Ben Van Diepen News

The San Diego Theatre Critics Circle is pleased to announce the nominations for its 2019 Craig Noel Awards. Now in its 18th year, the Craig Noel Awards honor the achievements at professional theaters in San Diego County.

What do you get when you get Elvis Presley, Johnny Cast, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins get together for one night only in a Memphis recording studio? In real life you get history being made and in MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET by Lamb's Players now playing at AVO Playhouse through September 1st you get a rock 'n' roll hit musical.

Hope Summer Repertory Theatre opens it's 48th Season tonight with the muder mystery musical of MURDER FOR TWO, by Kellen Blair & Joe Kinosian and Broadwayworld has first look at the production!

Hope Summer Repertory Theatre is currently in rehearsals for its season-opening production of MURDER FOR TWO, by Kellen Blair & Joe Kinosian and Broadwayworld has a behind the scenes look!

Hope Summer Repertory Theatre (HSRT), Western Michigan's premier summer theatre, has begun rehearsals for their highly anticipated 2019 season! The company was established at Hope College in 1972 and is entering their 48th Season.

The Garden Theatre (160 W Plant St.) is proud to present the classic rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, showing September 8 - October 1, 2017. This musical kicks off the Garden's 10th Anniversary 2017- 2018 Season. Jesus Christ Superstar is presented by Bob and Dianna Duffy. The show is also sponsored by Outdoor Living Products and Toole's Ace Hardware. The 2017 - 2018 theatre series is sponsored by Evoyent, a Deloitte Network Company.

In a town where everyone from your next-door neighbor to your favorite barista - from your dental hygienist to your manicurist, your seatmate on the bus, your friendly neighborhood bartender and maybe even the guy who does your taxes - is a songwriter, you'll find that there's never a shortage of opinions on the topic of favorite songs. Ask a cross-section of Nashville theater-types what their favorite love song is from the annals of musical theater and you're going to get a barrage of answers.

This innovative adaptation of one of the best-loved books for early readers bursts to life on NCT's stage in an explosion of movement, a kaleidoscope of color and a circus-wagon load of clowning. Audiences are invited to join Red Dog, Blue Dog, Yellow Dog and Green Dog as they bark, scoot, scratch, drive, and howl at the moon. Go, Dog. Go! is described as an exhilarating celebration of childhood for children of all ages.

Apparently, it is Elvis Week in Nashville (at least according to the fine folks at Loveless Cafe), so before we head out to the theater for a full weekend of show openings and the like, a trip to West Nashville for a slice of the Loveless' Elvis pie is in order (for the uninitiated, that's peanut butter, banana, bacon and homemade whipped cream-the four basic food groups, according to The King.), so before we slip into a diabetic coma, here's installment #7 of Music City Confidential, all the news that's fit to print from onstage, offstage, backstage and beyond…

What better way to kick off Sunday-and to celebrate Father's Day!-than with the latest installment of Music City Confidential! Here's where you'll find all the news that's fit to print (or not-depending on your perspective) from Nashville's ever-growing, ever-fascinating live theater industry. Amid the florid prose and flowery praise, you'll find all the stories that don't quite fit anywhere else, some of 'em kind of gossipy, some of 'em stone-cold serious, some of 'em just lists of names you need to know. You'll also find photos from our new "Intermission@" series, details about the latest cast parties and various and sundry minutiae-the veritable flotsam and jetsam-from backstage, onstage, offstage and beyond…

Shows are opening and closing all over Tennessee this summer and theater companies are offering up all manner of fun and games, which means there's all sorts of foolishness going on backstage during intermission. Among the best attended and best reviewed productions of 2012 is Boiler Room Theatre's next to normal (which closes tonight, June 16), directed by Jamey Green and featuring a cast that includes Megan Murphy Chambers, Mike Baum, Kevin Mead, Paige Brouillette, Jordan Ravellette and Ben Van Diepen.

Just when you thought it was safe to go to the theater once again, we welcome you to the debut installment of Music City Confidential, all the news that's fit to print (or not-depending on your perspective) from Nashville's ever-growing, ever-fascinating (okay, so we obviously don't have enough to occupy ourselves) live theater industry (we're trying that out-does it work? Let us know, theaterati!) Here amid the florid prose and flowery praise, you'll find all the stories that don't quite fit elsewhere, some of 'em kind of gossipy, some of 'em stone-cold serious, some of 'em just lists of names you need to know. You'll also find photos from our new "Intermission@" series, details about the latest cast parties and various and sundry minutiae-the veritable flotsam and jetsam-from backstage, onstage, offstage and beyond…

In fact, in the retrospect afforded me by twelve hours, I have to admit that the production's most revelatory performance is delivered by Mike Baum, as the long-suffering and beleaguered Dan Goodman, Diana's stalwart and steadfast husband. That doesn't mean Chambers' performance is anything less than the spectacular onstage turn that it is-but, truth be told, it was expected from her. When word of her casting became publicly known, it is safe to say that 99% of the theater-going public (and actors themselves) agreed that Chambers' casting was indeed perfect. And she delivers exactly what we all hoped for, showing off the versatility, the confidence and the presence that has long identified her as one of the very best to be found onstage.

The Boiler Room Theatre (BRT), Williamson County's original and longest-running professional theatre company, presents Next to Normal. This, the third offering of the BRT's 12th Season, opens tonight, May 25th and runs through June 16th at the theatre's iconic namesake venue in the historic Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Rd., Building Six, in Franklin, Tenn.

Boiler Room Theatre debuts its most eagerly anticipated production of the 2012 season next week with Next To Normal, the groundbreaking 2009 Tony Award-winning musical, starring Nashville stage favorite Megan Murphy Chambers as Diana, a suburban wife and mother who contends with her worsening bipolar disorder while her family struggles to take care of one another.

The Boiler Room Theatre (BRT), Williamson County's original and longest-running professional theatre company, will next present Next to Normal. This, the third offering of the BRT's 12th Season, opens May 25th and runs through June 16th at the theatre's iconic namesake venue in the historic Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Rd., Building Six, in Franklin, Tenn. for a run through May 5.

Led by an ensemble that includes the always superb Michael Holder in the titular role of Tommy, the "deaf, dumb and blind kid" who becomes a "pinball wizard," setting off widespread public acclaim and becoming a cause celebre in the process, Tommy in Concert also features the inspired pairing of Holly Shepherd and Ben Van Diepen as Mrs. Walker and Captain Walker. Despite the age difference of the two actors-not to mention their youthfulness in relation to Holder's casting as their onstage son-Shepherd and Van Diepen are believably cast as young lovers who marry in the early days of World War II only to find that first blush of romantic dreaminess devolve into the nightmarish consequences that set the show's plot in motion.

The Who's Tommy in Concert is the next offering from Street Theatre Company, continuing the sold-out success of its In Concert series, playing for six performances February 22-26. STC's 2011 In Concert offerings-Chess in Concert and Ragtime in Concert-were both included in First Night's Top 11 of 2011 Outstanding Theatrical Events.