There actually was a time when rock and roll and the happy gyrations of teens dancing to the music were considered sinful and a sure precursor to every kind of sleazy and drug-hazed sex, a time when respectable parents were so nervous about Elvis Presley’s hip thrusts and controversy ran…
I didn’t want to see the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s production of Troilus and Cressida. I had seen the play once before — and read it as a student — and vaguely remembered the plot, though almost no details. Still, I knew it was a problem play that sits somewhere between…
As Denverites roast their way through international hot dog month during the high plains heat, opportunities abound to chortle away the evenings in air-conditioned comfort. Fittingly for a month named after an Emperor, July has a legion of comedic delights ready to lay siege to our city’s sweaty audiences — everything…
After twelve debauched years, last call for the legendary open mic at Squire Lounge was June 28. A rogue’s gallery of Squire favorites took the stage that night for a boozy, profane farewell to the “meanest mic in America,” topped off by a performance by Denver comedy supergroup Big City…
The first time I saw a work by Thaddeus Phillips, a Denver native who now runs Philadelphia-based Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental, was at Buntport Theater on a cold night in 2001. The piece was called Shakespeare’s Storms and there were around fifteen people in the audience — two of them being me…
At the intermission of Equivocation, this summer’s traditional non-Shakespeare-but-related-to-Shakespeare offering from the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, I found myself exultant, almost floating along the aisle to the lobby. I’m so grateful to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival for bringing us this play, I said to a friend. It’s brilliant. And so it…
As many Coloradans know all too well, law-enforcement agents of this country’s less-enlightened states deliberately and systemically profile Colorado drivers in an attempt to bust them with legal weed. On June 13, beloved Denver comedian Jay Gillespie found himself targeted in Childress, Texas, where a routine traffic stop led to…
This holiday weekend, why not go to camp? Greetings from Camp Katabasis, the brilliantly funny new show from Buntport Theater Company, has a special Memorial Day performance. But there are other shows to remember around town, keep reading for mini-reviews of three favorites. Greetings from Camp Katabasis. In Greetings from Camp…
Podcasts are in tune with the democratized spirit of the internet; anyone with a microphone and a computer can offer listeners unlimited hours of recordings, usually for free. Limited only by their imaginations, podcasters have a freedom of expression unrestricted by commerce, censorship or geography. Several great podcasts have blossomed…
Catherine, a widow living in a wealthy suburb of Austin, Texas, during the presidency of George W. Bush, hires Arturo from a group of unemployed men gathered at a street corner to clean up her overgrown garden. She is lonely, neurotic, angry, shunned by neighbors who gossip about the reasons…
Hamilton is coming! The musical honored with eleven Tony awards on Sunday will play the Buell Theatre as part of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts 2017/’18 Broadway subscription series. This is the national touring company, which means playwright/star Lin-Manuel Miranda won’t be in the cast…but then, he’s taking a…
There’s no better place to spend — or ignore — Father’s Day than in the resin-stained hands of Sexpot Comedy. The team has assembled a real corker of a showcase for the Bug on Sunday, June 19, with comedian, actor, filmmaker and proud father Jay Chandrasekhar occupying the headlining spot…
You know those horrible photos of you from years ago that you swore you’d never let see the light of day? The studio portraits of repulsive babies, dumb-ass dads and annoying aunties that disgrace hallways and adorn mantelpieces? Now they hang on museum walls – in this case, those of…
Egeon of Syracuse turns up in Ephesus searching for his lost son, Antipholus, and his son’s servant, Dromio — or, in this production of The Comedy of Errors, directed by Geoffrey Kent for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, his daughter, Antiphola, and her servant, Dromia. Setting foot in Ephesus is death…
Summer brings small shows with big ideas to metro Denver stages, some of them in unexpected places. Here’s where to cool off with great theater this week. By the Waters of Babylon The Edge Theater June 10 through July 3 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays 6 p.m. Sundays Tickets: $28…
June has arrived, and Denver’s comedy calendar is full of follies ranging from Saturday Night Live alumni and a comedian supergroup to an improv presidential debate and a comedy festival masterminded by local standups. While the entertainment continues all month long, this June is front-loaded with particularly great comedy shows. Here they…
When Timothy Orr, then the assistant director of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, was called on to take over the whole thing following the departure of CSF artistic director Philip Sneed in early 2013, he found himself immersed in what he now calls — in a profound understatement — “a very…
Comedian Nick Thune is often recognized as the tall, aloof guy who strums a Midsummer Night’s Dream–like tune while tossing out whimsical and deranged notions — so fans may be surprised to learn that he’s abandoned the guitar altogether. In the two years since his Netflix special Folk Hero, Thune has…
Sweet & Lucky, an offering from the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Off-Center in collaboration with Third Rail Projects, is not a play, but an experience. The idea of theater as something that should change consciousness rather than being passively viewed isn’t new; it was big in the hallucinatory,…
In Greetings from Camp Katabasis, two campers are out in nature, annoying the hell out of each other, bickering, philosophizing, attempting to bond and mourning the death of a friend called Chuck. Katabasis, according to counselor Amie (Friend?) — whose hysterically funny monologues frame the action and is probably just…
Uncalled Four is a diabolical comedy game show that blends Mad Libs-style prompts with standup comedians indulging their very worst impulses. While navigating their way through legal snafus, changing staff and venues and releasing a Colorado-themed expansion pack, co-producers and engaged couple Jake Browne and Samantha Sandt have continued to…
This week on metro Denver stages, you can enjoy a modern classic with Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues at Miners Alley Playhouse or explore the avant garde world of multimedia performance at MediaLive in Boulder, with plenty of stops in between. Which direction will you take? Biloxi Blues Miners Alley Playhouse…
