There’s no real hero in Richard II. In fact, everyone in the play is pretty wicked. Watching the Colorado Shakespeare Festival production, I remembered a historian’s comment after a corpse assumed to be Richard III was found under a parking lot in Leicester. Richard’s indefatigable defenders had hoped this corpse…
Closer. Dan is an obituary writer at a newspaper, and he encounters Alice, a part-time stripper, when she steps in front of a cab and gets knocked down. He escorts her to the hospital. There Larry, a dermatologist, looks her over briefly. Some time later, Dan — now happily married…
The plight of Edward Snowden — still holed up at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Monday — illustrates the Kafkaesque nature of national borders. He is in a transit area, which represents neutral territory. He’s not in Russia, so Vladimir Putin has no obligation either to consider granting him asylum or…
Near the beginning of Curtains, Jessica Cranshaw, the untalented and unpleasant star of Robbin’ Hood — a musical within the musical — collapses during a rehearsal, clearly the victim of foul play. A young cop is called in to solve the murder, and the mystery unfolds in a manner familiar…
Zombies have built their cultural cachet on the inherent dread of moldering, hungry death that stands up and comes after you. Still, the grisly cannibal corpses have always had a lighter side as well, and some of the very best zombie films, from Return of the Living Dead to Shaun…
The ultimate aim of good satire is to parody an unintentionally funny event as accurately as possible, while spicing it up with a little exaggeration and sarcasm. But sometimes the comedy gods throw you something so ridiculous, so shockingly unreal, that all you have to do is xerox it and…
Dozens of drag stars, burlesque dancers, comedians and musicians from all over Denver and the nation came out for a good cause on Friday: The fourth annual Apocalyptic Ball, themed “The Awakening” this year, raised funds for local AIDS organizations. For more photos from the evening, check out our full…
He’s gay, he’s Republican, and he’s one of Denver’s greatest standup comedians. Talk to anyone who’s been in the scene for more than a few years, and they’ll tell you: Chuck Roy has been instrumental in creating what is now known as Denver comedy. After years spent warming up crowds…
Denver’s Dave Shirley has taken his multi-faceted act of magic, juggling, comedy and music from busking on the Sixteenth Street Mall to performing for NBC’s America’s Got Talent. After years of street performances and depressing corporate gigs, Shirley built his own sketch comedy club, The Rattlebrain Theater, in what has…
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). The Colorado Shakespeare Festival staged a pretty good version of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)five years ago, so we’re not sure why the CSF decided to bring it back this season. The show, written in 1987 by Adam Long, Daniel Singer…
Dan works at a newspaper — he’s an obituary writer — and encounters Alice, a part-time stripper, when she steps in front of a cab and gets knocked down. He escorts her to the hospital. There Larry, a dermatologist, looks her over briefly. Some time later, Dan — now happily…
Heritage Square Music Hall will close down at the end of the year, after more than two decades of hilarity in its eccentric Golden home. The building is an Old West opera house, authentic except for the fact that it’s two-thirds the normal size of one and was built in…
It’s wonderful to discuss Shakespeare with someone as intelligent, insightful and, above all, passionate as Tina Packer, who brings her Women of Will: The Overview to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival this weekend. Packer, who led Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts for three decades, talks about Shakespeare with reverence, but also…
There’s really no reason for Christopher Titus not to be as famous as Louis C.K. or Marc Maron. After his brilliant sitcom, Titus, was cancelled in 2002 following a dispute with the network president, the bleached-blond comic has released five brilliant comedy specials, addressing his profoundly dark childhood with a…
The LIDA Project is teaming up with Metropolitan State University of Denver for a two-part project on an issue that hits close to home: global warming. The project will illustrate the realities of both too much water (the first installment) and not enough (the second) by using the actual physical…
Becoming a comedian will get you laid, and becoming an author will get you respect, but from the perspective of a professional audience member like myself, the two really aren’t all that different. When I’m doubled over by the lyrical whimsy of local comic Jordan Doll, I could be cracking…
Collected Stories. Donald Margulies’s Collected Stories is a small, tight play about a relationship between two women. But beneath the cozy, familiar milieu and the smart dialogue, there are evocative questions, and there’s also a sea of feeling. Ruth is a respected and important writer, though her reputation rests primarily…
With Nigel Gore — an actor who comes to Shakespeare with a lot of authority and a willingness to take all kinds of risks on stage — playing the lead, and advance publicity that alluded to guns, smoke, Afghanistan and gruesome death scenes, I was expecting a thrilling Macbeth from…
As the proprietor of the Fine Gentleman’s Club, and host of the Squire’s ignominious tuesday night open mic, Denver comedy fans already know Sam Tallent, but what they may not know is the he contains multitudes, and not just within his corpulent frame. Surprisingly well-read for a public goofball, Tallent may instinctively eschew any pretentious-seeming affectations, but he’s often already devoured a literary classic or two before I wake up in the morning. An example of what persistent dedication and self-starting can achieve, Tallent is local treasure and a good friend. Not incidentally, he helped me come up with the idea for this very column. This week, Westword checks in with Tallent to discuss his love for Southern Gothic literature, how existentialism warped his adolescent mind, and the biographies of his Falstaffian forebears.
Being a 21st-century comedy fan, I love nothing more than watching standup comics geek out on whatever esoteric subjects they’re into — the weirder the better. Establishing an audience for the niche topics of history, tabloid gossip or D&D is what living in the Internet age is all about, and…
With two all-female shows, two very masculine comics and two actors from Back to the Future, July will serve up a buffet of comedy with something to suit almost any laughter palate. The squeaky-clean comedy of John Crist will satisfy those looking for less spicy options options, while the Fine…
Comedian Rusty Z has hypnotized tens of thousands of people over the last fifteen years. So when I was talking to him about his Comedy Works South shows this weekend and then asked him to hypnotize me, it was nothing out of the ordinary. For him, at least. I had…
