The fourth annual High Plains Comedy Festival begins just thirty days from now, and the 2016 lineup has all the makings of an old-fashioned giggle gauntlet. From August 25 through August 27, over 100 of the country’s funniest people will descend upon Denver’s Baker neighborhood to crack wise, tickle fancies and…
Whatever happens at Voodoo Comedy Playhouse this weekend, it will definitely come as a surprise. “They like to keep it a secret,” says Voodoo head honcho Steve Wilder of the mockable movies on the menu for Friday and Saturday, when Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff, stars of TV’s iconic 1988-1999 Mystery Science…
I’ll Eat You Last is subtitled “A Chat With Sue Mengers,” who was the top-tier agent to some of Hollywood’s starriest stars — or, as she calls them here, “my twinklies”; those twinklies included Gene Hackman, Candice Bergen, Gore Vidal, Nick Nolte, Michael Caine and, most important, Barbra Streisand. And…
The set for Thaddeus Phillips’s the ARCHIVIST is perhaps the most important character in this experimental, brain-dizzying work-in-progress at Buntport. Towering white columns of file boxes divide the playing area, boxing in — almost literally — the Archivist in all his magnificent and delusional loneliness. Beyond the columns, the darkened…
Finishing School got its start in 2001 in Los Angeles; the art collective builds site-specific work, does studio art and creates other forms of media, all with the intention of sparking conversation around social issues, politics and shared everyday human experiences. The artists recently produced Finishing School: BLISS, a social-engagement project…
Drained by the heat of summer? Take a seat in a cool theater and get refreshed at one of the rousing musicals opening this week at Denver theaters. What else is up? Try the Colorado Theatre Guild’s annual Henry Awards at 7 p.m. Monday, July 18, at the PACE Center…
There actually was a time when rock and roll and the happy gyrations of teens dancing to the music were considered sinful and a sure precursor to every kind of sleazy and drug-hazed sex, a time when respectable parents were so nervous about Elvis Presley’s hip thrusts and controversy ran…
I didn’t want to see the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s production of Troilus and Cressida. I had seen the play once before — and read it as a student — and vaguely remembered the plot, though almost no details. Still, I knew it was a problem play that sits somewhere between…
As Denverites roast their way through international hot dog month during the high plains heat, opportunities abound to chortle away the evenings in air-conditioned comfort. Fittingly for a month named after an Emperor, July has a legion of comedic delights ready to lay siege to our city’s sweaty audiences — everything…
After twelve debauched years, last call for the legendary open mic at Squire Lounge was June 28. A rogue’s gallery of Squire favorites took the stage that night for a boozy, profane farewell to the “meanest mic in America,” topped off by a performance by Denver comedy supergroup Big City…
The first time I saw a work by Thaddeus Phillips, a Denver native who now runs Philadelphia-based Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental, was at Buntport Theater on a cold night in 2001. The piece was called Shakespeare’s Storms and there were around fifteen people in the audience — two of them being me…
At the intermission of Equivocation, this summer’s traditional non-Shakespeare-but-related-to-Shakespeare offering from the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, I found myself exultant, almost floating along the aisle to the lobby. I’m so grateful to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival for bringing us this play, I said to a friend. It’s brilliant. And so it…
As many Coloradans know all too well, law-enforcement agents of this country’s less-enlightened states deliberately and systemically profile Colorado drivers in an attempt to bust them with legal weed. On June 13, beloved Denver comedian Jay Gillespie found himself targeted in Childress, Texas, where a routine traffic stop led to…
This holiday weekend, why not go to camp? Greetings from Camp Katabasis, the brilliantly funny new show from Buntport Theater Company, has a special Memorial Day performance. But there are other shows to remember around town, keep reading for mini-reviews of three favorites. Greetings from Camp Katabasis. In Greetings from Camp…
Podcasts are in tune with the democratized spirit of the internet; anyone with a microphone and a computer can offer listeners unlimited hours of recordings, usually for free. Limited only by their imaginations, podcasters have a freedom of expression unrestricted by commerce, censorship or geography. Several great podcasts have blossomed…
Catherine, a widow living in a wealthy suburb of Austin, Texas, during the presidency of George W. Bush, hires Arturo from a group of unemployed men gathered at a street corner to clean up her overgrown garden. She is lonely, neurotic, angry, shunned by neighbors who gossip about the reasons…
Hamilton is coming! The musical honored with eleven Tony awards on Sunday will play the Buell Theatre as part of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts 2017/’18 Broadway subscription series. This is the national touring company, which means playwright/star Lin-Manuel Miranda won’t be in the cast…but then, he’s taking a…
There’s no better place to spend — or ignore — Father’s Day than in the resin-stained hands of Sexpot Comedy. The team has assembled a real corker of a showcase for the Bug on Sunday, June 19, with comedian, actor, filmmaker and proud father Jay Chandrasekhar occupying the headlining spot…
You know those horrible photos of you from years ago that you swore you’d never let see the light of day? The studio portraits of repulsive babies, dumb-ass dads and annoying aunties that disgrace hallways and adorn mantelpieces? Now they hang on museum walls – in this case, those of…
Egeon of Syracuse turns up in Ephesus searching for his lost son, Antipholus, and his son’s servant, Dromio — or, in this production of The Comedy of Errors, directed by Geoffrey Kent for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, his daughter, Antiphola, and her servant, Dromia. Setting foot in Ephesus is death…
Summer brings small shows with big ideas to metro Denver stages, some of them in unexpected places. Here’s where to cool off with great theater this week. By the Waters of Babylon The Edge Theater June 10 through July 3 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays 6 p.m. Sundays Tickets: $28…
June has arrived, and Denver’s comedy calendar is full of follies ranging from Saturday Night Live alumni and a comedian supergroup to an improv presidential debate and a comedy festival masterminded by local standups. While the entertainment continues all month long, this June is front-loaded with particularly great comedy shows. Here they…
