For a couple of hours every night, Danny Gardner dances around a stage with 6-pound candles connected to the end of each arm.<\/p>\n
The Reading native wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis really is a dream come true,\u201d said Gardne<\/a>r, who plays Lumiere in the Broadway touring production of \u201cDisney\u2019s Beauty and the Beast.\u201d<\/p>\n Gardner will be performing at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia when the show returns to the city for the first time in 13 years from Feb. 11 to 22. Tickets are available at www.ensembleartsphilly.org\/series-and-subscriptions\/broadway-series\/disneys-beauty-and-the-beast<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first time I took the stage was at Reading High School,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cI was in elementary school and they needed a little boy for a show just to come out and say a few lines. At the end of the show, they called my name. So, I just started taking more dance lessons and it grew from there.\u201d<\/p>\n After graduating from Ithaca College, Gardner moved to New York and started hitting Broadway.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been on Broadway three times, but the first show only lasted about four months,\u201d said Gardner. \u201cThen the other two shows I was on Broadway, there were limited runs. I did a lot of regional shows. So you\u2019d have about two, three weeks of rehearsal. You\u2019d go through technical rehearsals and then you\u2019d open and then you had about a month, two months to run the show. By the middle of that first month you\u2019d be looking for your next job.\u201d<\/p>\n The tour for \u201cDisney\u2019s Beauty and the Beast\u201d is a yearlong travel, giving Gardner a little taste of stability.<\/p>\n \u201cTo have this reliability of a show that a lot of people not only know, but a lot of people will attend for a full year is a wonderful job,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n There is also another special perk.<\/p>\n Gardner\u2019s wife, Emily, is also part of the show. They have been able to travel the country with their 9-month-old son, Jack, and beloved dog Maple.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, (we\u2019ll) just sit back and be like, \u2018This is very, very special,\u2019 \u201d Gardner said. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re in Oklahoma City. We\u2019re only here for a week. We then drive to Tulsa. We\u2019re only there for a week. Then we drive to Fayetteville. We\u2019re only there for a week. It can be hard because as soon as you get unpacked, you have to pack everything up. So, I can get mired down in the logistics of, he wants this toy, but that toy is packed in the trunk at the theater. Then I need to take a breath and realize it is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n The show started on the road in July. The Gardners gave up their New York apartment, packed what they needed into a Subaru Forester and hit the road.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like the old vaudeville performers,\u201d said Gardner. \u201cYou know, we set up and then we do the show and then we tear it down. Now, luckily, I do not have to tear down any of the set.\u201d<\/p>\n Gardner\u2019s mother, a longtime teacher in the Reading School District, has helped arrange a talkback\/Q&A with over 120 students from the Reading School District on Feb. 12 after the 1:30 p.m. matinee.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never been on stage in Philly,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to. The closest I\u2019ve come is People\u2019s Light and Theater Company. When I found out we were gonna go to Philly, I contacted our publicist and I would love to talk to everybody. This is exciting for me, because I, I can trace my entire career back to Redding. did a bunch of shows at the Genesius Theatre<\/a> and my family lived on North 11th Street right across from City Park. So it really is special that I\u2019m able to come back close to Reading and show everyone that I\u2019m not starving.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a couple of hours every night, Danny Gardner dances around a stage with 6-pound candles connected to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1681,69,71,70,1483,289,10356],"class_list":["post-97963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-entertainment","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-theater","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-trt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}