'Riverdance' tix on tap

A scene from Riverdance. Composed by Bill Whelan, produced by Moya Doherty and directed by John McColgan. Photo by Jack Hartin. Copyright Abhann Productions 2004. 

Riverdance, the greatest Irish sensation since Guinness is coming to Denver, November 24-29 at the Buell Theatre. The international phenomenon which made scrappy Michael Flatley a household name and then survived and thrived without him is now on its FAREWELL tour. Hard to believe, but Riverdance has been around since 1996, and is only now just about tapped out.

Thirteen years. That's the life span of a healthy Irish Setter. But unlike any Irish Setter, Riverdance has been seen by more than 21 million people in 20,000-plus performances. It's easy to make fun of something that at one time lent itself to parody. I'm not certain, but hasn't even Robot Chicken taken a pot shot at it? Yet the sheer excitement and energy generated by the live performance blows away its detractors, or makes them look jaded, petty and snarky.

Denver audiences will have just eight more chances to see the high-stepping, velvet-clad, big-haired chorus line of dynamic dancers, kicking up their heels in various soft and hard shoe step dances of breathtaking velocity. There is also a chorus of male dancers, singers and instrumentalists, and the light show is pretty amazing as well.

People often forget that the second half of Riverdance is devoted to the immigrant experience,: the Irish contributions to and similarities with other cultural percussive dance expressions. So I can't think of a better way to treat the family to a special Thanksgiving event. If nothing else, Riverdance might inspire them to push back from the table, tear themselves away from purgatorial football games, get on their feet and MOVE.

Single tickets for Riverdance start at $20 and go on sale October 4 at www.denvercenter.org, and Monday, October 5 at 10 a.m. for phone and walk-up sales. Call 303-893-4100.

REVIEW: A Picasso

Chris Kendall as Pablo Picasso in Miners Alley Playhouse's brilliant production of A Picasso. Photo credit: Richard H. Pegg

Great drama has both grandness and simplicity about it. A small platform can become the staging area for a battle of titanic ideas, and an audience eavesdropping on a conversation between a painter and a bureaucrat in a dusty storage cellar can suddenly find itself on a thrill ride of epic proportions.

Such is the case with Miners Alley Playhouse's fast and fascinating production of Jeffrey Hatcher's A Picasso, playing in Golden through November 1, 2009.

It's Paris, 1941, and Spanish emigre and renowned painter Pablo Picasso has been summoned on the night before his 60th birthday by German occupation forces to meet with a cultural attache sent by Joseph Goebbels and the Nazi Ministry of Culture to authenticate three works attributed to the artist: one from his childhood, another from young adulthood, and a recent doodle. 

Apparently, as Picasso muses, "Anyone can be a painter, but a forger has got to be good."



Sounds harmless enough, except that whenever a Nazi interrogator with a stack of files takes you into a remote cellar, sits you down and casually says "it's just a formality," watch out!


What starts out as a guarded game of cat and mouse irresistibly and inevitably grows into a titanic struggle of wills as the ultimate egotist takes on unbridled arrogance. Insults and threats are exchanged, layers of emotional armor are stripped away, and the audience realizes in fascinated horror that neither combatant is going to leave that cellar unscathed.


And along the way, we get an insight into Picasso's notorious atheism, the result of an unholy attempt to bargain with God for the life of his sister, matched by the attache's conscientious but misguided efforts to save great artists by destroying their creations. There are many magnificent speeches and pithy lines in this two character play. My favorite was "Art can't save a life or stop a war. It can only be great."

Chris Kendall is outstanding as the pompous but deeply wounded Picasso. Paige Lynn Larson's Valkyrie-tough Miss Fischer eventually reveals an unexpectedly sympathetic humanity. Unable to return to his homeland or exhibit his work, Picasso is a frustrated man and artist. But Miss Fischer is equally stymied in her vocation. Alone, they would be merely miserable. Together, the clash is pyrotechnic.



At just 80 minutes in length, A Picasso is filled with ironic humor, builds a sense of foreboding in which no admission of vulnerability goes unpunished, and provides an intimate look at one of the loneliest, most influential, monolithic personalities of the 20th century. Oh, and the ending has a delicious twist.


Thanks to the wonderful performances of Kendall and Larson, the capable and nuanced direction of Robert Kramer, Hatcher's brilliant script, Richard H. Pegg's ordinary yet somehow oppressive set design, and producer Rick Bernstein's unflagging commitment to excellence in every respect, A Picasso is a masterpiece in its own right.



For information and reservations, call 303-935-3044 or visit online at www.minersalley.com.

REVIEW: The Butler Did It

L-R Front: Mike Pearl, Molly Killoran, Matt Block. L-R Back: Clark Brittain, Mark Ivan Branche and Timmi Ann Lasley. Photo Credit: Rita Broderick

The Denver Victorian Playhouse production of The Butler Did It juggles elements of several theatrical genres: old-fashioned whodunit, nail biting thriller, and self-aware backstage comedy. This could be a dangerous combination in the less than capable hands of the amateur community theatres for which playwrights Walter and Peter Marks clearly wrote the play. But Pat Payne is a first rate director, masterfully maneuvering his capable cast through a minefield of potential premise and plot disasters.

The script itself has problems. A supposedly professional Off-Broadway production of a new "whodunit" is days away from opening, and the writer/director (Mark Ivan Branche) has withheld the last few pages in order to keep his immature and amateurish cast guessing, so that they might give more authentic performances on opening night. Tensions mount, egos flare, and the mistletoe hanging above a door is a known source of deadly poison.

It's essential that these be "professional" actors, because ambition, career and reputations are on the line. But only a few have the credentials one might expect of working New York actors. Further, the audience is asked to forget that there is no stage manager, and no technical crew (lighting, props, costumes, etc.) present in the midst of final dress rehearsals.

Further, the whole murder plot depends on an actual, fully stocked onstage bar, complete with working coffee maker (possible) and a variety of alcoholic beverages (preposterous), stocked personally by the director, and from which the cast may freely imbibe during rehearsals and off hours.

That's asking the audience to suspend a whole lot of disbelief, and the only way through it is to keep the pace FAST, which the Vic's cast does, for the most part, until things bog down near the end of the second act. To it's credit, and unlike many plays of its ilk, The Butler Did It has a low body count, minimal profanity and very little scandalously immoral behavior, so that while not exactly wholesome, at least the play isn't egregiously shocking or offensive.

The Butler Did It is a worthy second tier addition to the genre. If this kind of mystery thriller is your "cup of hemlock," by all means see the Vic's skillfully mounted production. The show runs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through October 31, 2009.

For information and reservations, call 303-433-4343 or visit www.denvervic.com.

RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles

Since a Beatles reunion this side of heaven is now out of the question, you'd think the next best thing would be a look-alike, sound-alike musical tribute like Rain, playing September 22 through 27 at the Buell Theatre.

Actually, a concert like this has the potential to be even MORE fulfilling than a reunion tour. The Beatles' music evolved so quickly, and they influenced so many musical styles, it takes a comprehensive production with a wide range of selections to do them justice. Rain is a complete retrospective of the Beatles' entire career, from Ed Sullivan to Abbey Road. The show includes faithfully reproduced performances of favorites like "Let It Be," "Hey Jude," "Come Together" and "Can't Buy Me Love."


Rain is a live Beatles concert experience, and the perfect complement to the newly released, digitally re-mastered albums and The Beatles Rock Band.

For those of us who grew up playing the 45s and staring for hours at the album covers, Rain will be a nostalgic delight. Personally, I'm curious how the Beatles' drug-induced spiritual evolution and Transcendental Meditation, as reflected in their music, hold up after 40 years. What was once mysterious and revolutionary might be as silly and kitschy now as tousled mop top hairdos and pointy-toed Beatle Boots.

Tickets are available at www.denvercenter.org or by calling 303-893-4100.

BDT's 'Spelling Bee' is letter perfect

The word for BDT's production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is: "delightful."

The definition: "elicits feelings of joy, satisfaction and celebration."

Used in a sentence: "While not appropriate for children, Boulder's Dinner Theatre's DELIGHTFUL production of Spelling Bee is a 'must see' for anyone who ever felt awkward, out of place or exposed as a kid or adult, and is ready to laugh their way to wholeness and acceptance."

Some of the material in this small-scale book musical about pubescent children (played by adults) competing in a suburban spelling bee and disclosing far more than their aptitude for orthography is startling, vulgar and outrageously politically correct. Yet BDT has turned this small-scale book musical into an uproariously funny, often tender, healing experience.

It seems as though every character--child and adult alike--is emotionally wounded and barely able to function. This rare musical comedy has genuine sensitivity and insight for and finds humor in the diversity of brokenness within the whole human family, then acknowledges the universal longing for unconditional love, affirmation and acceptance.

Knee-jerk Christians who like to be offended will find plenty to point their fingers and cluck at, but much of the satire lands squarely in the lap of Boulder's cherished counter-culture.

A pigtailed youngster (Mary McGroary) with an adorable lisp and two stereotypically gay dads is a prodigy among liberal political activists. There's a spacey hippy kid (Matthew D. Peters) with too much family and too little structure, and a lonely only child of yuppies (director/choreographer Alicia Dunfee) whose parents love her but are too distracted by their own careers and spiritual quests to be there for her. An over-achieving Catholic schoolgirl (Anna Hanson) appeals to Jesus (who makes a brief cameo appearance) for permission to fail for once, a straight-arrow Boy Scout (Brian Jackson) is sabotaged by surging hormones, and a snotty dork (Scott Beyette) who would be bullied anywhere and everywhere but at the spelling bee, must weigh supremacy amongst nerds against having an actual friend.

The "adults," who are no less dysfunctional, include a vice principal (Wayne Kennedy) with a shaky grip on recovery, an idealistic teacher (Shelly Cox-Robie) with delusions of saving the world through competitive spelling contests, and a hip "comfort counselor" (Leonard Barrett) from the inner city, who is working off community service hours by giving juice boxes and hugs to the losers.

Oh, and to reinforce the idea that in life we are ALL in some way or another put in a spotlight and expected to perform on demand, four volunteers from the audience are called onstage, competing with the cast for nearly the entire first act.

In Spelling Bee, immediate acceptance or permanent rejection hinges on getting it right the first and every time, and the love of an absent parent must be earned. No wonder the characters are so desperate! And what a perfect image for God's lost children, caught in a fallen world. We identify with the characters, and we share their plight. The show is ultimately humanist in that the hope for fulfillment and unconditional love is in listening to and showing compassion for others. For Christians this is true, but not the whole Truth. Compared to the culture of other Broadway shows that idoloze and glorify the individual, however, this is a big step in the right direction.

Boulder's Dinner Theatre's production is superb: perfectly cast and expertly performed. I saw the touring production of this show (music and lyrics by William Finn, book by Rachel Sheinkin) when it came to Denver, and the venue was just too big. The intimacy of BDT's seating arrangement, the familiarity of the cast to anyone who has attended more than one production there, and the warm and welcoming atmosphere work together to bring out the best in this fine show.

Boulder's Dinner Theatre is more than up to the challenge to "stand and deliver," but the great thing about this theatre, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is that they do it with heart.
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Information and reservations: call 303-449-6000 or visit www.bouldersdinnertheatre.com.

Spell Check

Tonight I'm off to Boulder's Dinner Theatre to see The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a delightful and sometimes off-color musical comedy. I'll post the review in this space soon. Meanwhile, you can get all the information you need at http://www.theatreinboulder.com/home.html
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