PROMO: Colorado ACTS presents "Kilroy Was Here"

A Musical Salute to the G.I. Joes and Jills of the 1940s Salute the brave men and women serving in the military with this patriotic comedy.   The setting is a U.S.O. Club ("The Serviceman's 'Home Away From Home'") in Brooklyn in 1942.  Ships leaving the nearby Navy yard are being sunk  by enemy U-boats.  Allied intelligence suspects the club is unknowingly  harboring Axis spies.  Enter Private Joe Kilroy, a young soldier who draws a curious cartoon face everywhere he goes (and is this causing trouble!).   He's the only one who knows where the next Allied convoy will converge.   The enemy agents are stopping at nothing to learn his secret.   The action builds to an exciting finale during a wild radio broadcast. 45 Colorado ACTS parents, alumni, community and  current actors will be gracing the stage in this family  and friends extravaganza!   Performs:  Thursday, August 5th @ 7pm $2.00 preview! Friday, August 6th @ 7pm $6.00  Saturday, August 7th @ 7pm $6.00 Friday, August 13th @  7pm $7.50 Saturday, August 14th @ 2:00 $5.00 Saturday, August 14th @ 7:00 $7.50 Seniors always $1.00 off Children 4yrs old and under always free Reservations are Not Necessary Performing at Simpson United Methodist Church 6001 Wolff St. Arvada, CO 80003 (Across the parking lot from ECHS and ACTS) 303 456-6772 or e-mail coloradoacts@yahoo.com www.coloradoacts.org

REVIEW: Urinetown: The Musical

CRUSTY CUSTODIAN: Donna Worley plays a public urinal operator with a gutter's-eye view of a corrupt society in The Evergreen Players' cynical yet upbeat production of "Urinetown: The Musical." Photo by Ellen Nelson


Inspiration shows up in the strangest places, but it's fitting that the idea for "Urinetown: the Musical" came when librettist/lyricist Greg Kotis encountered a pay-per-use toilet while traveling in Europe. How absurd to tax a bodily function, and how corrupt for someone to profit from controlling access of to a "necessary room."

Not willing to take this outrage "sitting down," Kotis joined with composer/lyricist Mark Hollmann, and created a musical satire of the legal system, captialism, corporate mismanagement and waste of limited natural resources. What perhaps seemed to some as a poorly-titled sophomoric trifle has, since the show opened on Broadway in 2001, become a biting, prophetic indictment of greed run amuck and social irresponsibility. But it also points an accusing finger at the kind of well-meaning but naive, head in the sky optimism that invites exploitation and abuse.

Evergreen Players is currently presenting "Urinetown: The Musical" at Center/Stage, and it's a fine production, filled to overflowing with excellent performances by the leads and ensemble, astute direction by John Thornberry, and a rebellious, in-your-face attitude, without becoming caustic or unpleasant.

Idealistic Bobby Strong (Brad Wagner) works at a lower class public urinal, in a water-deprived town where you have to "pay to pee." The penalty for unauthorized urination is death. He falls instantly in love with the equally idealistic Hope Cladwell (Rebecca Donnella), who also happens to be the daughter of the unscrupulous profiteer and corporate kingpin Caldwell Cladwell (Richard Beall). Cladwell takes a human function that supposedly renders us all equal, and, with the assistance of a corrupt government, fixes things so that the privileged prevail and the poor suffer. Oppression and tyranny ultimately breed revolution, the tables are turned, but everyone loses in the end.

Irrepressible Little Sally (Rachel Graham) is appalled to be part of such an "unhappy" musical, despite its perky and uplifting songs, but narrator Officer Lockstock (David Blumenstock) knows the ways of the world and tries to break the grim reality to her, and the audience, as painlessly as possible.

Director John Thornberry and music director Travis Yamamoto make the most of the talented cast and rustic setting. Donnella is particularly funny in what could have been a straight ingenue role, and Graham nearly steals the show and the audience's hearts as Little Sally. Donna Worley turns in a very strong performance as a fearful but caring crusty custodian.

The power of "Urinetown: the Musical" is to play like a self-aware musical comedy with such a preposterous premise that the audience is continually lured into letting down its guard, only to be caught by one cynical or satircal "zinger" after another. Hollman's music and lyrics (with Kotis) are impressively evocative and intelligent, reminiscent of the kind of humor, wit and emotional impact of Rodgers and Hart.

It is to Evergreen Players' credit that they are willing to take on a show that intends to make audiences squirm in their seats, and they more than earn the applause and appreciation of the audience for a job well done.

 The Evergreen Players' production of "Urinetown, The Musical" performs Friday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m., 2 p.m. Sunday through August 8 at Center/Stage in Evergreen. Tickets are $14-$18. Call 303-674-4934 or visit http://www.evergreenplayers.org/ for information and reservations.

PROMO: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Vintage Theatre

THREE ROMAN STOOGES: Top to bottom: Bernie Cardell, Tyler Collins and Rob Rehburg engage in all kinds of of frantic and frenzied funny business in Vintage Theatre's hilarious production of Stephen Sondheim's hit musical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." Photo Credit: Ellen Nelson.

Long, long ago (1962), when Stephen Sondheim still wrote comprehensible and entertaining musicals, he teamed up with hit comedy writers Burt Shevelove and Larry ("Tootsie" and M*A*S*H) Gelbart to adapt several farces by Ancient Roman playwright Plautus (251-183 BC). The result was the bawdy, boisterous and somewhat bloated musical comedy "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum."

Three complicated plots are skillfully interwoven with gags, beautiful girls, chase scenes and mistaken identities, and many of the songs, like "Comedy Tonight," "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid," "Lovely" and "That'll Show Him" are truly memorable. It's fast and frothy escapist entertainment.

Except for the inevitable Broadway revivals and touring productions, the show has been relegated to high school auditoriums. In other words, big stages, big stars, big casts, big houses, big, big, big.

Until now.

Vintage Theatre is currently presenting "Forum" on its postage stamp-sized stage, to packed houses of under 100 people at a time. This is a truly amazing accomplishment. With less opportunity for distracting spectacle, more emphasis must be given to characters, plot and comic timing. Audiences are given a rare opportunity to truly focus on the show's construction, up close and personal. Can it hold up to this kind of scrutiny?

I think so, and I'm going to find out on Sunday when I take my (adult) family to see it. There are only a couple weeks left in the run, so maybe you ought to check it out as well. It's a great summertime show.

Vintage Theatre's production of "A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" performs Friday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m. through August 8. Tickets are $25 at the door, or $20 in advance. Call 303-839-13671 or visit online at http://www.vintagetheatre.com/ for information and reservations.

REVIEW: The Underpants

LINGERIE LECHER: Paige L. Larson and John Greene in Miners Alley Playhouse's silly sex comedy "The Underpants." Photo Credit: Sarah Roshan, Trulife Photography.

Only wild and crazy guy Steve Martin could make top drawer entertainment out of someone's bottom drawers. When Miners Alley Playhouse gleefully runs "The Underpants" up the farcical flagpole, EVERYONE salutes, with hoots of laughter.

Adapted from a 1910 German play by Carl Sternheim, "The Underpants" is a pre-war social satire that never lets politics get in the way of Bavarian buffoonery. Theo (John Greene), a bourgeois chauvinist clerk, gets his knickers in a twist when his innocent and neglected wife Louise (Haley Johnson) suffers an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction under a linden tree. Yes, her panties accidentally fall down to her ankles, and for the brief moment in which she bends over to pull them up, the sun shines where it seldom does.

Since the entire village thrives on gossip, everyone mentions her unmentionables, including a nosy neighbor (Paige Lynn Larson), but two men actually witnessed the incident, and both begin to stalk her, hoping she'll turn the other cheek and give them a lingering view. As fate would have it, there's a spare room for rent, and Theo welcomes these lingerie lechers into the house. One is a cheeky poet who is all words and no action (Chris Bleau) and the other is a wheezing, whining hypochondriac barber (Christian Mast).

In a farcical fashion delightfully reminiscent of "mountain out of a molehill" Moliere, and deftly directed by Rick Bernstein, the household is turned upside down with a flurry of flirtations, panicked declarations of passion and a breathlessly rushed and frequently interrupted rendezvous. Ultimately, Louise gains control of her situation and liberates herself from far more than just restrictive clothing.

Okay, underwear jokes aside, there also is some really clever social satire. "The Underpants" does actually have some redeeming social and literary value. The barber is a clumsily-closeted Jew, the poet might have homosexual leanings, and the husband, well, he's a swine who doesn't deserve a faithful, virtuous wife. Yet another potential boarder (Dell Domink) is so repressed that, Victorian ostrich-like, he is perfectly willing to disregard improprieties happening right in front of his face.

Good-hearted satire, unlike its mean-spirited sibling, uses crazy comedy not to tear down, but to restore sanity. Germany at the turn of the 20th century was wound up too tightly and needed this play to help shake things up. Now, we have become so "free" as a culture it's a wonder there's still a place for virtues like modesty and fidelity. Today, "The Underpants" just plays as saucy, silly fun.

You want to push some buttons? Would you like to use humor and take a pot shot at a repressed society that enslaves its women in a double standard? Do this same play, but take Louise out of her German dirndl and put her in an Iranian burqa. Now THAT would be daring. Let's shine some light THERE and see what happens.

"The Underpants" plays at Miners Alley Playhouse in Golden on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 6 p.m. (except for Aug. 29 which is at 2 p.m.) through August 29. Tickets are $20. Call 303-935-3044 or visit online at www.minersalley.com for information and reservations.

REVIEW: Murderer

James O’Hagan-Murphy as Norman Bartholomew. Photo Credit: C. Trammell

Everyone needs a hobby, but for an unstable mind, it's all too easy to cross over from enjoying a relaxing pasttime to feeding an obsession. A harmless diversion can degenerate into an all-consuming fetish. Such is the case in Anthony ("Sleuth") Shaffer's "Murderer," a wickedly gruesome potboiler in which a man's preoccupation with re-enacting historic homicides leads him to believe he's got what it takes to pull off the real deal.

Firehouse Theater Company's riveting and squeal-inducing production at the intimate John Hand Theater in East Denver is most definitely FOR the squeamish. As an audience, most of us share the main character's morbid fascination with murder and mayhem (thankfully, not to the same degree), and the theater is the best place to have this kind of vicarious experience, no harm done.

Under the unflinching direction of Stacey Nelms, "Murderer" begins with a disturbingly horrific "prelude," a 15-minute (I'm not exaggerating), dialogue-free murder and gory dismemberment set to classical music, immediately followed by the arrival of a constable.

After that, there's a LOT of talking, particularly by the homicidal hobbyist Norman Bartholomew, played with boyish glee and increasing petulance by James O'Hagan-Murphy.

Norman can't seem to get along with anyone. Not humorless Sergeant Stenning (Luke Allen Terry), who sees nothing entertaining about death and tries to warn Norman of dire consequences if he takes his fascination too far. Not his mistress Millie (Lindsey Christian) who feels neglected and under-appreciated, even while playing the victim. Not Elizabeth (Theresa Dwyer Reid), his grating, emasculating wife who feels doubly betrayed by Norman, for his infidelities and preoccupation with bloody murder, past and present.

Of particular interest to me was how Norman., through action and intent, deliberately goes to a place in which repentance, redemption and salvation become impossible. He's driven like a moth to the flame, not so much by curiosity, but by the romance of damnation. A sickness of soul consumes him.

As expected, things go too far, but it's impossible to predict how "too far" things actually get, and half the fun is reaching the limit, and then going a step or two beyond. By play's end we all feel as though we've gone through a meat grinder. A kind of justice prevails, but it is by no means a happy ending.

Jesus said: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matt. 10:28 NIV)

"Murderer" is a graphic and gory cautionary tale, exploring how death of body and soul could be accomplished.

Firehouse Theater presents “Murderer” with performances on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays, July 18 and August 1 at 6:30 p.m. through August 7. Tickets are $17 and available by calling 303-562-3232 or online at www.firehousetheatercompany.com.

PROMO: South Pacific comes to the Buell July 20

 Carmen Cusack as Ensign Nellie Forbush and David Pittsinger as Emile de Becque. Photo by Curtis Brown. 

The touring version of the 2008 Tony Award-winning revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific" comes to Denver's Buell Theater, July 20-August 1.

Based on James Michener’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book Tales of the South Pacific, the musical is set on a tropical island during World War II. "South Pacific" tells the sweeping romantic story of two couples -- US Navy nurse Nellie Forbush and French plantation owner Emile de Becque, and Navy Airman Joe Cable and a young local native girl Liat -- and how their happiness is threatened by the realities of war and by their own prejudices. Considered by many the finest musical ever written, the score’s songs include such classics as “Some Enchanted Evening,” “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” “Younger Than Springtime,” “Bali Ha’i,” “There is Nothin’ Like A Dame,” “This Nearly Was Mine” and “A Wonderful Guy.”

I've seen several outstanding productions of "South Pacific" over the years, most notably Donovan Marley's blood-soaked and thoughtful staging at the Denver Center Theatre Company, and Boulder's Dinner Theatre's lavish single-set version. In both cases, the director was willing to face the darker sides of the story, that the nurses are on this exotic island as part of a M.A.S.H. unit, that war is deadly, and that when cultures clash, both are changed forever and not necessarily for the better. Let's hope that Bartlett Sher, director of this version doesn't treat this show like any other lightweight musical.

For information and reservations, call 303-893-4100 or visit www.denvercenter.org.

Play to benefit Senior Housing Options

Cast members from "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" pose with residents of the Historic Barth Hotel in LoDo. Photo by Michael Ensminger.

Senior Housing Options provides caring, supportive assisted and subsidized apartments for older adults in Colorado. SHO has more than 500 rooms in fourteen residences throughout the state.

They also are in show business. Sort of.

SHO will present Steve Martin's "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" at the Historic Barth Hotel in LoDo, July 8-August 14. The production is a benefit for SHO, and features some of Denver's most talented artists.

The play, an intellectual comedy by "wild and crazy guy" Steve Martin, depicts a fictional meeting between Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso in a bar, the Lapin Agile (the "Nimble Rabbit"), in 1904 Paris. As the locals gather to drink, talk and flirt, the two geniuses muse on the achievements of the century as they debate art versus science as the prominent influences on the future. Facts are fast and loose on the brink of absurdity.

Staged in the actual hotel lobby by Denver's renowned playwright-director Terry Dodd, the production features luminaries from Denver's professional theater scene in guest cameo roles.

Performances are Thursday-Saturdays, July 8th - August 14th, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. in the historic lobby of The Barth Hotel, 1510 17th Street in LoDo, Denver. Thursday, July 8th is a preview performance; Friday,

July 9th is the Gala Opening with reception. Tickets are $25-$100. Advanced purchase is highly recommended. Call 303-595-4464, ext. 10 or visit www.seniorhousingoptions.org/events/events_picasso.html for information and reservations.