For Denver theater company ScreenPLAY, less is more. Each of its one-time-only performances sees a rotating cast of established Denver actors take on the script of a cult-classic film using no sets and only minimal props and costumes. Instead, the production relies on acting skill and audience interaction to create…
On local stages this weekend, you can catch everything from songs of the Harlem Renaissance to the wit of the late Molly Ivins in the final performances of Red Hot Patriot revival. Here are capsule reviews of five productions this weekend. Ain’t Misbehavin’. “The Reefer Song,” performed by Leonard E…
Playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney grew up in a Miami housing project, attended graduate school at Yale, where he worked as August Wilson’s assistant, and went on to fame and acclamation as an entirely new voice in theater while still in his twenties. Curious Theatre Company staged McCraney’s The Brothers Size…
Talk about a reefer of five feet long Not too fat and not too strong You get high, but not for long If you’re a viper. Or — as sung by Leonard E. Barrett, on a luxuriously long exhale in Ain’t Misbehavin’ — a vipah. This number, performed with languid,…
Those who’ve only seen Denver comedian and Westword cover boy Ben Roy his brief television appearances are missing the singular experience of watching him perform live, when they can hear his jokes in their windy entirety. But between moonlighting as the frontman for local music-scene champions Spells and winging his way across…
Improv is a particularly entertaining segment of Denver’s booming comedy scene, one in which actors working without a script play off the audience to create characters, jokes and even songs. Last year a new improv troupe joined the funny fray: Queerbots, which has a particular and fresh slant behind its mayhem…
The Phamaly Theatre Company has been going strong in Denver for more than two decades, producing shows like Fiddler on the Roof, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and this season’s The Fantasticks, which just wrapped up a run at the Arvada Center. Now the company has a chance to take its…
Get out of the cold and into a warm theater! Here are capsule reviews of recently reviewed productions — including four that close this weekend, and are all worth seeing. 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche “At the center, it’s a really sweet love story — and the funniest show of…
When Catherine Barricklow joined the first class of the Tara Performing Arts School in 1997, there were fewer than a dozen students, and instruction was in the basement of a home in Boulder. As the school’s population expanded, Tara became nomadic: The students were taught on makeshift stages around the…
Haus of Dollz brought a hot variety show of of burlesque, drag and comedy — something for everyone — to the Exdo Event Center over the weekend. Here’s a sampler of Brandon Marshall’s photos from the show; if you like what you see, check out the full Haus of Dollz…
A wealth of talent and ingenuity has gone into the Aurora Fox production of Big Fish — too bad the musical itself is no big deal. Based on Daniel Wallace’s novel, which became a 2003 film directed by Tim Burton, Big Fish is a story about tall tales. Edward Bloom,…
In most places, March is a month of renewal, of freshness and growth. In Denver, however, March exists merely to taunt snow-wearied Coloradans with the false promise of spring. Though the sun may continue to forsake our fair city, Denverites are fortunate to have plentiful opportunities to bask in the…
This Sunday, the Black Actors Guild will launch Soul Food Standup at the Savoy — and that’s just one of the busy group’s projects. Last week Westword profiled the Black Actors Guild, a multi-faceted performance troupe that has been working hard on stages around Denver for the last few years. We spoke…
For over ten years, Deacon Gray has mentored young comics as the New Talent Coordinator at Comedy Works. Under his stewardship, the scene has flourished, with hundreds of new comics flooding the stage, eager to test their mettle and benefit from Gray’s experience. One of the blessings of a career…
Martin McDonagh’s plays have inevitably been compared with those of his literary forebears. In the early twentieth century, John Millington Synge wrote of the bitterness and loneliness of rural Irish life, exacerbated by drunkenness and the grim, hypocritical strictures of the Irish Catholic Church. Synge didn’t shy away from the…
5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche “At the center, it’s a really sweet love story — and the funniest show of the year. I actually think that’s true. People who think women can’t be funny? Well, they should come and take a look at this.” That’s director Edith Weiss’s description of…
Ophira Eisenberg is one of the most prolific comedians on the current scene — doing stand-up gigs and television appearances, hosting the NPR trivia show Ask Me Another and performing with storytelling show The Moth in both its New York residency and on tour. Her sharp and quick wit and…
I had high hopes for The Aliens. The Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company has been doing terrific work lately, and The Aliens had received rapturous reviews all over the country, reviews that floated the names Beckett and Chekhov. Playwright Annie Baker won a Pulitzer for…
Benediction Denver Center Theatre Company A world premiere, a tribute and a deeply affecting evening of theater: This is the Denver Center Theatre Company’s production of Benediction, Eric Schmiedl’s dramatization of Kent Haruf’s novel of the same name. A much-loved and lauded Colorado author, Haruf saw two of his earlier…
Beets. A thoughtful historical play by local writer Rick Padden,Beets is set in Berthoud, Colorado, during World War II, when German prisoners were sent to this country and many ended up working in American fields. On first hearing that prisoners will be sent into the beet fields, Fred Hunt, a…
By the time February settles in, Denverites have already plowed through their Netflix queues and ordered from every restaurant within their delivery radius, so by now everyone is ready to face facts and brave the dreadful climate for a chance to get out of the house. Between its centerpiece romantic holiday, historical significance and the odd leap year, February is a month for going about one’s business and pretending bot to be miserable. However, since nothing salves the weary valves quite like a truly hilarious joke, Westword has compiled a list of fancy-tickling comedy shows to keep readers giggling all throughout this short, bleak month. With a flourishing of new local shows, visits from comedy legends of past and present and even a smattering of Valentine’s Day themed entertainment, there are more reasons than ever to spend the winter laughing in the dark with strangers, trying to forget how lonely we all are.
Appoggiatura Denver Center Theatre Company 303-893-4100 Appoggiatura, a musically titled play by two-time Pulitzer-nominee James Still, is receiving its world premiere at the Denver Center Theatre Company, where it was a favorite among the readings at last year’s New Play Summit. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the…
