Fat Pig. Neil LaBute’s plays are nasty, but they usually contain subtext, irony and ambiguity. Fat Pig has none of these. It’s flat and thin, a straightforward, almost schematic story with a quivering pink core. Tom, a shallow careerist male of the kind we remember from In the Company of…
Amid the cascade of Christmas Carol remounts, Hallmark family shows and limp holiday parodies, Peter Ekstrom’s An O. Henry Christmas, now being staged by Miners Alley, is a refreshing seasonal choice. We all remember “The Gift of the Magi”: A young couple, dirt poor and madly in love, have no…
Ovid, otherwise known as Publius, has been banished from Rome and is traveling with Tiresias, standing at a crossroads, sticking out his thumb. Actually, he’s packed Tiresias in his bag, which the blind seer fiercely resents. In a fit of fury, Ovid burned the single copy of his epic poem…
With his blazing white coat and pig-pink ears, to say nothing of the zigzag of lightning cut into his flank, the eponymous canine lead of Disney’s lively new animated movie Bolt looks a little bit real and a whole lot not. That’s not a failure of craft: Goofy and sweet…
Back in 2005, Dorothy Stang died thousands of miles away, in the Amazon jungle where the 73-year-old nun had spent decades trying to help poor settlers and save the Brazilian rainforest. But her story hit home with local filmmakers Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher, who followed Denver resident David Stang…
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Well, who wouldn’t in this economy, even if the currency in question is rupees and winning the loot means being pegged as a fraud, getting a firsthand education in “enhanced” interrogation methods and having to relive some of the most painful moments of your…
Kristin Scott Thomas has gotten so locked into playing tragic victims or frigid grandes dames that few remember the actress got her big break as a wistfully amused friend in Mike Newell’s Four Weddings and a Funeral, or that she played Plum Berkeley on Absolutely Fabulous. Thomas has mischief in…
Although Los Lonely Boys were heavily influenced by growing up in a family of musicians, they’re no Partridge Family. Moving with their dad and stepmom around the country — from living out of a tent in California to performing with their dad in smoky Nashville bars — in search of…
Director Matt Wolf first heard of Arthur Russell— the subject of Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, an impressive documentary that screens tonight and tomorrow as part of the Starz Denver Film Festival — back in 2003, more than a decade after the singer-songwriter’s death. Wolf recalls that a…
When graffiti artists Wiser and Keith White started their custom art company, Your Name in Graffiti, a couple of years ago, one of their goals was to educate people about graffiti as art. Their invitation to the Denver Botanic Gardens today as part of Denver Arts Week is a clear…
In the eyes of comedian Billy Gardell, life isn’t that complex, and there’s plenty of joy to be found in simple pleasures like drinking, bad food and giving people you love a hard time. His material mines a down-to-earth, common-sense vein of comedy based on his blue-collar Pittsburgh roots. From…
Full disclosure: I’ve never read Twilight, the 2005 young-adult novel by Stephenie Meyer that spawned three additional novels and a serious fan following. But I know dozens of people who are addicted to the series, from adults to my thirteen-year-old niece, who read Twilight “in, like, a day,” she says…
One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I…
By the time I was five, my mom had already figured out I was a little too chubby and clumsy to be a ballerina, but when I decided I wanted to be an ice skater, she didn’t have the heart to tell me that might not be the best fit,…
You might say that local designer Tran Wills of the Fabric Lab learned the fashion-design business the hard way, by starting out not knowing exactly what she was doing and then slowly but surely finding her way. But it’s certain that Wills knows a lot about it now. “It’s hard…
It’s a Wonderful Life is “one of the classic Christmas stories,” notes Rod A. Lansberry, artistic producer at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities. That’s why this year, the Arvada Center is wholeheartedly embracing the holiday spirit and producing a stage version of the tale of George Bailey…
When self-pity is easier than humor, laughter is suddenly invested with a courageous strength of character. That’s what makes VOX PHAMALIA: Tales From the Crips such an extraordinary event. Written by eight physically disabled writers, Tales takes an honest and darkly funny look at what it’s like living with a…
Many folks aren’t huge fans of illusions, manipulations and being tricked. But when it’s under the umbrella of the wondrous thing that is magic, we’re drawn like moths to a flame. Who doesn’t enjoy magic tricks? Whether it’s “got yer nose,” sawing a lady in half or reading minds, the…
Bust out the gold lamé hot pants and French maid outfits, because The Rocky Horror Picture Show Experience is alive and well in Denver at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret, 1601 Arapahoe Street. Come down and thrill to the ultra-campy cult favorite, indulge in its elaborate audience-participation rituals and dance the Time…
You might be thinking about hopping on the local-food bandwagon, but how do you launch such a daunting project as winter approaches? By attending the Cornucopia of Local, an indoor/outdoor farmer’s market with live music, presentations, displays and more, hosted by the Boulder County Farmers’ Market, Boulder Independent Business Alliance,…
Arguably my favorite aspect of the holiday season is that it’s also home-tour season. What could be more fun than strolling through someone else’s beautifully decorated home, soaking up the atmosphere of cheer and goodwill? And the granddaddy of Denver holiday home tours is back for the 32nd year running:…
Chris Armijo’s whimsical and often beautiful light fixtures take functionality to a whole new level: Fashioned from such everyday plastic items as paper clips and Wiffle balls, they represent the collaborative spirit of the Downtown Aurora Visual Arts gallery’s holiday show, Luz: a little bit of light in a big,…
