Tag Archive for: Applause

The Funny Thing About Show Business

Funny Girl is the beloved, fictionalized story of Fanny Brice, a comedic actress who rose to fame performing with the Ziegfield’s Follies revue. Brice was married and divorced three times in her life, notably to Nick Arnstein, a convicted conman whose trial was front page news at the time. Her rise in the entertainment industry and […]

Great Scott! Back to the Future: The Musical Takes Flight

This much they knew: the DeLorean would have to fly. As screenwriters Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis contemplated bringing their beloved 1985 film, Back to the Future, to the stage, they were aware that not everything would transfer. Audiences in 2024 wouldn’t have the same appetite for the terrorists pursuing Doc, for example, and the […]

Thirty Years of Tiny Tim

Tartans, pine needles and bows have filled three decades in the memories of families who make A Christmas Carol part of their annual holiday tradition. Prominent in those memories is the sight and sound of the young children who have stepped onstage as Tiny Tim in the Denver Center Theatre Company production. As the company […]

Avaaz: Succeeding Against Enormous Odds

In a workshop on playwriting some years ago, Michael Shayan was instructed by the leader, noted dramatist Luis Alfaro, to put a hand over his heart, to feel the heartbeat of a character – and to “just listen.” The voice he heard was one Shayan had known all his life. It was that of his […]

A Dynamic Duo: KIMBERLY AKIMBO’s Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire

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 […]

“History Has Its Eyes on You” Behind the References in Hamilton

In addition to the well-known cast of principle characters featured in Hamilton there are dozens of references to other historical figures. Here is a closer look at these individuals in order of reference: Sam Adams Referenced in: “Aaron Burr, Sir” Line: “I’m John Laurens in the place to be! Two pints o’ Sam Adams, but […]

Revisiting Hamlet Through New Eyes

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 […]

The Making of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

A Conversation Between Friends: The Making of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter with Playwright Isaac Gómez and Director Laura Acalá Baker What’s going to happen at the Denver Center Theatre Company September 27 –November 3 has been years in the making. Longtime friends and collaborators Isaac Gómez, playwright, and director Laura Alcalá Baker […]

The Witches of Oz Deliver a Wicked Hit

In 1900, author L. Frank Baum, wrote a charming book called The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that became a children’s classic. The book was turned into a stage musical a year later and begat another great classic: the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Judy Garland played a girl who, after a close encounter of […]