Each of Anton Chekhov’s four dramatic masterpieces walks a tragicomic tightrope. Actors and director are sometimes thrown off balance by emphasizing a play’s comedy at the expense of its tragedy (and vice versa), while others perch somewhere in the humdrum middle. In either case, theatergoers can be left wondering whether…
Tamra Davis is bound by contract not to discuss the film that, at this very moment, she’s editing for release next year. “I’m officially not supposed to do any press for it,” the director says sheepishly, so she offers a few off-the-record comments about the movie, a road-trip comedy-drama starring…
Remember glee? Perhaps not, given our penchant in recent times to chuck giddy hearts aside in favor of being stupid, obnoxious and mean. But hey, it’s all right, because the fizzy, caffeinated beverage known as Baz Luhrmann seeks to re-create this elusive emotion for all of us, in the form…
Growing pains are to be expected in any endeavor as ambitious as the Celebrate Colorado Arts Festival, but no one could have predicted the problems that occurred during last year’s sophomore event at the Denver Performing Arts Complex: A bit of culture clash — concurrent high school graduation ceremonies in…
In America, we’ve got a holiday for everyone and everything. And in case you didn’t know, May 25 is, by governmental decree, National Tap Dance Day. It has been so since a joint resolution was passed in Congress back in 1989. And what better day to celebrate tap dance, anyway,…
Simon Zalkind, the director of the Singer Gallery at the Mizel Arts Center, has some obvious strengths as an exhibit organizer — he has a good eye, he’s an expert when it comes to hanging a show and, most of all, he’s relentlessly creative. Zalkind shows off all three talents…
There’s a great show, Dave Yust: Selected Monotypes 1997-2001, now on display in the gallery at Open Press (40 West Bayaud Avenue, 303-778-1116). It highlights Yust’s work with master printer Mark Lunning from a series of sessions held over the last four years in Lunning’s printmaking shop, also at Open…
The publicist asks if I’d like to speak to D.A. Pennebaker to commemorate the 60th birthday of Bob Dylan, which falls on May 24. She asks this because, during the spring of 1965, Pennebaker made a documentary about Dylan’s tour of England, Dont Look Back, which captured a drained, cagey…
Measured by its screaming dive-bombers, multiple-explosion mayhem and flaming carnage, the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Pearl Harbor is just the kind of eye-popping, ear-splitting blockbuster the summer movie throngs crave. Here is Hollywood bombast — $140 million worth — at its most shameless pitch and in its most glorious profusion. Bruckheimer and…
Chopper, the first feature from Australian video director Andrew Dominik — is a strong, effective but often stomach-churning portrait of notorious Aussie criminal Mark “Chopper” Read. It can be characterized as “sensational” — in both the positive and negative senses of the word. According to the filmmakers, Chopper Read is…
It’s been a few years since we’ve heard a peep out of the Mackey Gallery: Artist/proprietor Mary Mackey closed the venue in 1997 to concentrate on her own work, leaving an unfortunate little hole in Denver’s art scene, an unfilled gap perched somewhere between the high-end and alternative galleries that…
When was the last time you had a life-altering art encounter? Folks at the Mizel Museum of Judaica are willing to bet, well, never. That’s why they’re shipping in Body Packaging 2001 — one of the wildest, weirdest and unquestionably artiest fashion shows you’ve ever seen — from Colorado Springs,…
This week marks Historic Denver Week, which annually celebrates the substantial accomplishments of Historic Denver, the respected local preservation group. Founded in 1970 in response to the threatened demolition of the Molly Brown House, at 1340 Pennsylvania Street, the organization bought, saved and restored the house, an eclectic Romanesque confection…
Patti Cramer’s Spring Fever opened about two weeks ago at the Saks Galleries (3019 East 2nd Avenue, 303-333-4144), and though it still has two weeks to run, there are only a handful of pieces left in the gallery. Unfortunately, the practice at Saks is to allow patrons to remove purchases…
With three plum roles, a tension-packed story line and streaks of black humor, Orphans has been a perennial favorite since it premiered at Los Angeles’s Matrix Theatre in 1983. Given that it was originally produced by a group called Actors for Themselves, it’s no surprise that Lyle Kessler’s comic thriller…
Fancy abounds, issues take flight and genders do more than bend in Cinderella: The Real True Story, a modern retelling being presented in Boulder by the all-female Goddess Theatre Company. Written by Cheryl Moch, the two-act play recounts the famous fairy tale with a “same-sex twist.” Instead of falling in…
There are not many stories left buried in James Ellroy’s past. In 1996, at the age of 48, he penned his memoirs, in which he paired his life story with that of his dead mother, Jean Ellroy, a nurse found strangled and beaten in the bushes of suburban Los Angeles…
Chances are you don’t know a whole lot about Angel Eyes other than that it’s the brand-new Jennifer Lopez movie. Maybe you also know that it co-stars Jim Caviezel (periodically known as James; he apparently hasn’t decided yet). It’s been described in some articles as a supernatural romance, and Caviezel…
Kids might well be amused by the frenetic pacing of Shrek, the latest computer-animated film from DreamWorks. It moves so quickly it’s nearly a blur, though kids need not get the jokes to enjoy frolicking in the muck (and the maggots) with a green, snaggle-toothed ogre who wants only to…
As more people awaken to world music, transplanted artists from around the globe find ways to share their cultures locally. Two African groups will do just that when they perform this weekend. West Africa has always been a source of music and dance, and Boulder’s two-year-old Bantaba World Dance &…
You could call it the greening of North America, because it seems that you don’t have to be Irish to enjoy things Gaelic in the New World. Celtic-flavored successes such as Riverdance and Angela’s Ashes prove that, as do lower-profile, hometown successes like Denver’s own Irish theater company, Tir Ná…
There’s no question about it: Roland Bernier is one of Denver’s greatest contemporary artists. His vision is remarkable in its variation and monumentality. His output is astounding. His relentless quest for innovation is breathtaking. And his solo, Between the Lines: Word Works by Roland Bernier, on display in the Denver…
