Despite all the buzz to the contrary, you never really forget that the horses in War Horse are puppets — at least I never did. They suggest living creatures, but they don’t embody them. You know that Joey, the magnificent chestnut that dominates the action, isn’t flesh and blood: You…
Now in a regional premiere at Curious Theatre Company, Maple and Vine contrasts life in modern America with life in 1955 — the changes in mores and culture, the differences in eating habits between now and a time when lattes were unknown (as were whole-wheat bread and any herb other…
Running two nights only — tonight and tomorrow at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts — A Journey of the Human Spirit is an incredible three-part look at life before, during and after the Holocaust. Based on composer Viktor Ullmann and librettist Peter Kien’s fifty-minute opera The Emperor of…
Like pine beetles, Boulder artist Jill Powers does some of her best work in bark. Her mixed media fiber sculptures and installations draw on exotic natural materials, from seed pods to a tough inner bark called Kozo that happens to be “sustainably grown” — and that’s good news, since Powers’s…
Brooklyn-based playwright Michael Mitnick is a young phenom in the theater world whose play-in-progress, Ed, Downloaded was featured as a reading as part of the Denver Center Theatre Company’s Colorado New Play Summit in 2012. A year later, the fully produced play — utilizing sophisticated, cutting-edge visuals to tell the…
Whether she’s posting hilarious observations on Twitter, accepting calls from random strangers on her podcast, or performing her delightfully judgmental standup, comedian Chelsea Peretti does it all with sharp wit and magnetic observational humor. Peretti, also a former writer for the Emmy-nominated Parks and Recreation, will be in town starting…
The Denver Center Theatre Company has long been a pioneer in the creative use of multi-media, and four years ago artistic director Kent Thompson commissioned a work from playwright Michael Mitnick. The intention was to have multi-media considered from the earliest conceptual stages rather than being “layered into a script…
What I like about Jack Holmes’s one-man play RFK: A Portrait of Robert Kennedy is that although it is in some ways hagiographic, it also humanizes its subject, showing his vulnerabilities and flaws. The Kennedys are generally seen through a haze of nostalgia: Jack as the charismatic leader who presided…
Although Show and Tell contributors didn’t quite have the skills (or nerve) to try out ourselves, photographer Brandon Marshall stopped by Fusion Factory’s open auditions for go-go dancers and hula-hoopers over the weekend. The tryouts came just in time to prepare for Fusion’s Mardi Gras celebration, at which those who…
Diana seems like a typical middle-class wife and mother: smart, energetic and ironic, waking her sleepy son and teasing her daughter. That is, until she begins making sandwiches for everyone’s lunch — a maneuver that involves tossing dozens of slices of bread onto the floor, then sinking down and dabbing…
New Year’s resolutions are typically useless; they’re often way too ambitious and usually forgotten by February. But there’s value in the ritual of taking stock of the past year and making goals for the year to come. When I was asked about my resolutions, I said couldn’t think of a…
As it is for most musicians, a New Year’s Eve gig is nightlife-prime-real estate for a comic. Big money, big crowds and an audience that’s ready to let its PC guard down and get loose. Consequentially, you never turn down a NYE standup gig — if you can get one…
No question, 2012 was the year of the comedian in Denver. A lifelong fan of standup, I’ve had the pleasure of reporting on some amazing shows this year — and I’m sharing some of the high points here. Still, I’m sure there’s a vast ocean of talent that slipped past…
This past year has been tough for many people, and we’re eager to kiss 2012 goodbye. In hopes that 2013 will turn out to be much luckier for many, we invited some of the town’s cultural tastemakers — entrepreneurs and entertainers we’re lucky to have in Denver — to answer…
End of the world, or end of the year? Or just a great way to end an evening? To find out, you’ll have to catch tonight’s Hell Toupee Cabaret 2012 topper at Denver’s Dangerous Theatre. Join host Infernal Phil at 7:30 p.m. for the last 2012 installment of the monthly…
Think there’s no fun to be had until New Year’s Eve? Think again. Sam Tallent, Nathan Lund, Chris Charpentier and Bobby Crane of the Fine Gentleman’s Club are working through the holidays, and their weekly Too Much Fun comedy show at the Deer Pile will roll like clockwork tonight at…
This past year has been tough for many people, and we’re eager to kiss 2012 goodbye. In hopes that 2013 will turn out to be much luckier for many, we invited some of the town’s cultural tastemakers — entrepreneurs and entertainers we’re lucky to have in Denver — to answer…
42nd Street. A big, glitzy show filled with great songs and requiring dozens of tapping feet, 42nd Streetis one of those musicals that spoofs the genre while at the same time providing all its shmaltzy pleasures. Peggy is a star-struck youngster who arrives in New York to audition for a…
David Sedaris introduced Crumpet the Elf to the world on NPR in 1992 in an essay called The SantaLand Diaries, which described his experiences working at Macy’s over Christmas. The piece was adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello in 1996, and the play — rueful, cynical, smart and hilarious,…
Like Lenny Bruce in the ’60s, George Carlin in the ’70s or Bill Hicks in the ’90s, Louie C.K. could go down as the premier comic of this decade. His standup specials have not only changed the course of comedy material, but have changed the business of stand-up comedy. C.K…
Dixie’s Tupperware Party. Dixie is a booze- and sex-addicted, trash-talking, child-neglecting ex-con from Alabama who holds Tupperware parties in her trailer, and she’s invited you to this one. Dixie’s Tupperware Partyat the Galleria really isa Tupperware party — you get a name tag and raffle number when you come in,…
42nd Street is a big, glitzy show filled with great songs and requiring dozens of tapping feet. So I settled in for the Boulder’s Dinner Theatre production with some trepidation. The playing area here isn’t huge, nor is the pool of singers and dancers infinite. The theater does tend to…
