Kimberly Akimbo is one of those magical musicals that makes you wonder, “how did they pull that off?” An intimate, smart, deeply human musical that arrived on Broadway without a big star or a recognizable title, it nevertheless became the talk of the town by winning over audiences and critics alike and by making them […]
Chris Coleman never aspired to direct Hamlet. The artistic director of the DCPA never saw himself in that role. He had played the title character onstage twice — senior year in college at Baylor University and again at Actor’s Express, a theater company he founded in Atlanta — and “literally never wanted to direct it […]
In his 2010 memoir and lyric collection, Finishing the Hat, Stephen Sondheim wrote of his surprise at the reception of Company in 1970: “I had no idea Company would be so unsettling to public and critics alike.” He was “stunned by the polarized reactions of fervent admiration and ferocious rejection” when the somewhat experimental production […]
Do you remember a sexy movie with Lauren Bacall as a glamorous society woman turned wartime spy named Betty, blazing through men and countries, from South America to Europe, seducing her way to crucial information for the Allies in WWII? No? That’s because there was no such movie — although perhaps there should have been. […]
This world premiere work by New Mexico playwright Leonard Madrid drew loud laughs from audiences at the 2022 New Play Summit. The tagline says it all: Three Sisters, four wheels, four hundred miles, and one dead body. From a comedic premise, a heartwarming comedy-drama emerges when three Latina sisters embark on an unexpected drive, Albuquerque […]
Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, a musical adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 film Smiles of a Summer Night, was nominated for a dozen Tony Awards wining six including Best Musical when it debuted a half-century ago. Set in 1900 Sweden, it remains a sharp commentary on romantic relationships — part witty rom-com, part melancholy […]
My Fair Lady, a famously sumptuous spectacle overflowing with a long list of favorite songs, has been called the perfect musical. The Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe original ran on Broadway starting in 1956, setting records for the longest Broadway run at the time. The 1964 movie adaptation likewise became a classic, with Rex […]
There’s something very modern about Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. The rapid-fire zings, the flirty aggression — If Beatrice and Benedick met today, they would badmouth and ghost each other on a dating app. Fortunately, the play is respectfully presented in its original form, only stylistically updated to the 1930s in the DCPA Theatre Company’s […]
The future of creative writing in Colorado would appear to be bright: The winners of the DCPA’s high school playwriting competition have diverse styles and interests, resulting in three very different one-act plays: from madcap comedy to politically tinged fantastical drama to a somber meditation on the teen mental health crisis. Now in its ninth […]