Performing Arts

Sweaty locals refuse to allow the heat to defeat them at this point in the summer. Luckily, for adventurous entertainment seekers, delights abound all around town this week.

As another weekend approaches, many Denverites may find themselves searching for something to do yet despairing over how to fund their fun. Fret not, fellow poor, for Colorado’s creative community has yet again scheduled enough free or cheap entertainment to keep locals giggling and wiggling for the next five days.

An accomplished TV writer and former correspondent on the unfortunately canceled Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell, Hari Kondabolu has emerged as one of the sharpest political commentators in comedy – even if it’s a label that bums him out.

Terrence McNally knows theater — as do the folks at Spotlight and Vintage Theatre — and his It’s Only a Play, which the two local companies are producing together, flays the skin off that lunatic, star-studded, crazily artificial yet deeply heartfelt profession.

As Denver grows with each passing month, its residents, both new and old, have more and more opportunities to participate in a thriving cultural scene. These are five free things to do this week.

The fireworks may be over, but Denver’s creative community has plenty of delights in store for adventurous and thrifty locals that will light up their days and nights.

Baby Boomer Baby, a one-man show written and now performed by Tommy Koenig at the Dairy Arts Center, is a musical trip from the ’60s to today. But it strikes some sour notes.

Now that the dog days of summer are here, it’s time to roll out the ten best comedy events in Denver in July

Ring of Fire is more a concert than a play: a cascade of Johnny Cash songs, along with a few that he covered by others, played by expert and enthusiastic musicians who clearly love the man and his music as much as they love playing together — and playing for…

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at BDT Stage is a must-see show, a great production of the musical warhorse.

Having fun and experiencing all that Denver has to offer needn’t be the sole purview of bourgeois weekenders.

Few comedians have achieved arena headliner-level success, but even fewer of them got there on the strength of their jokes alone. While Brian Regan is famous for his broad appeal, befuddled persona and clean act, he’s relatively unheralded as one of the sharpest joke-writers of his era.

CHEER Colorado is part of the Pride Cheerleading Association, a group of volunteer adult cheerleaders spread across several cities that raises money for local LGBTQI organizations.

Playwright Marisa Wegrzyn has the antidote for that outdated image of flight attendants as beautiful young women patrolling the aisles in high heels, frolicking in hotel rooms with handsome male passengers on their layovers: Mud Blue Sky, now in a regional premiere at Edge Theater.

June has enough comedy shows in store to tickle every rib in town.

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival is fielding a female Hamlet this year, and the idea worries me.

There’s only one word that can sum up DragOn at the Garner Galleria, even if that word is a cliché: Fabulous. Fabulous in the usual sense of glam, over the top, beats all expectations. But “fabulous” is also the right word because if you go to the root — fable, myth, legend — you’re touching the show’s essence.

A huge critical hit in both London and New York, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is based on a novel by Mark Haddon that is written from the viewpoint of a fifteen-year-old boy, Christopher, who’s somewhere on the autism-Asperger spectrum. Playwright Simon Stephens introduced a twist to the plot that doesn’t make much sense: A sympathetic teacher persuades Christopher to turn an account of his sleuthing into a play — the play we’re seeing. But what we really want to know is what it’s like to be Christopher.

The Denver theater season is winding down, but there are still good productions to see around town.

Denver’s creative community has everything you need – from high culture to dick jokes – to stave off boredom and despair as you welcome the sun-dappled days of June. With street fairs, elegant concerts, medieval festivals and a full-on corgi takeover, the only way to lose this weekend is by staying home. Best of all, locals can attend all of the following ten events, listed below in chronological order, for less than ten American dollars – and seven of these events are free.

Dave Chappelle’s Red Rocks stint sold out in a fury, and now Live Nation has announced it will be adding a second show at the Colorado Convention Center’s Bellco Theatre, on July 13.

Members of the Evergreen Players improv group will be studied by a Harvard neuroscientist looking for the source of their creativity.