Five New Holiday Shows Kick Off the Christmas Season in Denver

Like it or not, the holidays truly arrive the day after Thanksgiving, along with a spate of Christmas plays. That means venues are bringing back traditions old (the DCPA Theatre Company’s A Christmas Carol opens November 27 in the Stage Theatre) and newer (Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company is bringing its perennial favorite, The Santaland Diaries, to the Garner Galleria, also on November 27). And out there on other local stages, these five shows will be providing backup.

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas
Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities
Tuesday, November 24 through December 23
7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays (no show November 26)
1 p.m. Wednesdays
2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays
1 and 7 p.m. December 22 and 23
Tickets: Starting at $54
720-898-7200
The Arvada Center greets the holiday season with another big musical – the romantic Irving Berlin spectacular and its Christmas gift of classic songs, from “Blue Skies” to “White Christmas” itself, that still sound good decades after they were written. Take a trip back through time to Pine Tree, Vermont, with Bob and Phil and Betty and Judy, and bring the whole family.
Funny Girl
Vintage Theatre
Wednesday, November 25 through January 17
7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
2:30 p.m. Sundays
7:30 p.m. Thursday, December 31
7:30p.m. Thursday, January 14
2:30 p.m. Saturday, January 16
Tickets: $28 to $32
303-856-7830
Vintage is also going into the season with a musical: Funny Girl, with songs from Jule Styne and Bob Merrill that were made famous by Barbara Streisand back in 1964. Based on the life of vaudeville star Fanny Brice and her romance-gone-bad with gambling man Nicky Arnstein, it’s old-fashioned entertainment at its best, generating such standards as the Streisand signature “People” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade.”
Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol
Vintage Theatre
Wednesday, November 25 through January 17
7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
2:30 p.m. Sundays
7:30 p.m. Thursday, December 17
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 22
6:30 p.m. Sunday, December 27
Tickets: $24 to $28
303-856-7830
Vintage also gets Christmasy with Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, a story-theater retelling of A Christmas Carol from the perspective of Scrooge’s chain-rattling, former (and dead) business partner Marley. The character turns out to be less curmudgeonly than you’d expect, but saying any more would spoil the denouement.
Little Women the Musical
Aurora Fox Arts Center
Friday, November 27 through December 27
7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
2 p.m. Sundays (no show November 29)
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, December 23
Tickets: $22 to $31 
303-739-1971
Another family musical takes the stage at the Aurora Fox, this one based on the beloved Louisa May Alcott novel Little Women. Audience members of all ages will love growing up all over again with the March sisters in nineteenth-century Concord, Massachusetts, to the tune of an award-winning score. So bring the kids and the aunties and the grannies along.

Santa’s Big Red Sack
Avenue Theater
Friday, November 27 through December 20
7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays
Tickets: $23.50-$26.50 
303-321-5925
Seeking holiday fare that’s not family fare? Done. Dave Shirley’s sketch comedy revue Santa’s Big Red Sack, which returns to the Avenue for the seventh year in a row, is specifically billed as being “the holiday show you shouldn’t take your kids to,” meaning you can expect some raunch for Christmas. Thank you, naughty Santa.

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