Heartbreak House. Heartbreak House offers a full helping of George Bernard Shaw's wit, humor and trenchant intelligence; as produced by Germinal, it's also charming, sexy and delightful. Heartbreak House itself is a metaphor for the English upper class pre-World War I, and the play was influenced by Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. Like Chekhov, Shaw knew -- as his characters didn't -- that their smug, safe little world was about to vanish. The two most telling figures are Captain Shotover, the half-loony, half-wise retired seafarer who owns Heartbreak House, and Ellie Dunn, one of those marvelously smart and spunky Shavian heroines. Ellie believes her fiancé, Mangan, to be a good man who rescued her kindly father, Mazzini, from penury. But she loves Hector, who won her, as Othello won Desdemona, with stories of wonder and conquest. Having arrived at Heartbreak House at the invitation of Shotover's daughter Hesione, Ellie rapidly discovers that Hector is Hesione's husband and his stories are lies. And she finds that Mangan is no benefactor, but someone who deliberately cheated her father. The plot also involves Hesione's authoritarian and peremptory sister, Ariadne, who arrives unexpectedly from India after a two-decade absence. A great deal of philosophizing and flirting ensues. There's no real resolution, only a group of people facing the unknown. Presented by Germinal Stage Denver through October 9, 2450 West 44th Avenue, 303-455-7108, www.germinalstage.com.
Impulse Theater. Basements and comedy go together like beer and nuts or toddlers and sandboxes. The basement of the Wynkoop Brewery where Impulse Theater performs is crowded, loud and energetic. Impulse does no prepared skits, nothing but pure improv -- which means that what you see changes every night, and so does the team of actors. These actors set up and follow certain rules and frameworks; they rely on audience suggestions to get these scenes going or to vary the action. Your level of enjoyment depends a lot on whether or not you like the players. Charm is a factor, and so is the ability to take risks. Fortunately, the performers are clever and fast on their feet, willing to throw themselves into the action but never betraying tension or anxiety, perfectly content to shrug off a piece that isn't coming together. The show is funny when the actors hit a groove, but equally funny when they get stymied. So, in a way, the improvisers -- and the audience -- can't lose. Presented by Impulse Theater in an open-ended run, Wynkoop Brewing Co., 1634 18th Street, 303-297-2111 or www.impulsetheater.com.
Intimate Apparel. At the center of Lynn Nottage's gentle, appealing play is the figure of Esther, a black woman in her thirties living in a boardinghouse in 1905 New York City. And -- like so many poor and displaced women before and since -- she makes her living as a seamstress. She specializes in beautiful undergarments. Esther's landlady, Mrs. Dickson, married for practical reasons, and she wants Esther to make a similar marriage. There are two other women in Esther's life, both customers: a white woman married to a rich, neglectful husband, and a prostitute, Mayme. The lives of these four women represent almost the entire spectrum of possibility for women of that era. There's also Mr. Marks, a religious Jew from whom Esther buys her fabrics. Unexpectedly, Esther receives a letter from George, a Barbadian laborer. The correspondence continues, and eventually he comes to New York and marries her. The play's second act is more bitter than the first, as Esther realizes that loneliness and fantasy have shaped not only her feelings for George but, to some extent, all her relationships. Nottage's script has flaws, and some of the action strains credulity. But there are also wonderfully evocative scenes and many moments of insight. Presented by the Arvada Center through October 2, 6901 Wadsworth Boulevard, Arvada, 720-898-7200, www.arvadacenter.org.
My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra. The Denver Center production of My Way features four attractive, energetic performers with strong and differing voices; 53 of the best twentieth-century songs; a set that's beautifully designed both to please the contemporary eye and to evoke the period, with softened Formica colors flowing into each other and elegant forms; witty, attractive costumes; and three excellent musicians. So if you're entertaining a business client or out on a date, this is the show for you. But it's essentially a commercial enterprise rather than an evening of theater. The performers don't just sing the songs, they sell them. They're full of energy. They bounce. They emote. They never allow a moment of reflection or understatement. Sinatra was the guy sitting alone on a barstool in a pool of light, shadows pressing in on him, the rakish angle of his hat belying the world-weariness of his soul. This seems an odd way to pay him homage. Presented by Denver Center Attractions in an open-ended run, Galleria Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 303-893-4100, www.denvercenter.org. Reviewed June 9.
Rocky Horror Show. Rocky is a pastiche of clichés from science fiction, horror movies and pop culture. It's an uninhibited celebration of camp, aided by three decades of film and stage audiences who have clapped and sung along to the songs, flung various and specific objects on stage, lit flickering lights and offered randy verbal prompts. The action begins when innocent young Brad and Janet, who have just attended the wedding of a friend, get engaged. Within minutes -- naturally -- they find themselves stranded on a dark road in a pelting rainstorm. They seek shelter and a phone in the sinister castle of Frank-N-Furter, who's a mad alien scientist visiting Earth from the Planet Transsexual. The actors are never very far from you on the Avenue's tiny stage, and their hypnotically glazed eyes help make the production a total immersion experience. Should your attention falter for a moment, you'll find everything crashing back into focus when Nick Sugar stalks onto the stage with his sinuously sweeping moves and crimson-lipped, lemon-wedge-shaped smile. This is Rocky Horror as it's meant to be -- a lewd and lurid midnight fantasy. Presented by the Avenue Theater through October 1, 417 East 17th Avenue, 303-321-5925, www.avenuetheater.com. Reviewed July 14.
