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Entertainment News, Reviews and Interviews

Rapid Fire Q&A with actor/playwright/director David Alford; ‘A Holiday To Remember’ recitations of Truman Capote’s ‘The Thanksgiving Visitor’ and ‘A Christmas Memory’ at Belmont Mansion this holiday season

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You may know David Alford by way of his six-season role as Bucky Dawes, manager to Connie Britton’s Rayna Jaymes on the hugely popular CMT/ABC drama series Nashville, multiple tv and film roles including The Good Fight, The Blacklist and The Last Castle, his recent appearance alongside Laura Linney, Cynthia Nixon, Richard Thomas and Michael McKean in the 2017 revival of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes on Broadway, or for having created Spirit: The Authentic Story of the Bell Witch, which recently celebrated its twentieth year in nearby Adams, TN. Either way, or even if you don’t know David, you’ll definitely want to check out A Holiday to Remember, Alford’s presentation of two of Truman Capote’s most-cherished stories, The Thanksgiving Visitor and A Christmas Memory, being presented in the Grand Salon of Nashville’s beautiful and historic Belmont Mansion with select performances November 23-December 17.

Having known David for years, not only by his aforementioned accolades, but through a mutual friend, as well as his tenure as Executive Artistic Director of Nashville Repertory Theatre a few years ago, when it was known as Tennessee Repertory Theatre, as soon as I learned he was returning to the Nashville theatre scene to perform this latest iteration of not one, but two Capote treasures, I knew I had to chat with him for my latest RAPID FIRE Q&A.

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RAPID FIRE Q&A WITH ‘A HOLIDAY TO REMEMBER’ STAR, DAVID ALFORD

JHPENTERTAINMENT: In preparing to chat with you, I rewatched the mid-60s television presentations of both The Thanksgiving Visitor and A Christmas Memory starring Geraldine Page as Sook. I remember seeing them on TV about a decade later when I was a kid. These stories were my introduction to Truman Capote. What was yours?

DAVID ALFORD: My first introduction to Capote, like many other people, was seeing him on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. I was young. He struck me as a strange fellow with a funny voice that the adults seemed to find terribly amusing. I knew he had a reputation as being a bit of a provocateur, someone who liked pushing boundaries. It was many years later, shortly after graduating drama school and being cast in a stage adaptation of his holiday stories, that I learned that he was much more than his public persona. He was a true literary genius, with extraordinary range. The stories from his childhood featuring his eccentric cousin Miss Sook Faulk are beautifully written and deeply moving.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: Speaking of introductions, ABC’s recent drama series, Nashville may have served as an introduction to you for millions of TV viewers, but those of us in the actual town of Nashville have known you through your theatrical works for years. In fact, just last month you celebrated the 20th anniversary of your play, Spirit: The Authentic Story of the Bell Witch of Tennessee. Before we get into A Holiday to Remember, What was it like to revisit Spirit as director again this year?

DAVID ALFORD: Rewarding and humbling. I wrote and directed the first production in 2002, and then directed a revision I did in 2008. Other than that, I have been involved only as an unofficial advisor from time to time until this year. The group behind the production, CSI (Community Spirit, Inc.) has not only kept the show going every year, but they’ve grown the play into a month-long festival. The show’s success is really a testament to their commitment and hard work.  Every performance this year was sold out. I’d look into the audience and see men in John Deere caps seated next to women in business attire with a few occultists thrown into the mix. It’s hard to describe the sense of gratitude I feel looking at an audience of people from wildly different backgrounds seated next to each other and experiencing the same story. It’s become its own unique phenomenon.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: Now on to A Holiday to Remember. Over the years you’ve presented a variation of this show from time to time. If memory serves, I believe it’s been 30-some years since you performed A Southern Christmas Sampler and about a decade since the former iteration, Christmas Down Home was presented here in Music City. What prompted you to revisit and revise it this year at Belmont and to include not only A Christmas Memory, but also Capote’s other holiday offering, The Thanksgiving Visitor?

DAVID ALFORD: I stopped doing A Christmas Memory mainly because of my commitments to the TV show. Then I moved away for a while. I’m back home now and it felt like the time was right. I’m a little older and can bring a little more life-experience to it. Plus, I’ve missed doing the piece. I still feel very connected to it. As far as pairing it with The Thanksgiving Visitor, we actually did it before in 2004 when I was Artistic Director at Tennessee Rep (now Nashville Rep) in the Polk Theatre at TPAC. It went well, though I thought the show might have worked better in a more intimate space. This is a chance to try that. Plus, it’s an opportunity to work my memorization muscles a bit. With both pieces, it’s me doing Capote’s words for about an hour-and-a-half. I like the challenge.

Composer/Guitarist Paul Carroll Binkley’s music accompanies David Alford’s storytelling in “A Christmas Memory”

JHPENTERTAINMENT: As you have done in previous incarnations, you’ve once again enlisted the talents of your friend, Paul Carrol Binkley whose original music is featured. How did you and Paul first connect? 

DAVID ALFORD: I met Paul in 1985 at Austin Peay Statue University in Clarksville, where we were both students. He became the guitarist and band leader for a group I’d earlier formed with some high school friends called The Red River Boys. We gigged a lot together, and of course Paul was already composing and playing his own music at the time. Right before I went to Juilliard, he was the music director for a production of The Robber Bridegroom I was in at APSU, and he really knocked it out of the park. So I knew he had theatre chops. When I came back to Nashville in 1994 to start Mockingbird Theatre, Paul was one of the first people I called. He did the music for our second production, Tennessee Williams‘ The Glass Menagerie, and that started a long and successful working relationship. When I had the idea to do A Christmas Memory as the centerpiece for a potential Mockingbird holiday show (which became our Southern Christmas Sampler) I asked Paul to create some underscoring for it. He did, and it was perfect. Those original musical ideas have become an irreplaceable part of the performance for me. I can’t imagine doing the piece without Paul. I still get choked up every time I hear him play the opening phrase. 

JHPENTERTAINMENT: This isn’t the first time you’ve performed at Belmont Mansion in the Grand Salon. What makes it such an ideal venue for these stories?

DAVID ALFORD: Well, it’s an incredibly evocative space, and the acoustics are excellent. Both pieces are about Truman’s childhood and set in the early 1930s, and though Belmont Mansion was around long before that, there are still echoes of the past that help underscore the context. And while I love working in traditional theaters, sometimes matching content with an appropriate nontraditional performance space can really resonate with an audience. I think this show in the mansion does that pretty well.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: For those who may not have seen your previous presentations, what can the audience expect?

DAVID ALFORD: The show is me doing Capote’s text uncut from memory with Paul’s original underscoring. The Thanksgiving Visitor is first. It has a four-piece combo and is a little more energetic in feel with me mostly on my feet. For A Christmas Memory, we’re performing it the same way we have since the beginning: I’m seated on a stool, with Paul in a chair just behind. It’s me, Capote’s words, and Paul’s guitar.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: Aside from Buddy, the young boy at the center of both The Thanksgiving Visitor and A Christmas Memory, both stories feature his Cousin, Sook, an eccentric relative, and Buddy’s best friend. Research also revealed that you once cited your grandmother as your voice inspiration for your Sook. What can you tell me about finding the voice for each of the characters? 

DAVID ALFORD: Good question! Thankfully the stories are mostly Capote’s narrative prose, so I don’t have to do a huge amount of vocal characterization. It’s mostly Sook and Buddy (her nickname for young Truman) with a handful of other characters sprinkled in. The challenge is to honor the text and what Capote’s trying to accomplish from a narrative perspective, while finding voices that stay true to the setting (a small town in the depression-era Deep South). And then within that framework, to find enough variation so the audience doesn’t get confused. Mostly it’s a lot of experimentation and trying to use as much of my vocal range as I can!

JHPENTERTAINMENT: On the subject of voices and characters, Capote, himself was quite a character and he possessed a very distinctive voice. I mentioned earlier the mid-60s teleplays. Capote served as narrator for those, so I gotta know…do you narrate in a Capote-esque voice?

DAVID ALFORD: I do not, for a couple of reasons. First, I think trying to replicate Truman’s voice calls too much attention to the performer and not enough to the words on the page. Instead, what I try to do in the narration is present Truman’s literary voice, his written voice, which is substantially more expressive and has greater range than his speaking voice ever did. His writing in these stories is masterful: funny, lyrical, and at times breathtakingly beautiful. I wouldn’t want any impression I did to get in the way of that. There’s definitely a specific southern flavor of course: accent, playfulness, and wit, but less affectation. But also, from a practical perspective, I think the more important voice is Sook’s and the other characters, and it’s hard to imagine someone with Truman’s voice being able to alter their tonality enough to make those voices convincing. So you’re either doing Truman all the way through (including the other character’s voices) or you’re finding the voices of the other characters and making the narration more neutral. I don’t think you can do both. So I do the latter.

Belmont Mansion’s Grand Salon 

JHPENTERTAINMENT: Oh, I knew we should have gone ahead and done a full Rapid Fire 20Q, but I didn’t want to take up too much of your time…so….Can you share a little about cherished holiday memories of your own?

DAVID ALFORD: Well, of course, I have many, most of them from my childhood and from people that are gone now. My dad rarely provided the things on our Christmas lists, but he always made it special. He was a pastor, and this was his favorite time of year. One of the things that brings people back to A Christmas Memory is that Capote acknowledges the full range of memories of the people we love who are no longer with us. Those memories can be funny, touching, sweet, warm, awkward, joyful: but they can also make us feel a keen sense of loss. Leave it to his genius to be able to encapsulate all that in a short story. But to answer your question directly, and at the risk of sounding schmaltzy, the truth is that many of my most treasured holiday experiences have been sharing this story with a roomful of fellow human beings.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: I usually end these chats with basically the same question…What do you hope audiences take away from seeing A Holiday to Remember?

DAVID ALFORD: That Truman Capote is an under-appreciated genius and one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. That all people, no matter how odd, eccentric, or marginalized, have value and can teach us something. That love always makes a difference.

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David Alford’s A Holiday to Remember begins Wednesday, November 23 with subsequent performances November 25 & 26 and December 1,3,15 and 16. All Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. and will take place in the Grand Salon on Belmont Mansion (On the campus of Belmont University at the corner of Acklen Avenue and Belmont Blvd- behind Freeman Hall, 1901 15th Ave S., Nashville, TN 37212) Tickets to each performance are $45 and include lite refreshments and a peek at the holiday decorations of the Mansion’s first floor. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets. For more about David Alford, CLICK HERE. If you’re interested in learning more about Belmont Mansion or perhaps scheduling a full tour during the holiday, CLICK HERE.

As always, if you wanna follow JHPEntertainment to find out who I’m chatting with for my next Rapid Fire Q&A, or for my take on the latest local and national theatre, music and movie offerings, find us at Facebook, Instagram  and Twitter. Got an event or show we should know about, drop us a line at the Contact tab. Till then, #GoSeeTheShow!

Rapid Fire 20Q with cast of ‘The Cake’; regional premiere at Nashville Rep October 21-30

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Directed by Lauren Shouse, 0pening Friday, October 21 and running through Sunday, October 30, Nashville Repertory Theatre presents the regional premiere of Bekah Brunstetter’s The Cake at TPAC’s Andrew Johnson Theatre (505 Deadrick Street). While perhaps best known for her writing and producing duties on the popular NBC drama, This Is Us, which garnered her and her fellow producers three consecutive Emmys from 2017-2019, Brunstetter’s also enjoyed success as a playwright. Her previous stage plays include: F*cking Art, Miss Lilly Gets Boned and Be a Good Little Widow. From the titles alone, you might surmise that the playwright pulls no punches. The Cake, which premiered in Los Angeles in 2015 and featured That 70s Show’s Debra Jo Rupp, with is simple sweet title and all, just might follow suit, considering the play was inspired, in part by her own father’s opposition to same-sex marriage and the headline-making Supreme Court case of Masterpiece Cakeshop vs Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The Cake centers ‘round Della, a kind, but conservative North Carolina baker who finds herself at an unexpected conscience crossroads when her goddaughter returns to her small town to ask Della to bake her wedding cake…for the wedding to her fiancée.

When I learned that one of my theatre crushes, Megan Murphy Chambers was heading the cast, I knew I had to chat with her and her co-stars for the latest installment of my recurring interview feature, Rapid Fire 20 Q.

RAPID FIRE 20Q WITH CAST OF NASHVILLE REPERTORY THEATRE’s THE CAKE

RAPID FIRE WITH MEGAN MURPHY CHAMBERS, DELLA IN THE REP’S THE CAKE

JHPEntertainment:  Tell me everything we need to know about Della, the character you play in The Cake, The Rep’s latest production…

Megan Murphy Chambers: Della is a beautiful challenge.  There are elements of her personality that are so easy for me to access – she’s friendly, enthusiastic, authentically interested in people, and loving. The acting starts when her deeply ingrained but rarely examined belief system stops her from showing an adored friend the respect and love they deserve when they need it most.  There’s not an intentionally mean bone in Della’s body, but she’s short on backbone (mean or otherwise). I like to think about what might transpire in the 6 months after the play is over for her.  I have high hopes for her, and her capability to open her heart and mind.

JHPEntertainment: While researching the show to prepare these questions for you and your fellow cast mates, I found the opening monologue script on line. During which, Della explains that you must follow the recipe exactly to ensure the perfect cake. This seems to pretty much lay out the thought process behind her character’s way of life and decision-making. A a general rule, are you yourself a recipe follower, a recipe adapter or a recipe creator? Feel free to answer this as it relates to the kitchen, or life as a whole.

Megan Murphy Chambers: Oh I am a recipe adaptor for sure.  I’ll follow the directions enough to make sure whoever I’m feeding doesn’t end up with a plate of undercooked chicken, but in terms of the rest?  All bets are off!  I like cooking more than baking precisely because of the greater degree of freedom you have. And the greater degree of garlic.  In life, I tend to be a rule-follower and people-pleaser, but that tendency lessens every single day. Which feels wonderful, to be honest.

JHPEntertainment: Now, I know you graduated from the University of Missouri, which, depending on who you ask, is either the midwest, or the south, and you’ve been in Nashville for some time now. Have you met any real life Dellas and might we see hints of them in your performance?

Megan Murphy Chambers: First of all, MIDWEST. I will not be taking questions at this time 🙂   I’ve lived all over the country, and have met Della-ish people everywhere.  People with huge hearts that are coupled with years of a certain kind of shame and pressure.  I carry pieces of some of them on stage every night, all of which help make her colorful. This one’s unfailing politeness, that one’s hypervigilance about “outsiders”, another one’s casual affection.

JHPEntertainment: From what I know, Della, though she is staunchly faithful to her convictions, isn’t made to appear the villain in this piece, but rather a sympathetic product of her environment. Is that a fair assessment? Why or why not?

Megan Murphy Chambers: Definitely a fair assessment.  The brilliance of this writing means that throughout the play, we’re given reasons to root for every character, and reasons to feel disappointed in every character.  Della maybe most of all.  In my heart, I’m certain she’s making the wrong decision.  But the generations of voices that echo in her head all day every day make it challenging to blame her in any simple way.  We want to like her. We want her to do better.

JHPEntertainment: The show is titled The Cake, so I gotta know…do you have a sweet tooth? If so, what’s your favorite kind of cake? If not, what do you snack on instead?

Megan Murphy Chambers: I do indeed have a sweet tooth, but it’s not as powerful as my salt tooth. Cake is scrumptious, and it’s all I’ve thought about for the last month. I either want a spice cake with vanilla buttercream, or a classic Duncan Hines yellow cake from a box (don’t tell Della it’s not from scratch).

RAPID FIRE WITH CHRIS STRAND, TIM IN THE REP’S THE CAKE

JHPEntertainment: Alright, I tried not to gush while chatting with Megan, but just between us, how lucky are you to share the stage with one of my theatre crushes?

Christopher Strand: Very lucky! Megan is the heart and soul of this show and takes the audience on a hysterical and heartbreaking journey all at the same time- she can make you laugh out loud one minute and cry crocodile tears with her innate vulnerability the next- honored to share the stage with her!

JHPEntertainment: How would you describe Tim?

Christopher Strand: Tim is an amiable good ol boy who just happens to be a product of his upbringing and social environment- his beliefs have most likely been formed by his religious upbringing and casually soaking up Fox News and Incendiary right wing radio over the years- still he loves Della deeply and is a good hard working man who just happens to use food and humor as a substitute for the lack of  Intimacy in his marriage.

JHPEntertainment: In researching to chat with you and your cast mates, it seems to me The Cake playwright, Bekah Brunstetter’s approach of using humor to spotlight a rather serious topic might have roots going back to classic sitcoms like All in the Family and The Jeffersons. Am I anywhere near close in that comparison? And why do you think that works?

Christopher Strand: Yes I think you’re close! Because even though Della and Tim are rather rigid in their beliefs , they are lovable characters , which persuades the audience to go on a sometimes  difficult emotional journey with them- much like Archie Bunker , the audience is able to laugh at or with their imperfections and narrowminded-ness without necessarily agreeing with them!

JHPEntertainment: Are you a cake or pie guy in real life?

Christopher Strand: both unfortunately ! love most kinds although it may be somewhat unAmerican but I can’t do pumpkin pie sorry! banana cream, pecan pie, any kind of fruit pie- shoot I guess I am a pie guy!

JHPEntertainment: What’s one of your favorite lines in the show…yours or that of one of your fellow cast mates?

Christopher Strand: Jen says ” I don’t need you to make me a cake , I need you to LOVE me!”  to me that sums up the show as much as one line could if possible

RAPID FIRE WITH MARIAH PARRIS, JEN IN THE REP’S THE CAKE

JHPEntertainment: What was it about the role of Jen that moved you to audition?

Mariah Parris: I had seen Lauren’s work before and knew working with her would be awesome, if given the chance. I was also excited to potentially work on a script with such a contemporary voice. I’ve never had the pleasure of working on a character so close to myself and feeling like I could bring so much of my own “isms” to the performance.

JHPEntertainment: As Jen, you share scenes, and an on-stage relationship with Maya Riley. You both appeared in The Rep’s Ragtime earlier this year. What is she like as a scene partner?

Mariah Parris: Maya and I used to do theatre together when we were little kids at Metro Parks with Carolyn German, and reconnected as adults when we both worked on Ragtime. We discovered that we still get on like a house on fire, so the biggest challenge with working with Maya has been to not interrupt rehearsal by laughing too much. She is an awesome scene partner and friend.

JHPEntertainment: While the show touts a cast of only four characters, there’s really a fifth, isn’t there? Care to give me an exclusive…who’s providing the voice of George, the reality show judge who’s only heard in voice-over?

Mariah Parris: Jonah Jackson is brilliant as the voice of George. He is a very accomplished and talented stage performer (last seen in The Rep’s Mary Poppins) and I’m so glad he’s getting a chance to show off his voice acting chops!

JHPEntertainment: As a kid, my birthday cakes were always a thing to behold as Mom would get the craftiest cake decorator around to recreate thematic delights featuring whatever my current obsession was, including, but not limited to: Star Wars, a Grease (the movie, not the frying additive) logo cake, a sheet-cake featuring the likeness of Miss Piggy and in my later years, as I began collecting Lucille Ball memorabilia, more than one cake decorated with classic images of I Love Lucy…Did you have theme-decorated cakes? If so, what was your favorite?

Mariah Parris: My lovely mom and dad went all out when I was a little girl- one year Barbie, one year Barney, and I’m sure there were many others though the memory escapes me now.

JHPEntertainment: Is there a moment in the show you think audiences will remember after leaving the theatre?

Mariah Parris: there are several beautifully emotional moments in the show that will resonate with different people, and it is my hope that each person leaves feeling like there was a moment that resonated with them specifically that they’ll never forget. Personally, I’ll never forget MMC hand feeding me carrot cake on stage—what a treat.

RAPID FIRE WITH MAYA RILEY, MACY IN THE REP’S THE CAKE

JHPEntertainment: This has been quite a year for you. You’ve just wrapped your fabulous starring role as AIDA, a performance everyone was raving about. Of course you started the year in Nashville Rep’s Ragtime and now you’re back at The Rep in The Cake. How excited are you for this momentum in your career as a performer and how are you keeping it going while keeping yourself grounded?

Maya Riley: Thank you so much! It’s been quite an unexpected journey, because I had planned to stay in New York City after graduating from NYU. I was just starting my career there when COVID hit, and after the theatre world basically stopped I moved back down here. I’ve really just started to get back into performing, and I’m so grateful that things are opening up again. Being back in Nashville feels right. I’m surrounded by family and friends that I love. It blows my mind that I get to do this work. The little kid in me is squealing every day. Just in the past few months, I’ve gotten to work alongside people in this theatre community that have taught me most of what I know: how to act, how to sing, how to dance, how to be gracious, how to be hard working, how to be professional. Performing beside some of them as a colleague, as well as sharing the stage with Broadway stars in AIDA, is a great gift. And performing at TPAC twice in a row? That’s almost as good as Broadway. I’m learning so much about myself, the craft of performing, and the industry. I’m just trying to soak in everything and take it one day at a time.

JHPEntertainment: What was your reaction to first reading the script for The Cake?

Maya Riley: I read the script the night before my callback. I wasn’t familiar with the play, but I’d heard of the playwright because of her work on the TV series This Is Us. When I read it, I got excited immediately. It’s so smartly written. The words jumped right off the page and grabbed me. These are people you know, this is the way people talk, these are issues we’re dealing with right now. That is a beautiful challenge as an actor. Lauren’s visionary and supportive direction is making me a more focused and engaging performer. My castmates are such a joy. I’ve known Mariah since we were kids performing in community theatre productions. Chris is a superb actor and wonderful to work with. And Megan is Nashville theatre royalty and so much fun! Having the opportunity to present this play with this lovely group of people is an honor.

JHPEntertainment: You play Macy the fiancée of Parris’ Jen. Jen’s White, Macy’s Black, they’re lesbians. She’s from the south, Macy’s a northerner. How important is it for you as an actress to take the occasional role with a message, even if, as in the case of The Cake, those messages might be sugar-coated (see what I did there?) in humor?

Maya Riley: For me, it’s incredibly important to tell stories that deal with current events, things that are happening today. I think people need stories that are simply entertaining, and also stories that are somewhat difficult to process. You need both, I think. There are a lot of projects that are one or the other. Not many plays can do both. This is what I love about The Cake. It will entertain you and have you rolling on the floor laughing one minute, then questioning that one interaction with your odd relative the next. It allows for you to be entertained while also sitting in some discomfort. I relish the opportunity to tackle a play that splits this difference so effortlessly. I’m so excited to see how audiences respond.

JHPEntertainment: While you grew up here in Nashville, after high school, you relocated to to New York, more than a few parallels with Macy. Have those similarities helped you develop her as a character?

Maya Riley: I think they have. When I lived in New York, I definitely had to develop that thick-skin, no-nonsense, demeanor. I also know what it’s like to come back down south and have to, let’s say, “readjust” to how things are down here. Which is something I can immediately connect with Macy. Honestly, Macy wasn’t a stretch for me to understand because our experiences are so similar. We belong to the same demographic, in more ways than one. I definitely think that being a southerner who has lived in New York helped me understand her. But I think I would have understood her anyway just because of our similarities. I know what it’s like to be a Black, queer woman in America. In that way, I know her pains, her hesitations, her joys, her comforts. Playing this role, in a way, is like communing with my mirror image. We got each other’s back, as we go through this play every night. At least, that’s how I like to think of it.

JHPEntertainment: What do you hope audiences take away from The Cake?

Maya Riley: I hope audiences take away a slice of cake and have a layered experience (wink)! The foundation of this play is love, which is what makes the stakes so high and the conflict so tense. The Cake is really a conversation in the shape of a play. My wish is that audiences truly take a bite, ride the waves of anger, laughter, and sorrow with us, and leave the theater with love and a deeper understanding of themselves or someone they care about.

For tickets to The Cake, CLICK HERE. Following their presentation of The Cake October 21-30, Nashville Rep continues their season with Elf: The Musical December 21-January 1, August Wilson’s Fences March 3-5, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time March 24-April 2 and Violet May 12-21. Season Tickets just went on sale earlier this week. CLICK HERE to purchase Season Tickets or for more info. Check out Nashville Rep online HERE and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

As always, if you wanna follow JHPEntertainment to find out who I’m chatting with for my next Rapid Fire Q&A, or for my take on the latest local and national theatre, music and movie offerings, find us at JHPEntertainment on Facebook, JHPEntertainment on Instagram  and JHPEntertainment on Twitter. Got an event or show we should know about, drop us a line at the Contact tab. Till then, #GoSeeTheShow!

Theatre Review: ‘Blithe Spirit’ attempts to conjure laughter; Noel Coward farce continues at Larry Keeton Dinner Theatre thru October 30

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‘Blithe Spirit’ (all photos by Thomas Gentry/courtesy The Larry Keeton Dinner Theatre)

Just before chatting with members of the cast of the Larry Keeton Dinner Theatre’s current presentation of Blithe Spirit for my latest Rapid Fire 20Q, I rewatched the classic mid-40s film adaptation which I hadn’t seen in a decade or longer. Remembering it fondly, I again reveled in the quaintly nostalgic portrayal of an British novelist who finds himself in unlikely comedic trouble when he and his wife host a couple of friends and a kooky medium for a seance meant to inspire his next novel. What happens instead is the medium somehow summons the ghost of his first wife. Things get further complicated when an accident befalls his second wife and he finds himself doubly haunted by the ghosts of both wives past.

During my conversations with the cast for my latest Rapid Fire 20Q, I learned that the show’s director Donna Driver had opted to update the time and place of what is considered by many to be the playwright’s best work. I get it. The original having been set in the English countryside in the early 1940s, might seem a bit stale for a modern audience, and I’ll be honest. There’s little I despise more than a local theatre company attempting accents that end up being all over the place and inauthentic.

That said, you gotta wonder why then did the director opt to set the action in 1980s Texas, but only one cast member speaks with a decidedly Texan drawl? The set, however, designed and constructed by Kevin Driver, does indeed invoke visions of 80s abundant living, with ornate brocade furniture (I swear my Mom still has that sofa in her living room), bookcases filled with Reader’s Digest Book Club volumes and Encyclopedias and the occasional ginger jar. Heck, even the walls are painted in what can only be described as hints of Dark Rose and Forest Green. Donna Driver also serves as the show’s costumer, dressing her cast in some decidedly 80s trends with nods to the wrap-dress, the country club look and more. All in all, a nice representation of the 80s.

Seeing as how the show is about ghosts, I was curious how the special effects would be presented. What few there are are fun, but it seems a shame that they’re mostly left to near the end of the show, rather than being peppered throughout.

Abby Waddoups, Aaron Gray and Erin Grace Bailey in ‘Blithe Spirit’

Aaron Gray is cast as Charles Condomine, the aforementioned author. He does a fine job in the role, and as he revealed during our Rapid Fire 20 Q, he’s created the perfect backstory for his as he calls it ‘rock star’ look, but I feel compelled to mention, the constant, likely unconscious action of brushing his long tresses away from his face became quite distracting. Gray does present a perfectly flustered husband and his on-stage chemistry with both his leading ladies is enjoyable.

Abby Waddoups plays Charles’ current wife, Ruth. While she doesn’t speak with a traditional Texas accent—as mentioned earlier, only one character does, and we’ll get to her soon enough—Abby does approach Ruth with an air of sophistication. Again, a perfect reflection of that 80s-era new-money vibe. As Ruth, she brings a bit of caustic fire to her every line.

Then there’s Charles’ late wife, Elvira played by Erin Grace Bailey. OK, I know this is being super picky, but in every other stage production, film adaptation and televised presentation, Elvira isn’t pronounced like the Cassandra Peterson Mistress of the Dark character, it’s pronounced Elveeera, so this new pronunciation took me a minute to adjust. Newcomer to the Larry Keeton Theatre, Erin Grace Bailey is quite the scene-stealer as Elvira. While her name may now be pronounced like an 80s vampire, she’s just your above-average vampy ghost. She takes the tongue-in-cheek storyline and makes the most of it.

Drew Ann Borsos as Madame Arcati

Speaking of making the most of things, Drew Ann Borsos is simply perfect as Madame Arcati, the medium who helms the seance. Borsos peppers her Madame Arcati with equal parts  bumbling Aunt Clara from Bewitched and every blissfully quirky character Shirley MacLaine has played since the 80s. Every line, every movement seems both organic and spontaneous while you just know its all carefully crafted and executed brilliantly. Coward knew what he was doing when he created this character with his words and Borsos more than does it justice.

Rounding out the cast are Shelby Anderson as Edith, the maid, Michael Welch as Charles’ friend and doctor, Dr. George Bradman and Suzette Williamson as Mrs. Bradman. Anderson is quite fun as the scatterbrained, nervous maid and we even get to hear her sing a bit, which is a fun bonus. Welch and Willamson, who basically only appear in two scenes, one during the first act and one in Act 2, are amusing as marrieds, but seem to be a little overzealous in their portrayals and should perhaps reign in their reactions and facial-pulling just a bit. Then again, there’s no pulling attention from Borsos and Bailey, so why even try.

Blithe Spirit continues its three-week run onstage at The Larry Keeton Theatre (108 Donelson Pike, Nashville, TN 37214) now thru October 30. To Purchase Tickets, CLICK HERE or call the box office at 615.231.1231. Adult Dinner and Show tickets are $35. Child Dinner and Show tickets are $25. Show Only tickets are $30 and $20 respectively. During the run, the schedule is as follows: Thursdays-Doors at 6:30p.m./Show at 7p.m. (Thursdays are Show Only days). Fridays and Saturdays-Doors at 5:45p.m./Dinner at 6p.m. and Show at 7p.m. Sundays-Doors at 12:45p.m./Lunch at 1p.m. and show at 2p.m.

Following Blithe Spirit, the Larry Keeton Dinner Theatre ushers in the holidays with Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, onstage December 1-18. CLICK HERE for tickets or more information.

To keep up with the latest from The Larry Keeton Dinner Theatre, follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Interested in coverage for your latest entertaining endeavor? Click the contact page and drop me a note. You can also follow JHP Entertainment on Instagram and Facebook.

Rapid Fire 20Q with cast of the Larry Keeton Theatre’s ‘Blithe Spirit’; Noel Coward classic onstage October 14-30

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It’s been quite some time since I’ve attended a show at The Larry Keeton Theatre, one of Nashville’s only, if not the only remaining Dinner Theatre, so you can imagine my delight when a friend, who just so happens to be one of the theatre’s board members, reached out extending an invitation to come see their upcoming production of Noel Coward’s high-spirited classic, Blithe Spirit. I then inquired if they’d be willing to have some of the cast take part in the latest installment of my recurring interview feature, Rapid Fire 20 Q. Given the fact that even before I began writing about theatre more than a decade ago, I was a season subscriber at the Keeton and have always enjoyed their productions, I’m thrilled to be writing about them again.  To that end, what follows are my conversations with Erin-Grace Bailey, Abby Waddoups, Aaron Gray and Drew Ann Davis Borsos, just days before they open at the Keeton Theatre in Blithe Spirit.

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RAPID FIRE 20Q WITH CAST OF THE KEETON THEATRE’s BLITHE SPIRIT

RAPID FIRE WITH ERIN-GRACE BAILEY, ELVIRA IN BLITHE SPIRIT

JHPEntertainment: What can you tell me about Elvira, the character you’re playing in The Larry Keeton Theatre’s production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit?

Erin-Grace Bailey: Charles refers to Elvira as “rather light and irresponsible,” which I think is a great way to describe her. She’s just a joy to play. To me, in her life, she would have been the person to arrive fashionably late at a party and just completely light up the room. She’s witty, feminine, and she isn’t afraid to say whatever comes to her mind.

JHPEntertainment: Playing Elvira and apparitions in general aren’t a new phenomenon to you are they? Tell me a bit about your side gig as a Ghost Tour guide? 

Erin-Grace Bailey: Indeed. It’s kind of funny. I applied to be a tour guide with the ghost tours because I am a huge history nerd and always thought being a tour guide would be fun (and it is). I lead walking tours of some haunted historical sites and get to share Nashville history and ghost stories a couple times a week. The gig has sort of led me into getting involved in a lot of entertainment on the spookier side as well, including murder mysteries, a show based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe, and now Blithe Spirit. Ironically, I scare very easily, and if you’d have told me five years ago that a lot of my current work would look like it does now, I would have said you are dead wrong! 

JHPEntertainment: What’s been the most fun aspect of playing a ghostly figure?

Erin-Grace Bailey: Elvira is unapologetically who she is. She gets to do and say whatever she wants, and, aside from her husband, no one else witnesses it. Playing a ghost takes away these life or death stakes we see so often in plays, and she really gets to let loose. It’s not very often we get to do something like that as actors. 

JHPEntertainment: I understand this is your first show with the Keeton Theatre. What’s the experience been like so far?

Erin-Grace Bailey: It has been so lovely, and I’ve been so grateful to get to know and work with these people. I’m thankful to Donna for trusting me to take on this role and perform this text. Everyone on this team has been so supportive since the beginning. I can’t wait for the audience to see all of the love that’s been put into every aspect of this project – from the acting, to the set, to the sound design, and more.

JHPEntertainment: While it’s your first Keeton show, this isn’t your first time appearing in a work written by the great Noel Coward, having played Julia in a production of Fallen Angels. Prior to our chat you indicated Coward is your favorite playwright. What is it about his style that you enjoy?

Erin-Grace Bailey: The first time I was exposed to Noel Coward, I was in an acting class in undergrad. I was assigned a scene from Blithe Spirit, playing Madame Arcati actually, and I had a terrible time of it at first. Coward writes like you’re on a racetrack, and you don’t stop unless it’s absolutely necessary to change the tires. I had several acting classes end in tears, but once it clicked with me, I felt like it really clicked. I’ve adored him ever since. Coward’s scripts are written very intentionally. The wit in his dialogue is unmatched, and he leaves enough of his scripts up to interpretation that his works have remained relevant for the past hundred years. One of my favorite things about Blithe Spirit specifically has to do with the way he has written the female characters, particularly Ruth and Elvira. They completely juxtapose one another, yet neither of them are perfect. There aren’t these unrealistic expectations of perfect beauty or manners in either of them. I love getting to play a character who is incredibly light and feminine but also quick-witted, confrontational, and outright funny. Female identifying characters from the time period this play was written are often meant to be one thing or another, and part of why I think Coward’s works are still so cherished is that a great deal of his characters don’t fall into this trap.

RAPID FIRE WITH ABBY WADDOUPS, RUTH IN BLITHE SPIRIT

JHPEntertainment: In the Larry Keeton Theatre’s production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, you play Ruth. How would you describe her?

Abby Waddoups: Ruth is a devoted wife to Charles and considers her position of wealth and managing their household very important. Her whole world is shook when Charles believes he sees the ghost of his first wife, which continues to live with them for several days. She is naturally upset and emotional about the whole ordeal.

JHPEntertainment: As Ruth, you get the fun opportunity to play two aspects of the same character, one–her earthly human form, the other–her ghostly incarnation. Are there subtle differences in the way you play her in each of the two configurations?

Abby Waddoups: Yes, Ruth definitely has a range of emotions throughout the show and those are the best characters to play. The difference in live Ruth and spirit Ruth are great. Our director, Donna Driver, has pushed the spirits to be fun and light. I take this as the worries in the real world have been lifted from Ruth’s shoulders in death. By accepting her death, she is able to be more carefree. 

JHPEntertainment: The original script sets the action in the English countryside. Accents can always be an issue with local productions, so I’m wondering…Did the cast work with a dialect coach Or has the setting been changed?

Abby Waddoups: The Keeton theatre decided to change the setting and time period of this production. They apparently have other British farces set at the same time and thought their audience would get tired of it. The setting has been changed to 1980s Dallas. It is still in keeping with the British humor, but with small changes of locations.

JHPEntertainment: Like Erin, this is also your first time doing a Keeton show, so I’ll ask you the same question I asked her. What’s it been like thus far?

Abby Waddoups: Working at Keeton has been great! The people are all very nice and professional. The stage is on the larger side and deep for a community theatre, so that’s fun. The theatre itself has a good reputation around town and is an important part of their community. Audiences should be large and I’m sure they will enjoy the show!

JHPEntertainment: Since Blithe Spirit features a couple of séances…If you could summon the ghost of any famous person, who would it be and what would you asked of them?

Abby Waddoups: Wow, that’s an interesting question that I’ve never thought of before… of course their are multiple classic actors who would make my list, but my first instinct goes to a specific rock star, David Bowie, and I’d ask him to play a duet with me.

RAPID FIRE WITH AARON GRAY, CHARLES IN BLITHE SPIRIT

JHPEntertainment: You play Charles, a man who’s visited by not one, but two ghosts, both of whom were married to him. Describe each of your two leading ladies in three words each.

Aaron Gray: Well to begin with these two ladies are great to share the stage with. Their performances counter and compliment one another comedically. It has been awesome to work with them.

Abby Waddoups, who plays Ruth, is powerful, surprising, and engaging on and off stage. Erin-Grace Bailey as Elvira is fierce, exciting, and witty in everything she does. 

JHPEntertainment: Blithe Spirit is typically set in 40s, the time period during which it was first presented on stage. A quick look at rehearsal images reveals your longer hairstyle isn’t exactly period-authentic. I was going to ask you about that, but while chatting with one of your costars, the aforementioned Abby, about whether or not there was a dialect coach to aide with the British accents, she revealed that your production is no longer set in England, nor the 1940s. So instead I’ll ask…what do you think of the director’s decision to update the timeframe and the locale?

Aaron Gray: Great question. Our director had the idea to set the play in 1980s Dallas before we even had auditions. This is a cool spin on the play and gives it a new unique style. Charles only has a few published books, but i see him as if he thinks he is some sort of new celebrity. His recent success inspires him to keep his hair long as he likes to think he is living the 80s “rockstar” lifestyle. I was willing to cut my hair for the role if needed, but after some character development and the vision of Donna, I think the hair fits the show we are going to portray.

JHPEntertainment: Keeton patrons will no doubt recognize you as you’ve been in a few shows there. What is it about the Keeton that keeps you coming back?

Aaron Gray: After graduating from MTSU with a bachelors in theatre in 2019, the Keeton was the first theatre I auditioned for. I was cast in Mamma Mia just before the pandemic hit. When that production finally opened after being on hold for over a year, I found a family and community here that I fell in love with. For me, the Keeton isn’t just about the shows we build onstage, its about the friendships we build backstage, too.

JHPEntertainment: What’s your favorite characteristic of Charles?

Aaron Gray: Charles is an interesting character because although he is funny and relatable, he also has selfish and unlikable qualities. I personally aspire to live as a generous and good person, so to play a character like Charles has been a fun change of pace. Playing Charles’s more selfish and indignant motivations throughout the play is what makes playing him so interesting and fun. 

JHPEntertainment: Charles is a novelist struggling for inspiration for his next work. If you were to write a novel, what would it be titled and what would it be about?

Aaron Gray: I used to love creative writing in school, so portraying a novelist has reminded me of those days. I would have to say that I would write a children’s story. I have a 3 year old son that means everything to me. He inspires me to tell stories and create art that means something. So, to create a story that he’d love would mean a lot to me. It would be about growing up and embracing who you are no matter what life throws at you. I would call it The You That You Are. I would want my son to know that no matter what anyone says, the best thing he can be is himself. 

RAPID FIRE WITH DREW ANN DAVIS BORSOS, MADAME ARCATI IN BLITHE SPIRIT

JHPEntertainment: You’ve got the scene-stealing plum role of Madame Arcati, a role originated on the stage and in the classic 1945 film adaptation by Margaret Rutherford and subsequently by everyone from Geraldine Page and Angela Lansbury to Jennifer Saunders and, in the current 2022 film, Judi Dench. Those are some big turbans to fill. How do you feel you’ve made her your own?

Drew Ann Davis Borsos: I am tickled pink to play Madame Arcadi! I love physical comedy and playing eccentric, quirky characters. My last role was Daisy in Driving Miss Daisy. Her character was sedate, dignified, and reserved. My director, Vickie Bailey, had to reign me in constantly! I am thrilled to be able to go all out for Madame Arcadi! Our director, Donna Driver, has given me room to make Madame Arcadi bigger than life. Is she an act, or is she the real deal? She is passionate, boisterous, and self assured. Margaret Rutherford’s own personal characteristics along with Noel Coward’s words, made that part comical for which she earned an Oscar. But, I can’t imagine her, or Judi Dench, jumping, running, and throwing themselves on the furniture, or Angela Lansbury being overly melodramatic. I was sorry to hear that Angela Lansbury passed over this week.

JHPEntertainment: Since you play a medium, What are your thoughts on ghosts and such, and Have you ever attended a seance?

Drew Ann Davis Borsos: I would never be part of a real life seance, or go to a Fortune Teller, or seek out someone who talks to your deceased loved ones. My character talks to the dead! I have learned that there are different kinds of ghosts in the spirit world…Poltergeists, Emanations, Elementals, etc! My personal belief is that the spirit world is very powerful, very real, and not something to be mocked. Ghosts stories, movies, and plays can be entertaining, but let’s not forget that there is a dark power at work in the world, and it is deceptive. But, as far as participating in Halloween is concerned, it is about opening your doors to your neighbors and getting candy!

JHPEntertainment: As mentioned above, Madame Arcati is easily the most-desired role in Blithe Spirit. Had you not been cast as her, is there another role, regardless of whether you fit the ‘type’ or not, that you’d love to also play?

Drew Ann Davis Borsos: If I had not been cast as Madame Arcadi, I would love to play the role of “Edith”. Edith can be any age, and any gender. I love the the awkwardness and naivety of the character. Also, there are less lines to memorize!

JHPEntertainment: Has it really been a decade since you starred in the Keeton Theatre’s production of Lend Me a Tenor? The theatre has gone through a number of changes since then. What do you think is the best aspect of the current support system and crew at the Keeton?

Drew Ann Davis Borsos: There are a lot of improvements in the building and the theater, which had to be a joint venture with the staff and volunteers over the years. It is more secure and we now have a bathroom backstage!! I noticed right away that there is more organization and communication between the Staff, Board Members, Director, and Crew. It is not everywhere that an actor can walk into the first rehearsal and have a set already done, and costumes and props already provided. That gives us time to learn lines and to deliver a well rehearsed performance. I’m pleased to see in the last few years, there have been more staged plays, and not just musicals. The Larry Keeton Theatre is not just the community theatre hidden behind the Senior Center, but it is now a prime Nashville attraction.

JHPEntertainment: Blithe Spirit is celebrating its eighth decade since it was first staged. What is it about the show, and Noel Coward’s brand of comedy hijinks that makes it just as enjoyable today as ever?

Drew Ann Davis Borsos: Words, Words, Words! It is rich in vocabulary and every sentence is full of little gems. There is a beauty and art form in the way he constructed sentences. Most of us these days don’t know how to talk so eloquently. Or, is that just a British thing! The audience feels for the leading man and lady who gradually lose control of the situation, and has to rely on a bumbling clairvoyant, who got them into this mess in the first place, try to get them out of it. And who wouldn’t love to see the special effects and portrayal of ghosts on screen or in live theater?

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As Borsos’ Madame Arcadi’s says, Who wouldn’t love to see it. To catch Blithe Spirit during its three-week run onstage at The Larry Keeton Theatre (108 Donelson Pike, Nashville, TN 37214).For more information or to Purchase Tickets, CLICK HERE or call the box office at 615.231.1231. Adult Dinner and Show tickets are $35. Child Dinner and Show tickets are $25. Show Only tickets are $30 and $20 respectively. There is a special Pay What You Can Industry Night for fellow actors and crew who might not be able to make the weekend performances due to their own shows about town. For Blithe Spirit, Industry Night is Wednesday, October 12 with doors at 6:30p.m. and curtain at 7p.m. Industry Night show only tickets are a suggested $15. During the run, the schedule is as follows: Thursdays-Doors at 6:30p.m./Show at 7p.m. (Thursdays are Show Only days). Fridays and Saturdays-Doors at 5:45p.m./Dinner at 6p.m. and Show at 7p.m. Sundays-Doors at 12:45p.m./Lunch at 1p.m. and show at 2p.m.

To keep up with the latest from The Larry Keeton Dinner Theatre, follow them on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

Interested in coverage for your latest entertaining endeavor? Click the contact page and drop me a note or email me at Jonathan@jhpentertainment.com. You can also follow JHP Entertainment on Instagram and Facebook.

Theatre Review: Nashville Story Garden’s US Premiere production of The Welkin wraps two week run Friday, September 30

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British playwright Lucy Kirkwood, whose previous works include NSFW, Bloody Wimmin, Chimerica and Mosquitos, can always be counted on to present through-provoking, female-centered, universally themed theatrical experiences. Her latest, The Welkin, is no exception. Having premiered across the pond in 2020, the US premiere, courtesy Nashville Story Garden, wraps its all-too-brief six performance this weekend with a final performance at 7p.m. Friday, September 30 at Riverside Revival (1600 Riverside Drive, East Nashville).

The Welkin seems somewhere between an all female 12 Angry Men, The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter, with maybe a little Handmaid’s Tale thrown in for good measure. While 12 Angry Men focuses on a group of men determining the guilt or innocence of a man accused of murder, Kirkwood’s The Welkin, set in 1759, presents 12 rural Suffolk UK women tasked to not determine a woman’s guilt or innocence, but rather to ascertain whether or not the already accused and convicted woman is with child or not. Their decision then establishing whether or not she be hanged in the public square or allowed to live…at least long enough to bring her child into the world. All this while the otherwise seemingly sleepy burg awaits the spectacle of Halley’s comet.

I was thrilled when Nashville Story Garden’s Lauren Berst reached out to me to ask me to attend opening night. A new play, in a new (for me) venue. That was enough, but add to that, the cast, many of whom I’ve seen in many of my favorite plays over the years, and a few I wasn’t familiar with…always a potential added bonus.

As the play begins, a title card is illuminated on stage reading simply ‘Housework’, while silhouetted images of the players performing various household chores are seen as shadows backlit on crisp white linens hanging across the stage like laundry on the line. The cast then, removes the draping fabric as the title card is changed to read ‘The Night In Question’ as we meet Ayla Williams as Sally Poppy as we witness a bit of what leads her to her eventual sentence. Williams is spectacular as the convicted murderess. She plays the role with spirit and a no-nonsense bite that also eventually reveals innocence lost, or rather, buried away inside her long before the night of the crime.

A later title card reading ‘The Empaneling’ is where we are first fully introduced to the rest of the cast. During the show’s opening week, assistant director Joe Mobley stepped in for Matthew Rose as Mr. Coombs, the jury-appointed liaison between the court and the women. He is at times humorous and a tad bullish as he wavers between being in the minority, but never forgetting he, as a man, is always in the majority.

As for the jury of matrons, director Halena Kays has assembled a who’s who and a who will be stellar cast including Destinee Monet, Melodie Madden Adams, Tamara Todress, Diego Gomez, Candace-Omnira Lafayette, Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva, Rachel Agee, Jessica Anderson, Lauren Berst, Megan Murphy Chambers, Matthew Rose, Inez, Rona Carter, Melinda Sewak and the aforementioned Ayla Williams.  With Milly Mason and Jordan Bentley sharing the role of young Katy during the run and Brooke Ferguson understudy for all the women.

Nashville Story Garden’s co-artistic directors, Lauren Berst and Tamara Todress play Lizzy and Emma respectively. Lizzy is the neighborhood midwife, with ties to seemingly everyone, even the aforementioned Mr. Coombs. Berst’s Lizzy takes no guff from anyone and, in spite of her own demons and disappointments, seems to see the good in others. Meanwhile, Emma seems to reserve the majority of her interactions simply holding for disdain anyone she deems below her station. That said, Todress’ Emma is delightful in her disdain.

Of the women, many of them get their moment to shine thanks to the playwright’s clever unraveling of the story, and each and every woman’s background, character and involvement, therein. Perhaps none more than the aforementioned, Ayla Williams, who’s portrayal is at times subtle and at times so explosive she seems on the verge of madness, and who wouldn’t be, given the circumstances of her character’s predicament.

Rachel Agee is marvelous as Judith. She’s played as a bit boisterous and cheeky, perfectly aligning with Agee’s generous talents at both. Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva is splendid as well. Her Helen seems meek and sweet, but there’s some fierceness fueled by sadness revealed as the play unfolds. Other standouts include Rona Carter as Sarah Smith, portraying the eldest member of the group and Melinda Sewak’s Sarah Hollis, who without uttering one word, provides insight to her character’s pain.

Once the verdict is in, and the action nears its end, there’s a post-show scene in which the women reappear in modern wardrobe performing those same household tasks seen in the opener. A jarring reminder that what the audience has witnessed, and what these character’s portray of a world three centuries ago, seems just as much at the forefront of society today. As the adage states, “a woman’s work is never done” and I’ll add, neither is her fight for herself, her body and her rights.

Off-stage, the team responsible for technical aspects of the play should also be celebrated. Jonathan Nicholson’s stark but effective set, Tony Nappo’s mood-enhancing lighting and Matt Logan, listed as costume consultant. Of the costumes, maybe I read more into it than I should…or should I say ‘red’ more into it, but I love that each women, save one, has a bit of red fabric accented somewhere on her wardrobe. To me this symbolized life’s blood, and with the subject matter revolving around whether or not a new life exists in the belly of the accused, that just made sense. Again, perhaps reading more into it than I should, as more and more was revealed about each woman, I wove my own story in my head as to the placement of the red fabric on each woman, and even the amount of it used in her costume. Without giving too much away, a few examples: Lizzy’s arms are both bound with red fabric wrapped ‘round them, perhaps symbolic of her ties to most of the women. Helen is wrapped in a shawl of red, a visual manifestation of the sadness and burden that envelopes her. Even Sarah Smith, who only has a tiny string of red around one finger…by chance suggesting something she need recall. As I said, maybe I read too much into the fabric and the placement, maybe it was just a nice wardrobe accent that created a constant of the otherwise mostly nondescript clothing of the time period.

The Welkin concludes its run with a final performance Friday, September 30. CLICK HERE for tickets.  For more from Nashville Story Garden, CLICK HERE to sign up for their newsletter or follow them on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM and TWITTER.

Theatre Review: With talent paid in full, nothing left overdue in Nashville Rep’s ‘RENT’; Final performance Sunday, September 25 at 2pm at TPAC’s Jackson Hall

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The cast of Nashville Rep’s ‘RENT’

I’m just gonna be honest. Since seeing RENT during it’s original Broadway run, then on tour…twice and a handful of local and regional productions, it’s just not my favorite musical. I KNOW! I KNOW! Apparently I’m not alone though as it seems you either love it or you don’t. Heck, even before it hit the stage last week as the season opening for Nashville Repertory Theatre, I may or may not have joked with a friend or two that the brightly colored wardrobe choices seen in the company’s promotional images, looked, to me like Disney+’s version of Jonathan Larson’s look at late 80s/early 90s life in the time of AIDS in the Lower East Side.

That said, under the direction of Micah-Shane Brewer, with musical direction courtesy Randy Craft and choreography by Tosha Marie, coupled with a cast peppered with a mix of fresh young talent and some remarkable vocals, I’ll admit, The Rep’s RENT (on stage at TPAC‘s Polk Theatre thru Sunday, September 25) just might live in my head rent-free for quite some time.

Still a little skeptical as the show began on opening night, I’ll also admit that when there were some initial issues with the mics of some of the primary cast members, I did lean over to my friend who was my plus1 for the evening and whispered, “I don’t care if they don’t pay the rent, but they could at least pay the electric bill so the mics work.” But I’m here to tell you, once they got into the grove of the music, it was indeed an enjoyable evening of live theatre, something I think we’re all still getting use to after the two-year shutdown without it.

It’s well-known that RENT is based, in part, on Puccini’s opera, La Boheme, which, coincidentally or not, is also currently on stage at TPAC’s larger theatre, the Andrew Jackson Theatre as presented by Nashville Opera. In Puccini’s opera, the action begins in the cold dark apartment of two artists, one a painter, the other a writer, both struggling to make a living and pay their rent.  Larson’s RENT opens in a similar apartment, only this time the artists are an aspiring filmmaker and wannabe songwriter. Wood Van Meter plays Mark, the videographer, while Mike Sallee, Jr. appears as singer/songwriter, Roger.

Van Meter’s Mark is vibrant and full of hope, something not always seen in portrayals of this central character. A definite welcomed interpretation. Van Meter supports the soundtrack throughout, but it’s when he’s featured in numbers like ‘Tango Maureen’ (also featuring powerhouse vocals by Carli Hardon as Maureen’s current love interest, Joanne). Van Meter’s Act 2 solo, ‘Goodbye, Love’ also gives opportunity for his voice to be truly appreciated.

On the flip, Sallee’s Roger is played more introspective and thoughtful. His work on ‘Light My Candle’, ‘Will I’ and ‘Without You’, so rich with feeling.

Both Van Meter and Sallee possess strong vocals skills and a certain comfortability in their respective roles. They definitely play to their strength with this work.

Cast as their on-again-off-again love interests are Natalie Rankin as Maureen, who dumped Mark for a female lover and Marena Lucerno as Mimi, a drug-addicted lost soul who wonders into Mark and Roger’s apartment literally and figuratively looking for light. Rankin’s Maureen is ballsy and unafraid. Even my absolute least favorite musical number, ‘Over the Moon’ is hilariously enjoyable in the capable hands and voice of Rankin. As for Lucerno’s Mimi, she hides her insecurities behind a brash exterior. Both sides of her character are showcased in a couple of the show’s numbers. Her softer side shines bright alongside Sallee’s Roger in ‘Light My Candle’, while her more flamboyant exterior revs up the vibe in ‘Out Tonight’.

Then there’s Deonté Warren as Angel. Again, confession time. Whenever speaking about RENT, I typically recall a local theatrical production I attended about a decade ago, when, not even halfway through the show I leaned over and whispered to my companion, “I can’t wait till Angel dies”. Yes, I know….how dare I, right? Well, the reason for that comment at the time was that more often than not local productions tend to play Angel as a full-on stereotypical drag queen, whereas I’ve always felt the character was likely intended to represents a pre-transitioned trans woman. Yes, I realize Angel’s first scene shows him as a man, playing drums on the street, but the rest of the show, she’s seen in full hair and makeup and her friends refer to her as she/her. Well, in the fabulously capable hands of Warren, Angel is the absolute star of the show. Fierce, Fragile, Funny, Fabulous and Fucking Amazing…all the dang F Words!

Speaking of Fabulous, call it stunt casting, call it whatever you like, but including Lando Hawkins as Angel’s suitor, Tom Collins and Piper Jones as a frequently featured member of the ensemble, who, when together late in Act 2, duet on the reprise of ‘I’ll Cover You’’…simply the show’s best moment. Even my old cynical eyes began to sweat. Simply perfection. And yes…I’m once again a fan of RENT.

You didn’t think I was gonna review RENT without mentioning ‘Seasons of Love’, now did you? As expected, it’s glorious. Nashville Repertory Theatre’s RENT concludes its brief run at TPAC’s Polk Theatre with one final performance Sunday, September 25 at 2pm. CLICK HERE for tickets.

As The Rep’s season continues they’re presenting The Cake October 21-30, Elf: The Musical December 21-January 1, August Wilson’s Fences March 3-5, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time March 24-April 2 and Violet May 12-21. Season Tickets just went on sale earlier this week. CLICK HERE to purchase Season Tickets or for more info. Check out Nashville Rep online HERE and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

As always, if you wanna follow JHPEntertainment to find out who I’m chatting with for my next Rapid Fire Q&A, or for my take on the latest local and national theatre, music and movie offerings, find us at JHPEntertainment on Facebook, JHPEntertainment on Instagram  and JHPEntertainment on Twitter. Got an event or show we should know about, drop us a line at the Contact tab. Till then, #GoSeeTheShow!

Rapid Fire 20 Q with vocalist Lisa Stewart; Performing a Jazz Set at Analog at the Hutton Thursday, August 4

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Singer/songwriter/actress/TV host, when it comes to Lisa Stewart, there’s nothing this talented beauty can’t do. What’s more, while she did indeed get her start in 90s country, she’s not one to stick with one genre. To that end, she’s teamed with a group of talented musician recently to form to provide lead vocals to a jazz ensemble who’ve played Analog at The Hutton ((1808 West End Ave, Nashville) several times over that past few months. This Thursday, August 4, Lisa and her band will be back for another jazz set at 7p.m. Having known Lisa for several years, I figured it was high time we chatted for my latest Rapid Fire 20Q.

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: As I mentioned in my intro to our chat, you’re returning to Analog at The Hutton Thursday, August 4 for another jazz set. You’ve played Analog a couple other times recently…is this becoming a regular thing?

LISA STEWART: Yes, it is! The Hutton is owned and run by creative people who love music. I’m very fortunate that they have taken me in as a sort of a “regular” on an irregular basis.  

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: Some folks might know you musically as a country artist, having released your solo country project in the early days of your career, but even back when you were a frequent guest on TNN’s Music City Tonight, you’d occasionally do a jazz vocal. A sultry version of Fever comes to mind. Have you always been a fan of jazz?

LISA STEWART: Ah! Thank you for remembering that performance of Fever…that was so much fun! I’ve loved jazz standards for as long as I can remember! It was actually a jazz/piano vocal of My Funny Valentine, produced by Byron Gallimore, that opened the door to a meeting with Joe Galante in NYC. During that meeting he gave me the “thumbs up” to sign with BNA Records, a division of RCA. 

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: Who are some of your favorite jazz vocalists?

LISA STEWART: I think Billie Holiday has one of the most identifiable voices across all genres. I’m a big fan of Sarah Vaughn, as well. Ah, and Julie London. But, my heart draws a straight line to Chet Baker.  

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: While doing a little digging to chat with you, I discovered you first performed at a very young age in church. What do you remember about those days? 

LISA STEWART: I began to sing my first solo performance after my mother dropped the needle on a 45 record of He’s Still Working on Me. When the song ended, I experienced an “Ah-ha” moment. I was 6 years old, felt the love from the audience, and knew what I wanted to do with my life. 

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: In addition to music in church, did you grow up in a musical household?

LISA STEWART: My mother is a pianist and organist. She can read any piece of music you put in front of her. She and I had so much fun playing and singing together. My dad always dreamed of singing on The Grand Ole Opry. As a little boy, he would hide under the covers and listen to The Opry on Saturday nights. When I shot one of my music videos at The Ryman, Dad finally got walk onto that historic stage. It was one of my sweetest memories.

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: I can relate. My dad never really knew any ‘new country’ artist I worked with, but when I told him I worked with George Jones, I felt like he was more proud of me then than ever before. Something else you and I have in common, we’re both from small southern towns. You’re from Louisville, Mississippi. What memories of your childhood there do you hold dear?

LISA STEWART: There are so many. It was a simple, southern, small town life. Some of my fondest memories were holding my dad’s hand and walking to church. Afterwards, I’d go to “the singin'” with my grandparents. We’d go fishing on weekend and go swimming with the snapping turtles at Lake Tiak O’Khata. My folks always had a big garden and I loved picking strawberries. I was surrounded by art and music. My mom would stay up all night sewing dresses for me. My brother, Keith, and I would listen to vinyl records for hours on end. Stewart Family Pottery goes back to 1888, and my brother carries the torch at his pottery studio in Taylor, MS. 

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: Speaking of your hometown. While researching in preparation of our conversation, I noticed the ‘notable people’ from your hometown, aside from you, are mostly athletes and coaches. So, I gotta ask…were you ever into sports?

LISA STEWART: I was into gymnastics for 8 years and was on the track team for about a minute. 

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: Aside from music, you’ve also enjoyed success as a tv host. In fact, it was during those years that we first met. How much fun was hosting #1 Country and This Week in Country Music?

LISA STEWART: I absolutely love working in television and being on a set! That’s a team sport!

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: Now, see there! You got a sports reference in after all. Your hometown will be proud. Like everyone in Nashville, we’ve had a few connections through the years. Weren’t you in a Billy Gilman music video? You know I worked with his management around that time, right?

LISA STEWART: Yes! I was! And I do recall that you were a part of his team!

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: You’ve also ventured into acting throughout your career. Heck, I remember the TV movie Xxxs and Ooos, with a theme song sing by Trisha Yearwood, no less. Didn’t you have a quick appearance as yourself in that one?

LISA STEWART: I did! I think I was in an aerobics class! LOL!

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: Gotta love a TV movie who’s theme song was a bigger success. That leads me to another aspect of your career…songwriting. In fact, along with with Burton Collins & Clay Mills, you co-wrote Sky Full of Angels which appeared on Reba’s 2003 Room to Breathe. Like singing, songwriting is something you’ve always enjoyed, isn’t it?

LISA STEWART: Yes, I’ve been writing songs since I was about 9 years old. I write almost daily. 

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: Let’s jump back to your acting for a minute. A couple years ago, you appeared in an episode of Vampire Diaries and a few other projects, including the film The Novitiate.  How does being on set as an actor compare to being on set as a host?

LISA STEWART: Being a host vs. playing a role as an actor are two completely different gigs. The energy, the perspective, the headspace…is like comparing apples and architecture.

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: Any acting gigs in the future? Have you ever done live theatre? You know, Nashville does have a fantastic theatre scene.

LISA STEWART: I recently auditioned for a popular TV series. We shall see! And yes, I have done some live theatre. I’ve enjoyed some wonderful plays and musicals at TPAC! 

JHPENTERTAINMENT: On the subject of theatre, last time I saw your son, Evan, y’all joined me for a local production of Shrek: The Musical. According to Facebook Memories, that was 8 years ago! I’m terrible at math, but I think that means Evan’s gotta be a teenager by now. Has he shown any interest in music or performing? 

LISA STEWART: Evan is 13 now! While he is musical with a great ear, a lovely voice, plays a little guitar and is a fine actor (he’s been featured in commercials and music videos), he is smart enough to express, “Mom, I don’t wanna be in show business. The road is too rough.” Fortunately, he is into academia, but just wants to lead a simple life. 

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: Back to your current musical expression, who’ve you got performing alongside you for your upcoming jazz night at Analog?

LISA STEWART: I’m fortunate to get to share the stage with some of the best jazz musicians around! This Thursday will feature Andrew Carney on trumpet, Rick Reed on drums, Alex Murphy on keys and Carter Murphey on upright bass.

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: Having played The Analog before, what’s your favorite aspect of the venue itself?

LISA STEWART: The room was designed by Michael Cronin….so it sounds absolutely divine!

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: Are you keeping the set strictly jazz, or do you plan on dropping in a classic country tune or two, or perhaps one of the songs from your country project?

LISA STEWART: For this show, it seems that anything aside from jazz feels a bit left footed. I like to stay in the jazz vibe.

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: Having done a handful of these jazz sets at Analog, is the set list always the same, or does it change when the mood strikes?

LISA STEWART: I like to have a set list as a guide, which may vary from show to show. But, I think it’s important to feel the room, as well.

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: Any plans to maybe record a jazz album?

LISA STEWART: Don Was, if you’re reading this. Let’s talk. 

JHP ENTERTAINMENT: Anyone who is friends with either of us knows I’ll be in the audience at Analog Thursday as it’s the day before my Aug. 5 birthday. It’s also your birthday weekend, as yours is Aug. 6. What are you doing to celebrate your big day?

LISA STEWART: I love birthdays, and I hope to be spending my day with my son and my special someone. I hope to FaceTime my parents, brother, niece and nephew, too. But, I’m looking forward to doing what I love so much to kick off the weekend Thursday night…and that’s getting lost in the music.

Lisa Stewart will perform her jazz set at Analog at The Hutton Thursday, August 4. Advance tickets are available through August 3 for $15. Day of show tickets will be $20. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets. Any remaining tickets can also be purchased at the door just before showtime for $20. Follow Lisa on Facebook and Instagram.  For more performances at Analog at The Hutton, check them out on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

As always, if you wanna follow JHPEntertainment to find out who I’m chatting with for my next Rapid Fire Q&A, or for my take on the latest local and national theatre, music and movie offerings, find us at JHPEntertainment on Facebook, JHPEntertainment on Instagram  and JHPEntertainment on Twitter.

Got an event or show we should know about, drop us a line at the Contact tab. Till then, #GoSeeTheShow!

Theatre Review: Directed by Cat Eberwine, the cast of Bucket List Productions’ ‘Assassins’ turns in a round of killer performances

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Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins may not be as well-known, as some of his other works like Company, Sweeney Todd or Into the Woods, but it’s one of his most ambitious and though-provoking shows, and I definitely count it among my personal favorites. In the hands of Bucket List Productions’ Dave Davis as producer and Cat Eberwine as director, and with the killer cast they’ve assembled, I was quickly reminded why it’s among my favorites.

Now, anyone who knows me, knows I often have a bit of a twisted sense of what I find entertaining. My frequent viewing of everything from murder mysteries to serial killer docs stands as proof. That said, since it had been quite some time since I had seen a production of Assassins, I was excited to attend opening weekend. I was not disappointed.

From the moment the curtain rose of Darkhorse’s intimate stage and I took a little sinister delight in Jim Mannings evocative set design as I spotted a furry animal skin headdress draped over a government podium, a la the now infamous Qanon Shaman. Manning’s set also features a what appears to be a slightly off-balance marbled judge’s bench. Perhaps a nod to the ever-present imbalance of justice. Half of the stage floor is even covered with a very realistic looking enlarged pattern of the familiar stars of Old Glory against a field of blue. To me, a statement of the disrespect of the union we’ve all felt at some point or other, but most universally during our country’s history of assassinations and assassination attempts of our leaders, the subject of this musical.

In particular, Assassins gives a glimpse, however fictionalized for entertainment purposes, into those who attempted—some successfully, some not—to assassinate U.S. Presidents including Lincoln (by John Wilkes Booth), James Garfield (by Charles Guiteau), William McKinley (by Leon Czolgosz) and John F. Kennedy (by Lee Harvey Oswald). The unsuccessful attempts on the lives of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt (by Giuseppe Zangara), Richard Nixon (by Samuel Byck), Gerald Ford (by both Squeaky Fromme and Sara Jane Moore) and Ronald Reagan (by Joh Hincley, Jr).

The cast of ‘Assassins’ (photo by Rick Malkin)

Director Eberwine has indeed assembled a hot shot group of assassins. As their stories unfold, I was reminded of some sort of twisted representation of the Seven Deadly Sins, as each cast member, even when just being present on stage while others are the primary focus, embodied their characters fully, with the slightest of movements, twitches and ticks. That may sound far-reaching, but it was indeed my initial thought, as these characters before me possessed passionate emotions, jealousy, anger, even devotion and love and those emotions became the driving force of their seemingly unspeakable acts. Quite a feat, especially when you take into consideration this production is Eberwine’s first-ever musical. Heck, it’s only her second time to direct, her first being Way-Off Broadway Productions’ The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in 2019.

As for the cast, I recognized some from having seen them in a number of shows around town. Still others seem new to me. Of the more familiar, Melissa Silengo is a stand-out as Lynette Squeaky Fromme the former Manson Family member who attempted to kill President Ford in 1975. In fact, aside from the show opening, Everybody’s Got the Right, it’s Silengo’s duet with Micheal Walley’s John Hinkley on the oddly poppy love ballad, Unworthy of Your Love, that’s among the show’s musical highlights. But it’s Silengo’s crazy eyes and sinister grin as Fromme that truly kept my attention. No matter what was happening on stage, or who was featured at the moment, I couldn’t stop glancing at Silengo to see what subtle and not so subtle scene-stealing she was up to.

A one-act with ten musical numbers, the majority of the remaining tunes are mostly forgettable, save the late-hour all-in Another National Anthem. That’s not to say anything disparaging of the this production’s musical director, Noah Rice, whose recently created original music for Tennessee Playwrights Studio’s That Woman: The Dance Show and who music directed Circle Players’ Priscilla Queen of the Desert. While Sondheim’s Assassins score may not contain the earworm of Company’s Ladies Who Lunch, with Rice at the helm, and in the moment, the score sets the perfect mood for the action at hand. It should be mentioned though that due to the limited space of the venue, the orchestra did overpower the vocals, especially near the top of the show, again, by no fault of Rice’s musical direction. Having known Rice and followed his career since seeing him as Archie in Circle Players’ 13: The Musical a decade ago…yes, he’s that young, it’s a joy to see him become a true force to watch in the Nashville theatre community.

Back to the on-stage action…Silengo’s aforementioned duet partner, Walley also kept me entertained with his nervous twitching. A testament to Eberwine’s direction and the actor’s abilities that even when not speaking, these characters are being developed. Shea Gordon, one of the stronger vocalist of the cast is enjoyable as both the show’s narrator, The Balladeer and Lee Harvey Oswald.

Among my other favorites in the cast, Dan Kevorkian’s Samuel Byck. Dressed in a disheveled Santa suit ad seated near the back of the stage during the majority of the show, Kevorkian’s Byck can be seen mumbled angrily into a tape recorder. These actions and this look are based on Byck’s having picketed the White House Christmas Eve 1973 dressed as Santa and carrying a sign that said “All I want for Christmas is my constitutional rights to peaceably my government for redress of grievances. In the following year, Byck attempted to hijack a plane in hopes of crashing it into the White House.

Dustin Davis, who I believe was a late addition to the cast, following a last-minute withdrawal of the actor originally cast, is near-perfection as John Wilkes Booth. As his story unfolds, you genuinely get the feeling he truly only assassinated Lincoln because his acting career never got noticed. Ah, the things we’ll do for fame and notoriety.

Anna Carroll’s Sara Jane Moore presents herself as a bumbling housewife of a women who just so happens to attempt to kill Gerald Ford. While Moore and Fromme’s attempts were historically separate, Assassins cleverly teams the two and under Eberwine’s direction, Carroll and Silengo’s ensuing bumbling scene, in which they nearly prematurely discharge their respective weapons, put me in mind of Carol Burnette and Vicki  Lawrence in a skit that could easily have come straight from Burnette’s classic 70s tv variety show.

Andy Kanies’ Charles Guiteau is perhaps the most subtly portrayed, for he seems so gentle and upbeat, until he isn’t. On the opposite scale, Teal Davis is brilliantly unhinged as FDR’s attempted assassin, Giuseppe Zangara. Zach William approaches Leon Czologsz with a quiet unassuming air.

Rounding out the cast are ensemble members Daniel Vincent, Will Lasley, Anthony Just, Jessica Heim, Cat Glidwell and Willem Bragg playing various citizenry throughout the history of presidential assassinations in our great country.

Following their opening night earlier this month, the show had to unexpectedly go dark. To assure the audiences of their cancelled shows got their shot to experience Assassins, once they returned to the stage, they added additional shows during this, their final week of performances. Assassins continues with 7pm performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday, July 21-23 at Darkhorse Theatre. CLICK HERE for tickets.

For more on Bucket List Production’s Assassins, CLICK HERE. To see what’s coming next to Darkhorse Theatre, including various presentations presented as part of Kindling Arts Festival, CLICK HERE.

As always, if you wanna follow JHPEntertainment to find out who I’m chatting with for my next Rapid Fire Q&A, or for my take on the latest local and national theatre, music and movie offerings, find us at JHPEntertainment on Facebook, JHPEntertainment on Instagram  and JHPEntertainment on Twitter.

Got an event or show we should know about, drop us a line at the Contact tab. Till then, #GoSeeTheShow!

Theatre Review: Playhouse 615’s ‘Graceland’, One-Act Celebrates Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Love of Elvis

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Everyone’s heard of Christmas in July, but what about a night of theatre celebrating the six month mark before the birth of The King? I didn’t say The King of Kings, just The King…you know, the one whose palace sits behind music-themed gates in the Whitehaven neighborhood of Memphis, TN. Now you’ve got it, and so does Playhouse 615 (11920 Lebanon Rd, Mt. Juliet, TN), for that’s where you can find Thank You Very Much: A halfway to Elvis’ Birthday Celebration featuring Graceland, a one-act play by Ellen Byron. Co-Directed by Playhouse 615’s Joel Meriwether and Ann Street-Kavanagh, Graceland stars Diane Bearden-Enright and Addison Myatt with performances continuing thru Sunday, July 17.

Enright, who’s currently an Adjunct Theatre instructor at MTSU, with an acting resume including stage appearances ranging from Nashville to New York and back again, whose recent theatre credits include Ouiser in Steel Magnolias and a fantastic turn as Rosie in a pre-pandemic run of Mamma Mia, stars as Bev Davies, a middle-aged, polyester-wearing, fiery redhead…or is she? Myatt, who recently assistant stage managed Playhouse 615’s production of Next to Normal, and was among the ensemble of their fabulous production of Dracula, plays Rootie, an attractive, thin, small-town girl on a mission. But there’s more to both these ladies as the show soon reveals. As an added bonus, following the one-act, Elvis Tribute Artist, Wess Aaron presents some of EP’s best-known hits, done…his way.

Diane Bearden-Enright as Bev and Addison Myatt as Rootie in Playhouse 615’s ‘Graceland’ (production photos provided by Joel Meriwether)

Graceland’s plot is simple, two seemingly polar-opposite Elvis fanatics, Bev Davies (Enright) and Rootie Mallert (Myatt) are both hoping to be the first devotee of the King of Rock and Roll to enter the hallowed halls of his former home on June 7, 1982 as it opens for the public for the very first time.

As Graceland begins, Enright’s Bev enters the small bare stage carrying with her a cooler, a folding lawn chair, a tote-bag (emblazoned with an image of Elvis, of course) and various pieces of what will eventually be a pop-up tent. Thus begins at least five minutes of Enright’s Bev in a silent struggle with said tent as she lays claim to her premium spot just outside the gates of Graceland. With not a single word of spoken dialogue, save the occasional frustrated swear-word under her breath as she fights the aluminum rods and nylon fabric to build herself a temporary shield from the elements, Enright’s Bev elicits howls of laughter from the audience as she awaits entrance to the sacred halls of Elvis’ former abode. What a way to start the show! Enright’s physicality during this scene pulls out all the stops, a true masterclass in conveying humor and exasperation without words.

As Bev gets things situated just as she wants them, and all seems calm, here comes Myatt’s Rootie wearing a midriff top and jeans and sporting a short curly blonde hairstyle reminiscent of any number of late 70s/early 80s pop culture icons. By their wardrobe alone, you just know they’re gotta butt heads, and they do. As I said previously…polar opposites.

Enright’s Bev, sans red wig, accentuating a point with her entire being.

That opposition takes center stage when Rootie throws down her blanket, and the proverbial gantlet as it were, proclaiming she was technically the first one there as her blanket touched the ground just before Bev unfolded her chair and sat.

As the two explain why they are the ultimate Elvis fan, and therefore should be the first to enter Graceland, Bev reveals that Elvis basically saved her marriage because any time she and her husband had any discord, she’d simply think of the joy Elvis and his music…and his pelvis, no doubt, had brought her, she’d just smile and find contentment. There’s even a funny line in which Bev reveals that her husband was ok with her crush on The King, stating that if she’s in love with another man, at least he’s dead.

Meanwhile, Rootie’s reasons for wanting to enter Graceland first are quite different. As she explains to Bev, she feels a spiritual connection to Elvis and to a lost friendship and it’s her hope that she could reach out to Elvis to have him then, in turn, reach out to her late friend as a way of expressing her gratitude for what he meant to her. She even mentions some hippie-dippy cosmic stuff about bringing Elvis back, citing the plot of Gene Kelly’s 1954 musical Brigadoon, in which he seemingly resurrects an entire town that only comes to life once every hundred years.

Byron’s script finds Bev the stronger character, both in her ability to find humor I life and in her resilience, devoting a bit more time to her development and in the hands of Enright, she’s nicely revealed.

Myatt’s Rootie, adorned by Bev’s wig, getting her Elvis on

By contrast, Myatt’s Rootie, though she has the more serious backstory, a story of being bullied and an abusive boyfriend who devalues her in front of others, falls a bit short. Perhaps a bit of direction to vocalize might have helped. Yes, the character is meek, but at the top of the show, several of her lines were missed during the performance I attended. Whether that was due a lack of projection or technical issues with the sound, the character and its development suffered.

Like any good formulaic script, or any mediocre sitcom, by then end of the half-hour+, our two Elvis fans find common ground, understanding for each other’s situation and an unexpected kinship. They even share a hilarious duet of Heartbreak Hotel.

Graceland has all the basics of a clever, often touching and funny show, too bad it’s limited to only about a 45 minute run-time. For were it fully fleshed out into a two-act play, this could definitely be something Elvis fans, and fans of sweet little theatrical productions would love. As it is, Playhouse 615 has found the best aspects and showcased them. Heck, they even have Peanut Butter and Banana sandwiches as part of the concessions…and of course the forethought to follow the all-too-brief one-act with their very own Elvis impersonator.

Wess Aaron’s Elvis  (photo by Jonathan Pinkerton)

As for Wess Aaron‘s post-play Elvis tribute, right from the get, he revealed to the opening night audience that he’s usually backed by his full ensemble, billed as Wess Aaaron and The CC Riders, but is performing at Playhouse 615 with only pre-recorded backing tracks. Nonetheless, there are moments when the vocals are just right enough, the stage energy choreographed altogether appropriately for the situation and the cockiness of The King, personified. Now, it must be said, if you’re going in expecting a young Elvis, a la Austin Butler as seen in the current box-office smash hit film from Baz Luhrmann, you might wanna check out the movie. Think of later Elvis, a little tour-warn, a little over himself, but still hitting the stage. That’s the Elvis Wess Aaron showcases. With Aaron’s gusto, bravado and a few humorous quips between tunes, it’s somehow the perfect companion to Graceland.

As the show goes into the final weekend of performances, there’s three chances left to see Enright and Myatt make you shake, rattle and roll with laughs. Tickets are $18 and may be purchased online CLICK HERE or at the door. For details on upcoming shows at Playhouse 615, check out their website or find them on Facebook.

As always, if you wanna follow JHPEntertainment to find out who I’m chatting with for my next Rapid Fire Q&A, or for my take on the latest local and national theatre, music and movie offerings, find us at JHPEntertainment on Facebook, JHPEntertainment on Instagram  and JHPEntertainment on Twitter.

Got an event or show we should know about, drop us a line at the Contact tab. Till then, #GoSeeTheShow!

Theatre Review: Rabbit Room Theatre and Matt Logan Productions’ ‘The Hiding Place’ a Thought-Provoking Reminder of the Power of Kindness and Forgiveness; onstage thru July 23 at CPA’s Soli Deo Center

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Matt Logan’s gorgeous ‘The Hiding Place’ set (all photos courtesy The Rabbit Room/Matt Logan Productions. Photos by MA2LA)

The Tennessee premiere of The Hiding Place, based on Corrie ten Boom’s inspirational work, and adapted for the stage by A.S. Peterson, not only marks the debut production of the newly formed Rabbit Room Theatre, but also the first presentation of Matt Logan Productions whose founder and namesake is one of our area’s most creative individuals. Both the playwright and producer Logan, who also serves as the show’s director, are well-known to Nashville area theaterati, having collaborated previously on a local production of the historical musical, The Battle of Franklin, as well as a visually stunning adaptation of Frankenstein—both for Studio Tenn, the Franklin-based theatre company Logan co-founded alongside Jake Speck. Speaking of Speck, it was during his time with A.D. Players in Houston that The Hiding Place made its world premiere just a couple years ago. But back to the current presentation…For their debut, Rabbit Room Theatre has taken residence in the beautiful Soli Dio Center on the campus of Christ Presbyterian Academy, as the show continues through July 23. It’s a full-circle mention that not only did Logan attend CPA, but he was also a member of the team who designed the gorgeous venue of Soli Did Center. Heck, he even created the initial sketches for the design of the theatre’s beautifully intricate proscenium.

As I revealed in the intro to my recent Rapid Fire 20 Q with cast members of A.S. Peterson’s adaptation of Corrie ten Boom’s The Hiding Place, other than my own childhood memory of somehow being aware of a mid-70s movie version, starring Julie Harris, Jeanette Clift and Arthur O’Connell, my knowledge of ten Boom’s book was strangely limited. I say strangely limited because virtually everyone I mentioned the show to, either they had read ten Boom’s work, or their parents and grandparents were devotees of her inspiring story.

While I may have only known the basics of ten Boom’s story—that of her Dutch Christian family aiding in the hiding and relocating of Jewish citizens during Germany’s Nazi invasion of Holland during the 1940s—I was indeed very familiar with many members of the creative team Logan assembled for this beautiful retelling.

Rona Carter as Corrie ten Boom

As she had done in the above-mentioned World Premiere in Houston, Nan Gurley, a venerable presence of the Nashville theatre community leads the cast as Corrie ten Boom. Due to a brief illness, Gurley was unable to perform the role during the show’s opening weekend, so her understudy, Rona Carter, stepped in and stepped up. Having seen Carter in a number of shows over the years, most recently as Anne Marie in Nashville Repertory Theatre’s A Dolls House Part 2, I knew she would turn in a brilliant performance. I was not disappointed. As Logan said in his opening night speech when noting the cast change, “the theatre community could not work if we didn’t have understudies who are dynamite and are ready to go”. He was right. Carter’s portrayal of Corrie ten Boom as written by playwright Peterson, breathes a breathe of beautifully balanced confidence, faith, unconditional caring for her fellow man, and yes, even a touch of humor in times so desperately in need of all. Not being the biggest history buff myself, I have to admit I was apprehensive about reviewing this show because I don’t feel qualified to speak on things of which I’ve paid only the minimal attention, but Carter’s, and I’m certain, Gurley’s portrayal of ten Boom made me want to know more. From the opening scene, I was invested. It should be noted that Gurley returned to the production, assuming the lead role from the second weekend and will continue through the final performance, thus allowing Carter to assume a trio of supporting roles, covered opening weekend by swing cast member, Wesley Paine.

Even though the story takes place in the distant past, a past many would rather forget, there’s no denying recent events indicate we might not be so removed from the horrors as we’d like to be.

Carter, Wimmer, Tillis and Schuck as The ten Boom family

Lending magnificent support to the lead actress as the other members of the ten Boom family are Carrie Tillis as younger sister, Betsie ten Boom, John Schuck as the family patriarch, Casper ten Boom and Garris Wimmer as brother, Willem ten Boom.

Tillis’ Betsie is a constant reminder of something my parents used to tell me. No matter what you’re dealing with, there are others dealing with much worse. As Betsie, Tillis not only finds the light in even the darkest of situations, she radiates it. Some of that is acting, some of that is the actress herself. A joy to watch on stage and a joy to know in real life.

John Schuck was last seen onstage in Love Letters earlier this year. With an acting resume that ranges from film, TV and the stage with projects equally as varied, from a memorable role in Robert Altman’s award-winning film, M*A*S*H and appearing alongside Reba on Broadway in Annie Get Your Gun,(side note: Reba was there opening night supporting her former Broadway co-star) to equally versatile roles in TV classics like McMillan and Wife, The Golden Girls, and even a wonderfully fun, tongue-in-cheek turn as Herman Munster in a late 80s-early 90s The Munsters Today, rebooting the 60s horror/comedy family sitcom, The Munsters, John Schuck is, in every sense of the word, an actor’s actor.  His presence, his voice, his experience all influence and illuminate his performance whether starring in musical theatre, like my favorite, White Christmas, or, in this case, a heart-wrenching serious drama. In early scenes with real-life young sisters, Annabelle and Caroline Wolfe, playing pre-teen versions of Corrie and Betsie, Schuck is jovial but stern, caring, but authoritative. Once the sisters become adults, Schuck’s Casper grows with them, positioning and encouraging them to take their rightful places as the new generation of ten Booms.

Garris Wimmer, rounding out the ten Boom family as brother Willam, has more limited stage time, but makes the most of his portrayal as their kindhearted male sibling. He also appears later on in the production in a couple of minor roles including a jewish prisoner and a Red Cross worker.

The remaining members of the ensemble cast are a great mix of familiar faces to the Nashville  theatre community, as well as some impressive newcomers. Familiar faces in The Hiding Place include Chip Arnold, Ross Bolen and Matthew Carlton. With decades of stage experience between them, as always, all three actors a joy to watch. Then there’s Christi Dortch. Dortch falls somewhere between familiar and newcomer, only because since her return to Nashville a couple decades ago, she’s become more familiar behind the scenes, at TPAC, no less. This production marks a bit of a return to performing onstage. I’m here to tell you, her performance as The Beast, a female guard in the Nazi concentration camps, is eerily entertaining. Yes, I know how that sounds, given the subject matter, but she’s just so good at being bad.

Nathaniel McIntyre as Pickwick, one of the key figures in the underground network offering aide and solace to the jews, finds a wonderful balance between dedication to the cause and a much-needed occasional lightheartedness regarding Betsie. Also of note is Jonah M. Jackson as Otto, a seemingly stalwart young man who, early on, works closely with the ten Booms at their watch shop, but who later figures prominently in an altogether different manner. It’s his late interaction with Corrie that brings the primary theme of the show—the idea of unwavering forgiveness—home.

Quite different from the story structure of ten Boom’s original book, or the aforementioned 70s film, this stage iteration begins in the time just before the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands. As time passes, and Germany’s occupation of the Dutch countryside grows, the ten Booms learn of—and make the decision to become part of—the Dutch underground.

Carter’s Corrie ten Boom remembering a tender moment between her younger self, her sister Betsie and their father, Casper (John Schuck)

Thanks largely to require reading of The Diary of  a Young Girl by Anne Frank, this overall subject matter isn’t completely unfamiliar to even the less studious like myself. What makes the ten Booms story their own is their religious beliefs. As Christians, they felt it their faith, their fortune, their privilege and duty to help those in need, in spite of their religious differences.

On the subject of religion, given the fact that the production is about a Christian family, coupled with this presentation taking place on the campus of a Christian school, it should be no surprise that the spiritual overtones are plenty. In act two of the 2 1/2 hour-long production, there’s even a clever, if ever-so-mildly heavy-handed visual reference likening a restrained Jewish prisoner to Jesus on the Cross. In the more than capable hands of director, Logan, that scene actually works, for it is, after all, a story of faith and the basic practice of human kindness that ten Boom lived by example.

I’ve said for years that Logan is a master of his craft. Whether designing the perfect set, complete with the smallest of almost unnoticeable, but key, details, or directing with a keen eye, unmatched by most, Logan leaves nothing undone. A creative assist from Mitchell White, another of Logan’s longtime collaborators, working herein as Associate Scenic Designer and Scenic Construction, brings Logan’s vision of the ten Boom watch shop (on an impressive rotating stage designed by White). Later in the show, when the action turns to the more devastating locale of the Nazi camps, Logan proves he’s just as adept at creating a more somber environment outfitted by the sparseness of prison bunks of drab grey. Throughout the show, there’s a creative usage of translucent panels for the hint of walls, with the shadows on the other side simply amplifying the drama. Moss Lighting’s Stephen Moss is also key in focusing the audience’s eye on all the action with his keen expertise and astute attention to Logan’s vision as both set designer and director.

Mention should also be made of the show’s wig and makeup supervisor, Allison Hearn, and wardrobe supervisor, Lauren Terry for further manifesting both the playwright’s and the director’s visions. Adding to the realism, drama, intensity of the piece, Don Chaffer’s music score is precise and poignant. Light and joyful when needed, and dark and thoughtful during the more serious and intense moments. The musical score is purposefully and effectively underproduced, lending believability that it might have actually been composed during the time in which the play takes place and is the perfect companion to the story of faith, forgiveness and kindness.

The Hiding Place continues its run through July 23 at Christ Presbyterian Academy‘s The Soli Deo Center, with performances Thursday, July 14 thru Sunday, July 17 this week and Friday & Saturday, July 22 and 23, next week. For specific date and times or to purchase tickets, CLICK HERE. Check out The Rabbit Room online or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

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