Director Hugo Jon Sayles’s choice to present Ain’t Misbehavin’ as a New York City “rent party” lent the collection of Depression-era tunes a laid-back informality that made audiences feel at home from the first note. The Broadway musical revue paid homage to the works of legendary blues man Fats Waller,…
Tired of cold hot dogs and overpriced nachos that wind up in your lap every time Sylvester Stallone blows something to smithereens? Aurora’s Cinema Grill offers an alternative: a selection of salads, burgers, subs, pizzas and grilled-chicken dishes served to you, at table, while you take in a feature film…
It’s not the first time Marin Alsop and ensemble have received ASCAP accolades for being different, but in a time when the magnificent Maestra’s days in Denver seem numbered as a result of her fire and enthusiasm, it’s especially worthy of note, concrete evidence of what everyone’s been saying all…
The actors in …becoming non grata performed each episode in this production as though they had personally lived it — which, in a way, they did. The collaboratively written piece, which focused on events at the Japanese internment camp at Amache, Colorado, was developed over a six-month period by an…
Over the past year, Kingdom has gone head-to-head with some of the best rappers in the business, including Wyclef Jean, with whom the Royal One faced off during the recent Campus Invasion Tour. Kingdom’s skills at the mike also earned him a slot on The Source magazine’s battle competition; he…
In addition to fronting the explosively guitar-centric Abdomen, Mike Jourgensen records and distributes music through www.noisetent.com, an indie hub of punk-friendly Denver-based bands including Jet Black Joy, Dumbass Brothers, Stuttering Bishops, Blast-Off Heads, Negative Man, Fast Action Revolver, Tanger and Bio-Bitch. Jourgensen’s affordable studio space — a stone’s throw from…
Herman’s Hideaway is not exactly known for hosting the best local music. But it does deserve kudos for hosting the most. With live music every night of the week, Herman’s offers bands ranging from the well-established to the unknown; the New Music Showcase series on Thursday nights is often dominated…
For more than a year, pundits the world over wondered whether John Barton’s Tantalus would be a millennium-defining hit or flop. Much like the nature of Greek myths themselves, the grand, lavishly staged show was less absolute, and the joint effort of the Denver Center Theatre Company and England’s Royal…
Until recently, dancing in the aisles was a phenomenon associated more with polka conventions than with a synagogue on Friday night. Maybe that was the problem. “Shabbat services were normal — you said the same prayers, stand when you’re supposed to stand, sit when you’re supposed to sit,” recalls Steve…
Leland Rucker’s introduction to Boulder, Colorado, couldn’t have been much more prophetic. The first time he ever heard of the town, he recalls, was decades ago, when a classmate hipped him to an album he’d just secured. “It was The Astronauts, Live at Tulagi, Boulder, Colorado — that’s what it…
Last week I described some of the hideous proposals being put forward at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center as part of its five-year expansion plan. The plans were suggested by the Minneapolis-based architectural firm of Hammel, Green and Abramson (is there such a thing as architectural malpractice?) and approved…
The poetically named Raven’s Nest studio (1425 West 13th Avenue, 303-623-1425), whose director has the even more poetic name of Glissen Rhode, is one of Denver’s hidden treasures. The trouble is that this rehabbed, turn-of-the-century train depot with its cute little tower is rarely open to the public. However, on…
Eighteen months ago, no one could have predicted that the Denver Center/Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Tantalus would spawn any lingering offspring. Because the Trojan War marathon was often referred to as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it made sense that locals wouldn’t clamor for more mythology until they’d crossed over to…
Imaginatively designed, directed and acted, the Denver Children’s Theatre production of Tomato Plant Girl is, as shows for young people go, a breath of fresh air. Wesley Middleton’s work, currently playing at the Mizel Arts Center, teaches the difference between conformity and friendship by focusing on how relationships develop instead…
In David Maquiling’s quirky little first feature, Too Much Sleep, a rudderless 24-year-old who lives at home with his mother and works nights as a security guard must go on a quest. Rising lazily from his bed, he ventures into the tidy suburbs of New Jersey to track down a…
It’s a scenario we’re all familiar with by now: young single guys in search of hot babes, firing one-liners at each other, making pop-cultural references ad nauseam and ultimately finding out that women are somewhat less shallow than they’ve been led to believe. At least it’s a scenario you know…
Helen Littlejohn had never dabbled in art until one day in the early 1990s, when her son brought home a mask-making project from his middle school. “He opened me up to something in the universe that has no limits,” says the public-relations professional. “I thought I would try it. And…
When local historian and native nice Jewish boy Phil Goodstein steps up to the podium at the Mercury Cafe this Friday evening to speak on Blarney! Denver¹s Wild Irish Heritage, it’ll be as Phil O’Goodstein. Or, in fact, that’s “Oy Goodstein,” an honorary appellative he’ll enhance with a fake Irish…
The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center is one of the finest early-modern buildings in the country, which means it’s the rarest kind of treasure in Colorado’s bleak architectural environment. Only such monuments as the prehistoric ruins at Mesa Verde and the 1960s Air Force Academy Chapel, by Walter Netsch of…
The small but smart-looking Fresh Art Gallery (208 South Broadway, 720-570-2255) is currently presenting encaustic evolution, which officially includes four artists and unofficially includes another five, all of whom use encaustic to create their paintings and sculptures. The gang of four is made up of Andrew Speer, Rachel Urioste, John…
The Aurora Fox Arts Center’s The Memory of Water has some passable portrayals, but the play’s complex family relationships don’t progress beyond the embryonic stage. Plagued by glacial pacing, wretched British accents and frequent directorial miscues, English playwright Shelagh Stephenson’s touching work devolves into a mishmash of tinny one-liners and…
Gil Cates takes a long, deep breath before answering the question: Is producing the Academy Awards show the ultimate no-win situation? Cates has produced nine of the past 11 Oscar telecasts, and he returns March 25 after a year’s layoff; for those scoring at home, Cates is not to blame…
