Petr Gazdík, a long-time member of the Brno City Theatre, actor, director, translator and artistic director of the musical ensemble, celebrated his fiftieth birthday yesterday, 6 July 2025. His birthday concert entitled GAZĎA & Friends will take place in early September at the MdB Music Stage.
Petr Gazdík (*6 July 1975, Brno) is the son of actress Jana Gazdíková and theatre actor Svetozar Chytil. He himself appeared on stage at the age of five in Macbeth and as a child he appeared continuously in several smaller roles until the age of thirteen, for example in the staging of From the Life of Insects and Night of the Shepherds. As a child, he was also active in radio work and dubbing, recording hundreds of radio productions and programs, and appearing in a number of films.
In 1989, he began his studies at the Brno Conservatory and, following the example of his parents, became involved in the Velvet Revolution as a member of the strike coordination committee at the age of 14. He successfully completed his studies at the conservatory in 1993 and in September of the same year he joined the Theatre Faculty of JAMU as a student of Musical Acting. He never completed his degree, but during his studies he began actively cooperating with the Brno City Theatre again. While still a student, he was given his first major roles, playing, for example, the Knight des Grieux in Manon Lescaut (1995) and Essex in Elizabeth of England (1995). He subsequently made an indelible mark on theatre history as Tony in the legendary musical West Side Story (1996) and in 1997, when he joined the company, he is still a member of to this day, he was offered the role of Christian in the romantic poem Cyrano of Bergerac or Radúz in the musical ballad Radúz and Mahulena. In 1999 he played the lead male character in Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet and Bedřich Škoda-Vrchovský in the famous musical My Fair Lady (from Zelňák).
Together with Roman Vojtek, Petr Gazdík founded a recording studio in 1996 which, following an incentive from the Brno City Council and Czech Radio to save the Dukla recording studio, subsequently became the largest recording studio in Moravia and a small music venue in 1999 that opened with the premiere of the musical project VIVA Musical, which was subsequently performed for seven thousand spectators at what was then the Rondo Hall. In 2011, Gazdík handed over the G studio space to Buranteater and in the same year decided to study an MBA (Master of Business Administration) program at the private B.I.B.S. at Nottingham University in the UK. He completed his studies in 2014.
As an actor, he embodied many unforgettable roles on the stage of the Brno City Theatre, giving riveting performances as Claude and Judas Iscariot in world-famous musical titles such as Hair (2004) and Jesus Christ Superstar (2005). Many audiences also have vivid memories of his central roles in Odyssey (2006) and Ferdinand, kd’E ste? (2006). He also played Pharaoh in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (2006), and in 2024 he reprised the role of the diabolical Darryl Van Horn in the magical musical comedy The Witches of Eastwick, which he had portrayed during the first run of the work in 2007. His lifetime role is undoubtedly that of the gallant Jean Valjean in the famous musical based on Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables (2009), for which he won the 2009 Thalia Award. For the sake of completeness, let us mention that he was among the nominees for this prestigious theatre award for his portrayal of Jan in the musical World of Angels (2000) and the titular double-role in the musical Jekyll and Hyde (2011), which he also directed himself. In addition to the aforementioned charming Darryl, his current musical repertoire also includes the equally charming businessman Edward Lewis in the romantic musical Pretty Woman (2021), which is due to open in September 2025.
Gazdík’s talent, however, is also given space in drama pieces, with audiences remembering him as Peter Niles in Mourning Becomes Electra (2002), the Duke of Buckingham in Henry VIII (2004), Orsino in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (2008), Thomas Becket in Becket or The Honour of God (2010) or more recently as the triumvir Mark Antony in Shakespeare’s love tragedy Antony and Cleopatra (2020).
With the opening of the new building of the contemporary Music Stage and the expansion of the theatre ensembles, Petr Gazdík became the artistic director of the musical theatre ensemble of the Brno City Theatre, but also continues to work there as an actor and since 2007 as a director and translator. His directorial debuts at the MdB included the concert series Jazz Side Story (2007) and the concert version of Jesus Christ Superstar (2008). Among his subsequent directorial works, let us mention, at least in passing, the very popular musical Mary Poppins (2010), his direction of the musical Flower of Horror (2011), which did not escape the notice of the expert jury and earned him the 2012 Czech Theatre Achievement of the Year, and the success of the comedy Name (2015), which under his direction won the Student Jury Award and the 2015 Audience Comedy Award at the GRAND Festival of Laughter in Pardubice. As part of the current repertoire, the theatre’s program includes musical and dramatic productions such as Mamma Mia! (2019), The Nine Crosses (2022), The Others (2022), The Great Gatsby (2023) or The Father (2025). In the upcoming 2025/2026 season, he will direct the original musical opus Winton (2025) and the drama Jenůfa (2026).
He is also a regular guest director and performer at other theatres across the country. For instance, Brno audiences could see the musical The Baker’s Wife (2022), staged under his direction by the East Bohemian Theatre in Pardubice, or the musical Judy (2024), which he directed at Studio DVA in Prague, thanks to the Dokořán festival for musical theatre, during which both pieces were performed directly at the Brno City Theatre.
Petr Gazdík will celebrate his milestone birthday at the start of the new season together with the audience at a birthday concert entitled GAZĎA & Friends, which will take place on Saturday, 6 September 2025, at 18:00 at the MdB Music Stage. He will be joined by other soloists from the theatre, an orchestra conducted by Dan Kalousek, and the PG Acoustic Band, with which Petr Gazdík regularly performs world-famous songs in his own translations.
No comment added yet..