Best Time We've Had at the Theater

Directed by David McClendon for the intimate Jones Theatre at the Denver Center, Lobby Hero was an impeccable production of a charming play, one with just enough substance and insight to keep the viewer from going away hungry. The four quirky characters were played to perfection by Rick Stear, Bill Christ, January Murelli and Terrence Riggins, whose portrait of a rigid, lonely man revealed an almost tragic dimension. Add Kevin Copenhaver's costumes, Charles R. MacLeod's warm lighting and Robert Mark Morgan's meticulously beautiful set -- in which every detail cohered, from the light sconces to the dead leaves at the edge of the sidewalk -- and it was a recipe for pure pleasure.