In 1957, two Long Island 15-year-olds broke into the Top 50, mimicking the harmonies of the Everly Brothers with their song, “Hey, Schoolgirl.” They were performing under the name Tom & Jerry, and with their almost-hit, they quickly went nowhere. Seven years later, they came together again, now under their own names, and with the […]
2026: New Plays for the New Year
/in Theatre Company, New Play Summit, Other Theatres/by Suzanne YoePlays like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? or Angels in America don’t go from obscurity to Pulitzer Prize winner overnight. Instead, new plays and musicals take time, effort, investment, and dedication. Sure, there are some stories that practically “write themselves,” but that is generally more fiction than fact. Instead, a playwright goes through drafts and […]
Denver’s Newest Diet Fad: Two Hundred Pounds of Hay and a Bucket of Blue Gatorade
/in Broadway/by Collin Van SonThe musical Water for Elephants is bringing the circus to Denver this February. In preparation for the titular pachyderm’s arrival, I spoke with Maura Davis, curator of large mammals at Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance, to learn more about Denver Zoo’s six Asian elephants: Groucho, Bodhi, Billy, Jake, Baylor, and Duncan. Our following conversation has been […]
Meet the Famous Singers Who Inspired the Queens in SIX
/in Broadway/by Linnea CovingtonFrom pop royalty to royalty royalty, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’ musical hits the right notes. Possibly the most famous playboy in all of history, King Henry VIII had six Queens, who, all but one, met with an unfortunate fate. The first was divorced. The second beheaded. The third died from childbirth. From there, […]
The Story of Simon and Garfunkel
/in Broadway/by Lisa BornsteinIn 1957, two Long Island 15-year-olds broke into the Top 50, mimicking the harmonies of the Everly Brothers with their song, “Hey, Schoolgirl.” They were performing under the name Tom & Jerry, and with their almost-hit, they quickly went nowhere. Seven years later, they came together again, now under their own names, and with the […]
The Geometry of Spectacle
/in Broadway/by Collin Van SonHow Water for Elephants unlocks the third dimension Most musicals are two-dimensional. That’s not a put-down; it’s a spatial reality. Stages are two-dimensional surfaces, and the actors who travel them are typically limited to two degrees of freedom: they can move upstage or downstage, stage right or stage left. A notable exception is if the […]
Godspeed: A Western Rewritten
/in Theatre Company, New Play Summit, Uncategorized/by Lisa Kennedy“I always loved westerns as a kid — the showdowns, the gunfights, all that,” playwright Terence Anthony said during a video conversation. His own contribution to the genre, Godspeed — a rousing saga about a formerly enslaved woman on a mission in post-Civil War Texas — is having its world premiere at the Denver Center […]
Finding Yourself in Cowboys and East Indians
/in Theatre Company, New Play Summit/by Joanne OstrowWhen her play, Cowboys and East Indians, has its world premiere, playwright Nina McConigley thinks it’s going to be mind-blowing for her mother, who was born in India and lives in Wyoming, to see actors wearing saris onstage at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Growing up in Casper, as “the other kind of […]
SIX Cocktails Made for a Queen
/in Broadway, General/by Emma HolstI If SIX has you in the mood to…lose your head, a specialty cocktail (or mocktail) might be just the ticket. Long-time partner of the Denver Performing Arts Complex, SODEXO Live! has created a list of drinks to complement your evening. Patrons can order these drinks at the bars inside the Buell Theatre when attending […]
English and Irish Pubs Have Many Similarities to Western Saloons
/in Community Engagement, General/by Rich GrantFrom the archives: this post was originally published in 2021. People have been buying alcoholic drinks in England for more than a thousand years in taverns, ale houses, coaching inns, and grog shops – but what we think of today as a typical English pub didn’t happen until 1830. To counter distilled spirits imported from […]
Trivia: Dirty Dancing
/in Broadway, Uncategorized/by Suzanne YoeIf you were a teenager in 1987, you remember Dirty Dancing. The trailer depicted it as a typical romance — naïve girl falls for the “bad” boy. Parents disapprove. Love prevails. The end. So why is it that a movie about a dance instructor who refuses to “put Baby in the corner” was a runaway […]