Performing Arts

I’ve never liked Death of a Salesman, but I figured that maybe I’d just never seen a really first-rate production. With their current production, the Denver Center Theatre Company and director Anthony Powell have fielded the perfect cast: Mike Hartman — whose performance as the ethically compromised protagonist of All…

Anyone who has ever attended a writers’ workshop (guilty!) will recognize the characters in Theresa Rebeck’s Seminar, and also the dynamics among them. There’s Douglas, the apparently confident son of a somewhat well-known writer, who’s a few steps ahead of the other students in terms of his literary career: He…

After the pilot’s debut, comedians Ben Roy, Adam Cayton-Holland and Andrew Orvedahl thought their Amazon-produced Grawlix comedy series, Those Who Can’t, was dead in the water. While two other shows were picked up, The Grawlix crew heard….nothing. But now Amazon has commissioned the Denver comedy team to write six new…

In Who Killed Jigaboo Jones?, Jeff Campbell dissects the current state of hip-hop through the fictional story of a fallen rapper. His “one-man mockumentary on the hip-hop industrial complex” is an exploration on the exploitation of hip-hop culture, taking aiming at the industry in a humorous, thought-provoking way. After the…

After the Revolution. Playwright Amy Herzog enters a very specific world in After the Revolution: the passionate, close-knit, hyper-idealistic world of Jewish Communism in New York City during the early decades of the twentieth century. For these activists, Soviet Russia was a model. But when Khrushchev denounced Stalin during the…

World-renowned choreographer Karole Armitage is recognized for bringing non-traditional elements to the stage with her radical modern dance pieces. The performance tonight at Macky Auditorium will be no exception, as the dancer and her company, Armitage Gone! Dance, present Fables on Global Warming. Using costumes, puppetry in the traditions of…

Adam Milner wants you to spend the night with him. He wants to take your picture. He wants to record Internet chats with you and, more important, he wants to talk to you. Milner’s latest show, Wave So I Know You’re Real, is now on display at the Emmanuel Gallery…

“I fired a manager after he said to me, ‘Do something crazy and it’ll get on YouTube and your career will take off!'” comedian Christopher Titus told me in an interview this summer. “I looked at him and was like, ‘Really, that’s your plan? Really?'” While Titus may be cynical…

As much an icon of African-American comedy as Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy, Keenen Ivory Wayans pioneered a new style of televised sketch comedy with In Living Color, introducing mainstream Americans to the stylish humor of early ’90s black culture. The show also launched the careers of Jim Carrey, Jennifer…

With two Halloween events, three filthy shows and three comedy contests, October humor is shaping up to be scary, sexy and heavily competitive. After a summer of record-breaking comedy festivals, you can fall into the autumnal weather with some bone-chilling monologues of creepy copulation with Bob Saget and Competitive Erotic…

After the Revolution. Playwright Amy Herzog enters a very specific world in After the Revolution: the passionate, close-knit, hyper-idealistic world of Jewish Communism in New York City during the early decades of the twentieth century. For these activists, Soviet Russia was a model. But when Khrushchev denounced Stalin during the…

You wouldn’t expect this production of The Full Monty at a dinner theater — not so much because of the script, but because of the daring with which it’s staged. Places like Boulder’s Dinner Theater are kept alive in large part by church groups and Rotary-type clubs, and they need…

Defending the Caveman is a low-key, low-budget one-man show, part standup comedy, part nightclub act. Written by Rob Becker, the piece has been appearing in intimate venues around the country for several years, promoted as a fun way to pass an evening with a drink in your hand and your…

For this year’s Now Showing, Westword’s fall arts guide (you’ll find it tucked into our September 26 issue), we asked artistic movers and shakers to answer a few questions about the state of the arts, both locally and around the world. We’ll be rolling out their answers over the next…

Because of chance employment as a waitress at Comedy Works, Crystal Allen found herself surrounded by comedians — and her husband, Ben Roy, even became one. An aspiring photographer, Allen used this opportunity to start capturing on film not just aspiring Denver performers, but some of the most accomplished standup…

Over the weekend both Louis C.K. and Bill Maher dropped some wisdom about how the Internet is draining us of empathy and encouraging a consequence-free environment of cruelty and debasement. After spending the last two weeks whining about homophobic roasts and the irony of “clean comedy”, it feels good to…

Reading is about more than following a narrative or learning facts; it can also be a profound shared experience that culminates in a better understanding of ourselves and each other. In that spirit, welcome to the Westword Book Club, a weekly feature celebrating the books that inspire Denver artists.