Articles Tagged With: Thomas P. Gardner

Xanadu at Cockpit in Court

Reviews June 19, 2026 Amanda N. Gunther

A million lights are dancing— and there they are, a shooting star (ten of them, actually!) An everlasting world, lovely-in-blue…and they’re there with you! Must be—

Xanadu

ELO, ONJ, OMG, and all that jazz! It’s Venice… okay Venice Beach…well, Essex at CCBC but we’ll suspend our disbelief for this fun and whimsical bit of theatrical cotton candy. The iconic and camptastic screen-to-stage gem Xanadu is glittering its way onto Cockpit in Court’s main stage as the first of a five-show season (two upstairs,

The View Upstairs at Iron Crow Theatre

Reviews May 30, 2026 Ryan J Bordenski

author: Ryan J Bordenski

Something big, bold, and beautiful is happening in Baltimore, and it’s here just in time for Pride Month! That’s right: we are talking about The View Upstairs, over at Iron Crow Theatre, directed by Sean Elias, stage managed by Haley Baugues, assistant stage managed by Lauren Marsh and Janell Hill (special shoutout to Hill for the iconic spotlight moments), and produced by Natka Bianchini. This queer musical debuted Off-Broadway in 2017,

Next To Normal at Iron Crow Theatre

Reviews March 8, 2026 Leonard Taube

author: Leonard Taube

Do you know what it’s like to die alive? That may be a heavy question, but it’s one that Diana asks and sets the stage for an evening of intense, raw, gut-wrenching drama. Iron Crow Theatre’s production of Next to Normal opened at the beautiful M&T Bank Exchange this evening to a large house and more than a few wet eyes. You simply cannot be unmoved by its subject matter and,

Bye Bye Birdie at Children’s Playhouse of Maryland

Reviews September 23, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Kids! You can talk and talk til your face is blue! Kids! But they still do just what they want to do! And they want to be laughing, singing, dancing, grinning— sensations! And while we’re on the subject— Kids! They’re at Children’s Playhouse of Maryland kicking off the 2024/2025 season with their production of Bye Bye Birdie! Complete with lots of moonlight swims and loop-da-loops! Directed by Liz Boyer Hunnicutt with Musical Direction by Charlotte Evans,

Cats at Cockpit in Court

Reviews July 20, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Turn your face toward Cockpit in Court…let your memory lead you…open up enter in (to the F. Scott Black Theatre inside the Robert & Eleanor Romadka College Center) you will find there…the meaning of what happiness is… and a new show…will begin. If it was mystical the first time, magical the second, it will certainly be memorable, magnificent— truly Jellicle— the third as Bambi Johnson (who has become synonymous with Andrew Lloyd Webber and T.S.

Spring Awakening at Maryland Theatre Collective

Reviews July 15, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

There is no doubt that they are going to wound you; they are going to be your bruise. Viscerally evocative and emotionally stunning, Maryland Theatre Collective closes out their season with Spring Awakening, a musical by Duncan Sheik with Book & Lyrics by Steven Sater based on the play by Frank Wedekind. Directed & Choreographed by Tommy Malek with Musical Direction by Rachel Sandler, this gloriously impactful musical is a gut-punch for the ages with a stellar cast,

RETURN TO THE JELLICLE BALL: MEETING THE NEWEST 2024 ADDITIONS TO THE CLOWDER OF COCKPIT IN COURT’S CATS: Joe the Ticklin’ Ivories Cat

Interviews July 10, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

One of the most iconic parts of Cats is its music…certainly one of the things that people love most about it. So we’ll take you on a brief journey through the Heaviside Layer to a different type of cat…a magical, musical cat!

Thank you, Nathan, for joining us in this series! We know you’re the Musical Director for Cats. But tell us, why did you want to come out and be a part of this whole thing with Bambi?

RETURN TO THE JELLICLE BALL: MEETING THE NEWEST 2024 ADDITIONS TO THE CLOWDER OF COCKPIT IN COURT’S CATS: Gaffer

Interviews July 7, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Jellicle Cats are Scenography Cats! And Scenography Cats are Jellicle Cats! I don’t think T.S. Eliot or Andrew Lloyd Webber had any idea that cats could build sets! Or maybe they did and just wanted to keep that a secret…like a hidden third name…from all the rest of us!

Thank you for giving us some of your time today! Tell us who you are and how you fit into this Cats configuration!

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,