Storytelling is the oldest kind of theatre, and, perhaps, the most brazen. It denies audiences the comfort of distance. It embroils them in yarns about love, anger, fear and death; it invites them to abscond from worries, troubles, and boredoms. To storytellers like Irish-born Clare Muireann Murphy, who willfully, unapologetically…
There’s a reason I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change — a gently musical that we dubbed “pure peach souffle” over a decade ago — returned to the Garner Galleria Theatre earlier this year for a several-month run. It’s the perfect show for dating couples, professionals looking for after-work relaxation,…
The death of Trayvon Martin has thrust race relations back to the top of America’s list of conversation topics. But Carlos Heredia hopes for discourse that doesn’t just happen as a result of violence. He wrote and directed a musical that he hoped would help create it: Then Sean Met…
The National Theatre Conservatory — a training ground for young actors, and one of the jewels of the Denver Performing Arts Complex — is closing its doors after more than 25 years. As a parting gift, the last crop of graduating students will offer showcase performances of Fahrenheit 451, which…
There aren’t many actors around who can claim to have met Laurence Olivier, David Frost and Noel Coward — however briefly — or who still refer to Macbeth as Mackers, to ward off the curse associated with the play. But then, there aren’t many who bring to the stage the…
“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” — Sonnet XCVIII References to April — arguably the most literary month, if not the cruelest — abound in the works of Shakespeare. No one’s completely sure about the exact date of his birth, but records indicate he was baptized on…
Buntport Theater Company has always had a creative way with music: The ensemble’s choices for openings, accompaniment and intermissions are spot-on, and some of its shows have included fruitful collaborations with local musicians. So when two Buntporters spotted tough-guy movie star Tommy Lee Jones standing in line at the Santa…
The Slater family in Gina Gionfriddo’s Becky Shaw comprises three odd, bitter and unhappy people who nonetheless live in uneasy equilibrium until Becky Shaw enters their lives through the always-dangerous mechanism of a blind date. Suzanna is relatively sane but obsessed with horror movies; as the play opens, she’s mourning…
Starting next Friday, Christopher Willard of Backstage Theatre Company will stage four readings of The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. The acclaimed one-man show earned notoriety recently after it was revealed that the author, off-Broadway performer Mike Daisey, had fabricated some details about working conditions in the Chinese…
Becky Shaw, the new production that Chip Walton is directing at Curious Theatre Company, opened the weekend before the Best of Denver issue — in which we published no reviews. (We did, however, give several awards to Curious in the Best of Denver 2012.) So here’s a preview of Juliet…
AnomalyCon 2012, Denver’s “first and only steampunk convention,” came down March 23 through March 25 at the Tivoli Student Union. The highlight of the weekend-long string of conferences, celebrity appearances and networking was Saturday night’s Grand Ball; Emily Driskill brings these photos back from the party. See the full slide…
Everyone’s favorite eccentric Renaissance man, William Shatner, is in Denver for his one-man performance of Shatner’s World: We Just Live In It this evening at the Buell Theatre. For Shat-nerds, seeing this show will be a lot like making it with an alien hottie. And for everyone else who needs…
The Drowsy Chaperone. The role of the Man in the Chair is the spine for The Drowsy Chaperone, and the primary reason that this lighthearted, inconsequential and very silly show is so much fun to watch: Without him, it would just float off into the ether. But with him, we’re…
PHAMALY is an amazing asset to the Colorado arts scene, a theater company composed entirely of performers facing a wide variety of physical challenges. The group’s goal is to provide professional theater opportunities and artistic development for performers with disabilities and to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in…
To celebrate the opening of its fourth run on the Denver stage, award-winning Broadway musical Wicked will partner with the Cherry Creek Shopping Center to open special preview “the World of Wicked” today, and running through April 15. Wicked fans and other mall-goers will get to bask in an emerald…
Tomorrow night, Buntport Theater will open a new show, inspired by a true event, called Tommy Lee Jones Goes to Opera Alone. But the title belies the community effort it took for Buntport to produce and animate a nearly life-size puppet of the solitary actor…
Naropa grad Seth Lepore will bring his newest one-man show, SuperHappyMelancholyexpialidocious, to Boulder this weekend. The new show targets the happiness movement, humorously critiquing everything from Oprah Winfrey to those Texas megachurches that all insist we need to be constantly chipper. We recently spoke with Lepore about the happiness movement,…
The role of the Man in the Chair is the spine for The Drowsy Chaperone, and it’s the primary reason that this lighthearted, inconsequential and very silly show is so much fun to watch: Without him, it would just float off into the ether. But with him, we’re invited in…
The root of theater is storytelling, and Stories on Stage has made a practice of matching expressive words with talented actors for many years. The March 11 offering, Distant Voices, features Sherman Alexie’s short story “War Dances,” about a young man afflicted with a mysterious partial deafness who’s visiting his…
Wanda Sykes is a writer, actress, voice artist, activist and standup comedienne extraordinaire — and crazy enough to talk to Westword. Her career is as epic as her personality, and she has no problem saying exactly what’s on her mind — whether it be salty, spicy or sweet. Since she’s…
Paragon Theatre Ensemble will close permanently on March 18, following the end of its run of Miss Julie — only weeks after celebrating the opening of the same show in its brand-new space. A series of expensive code violations led to the ultimate decision to not just shutter that space…
Because I grew up in a time when we listened to music by the album side, the idea of the rock musical — essentially a string of related songs hung loosely over a plot — is easy for me to accept. Still, you have to wonder, as I did while…
