As a feminist, I believe no woman should have to defend her journeys into girl culture. As a realist, I offer the following defense as to why I took my friend Katie’s free ticket offer and went with her and two friends to Bring It On: The Musical on Saturday…
Deep in the bowels of the Denver Performing Arts Complex lies the mysterious little Jones Theatre, which sits on the backside of the complex like an afterthought. But what goes on in there? For one, there’s Cult Following, a monthly improv-based (but not exactly) performance serial with this motto: “Theater…
Belgians and Greeks do it, Nice young men who sell antiques do it Let’s do it. Let’s fall in love. The Brontes felt that they must do it, Ernest Hemingway could just do it Let’s do it. Let’s fall in love. Tennessee Williams, self taught, does it, Kinsey with a…
Got an itch in your tights to take up dancing? You’re not the only one. One way that adventurous dance companies like Ballet Nouveau Colorado bankroll work that’s not run-of-the-mill is through instruction. BNC, for instance, offers year-round dance and fitness classes for all ages and ability levels, from toddlers…
If the flurry of excitement and variety we’re being offered in January is any indication, this is going to be an amazing year for theater. The month opens on a light note: a 1930s Noel Coward play set in the big-haired 1980s. This isn’t the kind of interpretation you expect…
Phantom. While playwright Arthur Kopit and composer Maury Yeston were still putting together Phantom, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Operatrundled onto the scene, and their backers vanished — along with any chance of a Broadway opening. This Phantom is much smaller-scale than Webber’s, with less spectacle and more emphasis…
The Black Actors Guild was originally founded by five juniors at the Denver School of the Arts who were frustrated with the available material and also by the stereotype of the black actor, according Ryan Soo, the guild’s director of operations. “A lot didn’t apply to them, and a lot…
Any new production of West Side Story has to stand up to the dozens of high-school productions we’ve seen over the decades, as well as our communal memory of the movie and intimate knowledge of the score: Sing the first phrase of “Tonight” or “Maria” or “I Feel Pretty” to…
Vaclav Havel, the unassuming playwright dissident who helped spearhead the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that overthrew Communism in Czechoslovakia, died on December 18. He became the country’s president after the revolution, presiding over its peaceful break-up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, leaving and then returning to the office, before…
It’s a Wonderful Life. The film It’s a Wonderful Life is a much-loved American classic. Some families watch it together year after year at this time, like Miracle on 34th Street and varying versions of A Christmas Carol. What makes It’s a Wonderful Life interesting and original is the twist,…
If performance-on-the-fringe is your cup of tea, here’s a great way to support it — Silver and Gold: A Holiday Extravaganza, hosted by Band of Toughs at Naropa University at 7 p.m. Friday, focuses on a handful of qualifying Boulder fringe ensembles and their friends buy presenting three-minute, holiday-tinged introductions…
Looking for a quick — if pricy — gift for theater lovers? You can name a seat after them in the Ricketson Theatre in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. The price is $1,000 per seat, but this is a gift that keeps giving — the money goes to the New…
After a seven-and-a-half-year run, Greg Baumhauer is pulling the plug on the Squire Lounge’s open-mike comedy night. “We’ve crushed enough dreams,” he says. And tonight, you have one last chance to catch Baumhauer and the Wrist Deep crew in action at what was once hailed as the meanest open-mike night…
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Book-to-stage adaptations are often wooden, but playwright Laura Eason has done a terrific job with Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Her playhas energy and charm, and it really does communicate the fears, uncertainties and joys of childhood, as well as the atmosphere of…
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep tackles health, care, death and dying in the United States, and finding material should be easy. Is there anyone — beside those who profit from it — who is happy with our country’s medical system? Is there anyone who hasn’t experienced some level…
The film It’s a Wonderful Life is a much-loved American classic. Some families watch it together year after year at this time, like Miracle on 34th Street and varying versions of A Christmas Carol. So the first question that arises when you hear that author Joe Landry has made a…
Performance artist Michelle Ellsworth’s onstage persona is a fascinating mix of humility and daring, mockery and gentleness. She comes across as a deferential satirist, a playful deep thinker, someone who expresses serious concerns with effervescent humor, operating sideways and using movement, objects and a highly eccentric take on everyday concerns…
While many people might recognize Bill Pullman as Lone Starr in Spaceballs or the President in Independence Day, the movie star is also an accomplished stage actor who’s passionate about helping the performing arts. He’ll be at the L2 Arts & Culture Center tonight to support Visionbox, the Denver actors’…
It hit home for members of the theater community Sunday, when they opened the Denver Post and found a gaping void in the arts pages: There was no column by longtime critic and commentator John Moore. No review. Everyone had known John was taking the Post’s buyout. His Facebook fans…
The setting for The 1940’s Radio Hour is the Algonquin Room at the Hotel Astor in New York, where WOV radio (the V stands for Victory) is about to go on the air. In these days before social media and effortless continual connection, the excitement of radio is intense. WOV…
Book-to-stage adaptations are often wooden. Although the Denver Center Theatre Company had great success with Eric Schmiedl’s adaptation of Kent Haruf’s Plainsong, a novel that reads rather like an unfolding tapestry, its versions of Pride and Prejudice and To Kill a Mockingbird felt like lectures. But playwright Laura Eason has…
The sixth annual round of the USA Fellowship grants — fifty awards of $50,000 each — were announced last night in Los Angeles, and exactly one went to a Colorado artist: Michelle Ellsworth of Boulder, for her work in the field of dance. Ellsworth has an MFA in dance from…
