Mandy Barnett Kicks Off WINTER WONDERLAND Tour at Cumberland County Playhouse 11/23

World-class vocalist, First Night Award-nominated actress and Crossville native Mandy Barnett returns to the stage of her hometown's Cumberland County Playhouse for a very special Christmas concert Friday night, November 23 at 8 p.m.

The concert-which marks the start of her 2012 Winter Wonderland Christmas tour- will feature songs from her 2010 album Winter Wonderland, which music historian and critic Robert K. Oermann calls "an instant classic."

Barnett started singing when she was five and has been singing since.  As a teenager, she starred as country music legend Patsy Cline in the stage show Always . . . Patsy Cline by Ted Swindley (the role for  which she was a First Night Award nominee) at the celebrated Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The performances were sold out nightly and received rave reviews across the country. She has reprised the roles many times since then.

Barnett's first two albums, Mandy Barnett and I've Got a Right to Cry were both huge critical successes and led to her appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

In addition to her own albums, Barnett has been featured on movie soundtracks, including A Walk On the Moon, Traveller, Space Cowboys, Election, Drop Dead Gorgeous and Crazy. She also sang on the SpongeBob SquarePants album The Best Day Ever, sharing the spotlight with the likes of BrIan Wilson, Tommy Ramone, Flaco Jimenez and NRBQ. 

Also onstage at The Playhouse are Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat through December 23, and A Sanders Family Christmas through December 22. Tickets and information are also available for Southern Stars Symphonic Brass Band and other events. For details, call the box office at (931) 484-5000. 

Jeffrey Ellis is a Nashville-based writer, editor and critic, who's been covering the performing arts in Tennessee for more than 25 years. He is the recipient of the Tennessee Theatre Association's Distinguished Service Award for his coverage of theatre in the Volunteer State and was the founding editor/publisher of Stages, the Tennessee Onstage Monthly. He is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center and is the founder/executive producer of The First Night Honors, held during Labor Day Weekend, which honor oustanding theater artists in Tennessee in recognition of their lifetime achievements and includes The First Night Star Awards and the Most Promising Actors. Midwinter's First Night, held the first Sunday in January after New Year's Day, honors outstanding productions and performances throughout the state. Further, Ellis directed the Nashville premiere of La Cage Aux Folles, The Last Night of Ballyhoo and An American Daughter, as well as award-winning productions of Damn Yankees, Company, Gypsy and The Rocky Horror Show, with Ellis honored by The Tennessean as best director of a musical for both Company and Rocky Horror.

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