TOB Lives

Not unlike the homeless denizens of Barbara Lebow’s Tiny Tim Is Dead, the Theatre Group found itself on the street after being evicted last May from its longtime home, the Theatre On Broadway. But the troupe’s heavily gay-centric fan base from the old days at TOB aren’t the only folks…

Axels to Grind

How do you escape the pressures of the holidays, like, really quick? Bundle up, drop your packages in the trunk, pinch your cheeks until they glow and strap on a pair of silver skates, Hans Brinker, for a glide across the frozen expanse at one of the region’s many old-fashioned…

Wedding Bells

Tony and Tina must really love each other. After all, the two have been married hundreds — if not thousands — of times since Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding opened off Broadway in 1988. And although their wedding is a little different every time, it’s still the craziest, funniest affair you’re…

Mommy Dearest

Improv is an art form. It takes skills to garner tidbits of information from audience members and weave them into a narrative that actually makes sense — and that’s actually funny — in spontaneous sketches and games. The folks at Bovine Metropolis Theater do improv very well — so well,…

What the Puck?

My freshman year at Colorado College was peppered with disappointing social exchanges. I didn’t like keggers quite as much as I’d imagined, and yoga class turned out to be a bad way to meet boys. So when my roommate invited me to the hockey match against the University of Denver…

Tighten Up

Each year around the holidays, the Colorado Ballet presents Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, and Gil Boggs, the company’s artistic director, notes that the latest version, which debuts today, isn’t terribly different than its predecessors. “As we like to say, we do your grandmother’s Nutcracker,” he concedes. Boggs insists that…

As God Is My Witness

Thanksgiving doesn’t have enough TV specials. Oh, sure, it’s got Charlie Brown, but I covered how weak that is earlier. And there’s the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, but aside from seeing how cold and wet the Broadway dancers are going to be doing their thing in Herald Square, it’s basically just…

Project Runway Recap

After 3 seasons of Project Runway, it seems evident that nobody does the wacky-artsy-type thing like an aspiring designer (though you can also catch some truly wacked-out antics on America’s Next Top Model, which is also on tonight). And nobody has perfected this craziness as much as this season’s yoga-lovin’,…

The Worst Peanuts Special Ever

Okay, maybe not ever. I’m not counting aberrations like and It’s Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown, or You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown, or Try My Flugelhorn, Charlie Brown (and of those three, I only made one of them up). I’m talking about the big ones, the ones that we watched as kids…

Being Michael Madsen Is A Chore

Festival audiences are generally more generous than traditional theatrical crowds. It’s a double-edged sword. Some films that will never see the light of day, or the darkness of theatrical release, find audiences who are willing to set aside their critical opinions and just enjoy a film for mere competence of…

Last Night: Night of the Living Shred

Earlier this week, we interviewed party promoter Charlie Morrison by phone while he was drying out in the forced confinement of Denver C.A.R.E.S. Charlie’s surely out by now, but we thought we’d pop in to his club night at Bender’s Tavern, Night of the Living Shred, to see if we…

Expose Yourself

Earlier this week, we talked about how Northern Exposure is airing on KBDI-Channel 12 Monday through Thursday nights at 7PM. But what’s the big deal? Why does this nearly twenty-year-old television series merit not one but two blogs? Ah, my friend, I’d give it ten, if I could. (One on…

Frock Out Denver Unveiled

Check out a slide show of Frock Out. For the past few months, twelve Denver fashion designers have been hard at work creating their own version of Project Runway, and now a piece by each of these talented tailors is on display at the Denver Public Library’s Central Branch for…

Screening Tonight at the Starz Denver Film Festival

You’ve got nothing to do tonight, right? Skip another night of must-see TV and head over to the best Denver cultural event of the year, the Denver Film Festival. We’ve compiled some reviews and profiles of filmmakers and suggest, if you can, that you check out one of the following…

Festival Dailies: The Memory Thief

The Memory Thief Director: Gil Kofman It’s going to take a long time to digest this film. For me, the entire experience was thrown off by the woman in front of offering information on her colonoscopy to no one in particular. Shortly after that, Songbird, the short film from director…

Film Festival Profiles: Iron Ladies of Liberia

Iron Ladies of Liberia Directors: Daniel Junge and Siatta Scott-Johnson When Denver-based documentary director Daniel Junge and producer Henry Ansbacher first contacted newly elected Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (who, among other degrees, received a masters in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1970), they were told their…

No Country for Old Men

Hold still.” It’s what the hunters say to the hunted in the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men. The first time we hear it, it’s the out-of-work Vietnam vet Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) whispering optimistically to the antelope he spies through his rifle sight while perched on the crest…

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is less Sidney Lumet’s comeback than his resurrection. Three years after being presented a Lifetime Achievement Oscar, the 83-year-old director comes forth with a violent family melodrama that is his strongest movie in at least two decades. Robustly directed from Kelly Masterson’s bear-trap screenplay…

Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium

Midway through the amiable children’s movie Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, there comes a speech that I’ll wager writer-director Zach Helm has been saving for future use ever since he discovered the Bard. As pop philosophy goes, it’s bracing stuff: Paraphrasing King Lear, Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman), a 243-year-old “toy impresario”…

Shred Cred

Show of hands: Has anyone not heard of Guitar Hero at this point? You sir, in the back row clutching the Ratt cassette — you’re the only one? All right, pal, here’s your recap: Guitar Hero is the most popular music-based game ever made. It comes with a plastic guitar…

Once Upon a Time

The Princess Bride: 20th Anniversary Edition(MGM)As far as anniversary-edition DVDs go, The Princess Bride is crushingly disappointing: no Rob Reiner commentary track, no outtakes, no making-of doc, no nothing, save for a lousy game and a few short interviews with Robin Wright Penn, Mandy Patinkin, Christopher Guest, and a few…