Lindy Pendzick News

Audrey, that flesh-eating plant that has made Little Shop of Horrors both a film and stage hit, sets down roots in Crossville beginning May 19, continuing through August 6, at Cumberland County Playhouse. Directed by John Fionte, with music direction by Ron Murphy and choreography by Leila Marshall, Little Shop stars the wife-and-husband team of Lindy and Greg Pendzick as the woman who lends her name to that monstrous plant and her dweeby suitor, Seymour, the budding horticulturalist whose experiments result in some unexpected flower shop carnage.

Raised in Florida and a graduate of Ole Miss (aka The University of Mississippi) and now based in New York City, actor Britt Hancock (you can find his photograph next to the dictionary entry for 'versatility') calls Tennessee 'home,' thanks to his long tenure at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse, where last year he starred in, among other shows, Camelot, Brigadoon and She Loves Me. In fact, he claimed the BroadwayWorld Nashville theater award for outstanding actor in a musical (professional) for his stellar performance in Brigadoon.

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...

If you find yourself venturing outside of New York, and you want to see some really good musical theater, what should you do? Allow me to suggest a visit to my neck o' the woods: A trip to Nashville might provide you with exactly what you seek. After all, in a city perhaps best known throughout the world as Music City USA, what else could you expect but some exceedingly well-cast, well-produced, well-played and well-sung musical theater? We're lousy with exceptional singers and musicians and, as a result, musical theater is alive and well - and thriving - in Nashville. And here's my list of the Best Musicals of 2010...

Brigadoon, onstage at Cumberland County Playhouse through November 21, could well be one of the closest-to-sheer-perfection musical theater experiences I've ever had, beautifully played and exquisitely staged, performed by a phenomenally gifted cast led by the multi-talented Britt Hancock (who sings, act and dances with vigorous conviction) as Tommy Albright. If you are a true lover of musical theater, you really must go see it before Brigadoon once again disappears into the mist.