Holly Butler News

Shows are opening, shows are closing and the newly reimagined national tour of The Phantom of the Opera continues its run at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center this weekend. Theater in Tennessee continues its fast-paced run through 2016 with a number of new openings this week, thanks to Bongo After Hours Theatre, Nashville Rep, Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, Circle Players and more - and Cumberland County Playhouse, Arts Center of Cannon County, Street Theatre Company, Lakewood Theatre Company and ACT 1 continue runs of their latest shows - to give you even more opportunities to celebrate the magic of live theater in the Volunteer State! And on Monday night, The Chicago Talking Machine Company premieres its first Nashville show at the Centennial Black Box Theatre.

Winter's apparently over - it's in the mid-70s, balmy and windy, as we write this - and even before Spring pops up all over, there's an amazing amount of good theater to be found in the Nashville area. In fact, there's so much to choose from that you have absolutely no excuse staying alone in your room. Instead, in the wise and wonderful words of Sally Bowles, life is a cabaret and you're far more likely to find that out in the darkened confines of a theater, where magic and mayhem is bound to happen.

Today, three of the folks most closely associated with the production - director Moore is joined by cast members Sarah Shepherd and Maggie Pitt - fall under our Friday 5 spotlight, allowing us to get to know more about what makes them tick and why each of them believe audiences should flock to Darkhorse Theatre to see their racy rendition of Aristophanes' Lysistrata.

Bradley Moore directs his own adaptation of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, as ACT 1 readies its fourth show of the 2015/2016 season, featuring a cast of respected Nashville actors. 

Theater-goers from our neck o' the woods have been quite spoiled already this year - and 2016 is barely three months old - and the hits, as they are wont to say, just keep on coming. In fact, there's so much great theater going on in the Nashville area right now, that you may be having a difficult time choosing among the bounteous offerings local companies are providing you.

Bradley Moore directs his own adaptation of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, as ACT 1 readies its fourth show of the 2015/2016 season, featuring a cast of respected Nashville actors. 

Today's #SIP come from casts of GOTTA DANCE, SOMETHING ROTTEN!, GIGANTIC, CATS in London, LES MISERABLES, RAGTIME, A CHRISTMAS STORY and more!

BroadwayWorld collected as many of yesterday's evening Saturday Intermission Pics as we could to bring you Part 2 of our September 5 #SIP round-up! Check out Part 1 HERE.

The epic 25th edition of Broadway Bares celebrated the golden age of Broadway with an evening of ripped dancers, cheeky choreographers and sumptuous showgirls, raising a record-shattering $1,598,501 on Sunday, June 21, 2015, for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Broadway Bares: Top Bottoms of Burlesque featured 222 of New York's sexiest and most talented dancers, entertaining standing-room-only audiences at two performances at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom. BroadwayWorld brings you exclusive steamy photos below!

The epic 25th edition of Broadway Bares celebrated the golden age of Broadway with an evening of ripped dancers, cheeky choreographers and sumptuous showgirls, raising a record-shattering $1,598,501 on Sunday, June 21, 2015, for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Broadway Bares: Top Bottoms of Burlesque featured 222 of New York's sexiest and most talented dancers, entertaining standing-room-only audiences at two performances at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom. Scroll down for photos from the show!

The weekend is upon us and that means that tonight is opening night for a couple of new shows (with performances continuing through the weekend) and closing performances of several others, including Newsies (at TPAC), Circle Players' The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and the farewell production of GroundWorks Theatre's Starlite Waltz. Meanwhile, John Chaffin's Cliffhanger continues at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre and Cumberland County Playhouse continues its 50th anniversary season with a whole slate of terrific shows.

You don't have to be a devotee of Chekhov - you don't even have to be a fan of live theater necessarily - but it clearly helps if you are in the audience for Verge Theater Company's production of Steven Dietz's The Nina Variations, which is sometimes whimsical and oftentimes dramatic in the rich tradition of Russian literature.

Disney's Newsies will claim Nashville as their own hometown with a weeklong run at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center beginning Tuesday, Osborne and Eppler's Southern Fried Nuptials takes the stage in Woodbury, and local favorite Geoff Davin unveils his latest theatrical creation - Adamenses Huckster…and there's plenty of theater continuing this week to keep you occupied all week long!

It's the official kick-off to summer, what with the Memorial Day Weekend upon us already - seriously, where did the time go? - and while we're certain your calendar is filled with cookouts, fireworks (we don't save all the sparklers for July 4th do we?) and swimming (if it warms up enough here in frosty Tennessee, where it's in the 50s as I type). But being the theatrical fanatic that we (using either the editorial "we" or the royal "we"…just take your pick) are, we would like to humbly suggest you make your way to the theater in the next few days to get some artistic inspiration.

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to BroadwayWorld Nashville's latest installment of The Friday Five: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find onstage throughout the Volunteer state. Today, our spotlight focuses on Justin Hand, who plays Treplev, and director Jaclynn Jutting from Verge Theatre's production of Steven Dietz's The Nina Variations, opening tonight at Belmont's Black Box Theatre.

It's been a busy spring in Tennessee and as we head into summer, you can rest assured that things are only going to get busier - and more interesting. Our advice? Hydrate yourself (drink plenty of water before heading out), dress comfortably (but tasteful) and head out for a night at the theater. You'll be inspired, entertained and possibly even transported to some far-away world of wonder and imagination. 

Despite knowing that the time would come, I am still staggered by the news of Arita Trahan's passing last weekend. Although she had moved from Nashville some years back - living in Los Angeles and Philadelphia after leaving Tennessee - she always remained a member of our theater family, one of the leading lights among the scores of talented people who have called our city home over the years.

BroadwayWorld collected as many of yesterday's evening Saturday Intermission Pics as we could to bring you Part 2 of our December 13th #SIP round-up. Yesterday's #SIP came from the casts of Fiasco's INTO THE WOODS in NYC, SISTER ACT on tour, Broadway's CINDERELLA and ON THE TOWN, plus lots of regional shows!

BroadwayWorld collected as many of yesterday's evening Saturday Intermission Pics as we could to bring you Part 2 of our November 29 #SIP round-up. Yesterday's #SIP came from the casts of ROCK OF AGES, ON THE TOWN, the West End's DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS and more!

BroadwayWorld collected as many of yesterday's evening Saturday Intermission Pics as we could to bring you Part 2 of our October 25 #SIP round-up! Yesterday's #SIP came from the casts of MATILDA, ON THE TOWN, and lots of regional shows!