When The Phantom of the Opera rolls into Nashville March 9-20, it will fulfill two longtime dreams of actor and singer Chris Mann: starring as the Phantom and performing onstage at TPAC. Since graduating from Vanderbilt University over a decade ago, he's been working as a recording and touring artist and even was a finalist on The Voice. When he's not hiding behind his Phantom mask, Mann continues to write and record music in Los Angeles and plans to release a new album this year.
>>> More with Chris in the February issue of Nashville Lifestyles.
What are your favorite places to dine when you come to Nashville?
I never miss Fido to get the kitchen sink cookie. And I always go to Calypso Cafe and get the Lucayan saladit's my favorite. If I get those done, I'm pretty satisfied. Barbara's [Home Cookin'] for breakfast has always been my thing too. It's one of those soul food places. It's a small house that has a restaurant in it. In terms of bars, I love to go to The Patterson House, the mixology place right off Music Row.
Do you have a favorite place in Nashville for live music?
When I was in high school, I visited Nashville and saw a songwriting circle at The Bluebird Cafe. Years later, I got involved in songwriting when I took a songwriting class at Vanderbilt from Deanna Walker. She was a big influence on me, and so I was able to play my first writers' round at the Bluebird with her. She continues to be one of my best friends.
'I haven't been shy about itNashville has become my favorite city in the world,” Mann says. 'I love it so much and I'm so excited to come to TPAC because it's a place I've always had on my bucket list.” His album Roads includes a new arrangement of Lady Antebellum's megahit 'Need You Now,” and his PBS television special featured Martina McBride.
How did you make the transition from recording artist to musical theater?
I grew up doing music theater as a kid in Wichita and always dreamed of being a recording artist, and that's why I moved to Nashville. I went to Vanderbilt Blair School of Music, so I was acting in college but it was in more of an operatic sense. Then [over] the last 10 years I moved from Nashville to New York and got my first record deal and moved to L.A. and have been doing records and TV and film singing.
After I did The Voice [in 2012], it presented a whole other round of opportunities musically, so I've been touring for two years with my symphony show. When that finished, I really had this desire to get back onstage in a different way through music theater. Shortly after, I auditioned for Phantom and was lucky enough to get the part.
Tell us about your upcoming album.
I've been recording the next album from the road, and it's coming out next year. It's my first fully original album, plus I recorded 'Music of the Night” from Phantom because that's what I've become known for in the last year. My previous records only had one or two originals that I wrote because I've done predominantly cover reinterpretations. I'm calling the new album Constellation because a constellation is a collection of stars and I think these songs are all stars. So it's my little babies, my constellation of songwriting history coming to life.
Who are some of your favorite songwriters to collaborate with?
This is the record I've always been excited to make, with some of the best songwriters in Nashville and L.A.people I've known through the years. Liz Rosewho is nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year for 'Girl Crush”she and I have written together a million times, so I've got some songs on this album with her, as well as my producer Keith Thomas, Amy Foster, [who is] David Foster's daughter, and Fancy Hagood, aka Who Is Fancy. I also like to write with Kevin Griffin. It's fun. It's one of my favorite things to do, to write music and write songs.