Barbara Ehrenreich published Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America in 2001 partly as a response to President Clinton’s 1996 reorganization of welfare, which kicked recipients off the rolls if they had not gone to work after two years. Before doing research for the book, Ehrenreich already knew…
The strongest things in the Shadow Theatre Company’s ambitious production of Macbeth are Jeffrey Nickelson’s performance in the title role and the way director Buddy Butler deals with the supernatural elements. Macbeth’s witches always present a problem. They’re sometimes portrayed as wrinkled hags and sometimes as beautiful young women; sometimes…
The publicity materials sent in advance of the at-long-last release of The Kids Are Alright on DVD suggest that the maker of the 1979 documentary about The Who has been on the lam–in the rock-and-roll witness relocation program, perhaps, far from the long windmilling arm of justice. A “recluse” is…
The dumbed-down movie version of Frances Mayes’s best-selling travel memoir Under the Tuscan Sun is a virtual case study of Hollywood’s irrepressible urge to lower the bar in the hopes of upping the take. Mayes’s 1996 book is a nicely written, carefully observed meditation on buying a decrepit Italian villa…
Recently, ornithologists in Antarctica made a startling discovery: Female emperor penguins, being forced against their wills to endure stern patriarchal societal norms, tend to practice iffy mating habits. Close scrutiny revealed that most adult females go bonkers struggling to choose between an exciting-but-destructive “bad-boy” penguin and a dependable-but-boring “good-boy” penguin,…
The naked guys call their performance “the ancient Australian art of genital origami”; a Denver law firm declares that the show is protected by the First Amendment; and at first, the city didn’t know what to make of such a public display. But on Tuesday, September 30, a Puppetry of…
Thursday, September 25 Top toques from Wolfgang Puck’s Cafe, Maggiano’s Little Italy, the Broadmoor and McCormick’s Fish House & Bar will put their best food forward today by working wonders with basic grub — a mystery mixture of food-bank staples — when they go apron to apron from 10:30 a.m…
The Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble is putting a new spin on an old story with its September 25 premiere of Orfeu Negro: The Legend of Black Orpheus Re-Told. The production, about lovers who are reunited after death, will launch the company’s 33rd season with exhilarating leaps and bounds. “It…
THURS, 9/25 The organizers of Denver’s 22nd annual Great American Beer Festival know what you want: “Three days. 320 breweries. 1,400 Beers. 144,000 square feet of total beer heaven.” That’s what the banners say. That’s what’s repeated over and over again on the Web sites. And other than, maybe, a…
THURS, 9/25 Where did the love go for the Rockies? Attendance is down, and there won’t be any red, white and blue bunting adorning 2001 Blake Street this year. That’s no real surprise: Only once in their eleven-year history have the Rox sailed beyond their allotted 162-game regular season (and…
WED, 10/1 A circus remains an eternally strange blend of old traditions and things that have never been seen before: For instance, kids who are afraid of clowns and attend the 133rd Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will barely even recognize that skyscraper-coifed daredevil Bello even is a…
SAT, 9/27 The Colorado Ballet borrowed the costumes and set for its season opener Don Quixote, not from Spain, but from Louisville, Kentucky. “I originally wanted Boston Ballet’s,” says artistic director and CEO Martin Fredmann, “but it turns out they were doing it at the same time.” A harried search…
WED, 10/1 What are all those people doing in that long line snaking out of the Denver Performing Arts Complex? Odds are that they’re waiting for free tickets to tonight’s 6:30 p.m. performance of Almost Heaven: The Songs and Stories of John Denver. The Denver Center Theatre Company will reopen…
A principal leitmotif of Colorado’s history is the influence of Mexican culture. Though not equal in legend and lore to the cowboys and Indians, it has been more enduring. Mexican explorers coined the state’s name, and the southern half was actually once a part of Mexico. Thus Mexican-Americans have been…
For its fall opener, the Colorado Photographic Arts Center (1513 Boulder Street, 303-455-8999) is presenting the theme show Recreated Realities. Though a wide variety of mediums are on display, from primitive pinhole to up-to-the-minute digital, all of the photos were created by assembling multiple images. The photographers included are an…
Urinetown is set after a drought so severe that people no longer have private toilets; everyone must use run-down, unsanitary public amenities controlled by a monster corporation called Urine Good Company. Poor people pay more than they can afford for this privilege, and anyone trying to pee anywhere unauthorized suffers…
The Drawer Boy is a droll, humorous, slowly spun story that’s often gently charming. It’s based on a Canadian theater project carried out in 1972, when a group of actors from Toronto went to live in a farming community and created a play about their experiences there. You can catch…
Tidy little Montecarlo, Georgia, which is the setting for Jonathan Lynn’s The Fighting Temptations, is a perfect movie fantasy town. At the picturesque train station, the ticket agent will call you a taxi or serve you a plate of Southern-fried chicken. The house band at the local nightclub is dynamite;…
If your name ends in a vowel and your people came over in steerage a hundred years ago, you will almost certainly find yourself in the kitchen these days, wooden spoon in hand, plum tomatoes draining in the colander, thoughts drifting between sweet nostalgia and the malaise of indefinable loss…
Devotees of grim drama and great acting are in for a treat this Saturday, September 20, when the 1964 British classic The Pumpkin Eater screens at the Tattered Cover Free Film Series at the Starz FilmCenter. Adapted from a best-selling novel of the day by Penelope Mortimer, it features Anne…
Boulder’s Nomad Theatre delves into life’s origins and what happens after we die in tonight’s premiere of Darwin in the Dreamtime. Written by Boulderites David and Lila Sophia Tresemer, Darwin in the Dreamtime is the story of Charles Darwin’s fictional great-great-granddaughter, Sarah Darwin, as she lies on her deathbed pondering…
Thursday, September 18 CU-Boulder’s Artist Series gets started tonight when renowned classical guitarist Christopher Parkening teams up with baritone Jubilant Sykes for an evening of music by Piazzolla, Albéniz and Copland, as well as traditional spirituals. The 7:30 p.m. concert, held in Macky Auditorium, will be preceded at 6:45 p.m…
