Bakari King News

Annie, the irrepressible orphan of newspaper comics-fame who has been delighting audiences onstage since the 1970s, makes her return to Nashville's Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre this summer, running July 28-September 3, in a new production of Annie directed by Martha Wilkinson, with music direction by Jaclyn Brown and choreography by Bakari King.

Street Theatre Company presents the musical Free to be...You and Me July 15-30, featuring over 20 area youth directed by Bakari King. The show is the culmination of a free five-week youth program, thanks in part to a generous grant from the Nashville Predators Foundation and a partnership with the Tulip Street United Methodist Church. During the camp, the young actors work with local professional artists including Cathy Street, Elaina Shaver and King.

Tennessee's best and brightest stage stars took to the stage at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre Monday night, June 6, for First Night: The Tony Concert, to kick-off the 2011 First Night season in Nashville. Performing songs from Tony Award-winning musicals, the concert featured performers from throughout Tennessee - from Nashville to Crossville to Clarksville.

Tennessee's best and brightest theatrical stars will take to the stage of the Boiler Room Theatre -to celebrate The Tony Awards during First Night: The Tony Concert, presented by Keeping Scores Concerts on Monday, June 6 - and to perform an evening of songs from Broadway musicals that have won the Tony Award for best musical.

First Night: The Tony Concert, presented by Keeping Scores Concerts at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre on Monday, June 6, at 7:30 p.m. Featuring some of Nashville's biggest and brightest theater stars performing songs from Tony Award-winning musicals, the concert is the kick-off of the 2011 First Night Season, culminating with First Night, The Nashville Theatre Honors, which will be presented at Belmont University's Troutt Theatre on Sunday, September 4.

Tennessee's best and brightest theatrical stars will take to the stage of the Boiler Room Theatre -to celebrate The Tony Awards during First Night: The Tony Concert, presented by Keeping Scores Concerts on Monday, June 6 - and to perform an evening of songs from Broadway musicals that have won the Tony Award for best musical.

A perfect dozen of Nashville's favorite - and best-singing - actresses will claim the role of the iconic Fanny Brice in Keeping Scores Concert's upcoming Funny Girl in Concert, the inaugural production of the continuing concert series to be staged at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre. The twelve women portraying Fanny Brice at different times in her life - and in the musical's various scenes -include (in alphabetical order): Nancy Allen, Erica Haines Cantrell, Joann Coleman, Lindsay Terrizzi Hess, Catherine Mai Holder, Bonnie Keen, Cori Laemmel, Alex Maddox, Corrie Miller, Sondra Morton, Laura Thomas-Sonn and Heather Trabucco. Funny Girl in Concert will be presented for three performances at Boiler Room Theatre on April 29-30 and May 1. Joining Nashville's Funny Girls onstage for the concerts are Bakari King as Nicky Arnstein, Annette de la Torre as Mrs. Brice and Bryan Wlas as Eddie Ryan.

Of course, one way around that theatrical conundrum is to take the route that director Scott Logsdon and Keeping Scores Concerts at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre have embarked upon for three performances this weekend: Cast 12 different actresses as Fanny Brice, each one well-qualified to take on a particular song, allowing her to interpret, both musically and dramatically, the character of Fanny. And for support of the 12 actresses taking up the Fanny challenge, you'll need an amazingly gifted ensemble. The result? A wonderfully entertaining night at the theater, replete with outstanding performances from some of your favorite Nashville actors - and the chance to hear a beautiful, memorable score brought to life as it was meant to be heard by the team of composer Jule Styne, lyricist Bob Merrill and librettist Isobel Lennart.

In the upcoming concert version of Funny Girl, set for April 29-May 1 at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre, director Scott Logsdon has cast 12 very different, very funny and somehow uniquely qualified women to take on the iconic role of Fanny Brice, first brought to national, then worldwide, acclaim by the inimitable Barbra Streisand. We're giving you a chance to get to know all of Nashville's Funny Fannys, one by one, and today we were forced to sit down with Laura Thomas Sonn, the very personification of diva - as everyone in town knows, she's so demanding and rude (that gracious, kind and sweet act is just that: an act! I have the bruises from the phone she threw at me when last I saw her - and she was onstage at the time and I was in the audience, but didn't have my eyes cast downward when she looked in my direction) and not at all one of the most beautiful women you've ever seen! (I bet that'll get those Fannys in an uproar, just in time for our final two interviews this week). So, read on, gentle readers...oh, yes, she is most definitely my favorite. Well, today.

In the upcoming Keeping Scores' concert version of Funny Girl, set for April 29-May 1 at Boiler Room Theatre, director Scott Logsdon has cast 12 different, yet very funny and somehow uniquely qualified actresses to take on the iconic role of Fanny Brice. First brought to national, then international, acclaim by the legendary Barbra Streisand, the role of Fanny Brice is a coveted role among musical theater performers. Offstage things seem to be going all 'Kumbaya' - despite our best efforts to dig up some dirt. Let's face it, you gather all these divas together and there's got to be some turmoil backstage. Right? Today's Fanny kinda scares me, to be honest, and I just want to say right here and now that if I turn up missing after this interview comes to light, check the trunk of Sondra Morton's car. She'll be the brains behind my disappearance (she scares me). Because of all that, of course, Sondra is my favorite FUNNY Fanny. Yep, that's exactly what she is... my favorite...scout's honor. Read on...

A perfect dozen of Nashville's favorite - and best-singing - actresses will claim the role of the iconic Fanny Brice in Keeping Scores Concert's upcoming Funny Girl in Concert, the inaugural production of the continuing concert series to be staged at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre. The twelve women portraying Fanny Brice at different times in her life - and in the musical's various scenes -include (in alphabetical order): Nancy Allen, Erica Haines Cantrell, Joann Coleman, Lindsay Terrizzi Hess, Catherine Mai Holder, Bonnie Keen, Cori Laemmel, Alex Maddox, Corrie Miller, Sondra Morton, Laura Thomas-Sonn and Heather Trabucco. Funny Girl in Concert will be presented for three performances at Boiler Room Theatre on April 29-30 and May 1. Joining Nashville's Funny Girls onstage for the concerts are Bakari King as Nicky Arnstein, Annette de la Torre as Mrs. Brice and Bryan Wlas as Eddie Ryan.

There is so much energy, enthusiasm and heart found in Street Theatre Company's Hairspray that it's certain to keep your spirits buoyed for a long time after leaving the theater. Brought to the stage by a competent creative team and a huge cast of committed performers, the Scott Wittman-Marc Shaiman musical - featuring a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan based on John Waters' wholly original film - Hairspray is great big fun, featuring some lovable characters and one of the most infectious musical theatre scores around.

In honor of Valentine's Day (and in a blatant rip-off of BroadwayWorld.com's similar query to the denizens of the Great White Way), we posed that very question to some of our favorite theater community-dwellers in yet another not-so-scientific survey. So, if you're thinking about putting together a playlist of favorite love songs - or if you're searching for the perfect tunes to play in the background while you set the scene for a romantic evening with your own Valentine, here are some suggestions...

Love is in bloom at Street Theatre Company in February with a special two week engagement of the hit musical, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change!, closing February13 at the theater, 1933 Elm Hill Pike.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, director Larry Tobias and music director Rollie Mains have ushered the clever little musical (with book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and music by Jimmy Roberts) to the stage, featuring the delightful - and supremely on-target - talents of Bakari King, Tyson Laemmel, Megan Murphy Chambers and Cathy Sanborn Street. The talented quartet take audiences on a roller-coaster ride of sorts as they give us a look at the contemporary dating scene, which is apparently 'all heterosexual, all the time' - and which could be the revue's one element that dates the material to the 1990s.

Love is in bloom at Street Theatre Company in February with a special two week engagement of the hit musical, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change!, running February 3-13 at the theater, 1933 Elm Hill Pike.

For Sondra Morton, the owner and artistic director Act Too Players, every day has its own special set of challenges and sources of inspiration - and, quite frankly, she'd have it no other way. In fact, she thrives on the pace and excitement that is all in a day's work as she inspires and trains budding thespians in Middle Tennessee through the company's efforts.

Street Theatre Company presents two shows for January and February: 36' x 24' x 26'=The Shape of Murder and I Love you, You're Perfect, Now Change.

Ten versatile and talented Nashville area men took on roles in musical theater that other actors would love to play, proving once again that country music isn't the only genre that makes this Music City USA. Musical theater is alive and well in Tennessee and with the plethora of talent to be found on Volunteer State stages, actors can display their tremendous range while singing and dancing. These men comprise the list of the ten best performances by actors in musicals in 2010...

Tennessee Repertory Theatre has announced plans for REPaloud, the popular play reading series which highlights contemporary plays.