Jeffrey Ellis - Page 98

Outrageously funny, wonderfully engaging and, at times, even heartfelt and sentimental, Avenue Q serves up a full buffet for the discerning theater-goer lucky enough to find himself in the audience of Street Theatre Company's production of the multiple Tony Award-winning musical, directed with flash and sass by Martha Wilkinson and featuring a cast of amazingly adept actors-turned-puppeteers who bring the show to life.

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 Lisa Marie Wright, who made her debut at the Barn in A Christmas Cactus in 1998, and most recently was onstage playing the Christine Penmark, the mom of the dastardly Rhoda Penmark in The Bad Seed at Street Theatre Company…

Today, the spotlight falls upon Delaney Amatrudo, one of Nashville's most acclaimed young actors who finishes up her run as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz at Page High School in Williamson County. Her resume boasts a collection of roles that would make anyone envious, including her starring stint in Circle Players' productions of 13 the Musical and Footloose. Last summer, she played Millie Owens in the First Night staged reading of William Inge's Picnic (which I directed, so I know how wicked good she is). Speaking of Wicked, the girl's been in training to play Elphaba since she was tyke!

Today, the spotlight falls upon Ryan Bowie, who is a company member and director of fundraising and development at Clarksville's Roxy Regional Theatre, currently onstage in the staged reading of Moises Kaufman's Gross Indecency through Saturday night, March 24, and who will be opening in The Red Badge of Courage (running March 30-April 7) and in Spring Awakening (April 13-May 5). Obviously, Ryan pours his blood, sweat and tears into his work-but you've probably never realized just how true that assertion is.

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 Joanna Hackman, who recently made her debut at the Barn in the hit comedy Boeing Boeing, and who will be leaving Nashville shortly to give the West Coast a shot at her (and those of her husband Daniel Hackman) talents…

Who knew that Mary Poppins, that brightly colored stage spectacle of a musical comedy confection, would be the theatrical offering that most eloquently addresses the questionable shenanigans of unscrupulous bankers, financiers and other assorted nefarious London financial district/Wall Street types and which champions the importance of family and the common folk?

Despite their best efforts, director Lauren Shouse and her amazingly talented cast just can't give Tracy Lett's Superior Donuts the emotional heft-the literary gravitas-that the playwright so mightily struggles for in his sitcomesque script which pales in comparison to his supposed masterpiece, August: Osage County. Clearly, it's the success of that earlier, heavily-decorated and awarded, Pulitzer Prize-winning play that most theatre companies are invoking as they attempt to sell tickets to this decidedly lesser work, hoping to capitalize on its success in hoodwinking an unsuspecting audience.

Debuting Nashville Children's Theatre-where it will continue through March 18-is producing artistic director Scot Copeland's original adaptation of The Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete), described as "an exquisitely theatrical adaptation of the French fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont.

From the same writing team that created Frankly, My Dear-Duke Ernsburger and Virginia Cate-comes the latest comedy opening at Nashville's Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre: Elvis Has Left the Building. Running through March 18, the comedy is directed by Martha Wilkinson, artistic director of the company that is celebrating its 45th season of bringing theater to Nashville audiences.

Make no mistake about it: Johnny Peppers loves directing shows by Broadway playwright Neil Simon, as evidenced by his two latest theatrical adventures. With Brighton Beach Memoirs performing to audience acclaim as part of Circle Players' 2011-12 season at The Keeton Theatre-coming right after the closing of Barefoot in the Park that was part of Franklin's Pull-Tight Players' season-Peppers has been immersed in the stage works of one of the theater's most prolific writers.

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-running through March 18.

This spring's sparkling, stellar production of Hairspray-the musical tale of one Tracy Turnblad, a "stout" girl who loves to dance and loves people no matter their shape, size, color or way of life-is as entertaining a production of the hit musical as you could ever hope to see. Led by a crazy talented bunch of youthful performers (if this were the 1930s, you can bet your bottom dollar they'd be requisitioning somebody's barn for a colorful musical spectacle) who perform their collective heart out for enthusiastic audiences, the production is satisfying on every level.

Directed with care and attention to detail by Johnny Peppers, who is quickly becoming the go-to guy for Simon shows in Nashville (just prior to the opening of Circle's Brighton Beach Memoirs, his production of Barefoot in the Park for Franklin's Pull-Tight Players closed), the play features young Will Butler as the play's nominal lead-and stand-in for Simon himself, upon whose life the richly drawn characters and situations are derived-Eugene Morris Jerome, a 15-year-old Polish American Jewish boy living in Brooklyn with his parents, his brother, his aunt and her two daughters.

Today, the spotlight falls upon Bonnie Keen, one of Nashville's most beloved entertainers, who this weekend lends her estimable talents to the staged reading of Christopher Davis and Frederick Richardson's Punchinello, a new family-friendly musical based upon the children's books of Max Lucado. The staged reading of Punchinello is set for Friday and Saturday nights, March 16 and 17, with a 7:30 p.m. curtain, in Wallace Chapel at Christ Church Nashville, 15354 Old Hickory Boulevard. (Tickets are $10, $5 for children under 12.)

The spotlight today falls upon Casey Hebbel, one of the crazy talented Belmont University musical theatre students who will one day be collecting Tony Awards like they're so many theatre action figures. Until then, she's still got a few classes to attend and another musical to star in: She opens tonight (Friday, March 16) in Belmont University Musical Theatre's production of Hairspray, sure to be one of the season's highlights.

Bethlehem Players will find themselves back in Mississippi this spring with the premiere of Southern Fried Nuptials, as the Frye family struggles to marry off daughter Harline in the latest comedy from Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler, the award-winning playwrights of Southern Fried Funeral, the critically acclaimed comedy that first introduced the Magnolia State family, their friends and kinfolk.

Travis Brazil directs as Boiler Room Theatre continues its 12th season with John Steinbeck's classic drama Of Mice and Men, starrng Ross Bolen and John Mauldin, opening Friday April 13, at the theatre's venue in the historic Factory at Franklin, for a run that continues through May 5.

Robyn Berg directs the upcoming Nashville production of Dustin Lance Black's 8, a play chronicling the historic trial in the federal constitutional challenge to California's Proposition 8, presented by Rhubarb Theater Company on Monday, May 7, at Darkhorse Theater.

Here's Bakari King singing 'Marvellaphony Organoni' from Punchinello...

Laura Matula sings 'Can You Unbreak a Heart' from Punchinello, music by Christopher Davis, lyrics by Frederick Richardson.