REJOICE DEAR HEARTS, AN EVENING WITH BROTHER DAVE GARDNER
Live on stage Brother Dave Gardner is back and funnier than ever. That’s right, Brother Dave one of the biggest comedy stars the South ever produced back with his best routines and real life story. And it’s all wrapped up in the phenomenal new play, REJOICE DEAR HEARTS, AN EVENING WITH BROTHER DAVE GARDNER.
Dogs is like wise humans, they fight with their mouth.
And fight with his mouth he did. On The Tonight Showor in big time arenas, from Atlanta’s Fox Theatre to Mr. Kelly’s in Chicago. And don’t forget his million selling albums-- like Kick Thine Own Selfand Ain’t That Weird?. Through it all, Dave turned his free wheeling wit and down-home sensibility into uproarious roof-raising comedy.
Dave’s tales mostly tall, always outrageous celebrate what’s amazing in life. And in Rejoice Dear Hearts, he delivers the best of his best. Like the motorsicklewhirl of biker boy Chuck and his incredible sideburns. Or the bizarre deliciously described haintsin The Haunted House. And let’s not forget his deep fried version of Julius Caesar reset in where else Rome, Georgia.
Yes, Dave’s hysterical riffs and brilliant routines are front and center. But there’s the life here too with all its drop-from-the-sky luck and hard scrabble tough times.
"Growin’ up we were so poor, the first loaf of white bread I ever saw was thrown off the back of a CCC truck."
On the way up and down, Brother Dave lived his life on the edge and was kept from going over it by his wife and manager, a tough talking practical minded lady named Miss Millie. See, Dave was like a hunting dog at a duck convention never knowing where to point. Might be a new yacht, that mansion in the Hollywood Hills, or dressing the kids up in lederhosen and pretending to be their chauffeur at the A & W Root Beer Stand. Millie was always there to pull him back to reality and back on stage, where he truly belonged. The greatest tall tale Brother Dave never told was his own story. Now he has his chance, as brilliantly performed by another Son of the South, David Anthony Wright. Dave Gardner was a man who didn’t always have it easy, sometimes had it all, but always had and I’m talkin’ always, dear hearts a sense of humor about everything, and everyone, including life itself.
Success is gettin’ what you want, happiness is wantin’ what you get.
GLORY.
PLAY SCENES FROM REJOICE DEAR HEARTS, AN EVENING WITH BROTHER DAVE GARDNER
About the Playwright and Performer David Anthony Wright
DAVID ANTHONY WRIGHT has spent over thirty-five years in film, radio, television and theatre. While living in Asheville, NC, he began his acting career on a bet. His immediate success propelled him into roles in over fifty plays in the South. These engagements led to his first directing job, an assignment so successful that he went on to over fifty shows for a wide range of theatres, including CAST, The Occasional Acting Company and The Barn Dinner Theatre, among others. In 1998, David was named Managing Director of The Paramount Theater and Artistic Director of The Paramount Acting Company. His TV work has included productions for The Discovery Channel, as well as numerous commercials and industrial and educational films. His first play (a musical called Cole’s Dairy Lunch which has received two regional mountings) awoke David’s urge to write. David is conceiver, writer and performer of Rejoice Dear Hearts: An Evening with Brother Dave Gardner. The success of its 2004 debut in Burlington, NC won the attention of New York’s JENA Company resulting in four regional tours throughout the Mid and Deep South. In 2007, Ruthie, David’s modern adaptation of the Old Testament Book of Ruth, won the Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre’s prestigious Script Workscompetition and received its world premiere production in 2008.
And it’s all wrapped up in the phenomenal new play, REJOICE DEAR HEARTS, AN EVENING WITH BROTHER DAVE GARDNER.
