Between promising upstarts from the local scene and internationally famous headliners dropping in at our clubs and theaters, Denver’s comedy scene will blossom in May — before closing out the month with a new comedy festival. More so than in other months, the list was difficult to narrow down to…
When the curtain rises on Opera Colorado’s new production of Wolfgang Mozart’s The Magic Flute on May 2, General Director Greg Carpenter might be in the wings. Or out front. Or backstage. Or sitting rapt with the rest of the crowd, albeit a tad more nervous than those around him. Since 2007,…
You’re familiar with the term tragi-comedy? Terry Johnson’s Hysteria could be considered a tragi-farce. It’s full of farcical elements: multiple doors, unexpected exits and entrances, mistaken identities, misunderstandings, a naked woman in a closet, silly accents, women’s panties, a man without his trousers who — at least in this Boulder…
Geoffrey Kent is a jokester, a nationally known fight choreographer, a restless, funny and kinetic actor whose most memorable on-stage moment occurred a few years back in the farce Noises Off, when he hopped up a flight of stairs with his shoelaces tied together, tumbled headlong down, somersaulted across furniture…
Sam Tallent has made an art form of non-traditional performance gigs for a standup comedian. Whether traveling on the cheap across unloved American landscapes or hustling for shows in dive bars or house parties, Tallent adapts to whatever stage is beneath his feet — at his best when he’s untethered…
Brent Gill, a boisterous paragon of the Denver comedy scene for close to a decade, has been delighting area stoners and milfs alike with his raunchy jokes. While some of Gill’s efforts, such as the now-defunct Marijuana Radio or the stage name “Brent the Great,” have gone the way of…
As Denver’s scruff-speckled comedy scene prepares itself for something like a changing of the guard, some of the more hysterical corners of the blogosphere have bewailed and bloviated about a “Denver comedy exodus.” Biblical hyperbole aside — a half-dozen comics departing for Los Angeles is about 600,000 Hebrews short of…
No one deserves success more than Paula Poundstone, who’ll be in town for a special solo benefit for Colorado Public Television on Saturday. A genuinely sweet person with more than thirty years of touring as a comedian under her belt, she has diversified into writing, acting, interviewing and commentating —…
This week a pair of respected regional ensembles will present strong work on stages in Boulder and Lakewood, while the Avenue brings back a crowd-pleasing favorite. Hysteria Dairy Center for the Arts April 23 through May 17 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays 4 p.m. Sundays 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April…
The ghost of Anton Chekhov has been haunting area stages lately, what with last fall’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, an absurdist Christopher Durang comedy-parody at the Denver Center, and the Boulder Ensemble’s recent Stupid Fucking Bird, in which playwright Aaron Posner closely follows the plot of The…
Simon Amstell is a comedian and television personality who’s honed his craft over years in the public eye. Stateside, Amstell is mostly recognized for his standup, having performed sets on Conan, The Tonight Show and the Late Show with David Letterman. In his native U.K., however, Amstell is a household name…
For his first endeavor as a playwright, poet, actor and activist, Bobby LeFebre wanted to tackle a sensitive subject that hit close to home: the changing face of the Denver neighborhood in which he grew up. In Northside, LeFebre explores the complex issues facing new and old residents in a…
A clothesline on which tops and bras are hung spans the stage. Other than that, the set consists of four shrouded forms that are eventually unshrouded to reveal four middle-aged people sitting in boxes — if you consider Buntport Theater Company’s Brian Colonna, Erin Rollman, Hannah Duggan and Erik Edborg…
A rock musical with a biblical theme? It’s been done, of course. But The 12, a world premiere at the Denver Center Theatre, takes a very different approach from that of Jesus Christ Superstar or Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It explores the emotional reactions of the disciples who…
Few performers have careers as varied as that of Marlon Wayans. An actor with a filmography that veers wildly from genre to genre, including outliers like the heart-wrenching Requiem for a Dream, he specializes in ribald horror parodies and high-concept comedies that require elaborate special effects make-up, like White Chicks and Little…
Annaleigh Ashford, a Wheat Ridge High School grad who’s now a successful New York actress, will be back home this weekend to perform Annaleigh Ashford – Lost in the Stars at the Garner Galleria Theatre. Not yet thirty, Ashford has been in five big Broadway productions, including Wicked and Rent, collecting…
A trio of unique collaborations take the stage this weekend, bringing combinations of dance, theater, words and visuals to audiences in search of new ways of looking at life, both high-flying and down-to-earth. Here’s how to take a trip into space or venture through life’s backyard without ever leaving your…
Unabashed in its own gleeful puerility, the once-ubiquitous “Dr. Fart” tag was cheekily crowned Best Unofficial New Public Art in the Best of Denver 2014. Some people saw the tags as an almost dadaist joke, others saw them as petty vandalism — but nearly everyone saw them. The good doctor has…
Who taught you to hate the color of your skin? Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? … Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? … Who taught you to hate being what God gave you?…
In the ten years since I first saw a Denver production of Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms, the political shadows have deepened and the play’s meanings multiplied: Ripple Effect Theatre, a relatively new company, shows courage, insight and ambition in reviving this play. The two rooms of the title are the…
As the first meek rays of April pierce through the gray clouds of March, comedy blossoms in the hopeful light. This month’s calendar overflows with shows to suit each and every comedic taste, from sophists to sophisticates. Such national names as Godfrey and Norm Macdonald will return to our fair…
When you think about Chekhov, the usual image is a stage filled with unhappy people, all yearning for something unattainable. That’s also what you get with Aaron Posner’s Stupid Fucking Bird, a take-off on Chekhov’s The Seagull — but this is a hybrid, a parody with a certain amount of…
