Let’s start with the setting, so pristine, white, minimal and tasteful: chairs with gracefully curving legs, a glass table on which art books are meticulously arranged, a vase of white tulips, nicely grouped with just one flower swaying slightly out to the side. Tall panels of white brick form a…
When it was published in 1985, Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple was a groundbreaker — illuminating places that had been in shadow and, like most groundbreakers, intensely controversial. It described the plight of many poor, black rural women through the unforgettable voice of the protagonist, Celie, a voice that…
On Saturday night, Conan O’Brien took on hosting duties for the second time since 1995 at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and apparently his years on network television have not affected his ability to skewer politicians and pundits with some unrelenting jabs at the most sensitive news of the…
Now that we’ve finally eked our way into the warmer weeks of spring (fingers crossed), it’s time to get off the couch and head out into the fresh air to get to May’s ten best comedy events. We’ve got albums being recorded, albums being released, two Latino-themed shows, nerd heroes…
Beloved Denver comedian Mara Wiles has received a heartwarming amount of support from the local comedy community in the face of her battle with lupus. Leading up to her kidney transplant last month, several benefit performances raised funds to help cover her mounting medical bills — and while everyone is…
Employing the tactic now known as the House of Cards method (after the Netflix-produced Kevin Spacey drama), Amazon has bankrolled fourteen pilots for its new Prime Instant Video service, taking a seemingly democratic twist on the TV-industry convention of letting the public decide which series ascend into multi-episode Heaven, and…
Ballet Nouveau Colorado has been putting together some of the most innovative collaborations we’ve seen — so it’s appropriate that the group is moving forward with a new name and new digs. Before the company completes its transition to Wonderbound, though, it will present one more show under the BNC…
Buntport Theater Company put several peculiar messages on Facebook before A Knight to Remember opened. These implied that the theater group — known for the creative synergy of its members — was divided on this piece about Brian Colonna’s childhood fantasies of knighthood. Erik Edborg would not be involved, the…
We’ve had a few theatrical art lessons around here recently. And not so recently. Red, at Curious Theatre Company last year, revealed Mark Rothko’s genius, insecurity and narcissism as he bullied his assistant and gave urgent instructions about how he wanted his work viewed. Then there was the Miners Alley…
At this point, it’s really impossible to overstate Louis C.K.’s cultural relevance as a comic. His imagery is as edgy as Lenny Bruce, his material as universal as Bill Cosby, and the doors of creative freedom he’s kicked open within the industry (self-produced show; self-distributed specials) will forever alter how…
As a standup comedian for over a decade in New York and Los Angeles and a weekly performer with the Groundlings, Britt Swenson has met a lot of interesting characters over the years. Those characters will be on display in her comedy show So Many Ladies, which opens at 7…
As part of Vanessa Place’s exhibition The Lawyer Is Present, opening this Friday, April 12, at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, the Los Angeles-based writer, attorney and artist wants you to confess. For the piece, which plays off Marina Abramović’s The Artist Is Present, Place will be collecting and…
With a career spanning five decades, Lily Tomlin has entertained generations of families through appearances on shows as diverse as Sesame Street, Laugh-In, Damages and, most recently, Malibu Country. But the Tony, Grammy, Emmy and Peabody award-winning actress, who got her start in standup, says that career didn’t come easily:…
From the early scenes of Other Desert Cities, you’d think it was going to be one of those family dramas in which everyone sits around and talks about their problems and feelings — all of which are supposed to interest you. Then you start thinking that the play’s about politics…
Based on the seventeenth-century masterpiece Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, Man of La Mancha was an award-gobbling sensation when it first appeared in 1965 — but after decades of professional and community productions, the musical has less impact. Still, the Arvada Center has mounted a big, sumptuous show, filled…
Bummed out about the annual spring blizzard that just hit a city that was 71 degrees two days ago? The Grawlix feel your pain. In a timely teaser release for the premiere of their pilot, Those Who Can’t (a potential sitcom about three inept teachers in a Denver high school),…
Last weekend’s Saturday Night Live cold open featured a somewhat unconvincing Bobby Moynihan playing the adorably chubby supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-Un. The sketch revolved around the husky dictator’s address to the people of NK, announcing a change in policy on two major fronts. The first was to…
Man of La Mancha, based on Miquel de Cervantes’s seventeenth-century masterpiece Don Quixote, was an award-gobbling sensation when it was first staged in 1965. The musical has less impact now that it’s been through decades of professional and community productions. Still, the Arvada Center has mounted a big, sumptuous show,…
At the beginning of The Other Place, Sharr White’s absorbing study of a mind unraveling, a woman is standing at a podium giving a lecture on a new drug intended as a cure for dementia. She is poised, intelligent, witty, self-aware. This is Juliana, a neuroscientist originally involved in developing…
For the latest Drag Nation night at Tracks, performers tackled “Girls Gone Wild.” The night’s energy and costumes certainly fit the theme as personalities including Nina Flowers and Chad Michaels strutted and danced their stuff. Continue reading for highlights from the evening, and visit our full slide show for more…
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain doesn’t have a flashy name or even a flashy look. But don’t let that fool you. While the ensemble takes its collective picking skills quite seriously and its vocals are better than average, its real strength is in doing exactly what the audience doesn’t…
Sharr White’s plays have been workshopped and mounted around the country over the years, and he has received several awards — but it was The Other Place, his piece about a brilliant woman scientist’s battle with dementia, that brought him to Broadway last year. Laurie Metcalf played the scientist, Juliana;…
