Playbill: Three New Plays in Denver January 27-31

Whether you prefer Broadway musicals or tour-de-force biographical political dramas — or something more intimate — there’s plenty of variety to go around this week on Denver stages. Try these on for size, or check Westword’s online theater listings for more theater choices.
Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage
Buell Theatre
January 26 through 31
Tickets start at $30
303-893-4100
With its bad-boy-meets-nice-Jewish-girl plot, the Patrick Swayze/Jennifer Grey fairy tale Dirty Dancing was — and still is — the ultimate chick flick, all hopped up with an upbeat soundtrack and the hottest dancing this side of the Catskills. It was also tailor-made for the stage, and Denver Center Broadway is sneaking the touring show into the Buell for one short week. Nobody puts baby in a corner with a script like this — snap up a ticket while you can.
All The Way
Stage Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex
January 29 through February 28
Tickets start at $32
Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Schenkkan’s drama All the Way takes on the legacy of Lyndon Baines Johnson, one of the most misunderstood political figures of the twentieth century, in this offering from the DCPA Theatre Company. By default, LBJ’s larger-than-life story, a 2014 Tony winner, brings back a turbulent time of change — both good and bad — in American history.

The Gin Game
Mary Miller Theater
300 East Simpson Street, Lafayette
7:30 p.m. January 29
2 p.m. January 30-31
Tickets: $10 to $16
1-800-838-3006
Theater Company of Lafayette collaborates with the Silver Circuit, a Front Range stage company dedicated to bringing small-scale theater to senior facilities, for a weekend run of D.L. Colburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning two-person show The Gin Game, a comic drama made to be performed by great couples, from Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy in the ’70s to James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson just last year. Actors Ellen Ranson and Gary Crow-Willard take on the poignant show, set over a series of gin-rummy matches at the card table in a nursing home, for this production. Take Grandma, or just go by yourself: You might learn something about the wisdom of the elderly.

Find a stage near you: Check out Westword's online listings for more theater events.