Jeffrey Ellis - Page 92

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 tonight in an original production that is sure to be one of the highlights of the 2012 season at Cumberland County Playhouse.

Boiler Room Theatre debuts its most eagerly anticipated production of the 2012 season next week with Next To Normal, the groundbreaking 2009 Tony Award-winning musical, starring Nashville stage favorite Megan Murphy Chambers as Diana, a suburban wife and mother who contends with her worsening bipolar disorder while her family struggles to take care of one another.

Camping With Henry and Tom-directed by Lynda Gibbs-focuses on a 1921 camping trip that Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and President Warren G. Harding took into the Maryland woods to escape civilization. Inspired by that actual event, Camping with Henry and Tom is an exploration of friendship, politics and leadership; a comedic and dramatic clash of three great historical figures, and what might have happened when they ventured off into the woods together.

Today's spotlight falls upon Cori Laemmel, who opens tonight in the reboot of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years opposite her real-life husband Tyson Laemmel (following the critically acclaimed version that starred Ryan Greenawalt and Kacie Phillips for the first two weeks of the run) at Street Theatre Company.

Who's who in Tennessee theater? Sometimes, without a program in your hand, it's difficult to know who's playing whom-hence, our newest feature: Hey, Jef, Here's My Headshot...featuring some of the Volunteer State's best-known-or soon-to-be-known all over the freakin' world-thespians. And have you ever wondered who the amazing photographers are who make them look so damn good? We're gonna tell ya…Today's actor/subject/model is the handsome, talented and very busy Will Butler, photographed by Mandy Whitley.

Who's who in Tennessee theater? Sometimes, without a program in your hand, it's difficult to know who's playing whom-hence, our newest feature: Hey, Jef, Here's My Headshot...featuring some of the Volunteer State's best-known-or soon-to-be-known all over the freakin' world-thespians. And have you ever wondered who the amazing photographers are who make them look so damn good? We're gonna tell ya…Today's actor/subject/model is the beautiful, talented and very busy Rachel Woods (who recently was named a Top Ten Finalist in the English Speaking Union's National Speaking Competition and is a 2011 BroadwayWorld Nashville Award winner), photographed by J Renee Photography.

Ben Davis isn't even in Nashville yet, and already he's eating like a native: "This morning," he confides in a telephone interview from his home in New York City, "in anticipation of your phone call and our upcoming trip to Nashville, my wife and I had sausage gravy and biscuits for breakfast."

Comedian, author and Emmy Award-winning actor Leslie Jordan will have a homecoming of sorts tonight, May 15 when he returns to Chattanooga to headline Tuesday Night Live!, Chattanooga Theatre Centre's annual fundraising gala, with proceeds going to the Annual Fund.

Who's who in Tennessee theater? Sometimes, without a program in your hand, it's difficult to know who's playing whom-hence, our newest feature: Hey, Jef, Here's My Headshot...featuring some of the Volunteer State's best-known-or soon-to-be-known all over the freakin' world-thespians. And have you ever wondered who the amazing photographers are who make them look so damn good? We're gonna tell ya…Today's actor/subject/model is the beautiful, talented and very busy Lynn Yates, photographed by Nora Canfield (www.msdigphotography.com).

Set in post-World War II Chicago, the show features swing music for the mid-20th Century, award-winning magic and illusion, and high energy swing dance. Songs include "It Don't Mean A Thing," "In The Mood," "Jump Jive & Wail," "Blues In The Night" and many more hit songs from the mid-20th Century.

It makes no difference the region in which you were raised or now live, nor does the church in which you grew up or now worship and, seemingly, it doesn't matter what your ethnic heritage is: There is a commonality, a universality that binds us all together as a society. And while all of that is a given, it's driven home with the gentle humor and the good graces of Church Basement Ladies, the sweetly evocative and sometimes hilarious musical onstage at The Gaslight Dinner Theatre, in a warmly acted production directed by Nathan W. Brown.

Who's who in Tennessee theater? Sometimes, without a program in your hand, it's difficult to know who's playing whom-hence, our newest feature: Hey, Jef, Here's My Headshot...featuring some of the Volunteer State's best-known-or soon-to-be-known all over the freakin' world-thespians. And have you ever wondered who the amazing photographers are who make them look so damn good? We're gonna tell ya…Today's actor/subject/model is the beautiful, talented and very busy Katelyn Michelle Fiorini.

A square little town in a square little state in the middle of a square decade is about to be changed forever as All Shook Up! takes over the stage. Natalie, a young mechanic, dreams of love, adventure and of one true love who'll take her away from her dreary surroundings. Natalie's best friend Dennis has long had a secret crush on her. Since the Mayor outlawed everything that's fun, it seems like the whole drab town is singing the blues.

Luckily (for me and for you, the rest of the audience who may or may not have seen the show in any of its multiple onstage incarnations), director Patrick Kramer, choreographer Kate Adams-Johnson and musical director Randy Craft have fashioned a rendition of Hairspray-that indomitable musical about one determined and ambitious Baltimore teenager in 1962-that fairly snaps, crackles and pops with its fresh delivery, its clever staging and the laudable and thoroughly committed performances of a cast of thousands.

Loretta Lynn, whose multi-decade career has firmly established her as one of Nashville's most legendary performers, introduced Zooey Deschanel (Grammy and Golden Globe nominee and star and producer of Fox's hit sitcom New Girl) to her audience last night during a performance at Opry Country Classics at the "mother church of country music," the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. In much the same way that Lynn revealed that Sissy Spacek would be taking on the challenge of playing her on film-a role that ultimately won her the Academy Award for her critically lauded, transformative performance-she gave her blessing onstage to Deschanel.

Today's spotlight falls upon Darin Richardson, who is currently onstage in Circle Players' Hairspray, getting his 1960s teen heartthrob on as Link Larkin, playing opposite Whitney Vaughn as Tracy Turnblad. For Richardson, it's just the latest in a long list of onstage roles, which includes his recent role in The Keeton Theatre's Kiss Me, Kate, and a stint at the Miracle Theatre in Pigeon Forge, where he and castmates were forced to sort of re-write The Good Book when Jesus got stuck in the tomb. Seriously. So, gentle readers, read on…and find out more about the handsome and talented Darin Richardson, and go to The Larry Keeton Theatre and see him in Hairspray (he's there for the next two weekends).

Who's who in Tennessee theater? Sometimes, without a program in your hand, it's difficult to know who's playing whom-hence, our newest feature: Hey, Jef, Here's My Headshot...featuring some of the Volunteer State's best-known-or soon-to-be-known all over the freakin' world-thespians. And have you ever wondered who the amazing photographers are who make them look so damn good? We're gonna tell ya…Today's actor/subject/model is the lovely and talented Keri Pisapia, photographed by Kristy West.

Kim Bretton directs the Nashville premiere of Donald Margulies' Time Stands Still, presented by Actors Bridge Ensemble at Belmont University's Black Box Theatre, tonight May 11 through May 20.

Holly Amber stars in Christopher Durang's Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, opening tonight (May 10) and continuing through May 20. Directed by Ryan Vogel, who does double-duty playing one of Sister Mary Ignatius' troubled former students, the play is presented at BWW Tennessee Theatre Award-winning Out Front on Main, located at 1511 E. Main Street in historic downtown Murfreesboro.

Who's who in Tennessee theater? Sometimes, without a program in your hand, it's difficult to know who's playing whom-hence, our newest feature: Hey, Jef, Here's My Headshot...featuring some of the Volunteer State's best-known-or soon-to-be-known all over the freakin' world-thespians. And have you ever wondered who the amazing photographers are who make them look so damn good? We're gonna tell ya… Today's actor/subject/model is the beautiful, talented and very busy Blair Allison, photographed by Bennett Farkas.