Tracy Wise

This year's programme sees the return of popular cabaret group, the Foo Foo Fighters, who are bringing three evenings of burlesque to the first week of the festival with Nightmare on Middle Street, Dr Frankenbubble's Spoopy Soup Cabaret providing the late-night variety shows in the second week. Popular local entertainer Professor Elemental also makes an appearance with his Tales of Wrong for one night only.

Following two successful years, Brighton HorrorFest returns to Sweet Venues with its biggest events programme yet.

It might not be great art, but Xanadu-the new musical onstage through March 3 at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre-sure is great fun! Pure, unadulterated escapism, Xanadu is laugh-out-loud funny, thanks primarily to the book by Douglas Carter Beane, but you have to give props to director Corbin Green and his talented cast who bring the completely ridiculous musical (featuring the music of Electric Light Orchestra's Jeff Lynne and John Farrar) to life onstage.

Nashville Opera opens the 2009-10 season with a grand production of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca in the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall on Thursday, October 8 at 7:00 pm and Saturday, October 10 at 8:00 pm.

Nashville Opera opens the 2009-10 season with a grand production of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca in the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall on Thursday, October 8 at 7:00 pm and Saturday, October 10 at 8:00 pm.

Nashville Opera opens its 2009-2010 season with a sumptuous mounting of Puccini's classic Tosca, onstage at TPAC's Andrew Jackson Hall October 8 and 10. Starring soprano Erika Sunnegardh in the title role, the production features William Joyner as Cavaradossi, Luis Ledesma as Scarpia, Matthew Trevino as Angelotti/The Jailer, Stefan Skafarowsky as Sacristan/Sciarrone and Tracy Wise as Spoletta. The production is directed by John Hoomes, artistic director for Nashville Opera, and the Nashville Symphony is conducted by Steven White, artistic director of Opera Roanoke. The Nashville Opera Ensemble, under chorusmater Amy Tate Williams, is also featured.

From the first strains of the music, so beautifully played by members of the Nashville Symphony, under the baton of conductor Steven White (himself the artistic director of Opera Roanoke and a frequent collaborator with Nashville Opera artists) to the final, dramatic scene in which Tosca falls to her death after the execution of her lover, Tosca is a feast for both the eyes and ears. Creatively designed, utilizing the scenery from the Virginia Opera mounting of the work and sumptuous costuming from Baltimore's AT Jones & Sons, it has all the impressive trappings of grand opera. Yet John Hoomes' thoughtful direction results in something that is far more relatable-and certainly more accessible-than one might imagine.

Nashville Opera opens the 2009-10 season with a grand production of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca in the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall on Thursday, October 8 at 7:00 pm and Saturday, October 10 at 8:00 pm.

The YALE INSTITUTE FOR MUSIC THEATRE (Mark Brokaw, Artistic Director; Beth Morrison, Producer) announces the full creative teams and casting for the three original music theatre works receiving two-week workshops in New Haven, June 7-21.