A terrific series explores the women of Shakespeare

Scholars have said many thoughtful things about Shakespeare’s women, but Tina Packer, who helmed the highly respected Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts for three decades, may be the best guide: She not only has the required analytic ability and the passion, but she has also inhabited these women, exploring their…

Henry Awards will be presented tonight

The Colorado Theatre Guild’s seventh annual Henry Awards will be presented tonight at the L2 Arts & Culture Center, 1477 Columbine Street. The festivities start at 6 p.m. with cocktails and a silent auction, followed by the official awards ceremony at 7 p.m.; an after-party will move the fun to…

Natasha Leggero on Playboy radio and horrifying pop culture

In her standup appearances, Natasha Leggero critiques terrible pop culture while wearing evening gloves and pearls — but her witty, spot-on commentary takes the gloves off, at least figuratively. The comedian, who’s appeared on Chelsea Lately, Burning Love and Free Agents, is bringing her Servantless Household Tour to the downtown…

Dive into T.J. Miller’s “Denver” video!

When we interviewed hometown-boy-gone-big T.J. Miller last week, he’d just gotten back to Beverly Hills and was preparing for a quick trip to Denver to debut his new Nix Bros. collaboration: the “Denver” video that premiered at Film on the Rocks Tuesday. After that, Miller headed straight to London –…

Say it loud: Noises Off is a resounding success

Michael Frayn’s Noises Off is a farce about a farce. It relies on all those familiar farcical conventions — lots of doors with people going in and out of the wrong ones, a woman in her underwear and a man with his pants down around his ankles, sexual innuendo, blows,…

The joke’s on you: Art You Can Laugh At opens today

Art can be funny — sometimes inadvertently — but rarely do we see a show pointedly dedicated to funny art. But Art You Can Laugh At, curated by Eric Matelski and opening today at MacSpa, is an exhibit that revels in silliness: Its sole purpose is to make us guffaw…

The CSF’s Richard III includes several novel performances

The theater world is full of Richard IIIs quipping, posturing, lying and murdering their way through thickets of bodies to the English crown. The role is catnip to actors because it’s juicy and bigger than life, and the bloody monsters of twentieth-century history — Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Augusto Pinochet…

The Oscar Wilde Experience feels like a warm evening among friends

The Oscar Wilde Experience feels less like a full-fledged theater production than a warm, pleasant evening spent with friends. The show is in the Byers-Evans House, which was built in 1883; with its dark wood furnishings, shadowy corners and shelves of old books, it provides the perfect backdrop for an…

Steve Burge gives us a lot to love in Love Child

Steven Burge, who’s currently starring with Damon Guerrasio in Love Child, a hoot of a show at the Avenue Theater, is one of the funniest actors anywhere. So it was a surprise to learn that he has to face down intense fears before he can step onto a stage. It’s…

Five great marijuana moments in standup comedy

While many comedians themselves may prefer a stiff drink, marijuana has, for some time, been the drug of choice for comedy audiences. From Lenny Bruce’s satirical pamphlet on the dangers of the herb, to sketch comedians like Cheech & Chong and Dave Chappelle building whole careers around it, entertainers have…

Now Playing

In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play. Playwright Sarah Ruhl uses the orgasm as the prism through which she views the entire Victorian world — and, by extension, our own. From the orgasm, entirely misunderstood and invisible in those repressive times, emanate ripples that change not only the relationships…