Playbill: Three New Performances in Denver March 30-April 3

Contemporary collaborations, bittersweet comedies and big musicals all turn up this week on local stages. Here’s where to find them. 3rd Law Dance/Theater, The Elision Project Dairy Arts Center 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2 4 p.m. Sunday, April 3 Tickets: $20 to $25 303-444-7328 Computers, voice,…

A Bucket of Fools Takes Over Crossroads Theater on April 1

Crossroads Theater is in the middle of its first Last Week of Arts, which will culminate on Friday, April 1 with a special, two-part Bucket of Fools show. This will be the sixth edition of Bucket; past monthly performances have resembled variety shows with comedy bits, musical pieces and impromptu sketches as local…

A Starter Set for Boulder Arts Week, Packed With Events and Performances

The annual Boulder Arts Week unfolds in all its glory for the third time starting on Friday, March 25, and the schedule includes dance, poetry, film, theater, music, art, classes, workshops and much more. Festival founder and coordinator Emily K. Harrison has created an umbrella concept that unites these diverse disciplines…

Review: Amusing Tigers Be Still Could Use Some Fangs

When a play starts with a school principal announcing that a tiger has escaped from a local zoo and is loose in the neighborhood, and proposing a handful of fairly mild responses (a buddy system, no recess) while also stating that he himself carries a rifle, you quickly conjure up…

Playbill: Three New Shows in Metro Denver March 18-20

This week on stages in metro Denver, moments in American history will be recounted and reimagined, while opera singers and Shakespearean actors throw their lots together for a fun night of poetry and song. Here’s how to play along. Black Elk Speaks Aurora Fox Arts Center March 18 through April…

Review: Missy Moore Worth Seeing in Edge Theater’s Getting Out

Marsha Norman’s Getting Out, first produced in 1979, portrays the grim dilemma of a woman just released from prison. Arlene has been driven to her bare-bones Louisville, Kentucky, apartment by a prison guard, Benny, who actually retired from his job for the chance to be with her — though his…

Lewis Black on Bernie Sanders, Voting Rights and The Root of All Evil

Lewis Black is a thoroughly astute political satirist. Assuaging righteous outrage with laughter is every comedian’s noble goal, but Black rises above the majority of his peers (at least those without their own eponymous television programs) with his keen analysis of social ills. Star and co-creator of Comedy Central’s dearly missed…

Playbill: New Theater in Denver and Boulder March 10-13

This weekend on local stages, Su Teatro transforms a Chicano literary classic through drama and dance, LOCAL Theater Company gets the public involved in play-making, and Vintage Theatre turns on the tear machine with a story about the breakdown of intimacy in the face of tragedy. Bless Me, Ultima Su…

Five Great Standup Albums You Didn’t Know Were Recorded at Comedy Works

The standup comedy album may be overshadowed by the televised special, but there’s no better medium for preserving and celebrating the fine-tuned craft of telling jokes. Stripped of the visual pomp of a live performance, standup albums play out in the theater of listeners’ minds, putting the emphasis on the strength…

Review: BETC’s Ideation Is a Creepy, Very Funny Comedy

Aaron Loeb’s Ideation is a shot to the gut — not a primitive one, but a sophisticated, fine-tuned thrust, as if a Victorian gentleman had whipped the concealed blade out of his ivory-headed walking cane and pierced you through the middle. Except that this play isn’t elegant, exactly. It’s a…

The Ten Best Comedy Events in Denver in March 2016

As the Ides of March approach, Denverites continue to enjoy a bounty of comedy shows: Classicists, alternative comedy purists and locavores alike will all find entertainment suited to their tastes. Whether you consult a Gregorian or Julian calendar, you’ll find plenty to keep Denver laughing from Nones to Kalends this…

Review: Make the Trip to Miners Alley for Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles

Sometimes the best productions pop up when you’re not expecting anything out of the ordinary. Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles is admittedly a Pulitzer finalist — but so are many mediocre scripts. It’s a low-key, four-character, ninety-minute work, and it arrived on the Miners Alley stage without a burst of glowing…

The Addams Family, Tell Me on a Sunday Closing This Weekend

As holiday shows take the stage, a less cheery — but definitely worthy — production is closing. This weekend is your last chance to see Equus at the Avenue Theater; here’s our capsule review of that show, as well as the third installment of the Brothers Trilogy at Curious Theatre…

Ten Essential Denver Podcasts in 2016

Podcasts are among the most direct and engaging mediums to emerge from the digital audio revolution. Liberated from the demands of commerce (though sponsorship and advertising space are necessary evils for those who wish to monetize), podcasters forge meaningful relationships with their listeners, fostering a uniquely intimate bond in the…