Mark Hardwick News

This year, the American theater has been responding to the change in national politics with infuriation, vexation, and distrust.  Satires abound. Classics are widely being reinterpreted into a modern context. There will likely be a wave of modernist plays on the 'new human condition' -- witnessing the downfall of the civil society but being powerless to do anything about it. 

This year, the American theater has been responding to the change in national politics with infuriation, vexation, and distrust.  Satires abound. Classics are widely being reinterpreted into a modern context. There will likely be a wave of modernist plays on the 'new human condition' -- witnessing the downfall of the civil society but being powerless to do anything about it. 

Smoke on the Mountain, a homespun musical conceived by Alan Bailey with a book by Connie Ray and musical arrangements by Mike Carver and Mark Hardwick, has enjoyed long runs in numerous theatres worldwide since its premiere in 1988.  And it's also racked up some fairly significant critical praise.  While both of these facts should be surprising given that the dental floss-thin plot and the Southern caricature-characters are nothing more than conduits for the long catalogue of gospel hymns that make up the bulk of the show, there's something infectious about it that leaves us willing to tap our toes and clap our hands.  That's certainly true for the audience at Marietta's New Theatre in the Square on Saturday evening where patrons clapped, shouted, and offered up eager, full-bodied 'Amens' in response to Emil Thomas's lively and earnest staging of the musical. 

For those wishing to take a trip back to a simpler era, Biddeford City Theater's production of Pump Boys & Dinettes serves up a wistful, warm slice of nostalgia together with a foot-tapping country musical score that is guaranteed to leave the audience smiling and singing along. The 1980s juke box musical written by members of the band of the same name (John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel, Jim Wann) is set in a small North Carolina town on Highway 57 where four men who work at a gas station and two waitresses who run the adjacent Double Cupp Diner tell stories and jam on guitars, piano, bass, and kitchen utensils. The tunes are vintage country rock, filled with humor, heartache, a longing for the adventures of the road, and the flavors of small town southern life. Anchored by the show's remarkable music director, Kevin Smith, on piano, the seven-person cast sings, dances, and plays their heart out.

Pump Boys And Dinettes a down-home musical full of country fun opens at City Theater in Biddeford March 10th. Welcome to the Double Cupp Diner, way down on Highway 57 between Frog Level and Smyrna, where the pie is fresh, and the waitresses are like the coffee - hot! The boys from the gas station next door play a high-octane blend of country and bluegrass packed with entertaining toe-tappers about life, love, and good times. Come on in and let good American folk music melt your troubles away with a generous serving of great music and foot-stomping fun.

Pump Boys And Dinettes a down-home musical full of country fun opens at City Theater in Biddeford March 10th. Welcome to the Double Cupp Diner, way down on Highway 57 between Frog Level and Smyrna, where the pie is fresh, and the waitresses are like the coffee - hot! The boys from the gas station next door play a high-octane blend of country and bluegrass packed with entertaining toe-tappers about life, love, and good times. Come on in and let good American folk music melt your troubles away with a generous serving of great music and foot-stomping fun.

Pump Boys And Dinettes a down-home musical full of country fun opens at City Theater in Biddeford March 10th. Welcome to the Double Cupp Diner, way down on Highway 57 between Frog Level and Smyrna, where the pie is fresh, and the waitresses are like the coffee - hot! The boys from the gas station next door play a high-octane blend of country and bluegrass packed with entertaining toe-tappers about life, love, and good times. Come on in and let good American folk music melt your troubles away with a generous serving of great music and foot-stomping fun.

Five Chicago actor-musicians made their Theatre at the Center debut in this production. Christine Mild as Rhetta Cupp, Shaun Whitley as Jim, Matt Holzfeind as Jackson, Matt Edmonds as L.M. and Cody Siragusa as Eddie are joined by Veronica Garza, who returns to the TATC stage to play Rhetta's sister Prudie Cupp. Directed by Brian Russell with musical direction by William Underwood, Pump Boys and Dinettes will continue through October 16.  Check out some songs from the show below!

It was a full house on Sunday, September 18, for the opening night of Pump Boys and Dinettes at Theatre at the Center in Munster. The audience was treated to a little slice of Americana with this upbeat roadside musical. Scroll down for photos from the opening night festivities!

Even if you are familiar with the seldom produced country musical "Pump Boys and Dinettes" you're reaction to it probably isn't a wild one. In fact when I heard it was opening Village Theatre's season I thought, "Well, this will be cute" but my excitement didn't go much further beyond "cute". I'd seen the show once years ago and have had the cast album forever but it's not what you might call one of my "go to" shows. But with this new production out at Village Theatre that may all change. This is not the production from the 80's or really any production you're likely to have seen. With this level of talent and new orchestrations this could revive this old chestnut. But I'll get to that in a minute.

Village Theatre kicks off its 2016-2017 Season with Pump Boys and Dinettes, a light-hearted concert-style musical celebration of life's simple pleasures, set on Highway 57 in North Carolina. BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at the cast in action below!

Village Theatre kicks off its 2016-2017 Season with Pump Boys and Dinettes, a light-hearted concert-style musical celebration of life's simple pleasures, set on Highway 57 in North Carolina.

Five Chicago actor-musicians make their Theatre at the Center debut in the musical Pump Boys and Dinettes.  Christine Mild as Rhetta Cupp, Shaun Whitley as Jim, Matt Holzfeind as Jackson, Matt Edmonds as L.M. and Cody Siragusa as Eddie are joined by Veronica Garza, who returns to the TATC stage to play Rhetta's sister Prudie Cupp.   The director is Brian Russell and William Underwood is Music Director. 

Village Theatre kicks off its 2016-2017 Season with Pump Boys and Dinettes, a light-hearted concert-style musical celebration of life's simple pleasures, set on Highway 57 in North Carolina. Click below to go behind the scenes!

Village Theatre kicks off its 2016-2017 Season with Pump Boys and Dinettes, a light-hearted concert-style musical celebration of life's simple pleasures, set on Highway 57 in North Carolina.

Five Chicago actor-musicians make their Theatre at the Center debut in the musical Pump Boys and Dinettes.  Christine Mild as Rhetta Cupp, Shaun Whitley as Jim, Matt Holzfeind as Jackson, Matt Edmonds as L.M. and Cody Siragusa as Eddie are joined by Veronica Garza, who returns to the TATC stage to play Rhetta's sister Prudie Cupp.   The director is Brian Russell and William Underwood is Music Director. 

Theater for the New City's award-winning Street Theater Company will open its 40th annual tour August 6 with 'Election Selection, or You Bet!,' a rip-roaring musical in which three everyday New Yorkers are galvanized into community activists. Free performances will tour City streets, parks and playgrounds throughout the five boroughs through September 18. Book, lyrics and direction are by Crystal Field; the musical score is composed and arranged by Joseph Vernon Banks. (Schedule follows at bottom of this document.)

The Board of Directors and Artistic Director, David Leidholdt, have announced Millbrook's 2016 season opener, Smoke on the Mountain.

Last Saturday, Paper Mill Playhouse was privileged to participate in an on-stage marriage proposal during a performance of PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES - watch the moment during intermission below! PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES will run eight times a week at the Millburn, New Jersey, theater through May 1, 2016.