The Handsome Little Devils’ efforts to bring old-fashioned Vaudevillian melodrama to theatergoers in New York City has caught the attention of town’s snootiest critics. Earlier this year, the local troupe took their “Squirm Burpee Circus” act out east after securing a spot at the New Victory Theater off-Broadway, and the…
Astronomical Sunset. Jim is a man destroyed by guilt because a social-networking site he created led to…actually, it’s not quite clear what, but it had to do with a teenage boy posting compromising photographs of his girlfriend, and the boy is now in prison. The plot doesn’t make a whole…
Rachel, a housewife, is having what she characterizes as “one of my euphoria attacks,” babbling ecstatically to her depressed husband, Tom, about snow, their two sons, festive television shows and how much she loves Christmas. He interrupts to tell her he’s taken out a contract on her life. We never…
In Milton’s Paradise Lost, Satan tends to steal God’s thunder; as depicted, he’s much more interesting than the Creator. The same is true of the wickeder of the two main characters in local playwright Tracy Shaffer’s W(hole). The play, receiving its world premier at Paragon, concerns the twisted, symbiotic relationship…
Unless you’re a troglodyte who lives under a rock and hates freedom, you’ve seen A Christmas Carol. The play, the cartoon, the movie, the movie adapted from the play that is also a cartoon based on a true story — you know the storyline like the underside of your house-rock,…
Astronomical Sunset. Jim is a man destroyed by guilt because a social-networking site he created led to…actually, it’s not quite clear what, but it had to do with a teenage boy posting compromising photographs of his girlfriend, and the boy is now in prison. The plot doesn’t make a whole…
The Band of Toughs — formerly the Aluminous Collective, which distinguished itself with an excellent production of Charles Mee’s Big Love last year — is back with a second offering: Finders Keepers Losers Weepers. The difference in quality is startling. Finders Keepers, which hitches together ensemble-developed material with an eighteenth-century…
The 39 Steps. This show is uninhibitedly silly — a take-off on a 1930s Hitchcock film, which itself was based on a novel by John Buchan. The plot didn’t make much sense in the movie — something to do with an attempt by foreign spies to steal British air defense…
All first-rate actors are first-rate in completely different ways, and Brian Landis Folkins is no exception. He doesn’t have a highly defined stylishness, doesn’t raise the temperature every time he walks across a stage or reduce audiences to tears with the suppleness of his emotions. With him, you don’t get…
The 1960s of Shout isn’t the era of revolution for the hell of it, wild and woolly locks, tie-dye, raucous pleasure, ragged form-busting music and lots of dope — though pot does eventually enter this world. Think of the start of that decade — Jackie Kennedy’s demure A-line dresses and…
The founders of Gravity Defied Theatre had their work cut out for them when they founded the troupe in 2008. In addition to facing the standard pitfalls and challenges of starting a new theater company, founders Keith Rabin, Jr., and Danny Harrigan had to carve out a viable niche in…
Around 11:34 last Friday, my phone rang, and on the other end of the line was what sounded like a 20-year old modem screaming at me with the type of digital candor only available to machines. “Excuse me?” I said. The sound repeated itself. And that was the beginning of…
The Container. There’s a little uneasiness before production begins, a shuffle for the restrooms, some groping in purses for water bottles. As they’re admitted, audience members must sign a release acknowledging that the experience will be claustrophobic, that they will be closed in, seated along the sides of a large…
Of all the days of the week, Tuesday is perhaps the one most conducive to despair, the one that really drives home the boredom of the working week and the one where there’s the least to do outside of the workaday drudgery. Which makes it all the more important to…
Nobody in these parts does activist theater quite as well — or with as much enthusiasm — as Boulder’s Vox Feminista, an ever-changing collective of radical women that’s been at it now for more than twenty years. “It” constitutes a heady mixture of sharp satire, poetry, feminism, leftist rant and…
While tickets to Saturday night’s showing of cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Landmark Esquire sold out more than a month ago, plenty of people still showed up looking for tickets. Westword photo intern Teal Nipp was one of the lucky ones with tickets to the midnight…
It’s not too often that you come across a play that is also a thriller, but the Curious Theatre’s world premier of Astronomical Sunset, by Robert Lewis Vaughan, is just that: According to Curious’ playwright-in-residence Meridith Friedman, it’ll make you “jump in your seat — and that’s really hard to…
There’s a little uneasiness before The Container starts: a shuffle for the restrooms, some groping in purses for water bottles. We’ve already signed a release saying we understand the experience will be claustrophobic, and we know we’ll be closed in, seated along the sides of a large shipping container for…
The 39 Steps. This show is uninhibitedly silly — a take-off on a 1930s Hitchcock film, which itself was based on a novel by John Buchan. The plot didn’t make much sense in the movie, and it makes even less sense in this farcical comedy by Patrick Barlow, who takes…
Forget the rugged beauty and natural splendor of the small, windswept islands off the west coast of Ireland. The Arans’ isolation and foul, monotonous weather can render life dull and dreary; their brutal elements and rocky shores can make everyday routines monotonous and maddening. That’s the impression, at least, that…
The ladies of Burlycute have put together Zombielesque — taking place for one night only at Bender’s Tavern, 314 East 13th Avenue, tonight promptly at 8 p.m. We caught up with bad-ass burlesque madame/emcee Reyna Von Vett — whose alter ego, Cora Vette, will be introducing the ladies of the…
They juggle chainsaws, bowling balls and eggs — or at least they did until recently. A long-time fixture in the scene of local vaudeville-inspired oddball damsel-in-distress shows (if indeed there is such a scene), The Handsome Little Devils are in the business of capturing the heart of anyone who appreciates…
