brash, sassy, laugh-out-loud funny at one moment, and heart-tuggingly and sweetly sentimental at the next - with a musical score that's memorable and pitch-perfect in the skillful way it tells the story of wannabe vaudeville superstars Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly - Chicago has been a part of the musical theater vernacular for almost 40 years.