During intermission at Germinal Stage Denver a couple of years ago, Ed Baierlein was keeping watch over the lobby. “Look who’s here,” he said, his voice gentle. I turned and found Al Brooks standing behind me. Al smiled hugely, took my hand in both of his, and said something about…
A Bright Room Called Day. Tony Kushner, author of the brilliant Angels in America, clearly wrote A Bright Room Called Day in a state of agitation. Kushner sensed the blot of fascism spreading across America, and he drew an analogy — by no means original — between 1930s Germany and…
I was sitting in the Ricketson Theatre during the first half of Jesus Hates Me, reasonably engaged but thinking that Wayne Lemon’s play really wasn’t as funny as advertised — although it was sort of funny now and then, sometimes even startlingly and unexpectedly funny, the kind of funny that…
Somewhere in the 1970s, we learned that women could like each other, that female friendship was precious, and that society’s insistence that women’s concerns were inherently more trivial than the concerns of men was blind and stupid. Though she might pass much of her time shopping or in the kitchen,…
A Bright Room Called Day. Tony Kushner, author of the brilliant Angels in America, clearly wrote A Bright Room Called Day in a state of agitation. Kushner sensed the blot of fascism spreading across America, and he drew an analogy — by no means original — between 1930s Germany and…
It’s hard to deal with murder — particularly the rape, murder and dismemberment of a child — without being exploitative. It’s also hard to explore the issue of forgiveness without resorting to sentimentality. Bryony Lavery’s play Frozen, currently at Curious Theatre Company, succeeds on both counts. The three-character play involves…
Some people believe that artists are uniquely sensitive to their times and that their work can serve as a kind of canary in the coal mine, warning of danger. Tony Kushner, author of the brilliant and much-acclaimed Angels in America, clearly wrote A Bright Room Called Day in a state…
The King and I. Some of the problems with this production are inherent in the show itself. With its emphasis on strong women and abhorrence of anything resembling slavery, The King and I was progressive for its time, but no artist can entirely escape the myths and preconceptions of his…
When the Soviet Union fell on Christmas Day 1991, politicians and pundits in the West began insisting that Marxism was dead, that history had proved the theory was bankrupt and led inexorably to misery and oppression. From now on, they said, our world would be shaped by unfettered capitalism, and…
The King and I. Some of the problems with this production are inherent in the show itself. With its emphasis on strong women and abhorrence of anything resembling slavery, The King and I was progressive for its time, but no artist can entirely escape the myths and preconceptions of his…
The King and I. Some of the problems with this production are inherent in the show itself. With its emphasis on strong women and abhorrence of anything resembling slavery, The King and I was progressive for its time, but no artist can entirely escape the myths and preconceptions of his…
There are two things to be said about this production of Aida, a rock-pop version of the Verdi opera with music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice. The first is that it’s a shlocky, sentimental piece of theater, with sappy music and idiotic book and lyrics. Almost all…
A Christmas Carol. Written by Richard Hellesen with music by David de Berry, this Christmas Carol has its strengths. It’s respectful of the novel, using much of Dickens’s original dialogue and description to tell the tale of the miserly businessman, Scrooge, and his conversion to kindness by the ghosts of…
Everyone knows the story of Scrooge’s conversion from hard-eyed businessman to philanthropist in A Christmas Carol. Tiny Tim’s incantation, “God bless us, every one,” has become a seasonal staple, right up there with twirling sugarplum fairies and twinkling-eyed Santas. But what if Dickens’s well-loved story ran off the rails? What…
The best scene in The Credeaux Canvas, the first offering of the new Identity Theatre Company, is an extended nude scene, in which a young woman poses for a painter. She is Amelia, a singer trying to make her way in New York; the painter is Winston, an art student,…
Bug. At the beginning, Bug seems hyper-realistic. We’re shown a drink- and drug-addled woman, Agnes, living in a motel room, which we learn is on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. We have been here before. It is — among other things — Sam Shepard country. A quiet young man, Peter,…
There’s a sad and bitter scene that occurred many years ago when my mother was dying of cancer that seems to illustrate precisely the conundrum at the heart of Edwin Sanchez’s Unmerciful Good Fortune. My mother was in the hospital, very close to the end, lying silent and shrunken in…
Even for good institutions, change is necessary. The Laird Williamson-Dennis Powers adaptation of A Christmas Carol has been staged by the Denver Center Theatre Company for the past fifteen years, and I’ve always enjoyed it. But the best shows can grow stale and tired over time, and it’s hard to…
Bug. At the beginning, Bug seems hyper-realistic. We’re shown a drink- and drug-addled woman, Agnes, living in a motel room, which we learn is on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. We have been here before. It is — among other things — Sam Shepard country. A quiet young man, Peter,…
Shadowlands, currently being produced by Bas Bleu, is a dignified, classy play, but for the most part, it’s oddly lifeless. Set in 1950s England, it begins as C. S. Lewis, the creator of Narnia and author of a series of deeply Christian books for adults, gives a lecture on the…
Bug. At the beginning, Bug seems hyper-realistic. We’re shown a drink- and drug-addled woman, Agnes, living in a motel room, which we learn is on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. We have been here before. It is — among other things — Sam Shepard country. A quiet young man, Peter,…
I don’t know how to assess John Orlock’s Indulgences in the Louisville Harem, currently playing at Germinal Stage Denver, because I don’t begin to understand it. Sometimes when you see a play that makes no literal sense, you still feel caught up in it, still find some recognizable emotional or…
