Michele Colvin

Rock of Ages, the hit show that rocked Broadway, will soon rock the Bangor Opera House, and Penobscot Theatre Company is eager to get the community in on the act. The nonprofit has planned a Live Band Karaoke Fundraiser for opening night, June 11, and two winners will walk away with walk-on roles at selected performances later in the run.

Tickets to the Maine premiere of Rock of Ages, produced by Penobscot Theatre Company, will go on sale to the general public, April 26, 2016. The hit Broadway musical will run from June 9 to July 2 at the historic Bangor Opera House with evening and afternoon performances. 'This hot show is the perfect summer kick-off,' said Bari Newport, producing artistic director. 'Let's get this party started!'

Two of the region's biggest stars will shine in Penobscot Theatre Company's upcoming production of The Last Five Years. Dominick Varney and Brianne Beck will play Jamie and Cathy, two talented, passionate and ambitious young people who come together and fall apart over five pivotal years. He tells their story from the romantic beginning and she from the bitter end, offering alternating perspectives on the passage of love with the passage of time. Written by Jason Robert Brown and directed by Michele Colvin, the production will open in previews at the Bangor Opera House on March 10 and run through March 27.

Penobscot Theatre Company is set to kick-off its 42nd season with Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash, created by Richard Malby, Jr. and conceived by William Meade. The show will feature 38 hits from the legendary Man in Black, brought to new life by five musician/actors playing multiple instruments. It will run tonight, September 10, through September 27 at the historic Bangor Opera House.

Penobscot Theatre Company is set to kick-off its 42nd season with Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash, created by Richard Malby, Jr. and conceived by William Meade. The show will feature 38 hits from the legendary Man in Black, brought to new life by five musician/actors playing multiple instruments. It will run September 10-27 at the historic Bangor Opera House.

There's no place like home-especially for the holidays-and this holiday season, there will be no place like Penobscot Theatre Company. The Wizard of Oz will take audiences over the rainbow, tonight, December 4-28, in a journey comfortably familiar yet delightfully surprising.

There's no place like home-especially for the holidays-and this holiday season, there will be no place like Penobscot Theatre Company. The Wizard of Oz will take audiences over the rainbow, December 4-28, in a journey comfortably familiar yet delightfully surprising. Acclaimed director and choreographer Michele Colvin (The Honky Tonk Angels) has returned to Bangor to bring the beloved classic to life, offering a fresh vision of a world where anything is possible and nothing is as it seems.

Season subscribers have had first dibs, but on October 1 the general public can set off to see the wizard! Starting on that date, tickets to Penobscot Theatre Company's highly anticipated holiday show,

Penobscot Theatre Company is shining up its cowboy boots to kick-off its 41st season with The Honky Tonk Angels, tonight, September 4-21. This heartwarming musical features 30 classics from the Golden Age of Country, including '9-5,' 'Coal Miner's Daughter' and 'Stand by Your Man.'

Penobscot Theatre Company is shining up its cowboy boots to kick-off its 41st season with The Honky Tonk Angels, September 4-21.

After that huge success, BroadwayWorld.com announces two awards presentations for Tennessee theater this year, with awards to be presented for Nashville productions and for Tennessee productions outside Music City USA. You may make nominations throughout the month of October, with voting for the awards starting in November, and the announcement of winners set for Sunday, January 8, during Midwinter's First Night at The Keeton Theatre in Donelson. Details about that event will be announced in the coming weeks.

Nicole Begue Hackman is so perfectly cast as Eliza Doolittle in Lerner and Loewe classic My Fair Lady at Cumberland County Playhouse that all those other characters that people the musical may seem superfluous, despite the splendid performances of the rest of the cast. Oh, certainly, their characters aren't really extraneous, but Hackman's portrayal of the Cockney flower girl is so spot-on, so multi-dimensional and delightful - and she sings the role so exquisitely - that you may just find yourself aching to attend the races at Ascot or to hear your favorite opera Aida at Covent Garden when you are transported by onstage magic to 1912 England.

Camp Rock, The Musical could easily be dismissed as so much homogenized, Disneyfied, teenaged pablum - but, in reality, it's much more than that. It's a fast-moving, engaging love story set to music and is much more akin to all those Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney 'let's put on a show!' movies than you might expect.

Think about it: What if you were watching The King and I and when Anna and the King of Siam started to sing 'Shall We Dance' and they just stood there, it just wouldn't have much of an impact, would it? Or if all those budding chorus members in A Chorus Line just stood around and talked about dancing but never did even the most basic shuffle-ball-change...sounds pretty bleak, doesn't it? That's where choreographers come into the picture; they collaborate with the director, the music director and the cast members to create movement that elevates every musical comedy. Without them, the action remains stagebound and static. A choreographer allows your heart to soar along with the performers onstage, making musical comedy all the more compelling and transformative. These talented men and women created remarkable and memorable work in 2010 as First Night's Top Choreographers...

If theater audiences in Nashville and Middle Tennessee owe a huge debt of gratitude to the directors who helm the year's finest productions, you can only imagine how the actors lucky enough to work with those insightful, creative men and women must be! The Top Ten Directors of 2010 have resumes anyone would be proud to claim as their own and when you consider that they - year after year - excel at what they do, then you cannot help but be impressed by the breadth and depth of their abilities. Frankly, it boggles the mind. These are Nashville's best directors of 2010...

'There are no small parts, only small actors,' goes the old theatrical saw that's tossed about willy-nilly to encourage budding thespians to take on roles they suspect might be beneath them and their lofty stature. But, of course, there's much truth to be found in the axiom and you will certainly see it brought to life in the efforts of the members of many acting ensembles, particularly those considered among the best in Nashville's 2010 theater season:

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

Amid threatening weather forecasts and a winter storm bearing down on the South, more than 150 hardy souls gathered to celebrate live theatre in Nashville and Middle Tennessee with the presentation of the BroadwayWorld.com Nashville Theatre Awards and First Night's Top Ten of Twenty-Ten on Sunday night, January 9. Street Theatre Company's new venue at 1933 Elm Hill Pike was the setting for the event that featured performances by Joann Coleman, Ben Van Diepen, Ann Street Kavanaugh, Laura Matula, Michael Kitts and Bakari Jamal King.

Despite portentous warnings of an approaching snowmageddon across the South, more than 150 members of the Nashville and Middle Tennessee theater community gathered at Street Theatre Company in Nashville Sunday night, January 9, for the announcement of the BroadwayWorld.com Nashville Theatre Award winners and the presentation of First Night's Top Ten of Twenty-Ten.

Forget the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade or schlepping to the mall to shop 'til you drop on Black Friday, the best - and definitely the most joyous - way to welcome the holiday season is a trip to Crossville for Cumberland County Playhouse's gloriously rapturous production of She Loves Me, the lovely and lyrical musical from Joe Masteroff, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick.