Mark Beall News

Votes are cast; polls are closed; and results have been tabulated! This was our biggest year yet! After a record number of voters in more than 60 regions worldwide, BroadwayWorld is very excited to announce the 2014 Nashville winners! Thanks to all who voted, and huge congratulations to all the winners!

Although it seems hard to believe, Thanksgiving is this Thursday and as we reflect on the people, places and things that have made us truly happy this year and makes us most thankful, in general, we're also considering what things theatrical for which we are especially grateful in 2014.

Ten years after its debut on a Nashville stage-which led to an off-Broadway run-Jay Kholos' A Stoop on Orchard Street this weekend returns to the stage in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, kicking off a three-month run that will take the company, including many of Nashville's best and brightest, to Philadelphia, New York and other points northeastward.

Under the sure-handed direction of Morton, who has brought together an impressive cast of adult actors with two different casts of youngsters, the whole of Oliver! is remarkable, a thoroughly delightful evening of theater that allows those older thespians to show off their talents while showcasing the budding talents of her younger charges, who display stage presence and focus throughout the tune-filled musical. In fact, it is Morton's skilled and practiced eye in regards to casting that really sets this Oliver! apart from any of the others we've seen. Frankly, the woman knows what she's doing.

Oliver! - the Lionel Bart musical about London street urchin Oliver Twist and the scores of ruffians and ragamuffins who make up something of a family for the orphaned boy - opens at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre on Friday night, running through December 23, offering regional audiences the opportunity to fall in love with the 1960 musical once more.

Boiler Room Theatre's newest production arrives just in time for the holidays. Oliver! tells the classic Charles Dickens tale where nothing is as thrilling on the stage as a well-crafted tale, and Oliver! is just such a show. This show engages with its pathos and drama, while delighting everyone with the musical numbers 'Food, Glorious Food,' 'I'd Do Anything,' 'Where is Love?,' 'Consider Yourself,' 'As Long As He Needs Me,' and 'Who Will Buy.' Dickens' characters are brought to life-perhaps larger than life-with all their facets glowing in this production.

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