Tom Gleadow

Latest Articles

Review: Theatre By the Sea’s rollicking Hairspray

Rockin' out with a social consciousness — who says we can't have it all? A girl just wants to have fun, while doing her part for integration in 1962 Baltimore.
Dance fever
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | August 12, 2011

The Gamm's masterful Doll's House

There have been other plays well worth seeing this season, but nothing like this masterpiece at the Gamm. And I don't mainly mean the classic by Henrik Ibsen itself, since A Doll's House in shaky hands can come across as shrill and lesson-laden.
A matter of trust
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 28, 2011

Review: The Gamm's Child's Christmas in Wales

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre is presenting Dylan Thomas's A Child's Christmas in Wales , always a good idea at this time of year. This expanded version of the 2003 adaptation by artistic director Tony Estrella incorporates fragments of other works
Thomas's tales
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | December 17, 2010

Review: Gamm Theatre stages Glengarry Glen Ross

As a playwright, David Mamet is tritely, inaccurately, and frequently accused of being a misogynist. But the evidence of his 1982 Glengarry Glen Ross indicates quite the opposite.
Leading men
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | September 10, 2010

Talking ’bout a revolution

It takes a theatrical genius like Tom Stoppard to come up with Rock ’n’ Roll, which merges the pulsing spirit of both until they feel like one. And it takes a theater of the caliber of the Gamm to make history feel like a Stones concert that becomes a po
The Gamm’s life-affirming Rock ’n’ Roll
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 07, 2010

The torment within

In dramatic terms, it doesn't really matter whether the female protagonist of 4:48 Psychosis commits suicide at the end of the play.
The Gamm’s intense 4:48 Psychosis
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 22, 2010

Cries and whispers

Mental illness is a touchy subject, one that needs to be handled sensitively on stage or not at all.
The Gamm finds the balance in 4:48 Psychosis
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 15, 2010

Hearts and souls (and laughs too)

It's been a good year for theater around here — an ingeniously roasted dramatic chestnut here, a new and safely landed flight of fancy there. Below are 10 productions that particularly stood out.
The 10 best theater productions of 2009
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | December 25, 2009

Brilliant and infuriating

Shakespeare didn’t slow dance when he wrote Romeo and Juliet — he went for the essence of impetuous young love like a brisk waltz.
The Gamm’s conflicted Romeo and Juliet
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | October 30, 2009

Best of the Bard

The Comedy of Errors ? Ha. The Merry Wives of Windsor ? Ha; ha.
The Gamm’s masterful Much Ado About Nothing
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | September 25, 2009

Review: Awake and Sing!

Written at the beginning of the Depression, Clifford Odets's Awake and Sing! sounds from its title like a paean to American exuberance and chest-thumping optimism.
Out of time
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 21, 2009

Living histories

Political intrigue, parallels to today’s electoral brouhaha, and reminders of historical warnings, all presented in dignified but unpretentious blank verse cadences.
The Gamm stages a remarkably timely Don Carlos
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | September 10, 2008

Mirrors up to Nature

Up close, the Forest of Arden, an elevated glade tucked into Boston Common, looks like verdant, dappled clouds tacked to two-by-fours.
As You Like It on Boston Common; QED in Central Square
By CAROLYN CLAY | July 29, 2008

Anything but tame

Director Peter Sampieri and an ace troupe are mounting a slam-bang production of the comedy that sparkles with originality and resolves a feminist objection to the play that we can assume is older than the play itself.
A smart take on Shakespeare’s Shrew
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 20, 2008