Brian Russel News

Turkeys are on-sale at your local supermarket, so there's no better way to know Thanksgiving is just around the corner - yep, less than two weeks away! - which means that local theater companies will be unleashing their holiday season productions with enough productions of A Christmas Story (both the musical and the play), It's A Wonderful Life and Ebenezer Scrooge-led shows that you could shake a stick at!

Halloween's all done in, there are still three weeks ahead before we officially give thanks, and Christmas - and all its accompanying frenzy and frivolity - is about seven weeks away! So what's there to do for all the theatrical types jonesing for a trip to make believe? Plenty! Theater companies all over middle Tennessee are showing off their best and brightest, with a number of eagerly anticipated shows opening this weekend and/or continuing from their earlier opening nights and next Tuesday there's a sparkling new Broadway musical swinging through Music City to entertain you…

Mercury Theater Chicago, 3745 N. Southport Avenue, presents RING OF FIRE: THE MUSIC OF JOHNNY CASH, now playing an extended run through November 1. The musical tribute has received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike and has broken sales records for Mercury Theater Chicago. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Mercury Theater Chicago's RING OF FIRE: THE MUSIC OF JOHNNY CASH celebrates Cash's life and music, and as performed by the production's cast of immensely talented actor/musicians, it is a celebration, indeed.

One of the Midwest's leading, professional equity theaters, Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Road, Munster, is gearing up for an exciting 2016 season filled with a rich array of productions from Hitchcock remakes to Gershwin-filled musicals to Annie sequels. The season kicks off in February with the thrilling and fast-paced play Alfred Hitchcock's THE 39 STEPS. This Tony Award-winning comedic spoof of the Alfred Hitchcock 1935 film runs February 18 to March 20. The champagne flows and the gin fizzes May 5 through June 5 with the Chicago area premiere of George and Ira Gershwin's new musical hit NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT, the hilarious musical comedy set in the Roaring Twenties. When two newly single men find themselves as roommates, all hell hilariously breaks loose in Neil Simon's classic THE ODD COUPLE, running July 14 to August 14. Catch all the unexpected action of six friends in small town North Carolina September 15 through October 16 with the popular Rock 'n' Roll, Blue Grass, Countrified musical revue, PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES. Annie's story didn't end where you thought it did. Find out what really happened with Daddy Warbucks' quest to remain with the newly-adopted Annie in the sequel to ANNIE, ANNIE WARBUCKS, running November 17 through December 18.

Chicago stage, TV and film star Michael Shannon did the honor of announcing the nominees for the 2014-2015 Equity Jeff Awards. A video of the presentation is available at www.JeffAwards.org.

 Mercury Theater Chicago, 3745 N. Southport Avenue, is thrilled to announce that RING OF FIRE: THE MUSIC OF JOHNNY CASH has been extended through November 1. The musical tribute has received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike and has broken sales records for Mercury Theater Chicago. "A good time with a great American artist!" exclaimed Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune. Hedy Weiss of the Chicago Sun-Times Highly Recommends the production saying it's "A show ablaze with fire and unmitigated fun!"

In Emmy-nominee Sheldon Bull's world-premiere plays MALLORCA, male bonding takes its toll on four guys when a cryptic message from one of them leads the others on a hilarious chase from Manhattan to a seaside escape.

Abingdon Theatre Company -- which has produced 85 new plays since 1994 -- concludes its 22nd Season with the world premiere of MALLORCA by two-time Emmy nominee Sheldon Bull ('Newhart'), with previews set to begin tonight, May 29, prior to an official press opening on June 7, in Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex's Dorothy Strelsin Theatre (312 West 36th Street). Donald Brenner (March Madness) directs this award-winning comedy set in New York City and Spain.

Mercury Theater Chicago, 3745 N. Southport Avenue, is pleased to announce the extension of RING OF FIRE: THE MUSIC OF JOHNNY CASH through August 30. The musical tribute has received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike and has broken sales records for Mercury Theater Chicago. "A good time with a great American artist!" exclaimed Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune. He also praised Kent M. Lewis' portrayal of Johnny Cash saying, "Lewis does not wear the cloak of the Man in Black; he inhabits him" and Hedy Weiss of the Chicago Sun-Times Highly Recommends the production saying it's "A show ablaze with fire and unmitigated fun!"

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. It's the big guns! New openings at the Drury Lane, Marriott, ChiShakes, Second City, Porchlight, Theatre At The Center, Mercury Theater, Jedlicka and Big Noise theaters, plus 13 world premieres from the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival!

Time is ticking on your last chance to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Nashville Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 19th. Voting closes at the end of the year!

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. The 2014 BroadwayWorld Chicago Award nominations are announced, Lyric presents 'Porgy' and 'Carousel,' 'Camelot' opens, 'Ring Of Fire' and 'Annie' return, 'Annie' and 'Ani' hit screens, parodies of 'Guffman,' the Merman/Mormon thing, Rudolph and Tupperware, and a suburban 'Garden!'

The world premiere of a brand-spanking new musical with Broadway in its sights, a relatively young but awe-inspiring theater company and a sparkling, witty new play about Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald led the list of Tennessee's outstanding theatrical achievements in 2012 that was revealed Sunday night at Midwinter's First Night.