Michael Ruff News

Winners have been announced for the 2023 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards! See who was selected audience favorite in Nashville! Winners announced include Cumberland County Playhouse, Nashville Opera and more.

It's the final week left to vote for the 2023 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards! Voting ends on 12/31 at midnight. Don't miss out on making sure that your favorite theatres, stars, and shows get the recognition they deserve!

There's just two weeks left to vote and we have the latest standings as of Monday, December 18th for the 2023 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards! Don't miss out on making sure that your favorite theatres, stars, and shows get the recognition they deserve!

It's the final 3 weeks and we have the latest standings as of Monday, December 11th for the 2023 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards! Don't miss out on making sure that your favorite theatres, stars, and shows get the recognition they deserve!

It's December, and the first standings of the month have been announced as of Tuesday, December 5th for the 2023 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards! Don't miss out on making sure that your favorite theatres, stars, and shows get the recognition they deserve!

Less than 48 hours after opening night of Cumberland County Playhouse’s 2023 holiday season offering of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, we are happy/sad to report that tickets are mighty scarce as the sparkling production is almost certainly headed to a complete sellout.

Beginning September 22, Cumberland County Playhouse presents Little Shop of Horrors!

Beginning August 18, Cumberland County Playhouse presents The Play That Goes Wrong, written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields.

Beginning June 9, Cumberland County Playhouse presents Charlie and the Chocolate Factory The New Musical! Roald Dahl's treasured tale is now Crossville's Golden Ticket! It's the perfect recipe for a delectable treat: songs from the original film including “Pure Imagination”, “The Candy Man” and “I've Got a Golden Ticket,” alongside a toe-tapping and ear-tickling new score from the songwriters of Hairspray.

Now through October 27, Cumberland County Playhouse presents Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story!

The story of Cinderella and her Prince is as aspirational and as inspirational as any to be found in the history of musical theater and we are once again delighted to tell you, gentle readers, that the current iteration of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella now onstage at Crossville’s Cumberland County Playhouse is as thoroughly satisfying and spellbinding as any we have ever seen.

With its fresh new take on the beloved tale of a young woman who is transformed from a chambermaid into a princess, the hilarious and romantic Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella combines the story's classic elements – the glass slippers, the pumpkin, and the prince’s ball – along with some surprising twists.

This is the last chance to vote for the 2021 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards! The 2021 Regional Awards honor productions which had their first performance between October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.

Time is running out to vote for for the 2021 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards! The 2021 Regional Awards honor productions which had their first performance between October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.

One of the most glorious attributes of the theater is the experience of seeing a play you know quite well due to multiple productions over the years and to somehow find it fresh and invigorating, as if it is the first time all over again. Such is the case with Alfred Uhry’s seemingly ubiquitous Driving Miss Daisy, which has been presented in countless productions of varying degrees of professionalism since its 1987 debut.

ou have to hand it to Mitch Albom (the well-known sportswriter turned memoirist turned playwright turned heartland media mogul): the man knows how to craft a tale certain to appeal to a wide swath of his audience, manipulating and cajoling them along the way with good humor and sometimes incisive wit before going for the jugular of the sentimental with a dramatic payoff that’s sure to wring tears, sell tissues and send the aforementioned audiences into the real world with something to think about.

Cumberland County Playhouse has recently announced the remainder of its 2021 Season, featuring the currently running revival of Duck Hunter Shoots Angel and the upcoming opening of Driving Miss Daisy.

Luckily, for audiences at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse (where Elf, The Musical runs through December 21 in a delightful and sparkling production helmed by producing director Bryce McDonald), the role of Buddy is entrusted to Chris Hallowes, who has proven himself the personification of the term a?oesong-and-dance mana?? during his tenure at the Playhouse, and who once again proves his mettle with his latest onstage assignment. Were it not for the fact we've always considered Hallowes a star, we'd say Buddy is a starmaking performance for him.

Who'd have ever thought a seven-foot-tall, dark, handsome and green chap a?' crafted from the bits and pieces of various fellows gone home to meet their maker, as it were a?' could prove to be so likable, charming and, we daresay, sexy? But leave it to Mel Brooks (and Gene Wilder, his co-writer on the 1974 film) to create such a protagonist and to surround him with memorable characters in a story set to music that's a wonderful homage to the very best of classic Broadway and silver screen musicals!

Powerhouse vocals from its two leading players (Anthony Lazzaro and Cassie Donegan), along with focused direction, spirited choreography, effusive music coming from the pit and an eye-popping visual design aesthetic combine to make Cumberland County Playhouse's most recent iteration of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat another in a long line of onstage hits sure to attract audiences eager to escape the sultry heat of a Tennessee summer.