Articles Tagged With: Thomas P. Gardner

Rent at Iron Crow Theatre

Reviews January 25, 2024 Leonard Taube

By now most of us have heard of the musical RENT and may have even seen a production (or more), and/or possibly even caught the movie version of Jonathan Larson’s brilliant masterpiece which chronicles the lives of several struggling young artists/activists/musicians in New York set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic. With roots loosely in the 1896 opera La Boheme, Larson’s tale is set in the then-thriving Alphabet City in Lower Manhattan’s East Village in New York.

Agnes of God at The Maryland Theatre Collective

Reviews July 29, 2023 Leonard Taube

Forget Sister Act (no nuns belting out rousing choir songs). Move over Nunsense (even though it is “habit forming”). No comedy tonight. Take a seat, open your mind, and get ready for one of the most powerful, well-acted and thought-provoking pieces of theatre you will see this year. Maryland Theatre Collective’s (Brooklyn Park, MD) production of Agnes of God will leave you speechless with contemplation and full of emotion by curtain call.

The Prom at Cockpit in Court

Reviews July 22, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

“And nobody out there ever gets to define the life I’m meant to lead with this unruly heart of mine.” Because love is love is love is love. And you will fall in love with The Prom at Cockpit in Court. Not because it’s an amazing story that should be told and seen and heard and embraced. Not because it has an amazing cast chock-a-block with sensational talent all across the board or because its got astonishing scenery,

Seth Fallon (left) as George with Xander Conte (center) and Henry Cyr (right) in The Wedding Singer. 📸Ana Johns

The Wedding Singer at Silhouette Stages

Reviews March 22, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

I’m going to be honest. I’m not Adam Sandler’s biggest fan— or even really a fan, period— by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t like most of his movies, I think he thinks he’s funnier than he actually is, and on the whole, although we’re living in the golden “Oprah Era” of musicals (“…you get a musical, you get a musical, you get a musical, everybody gets a musical!”) and this particular one is not ‘new’ per se,

Head Over Heels at Iron Crow Theatre

Reviews December 10, 2022 Leonard Taube

Listen up folks! Have you got “the beat”? No? Well then you better get your tickets and pay a visit to The Baltimore Theatre Project in Baltimore where resident company Iron Crow Theatre is putting on Head Over Heels, a jukebox musical comedy based on the songs of the 1980’s female rock bad The Go-Go’s. But before we talk about the show, we must talk about both the company and the venue,

Mankind at Iron Crow Theatre

Reviews October 10, 2022 Joshua Bermont

Representing the triumphant return of the Iron Crow Theatre after their long pandemic hiatus, Mankind – written by Robert O’Hara, and directed by Ann Turiano – is a bold and beautifully-presented madcap satire that throws stones at such formidable topics as religion, anti-abortion legislation, and an upside-down world where “FEMINISM!” is a battle cry while women themselves are an afterthought.

This frenetic cyclone of ever-escalating absurdity takes place in a future where women have been extinct for over a century,

Sweet Charity at Cockpit in Court

Reviews July 27, 2022 Mark Briner

Most shows feature a tried-and-true pattern of opening with a traditional “I Want” song, which details the leading character’s hopes and wishes for the rest of the story. Sweet Charity, currently playing on the main stage at Cockpit In Court at CCBC Essex, Directed by Cockpit veteran Eric Potter, is an entire show full of hopes and dreams and wants and desires, most of which are quickly dashed for the taxi dancers at the Fandango Ballroom,

Cheryl Campo (center) as Mama Euralie and The Storytellers📸Trent Haines-Hopper/THsquared Photography

Once On This Island at Cockpit In Court

Reviews June 15, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Two different worlds on one island. (Not unlike Cockpit in Court with two different productions in one theatre…one above and one below…) If you’re ready to be swept up in the most astonishing production to wash ashore on Cockpit In Court’s stages since the times of the before, then Once On This Island is the show for you. Directed and Choreographed by Tom Wyatt, with Musical Direction by Elizabeth Fink, the uplifting and joyous music of this stirring tale of love fighting to survive in the face of death is an astonishing experience all its own.

Samsara at Single Carrot Theatre

Reviews January 20, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

We’re born.

We live.

We die.

We come back as something else.

That is the cycle death and rebirth to which life in the material world is bound.

Samsara.

The Hindu and Buddhist belief of the above cycle, now readily incarnate in the thespian belief of performance by way of playwright Lauren Yee. Now appearing on the Single Carrot Theatre mainstage as a part of Season X: A Love Letter to Baltimore.

Elf Jr. at Children’s Playhouse of Maryland

Reviews December 8, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

The Children’s Playhouse of Maryland is putting some cheery folderol on ev’ry wall and ev’ry nook, and they’ve tinsel’d up ev’ry corner, ‘til it’s Christmas ev’ry where you look! That’s right— they’re having a sparkly, jolly, twinkly, jingly production of Elf Jr. The Musical! Based on the major motion picture, new line cinema film written by David Berenbaum, this razzle-dazzle-ringle-lingle-shiny-showy-cheery-kringle-holly-jolly-very-merry-sparkly-jolly-twinkly-jingly show is rearing up and ready to go just in time for Christmas!

Review: Anything Goes at Phoenix Festival Theater at Live! at Harford Community College

Reviews September 16, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

I hate parading my serenading as I’ll probably miss a bar, but if this ditty is not so pretty at least it’ll tell you how great they are— they being the Phoenix Festival Theater and their current production of Anything Goes! One of Cole Porter’s finest musicals— baby it’s the tops— is now setting sail under the Direction of James Hunnicutt and the Musical Direction of Julie Parrish. With Conductor Will Poxon leading the live on-stage orchestra,

The Insects- (from top left, clockwise) Gwen Lowell as Spider, Jared Alston Davis as Grasshopper, Jacqueline Hicks as Centipede, Anderson Gray as Ladybug, and Jocelyn Castillo as Earthworm

Review: James and the Giant Peach at Children’s Playhouse of Maryland

Reviews March 8, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

Come with me to see something strange unfold and hear the weirdest tale that’s ever been told. But children, be wary if you’re faint of heart, for what’s happening on stage is more than just art! The Children’s Playhouse of Maryland is undertaking a marvelous masterpiece, an enormously fruity and fantastical story— James and the Giant Peach! What a musical! Directed by Liz Boyer Hunnicutt with Musical Direction by R. Christopher Rose,

Review: The Zoo Story & Pullman, WA Double Feature at CCBC Academic Theatres

Reviews December 3, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Can you believe in something or relive something that never actually happened? Do you know how to live your life? The students involved with the Academic Theaters of CCBC certainly seem intent on proving that you can and that they do, and so too can you if you attend their current double-feature production of Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story and Pullman, WA written by Young Jean Lee. Directed by Julie Lewis,