A roundup of what’s in store through June plus Lynne Collins from the Arvada Center and our Top 10 Colorado Headliners

In this episode of the OnStage Colorado Podcast, hosts Toni Tresca and Alex Miller look ahead to the huge crop of new shows hitting Colorado stages in spring. We stick to the actual dates — March 20-June 20 — and found lots of great stuff from Durango to Fort Collins.

In the news, we run down the just-announced Broadway season at the Denver Center and report on the latest about the Sundance Film Festival possibly landing in Boulder.

Lynne Collins

Later in the episode, Alex catches up with Lynne Collins, the Artistic Director at the Arvada Center. The theatre recently announced its upcoming season, so we ask Lynne to tell us all about it.

And as usual we run down our Top 10 Colorado Headliners — upcoming shows in the next week or so that might be worth checking out. This week’s list:

Listen to the podcast

Crappy AI-generated transcript – but hey, it’s supposed to help with SEO:

All right, well hello and welcome to the OnStage Colorado podcast. I’m Alex Miller.

Toni Tresca (00:07)
And I’m Tony Tresca. Thank you for tuning into another episode of the On Stage Colorado podcast. As you might have noticed, we took last week off, but we are once again back at it again behind our podcasting mics to round up all the shows we’ve seen, deliver news from around the state, and give this week’s top 10 Colorado Headliners.

Alex Miller (00:22)
That’s right.

Yeah, yeah, we were off last week because we’re very lazy people, now we’re gonna shake off the doldrums. And so we’re recording on March 24th, so you’ll be listening to this on the 25th, so think about that as we say this week or that week. So spring’s in the air and that means that new theater is blooming around the state. So for our main topic this week, I’m grimacing Tony. Tony, gave me a nice little metaphor there.

So for our main topic this week, we put together our picks of the productions coming up that we think you should add to your plans this spring season. And there’s a lot.

Toni Tresca (01:03)
my God, yeah, as I was putting them together from all the different regions from around the state, my jaw was just on the ground. And I know I say this every time I put together a list of a summer preview or a year preview or whatnot, but it just continues to be true. The amount of high quality, interesting theater productions that are happening across all parts of Colorado continues to astound me.

Alex Miller (01:11)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (01:28)
Yeah, so after we round up the myriad of theatrical options that are happening around Colorado, we are going to be airing Alex’s interview with Lynn Collins of the Arvada Center to discuss the company’s 2025-26 season. So what should listeners expect to learn from that conversation, Alex?

Alex Miller (01:47)
Well, one is that it’s Arvada. We talked about this last time. I know.

Toni Tresca (01:50)
Arvada. Right, right, god damn it. This

is gonna be the bane of my existence, but I’m gonna do my best. Say it again, Alex. Arvada.

Alex Miller (02:02)
Arvada.

Yeah, we used to say it was where the pirates live because they’re all going Arrrrvada. But that’s something else. I also, one of the theme that I use for the Onstage Colorado website is called Avada. So that messes with my head as well. But that’s neither here nor there. So yeah, we talked about, they just recently announced their upcoming season. So we talked about that and some other things. So it’s a fun conversation. So stick around for that one.

And then, so we were out at the theater this weekend. I saw you at the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime on opening night at the Aurora Fox. Great show, fantastic production. I think I wrote a little bit of a rave about it. I think we both agreed that the script isn’t like, you know, the greatest thing in the world. The second act seems to kind of flag. And there’s a few other things, but the production directed by Rich Cowden there and the actors.

the performances by like Matt Murray, Jess Austin, and then River Hensel who plays the boy in question, was all just spot on in all the visuals. So really, really tight production there.

Toni Tresca (03:09)
Yeah, normally not a big fan of projection design either, but I have to say that the kind of minimalistic, more cartoony, two-dimensional style projections that were employed that were very reminiscent of the illustrations that were present in the original book itself to kind of fill out the world and make you really feel like you’re in Christopher’s head, I thought were incredibly effective for this production when it’s really clear, particularly from Rich’s direction.

that everything that you as an audience are seeing is told, filtered through Christopher’s very distinct perspective and worldview. And so those two dimensional projections that switch between scenery, as well as when things kind of get more intense, kind of there’s flashes of numbers, things get really intense and hectic on those screens. I thought visually just you couldn’t ask for more, but I do agree with you in terms of the script.

Alex Miller (03:53)
numbers yeah.

Toni Tresca (04:03)
issues, which that’s not the fault of the Aurora Fox. That’s how the play is written and structured. The first act in terms of the kind of emotional element, think is a lot more satisfying and well-defined than the second act when things kind of, I think it’s a little bit clumsier in terms of its messaging, I would say.

Alex Miller (04:08)
Yeah.

Yeah, but as I said in my review also in the second act, the acting really heats up because Jess as the mom is much more present and there’s all this domestic turmoil layered on top of Christopher’s inner turmoil. So yeah, all around a strong show and a lot of fun. then I saw, since we last had our pod, saw Ever and After at Miss Grant Theater Collective, which my review is up on that one. That’s an interesting show about

the apocalypse and some odd things going on with giant cockroaches. So check that out on the website.

Toni Tresca (05:00)
Yeah, I read your review of that one. That sounds like a really a really silly show

Alex Miller (05:04)
Yeah, I like Miscreant, they do interesting stuff.

Toni Tresca (05:06)
I saw, I’ve seen quite a bit in the time since. So in addition to the curious incident over at the Aurora Fox, I saw Zayania, Always and Forever over at Su Teatre. This is written and directed by Mika Garcia de Bendides and it runs through March 30th. This is, it’s based on this romantic legend of Poco and Issa and it’s about these two people who are, these two people who are in love.

Alex Miller (05:08)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (05:34)
She’s the daughter of royalty. He’s this really fierce warrior. But then because the leader, he doesn’t want to raise these taxes, he starts a war, which, you know, maybe sounds familiar to anybody who follows politics throughout history. It’s a pretty common strategy when you’re struggling as a leader to, you know, start a war. But in this war, the lovers are separated. they actually, I don’t want to spoil anything, but it’s a

Alex Miller (05:51)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (06:04)
It’s a bit of a tragedy is all I’ll say. And so I thought it was pretty well done. It’s a little bit, the staging is a little bit more simplistic than I would have expected from a production of this kind of scale. The set is very simple when I was kind of hoping maybe we could evoke some of the vastness of the war kind of setting that we’re here.

Alex Miller (06:24)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (06:25)
and depicting in this culture, but the acting is all quite good and it’s a pretty fun show. It’s interesting, it’s way more romantic, I think, than a lot of Su Teatro’s productions, which usually focus on contemporary political issues within the Chicano movement. This is more of a historical romantic piece, which is interesting to see depicted on stage as Su Teatro is kind of going through a transition itself, handing the reins from Tony Garcia, who previously wrote.

directed a bunch of the shows now to his daughter Mika, who did this production.

Alex Miller (06:56)
All right.

Cool. What else?

Toni Tresca (06:57)
I

also checked out this week, one of the reasons we took off last week was because my sister was in town. She was visiting, she’s from Texas, and she is a huge fan of Dancing with the Stars. so, for the past two years now, as her Christmas present, I’ve gotten her tickets to Dancing with the Stars Live, which is a touring live experience in which the dancers of the show, they do all these dance routines.

always sold out. It was at the Buell this year and completely packed to the brim. Insane energy in there. People just filming the entire experience. People were on their feet throughout most of the show, which you and I are in the Buell often for touring productions of Broadway shows. to see that kind of atmosphere in the Buell was just, it was a very different audience, much younger than normal.

Alex Miller (07:31)
huh.

Toni Tresca (07:55)
The show is not exactly, I would say, my cup of tea. It’s lots of in-jokes to the television show, which I cannot say that I watch. my sister, who was a big fan, told me that they were hilarious, all the little jokes. But as an outside audience member, I thought the dancing was very impressive. And they do some really cool stuff with the of the project, like these, they’re not projections. They’re actually screens that are attached around the perimeter. And they’re doing all these different

Alex Miller (08:07)
Okay.

Toni Tresca (08:24)
backdrops and things that are pretty effective given the kind of dance nature of the show, when you’re not actually trying to create realistic backgrounds. It’s popping to all these different disco settings and Egypt or whatever, the Wild West, pretty fun, pretty silly. My sister loved it.

Alex Miller (08:30)
Mm-hmm.

Great. All right, well, I think we’re to have to start moving a little faster to get through all this. So if you want to keep moving.

Toni Tresca (08:47)
totally. Yeah,

also at the Buell, I saw Life of Pi, which I was a little bit more underwhelmed by. was a touring production. It featured lots of puppetry that I found somewhat convincing, somewhat not, depending on the puppet. And then I wasn’t totally enamored by how the story was depicted. It was really chopped up.

and they inserted a weird framing device of this hospital interrogation scene that doesn’t come until the third act of the book, which I thought kind of undermined the stakes of the thing. Did you get a, you didn’t get a chance to see Life of Pi, did you?

Alex Miller (09:27)
I didn’t, was supposed to, but something happened. your review that’s on the Onstage Colorado website was really insightful about what you thought was wrong with it and what was good, what was so if you’re interested. Because it’s still up, isn’t it, till the end of the month? Yeah, so check out Tony’s review.

Toni Tresca (09:42)
That’s right. Yeah, you still got a little

bit more time. And I would say it’s interesting to see, as to kind of see what’s really popping in terms of the play scene of Broadway. But I would go in with some reservations. And I also do not agree that the best seats are in the balcony. I got that message from the Denver Center. I understand they’re charging more money for those tickets. But just because they tell you that does not necessarily mean it’s true. My view from the balcony was quite obscured in

Alex Miller (09:59)
Ha ha ha.

Toni Tresca (10:12)
very surprising ways, particularly with the two level scenic design. was like, you really think that you would have thought about that, but alas.

Alex Miller (10:18)
Yeah, it was interesting that

John Moore over at Denver Gazette, who does not really write theater reviews, wrote a review that was kind of the exact opposite of yours. So it was really interesting to see those two takes from the two guys.

Toni Tresca (10:30)
I know it was fun. Isn’t it fun when you have multiple perspectives on the same show? It gets you kind of a, I think a more rounded idea of what the experience actually was rather than just like one rave or one really negative or one kind of mixed review that gets published. It’s fun when you have multiple theatrical reviews.

Alex Miller (10:36)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. So thanks for thanks for doing a review, John.

Toni Tresca (10:53)
Yeah. And then the final show I saw was the 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which is a very familiar title to anybody who’s been watching the stages in Colorado recently. It’s quite often. And this is being done by Family Theater Company over at North Glen Arts. And it’s a really spectacular production. I have seen this production a lot over the past few years. It’s a good play, but it’s kind of overdone. You know what to expect.

Alex Miller (11:16)
Yeah, it’s a good play.

Yeah.

Toni Tresca (11:22)
I guarantee you, you won’t. This family has completely reworked it. There’s a ton of improv. There’s a ton of jokes about disability in there. Everything from like the magic foot that the character Arnold sings is now about their crutches rather than the foot itself, because they have two crutches that they use around. There’s all sorts of kind of very timely jokes about how disability is represented on stage.

Alex Miller (11:40)
Mm-hmm.

Toni Tresca (11:49)
I, and the musical numbers themselves are so well choreographed and sung. I just could not give this production a bigger recommend. I think that this is one of the, has been doing really, really great work recently. And I think this is another strong example of what Ben Rana, who’s the artistic director and Corinne Denny, who is executive director over there, what their vision of family looks like in 2025.

Alex Miller (12:16)
Yeah, and our reviewer Leela will be or was at that so we’ll have a review of it on our site as well. So let’s turn to the news. What are you hearing out there? So there was a big announcement last week, right?

Toni Tresca (12:26)
That’s right. So the Denver Center’s Broadway division announced its 2025-26 season. Figured we’d quickly run through that. So kicking off their subscription shows is the musical comedy Shocked in October, which is a Tony Award satirical love letter to American optimism that features catchy country inspired tunes. So it’s apparently a show that’s hinges on a bunch of corn puns. So we’ll see how that sticks together.

Alex Miller (12:55)
corn puns. Just what I was hoping for. Cool. Yeah. And then in the Garnet Galleria, the cabaret thing, they’re doing the side-splittingly funny Dracula, comedy of terrors in November. Well, that was a long ass run, November 8th through May 10th. yeah, this is five actors playing lots of different roles, similar to Gutenberg, the musical, which is also up in a very long.

Toni Tresca (12:57)
Yeah. Just what you were hoping for, right? From Broadway. Yeah.

That’s right.

Yeah. Then they’re also bringing in the notebook in December. So this is the, it’s an adaptation of the very well beloved book and movie, the Broadway production. They sold, sponsored Kleenexes in the lobby for YouTube because it’s such a tearjerker. So I wonder if for the touring version, they’re going to bring those same Kleenexes.

Alex Miller (13:35)
Ha ha ha.

I don’t know, but I’m definitely gonna have to go to that one because my wife is a big fan of the notebook and I will task myself not to cry. Looking further into 2026, Water for Elephants. So this is a familiar title also. It’s about a 1930s traveling circus, also adapted from a novel and follows a Jacob Young man who jumps onto a moving chain after losing everything and discovers romance, danger, and a newfound purpose among the performers.

Toni Tresca (14:08)
Yeah, another musical that’s come into the Buell is Alicia Keys’ Hell’s Kitchen in April, 2026. And this musical centers on Allie, who is a rebellious 17-year-old who’s navigating the complex dynamics of family and identity in 1990s New York City. So I’ve heard kind of mixed things about that production, honestly. It’s kind of a jukebox musical that’s also kind of based on her life, but not really.

Alex Miller (14:31)
huh.

Toni Tresca (14:37)
It kind of sounds like it’s a lot of different things, but I’ll be curious to see that one when it comes through.

Alex Miller (14:43)
Yeah. So usually all of these big music or big mule shows or musicals, but the one play is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child or as a cursed child, May 30th through June 27th. So obviously this is a Harry Potter thing. It takes place 19 years after the events in the book series and focuses on Harry Potter’s son, Albus. So I will probably almost certainly be attending that one too because my wife, in addition to being a notebook fan, is a huge Harry Potter fan.

Toni Tresca (15:10)
Yeah. Here’s one I’m really looking forward to. Spamalot is coming through the Buell in August 2026. So this is the based off of the Tony Award winning musical that just recently was revived in New York City. So this is the touring version of that revival production. And it’s it’s riffing on Monty Python and the Holy Grail with some Life of Brian and other Monty Python sketches thrown in there for good measure. It’s a it’s a it’s a bunch of fish slap and fun.

Alex Miller (15:15)
Me too.

Yep, it sure is. And then closing out their subscription season is The Outsiders in September. This is a year from the September. It’s going way, way forward in the future. Who knows what the world will be like in September of 2026, but this is The Outsiders is a novel in a new musical that won four 2024 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. So it’s set in 1967 Tulsa and there’s a, it sounds like it’s just a.

I don’t know, is it like a West Side Story kind of thing? It sounds like it’s a battle between greasers and so soaks or something like that. socks, okay.

Toni Tresca (16:13)
The Socks, think, yeah,

it’s kind of about class conflict in Tulsa at the time. The thing that this show is really known for is there’s this musical number called The Rumble, which is this supposedly really violent fight sequence that takes place on stage. in addition to the songs, which are apparently pretty effective and catchy, that really extended fight sequence is the reason to see the show.

Alex Miller (16:40)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (16:41)
So in addition to these subscription shows, they also have a bunch of added attractions that you, if you’re a subscriber, you can add on to or you can just purchase individual tickets to. And these include things like Bluebird Improv this upcoming May, which features improv legends like Tim Meadows, who’s from Mean Girls, and Matt Walsh, who was in Veep, who make up, they’re just doing improv on that small Garner Galleria stage over there, which should be fun. Those are really big names in the improv world.

Alex Miller (17:08)
Yeah.

And then next at the Garner Galleria is Forbidden Broadway. Merrily We Stole a Song in May and June. That one gives me pause because it just sounds like one of those ones that might be a dud, but I don’t know.

Toni Tresca (17:21)
So I’ll be curious to see this one since this is we have recently forbidden Broadway has been doing a lot of repeat songs. They’ve just been kind of rehashing the same material. Allegedly, this is the latest version from New York that just went up kind of parodying the season of the Tony Awards that had the recent revival of Merrily We Roll Along on it. So allegedly, it’s totally revamped. But like like you said, I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ve seen this production come through.

Alex Miller (17:32)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Toni Tresca (17:50)
the Garner Gallery quite a few times recently and it’s been diminishing results.

Alex Miller (17:55)
Yeah, I feel like I saw that one and really didn’t like it. and then summer, yeah, we do have this list on our website, but also, of course, on the Denver Center website. So we’ll go through these real quick. They’re doing Dixie’s Tupperware Party in July and August, and then Never Wear Tube Top while riding a mechanical bull, which is another reprise in August and September, both in the Garner Galleria. And then the Biggie, the Lion King’s coming through in October, pretty decent run, October 23rd to November 16th, and that like,

Toni Tresca (17:59)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Miller (18:24)
That is just a great show to take young theater goers to. And of course, there’s a whole new batch that have never seen it. So I’m happy to see that coming through again.

Toni Tresca (18:32)
Absolutely. And then for the holidays, they’ve got a couple of different options, including the hip hop Nutcracker returning to Denver, as well as Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the musical coming through. And then that following January, 2026, Six is coming back to Denver. This is the story set to infectious pop tunes about Henry the eighth, six wives. I always get the note, it’s Henry the eighth, but he has six wives.

Alex Miller (19:00)
Right, yeah. That’s

a good one. It’s very poppy and glam, but it really is. It was well done. And then on the other end of the spectrum is The Music Band, February 27 through March 1. Wow, I didn’t know they were doing another swing through of The Music Band coming through the dual. But I guess if you’re going to see The Music Band, big touring Broadway production might be the way to see it. And then Phantom of the Opera is swinging back around in March and April of 2026.

Toni Tresca (19:26)
Some more familiar shows coming back to Denver include Hadeastown in May of 2026, which is the jazz-inspired story of Orpheus and the Eurydice. The MJ, which is the Michael Jackson musical, is also coming in May 2026. Sound of Music, which is the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, comes July and August of 2026. And then the season wraps up with the Darkly comic

Beetlejuice in August of 2026. Yeah, I know. I was like, do we think that since it’s returning, you think old Bobert is gonna be back vaping up a storm?

Alex Miller (19:57)
Lauren Boebert alert Lauren Boebert alert. She’s going to want to go see that.

Well,

she will be hot in the election season leading up to the November election to re-win her house seat. So maybe she will go there and just be like, wear like a nice little modest dress and sit there with her hands in her lap and be a very good girl to prove to everybody that she’s an adult, but maybe not. So, all right. What’s going on around, Elsa’s going on around the state Tony.

Toni Tresca (20:30)
Well, it’s been a busy couple of weeks for those who are watching the Sundance development. So on March 12th, the Colorado House advanced a proposed tax credit to further enhance the Sundance Film Festival to choose Colorado as its new home beginning in 2027. So this measure would offer $34 million in tax incentives over the next 10 years or roughly about $3 to $5 million per year to incentivize Sundance to come to Colorado.

Alex Miller (20:57)
Yeah, that’s a lot of money. So what are the pros and cons that people are talking about?

Toni Tresca (21:01)
I guess I’ll start with the cons first. So those who are frustrated with this bill typically fall into two buckets. Number one, people who think that these tax incentives are just the state throwing money away. And two, people like Mark Reagan, who we spoke briefly with about this issue on our March 4th podcast, who believes that this funding should be going to local groups rather than trying to incentivize outside organizations to come to Colorado.

Alex Miller (21:27)
And there’s no third bucket of people saying it’s a great idea.

Toni Tresca (21:30)
Well, there are. We’ll get to those in the pros in just a second.

Alex Miller (21:31)
Okay, okay. Well,

I mean, those arguments both seem fair to me because there are a lot of local nonprofit organizations struggling and it’s a little bit of a slap in the face for state politicians to suck up to outside festivals. Even though, I mean, there certainly would be a great economic impact, but I mean, it reminds me of football, know, stadiums, know, football clubs, you know, trying to extort money out of local cities or we’re going to go somewhere else.

kind of stuff. then these are very, very lucrative operations. mean, it’s silly to compare maybe Sundance, the film festival, but it’s the same kind of thing. It’s like, should we be funding this or can it fund itself just fine?

Toni Tresca (22:10)
Yeah, I advocates would certainly want you to focus on kind of the there’s going to be cascading effects on the local boulder and surrounding areas. If we bring Sundance in because they argue Sundance sells more than 100,000 tickets and attracts about 20,000 out of state attendees. And an economic impact study showed that in 2024, the festival generated 132 million in economic impact for Utah, including

69.7 million in wages and almost 14 million in state and local tax revenue. so that’s a pretty interesting argument, I think, showing that it’s not just that this would be good for Sundance, this would be good, this would employ a lot of local people who are in Colorado, put them to work, as well as also bringing a lot of tax revenue. additionally, that bill that was passed by the House earlier in March,

It will make about $500,000 available annually to support other small or existing local film festivals, such as the Boulder International Film Festival, that just actually wrapped up recently.

Alex Miller (23:18)
Yeah, okay. Well, I saw that Kristen Crampton-Day, who’s the executive director of the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts, wrote a pretty fiery op-ed in Westward March 22nd where she argued that we should take our shot on Sundance and argued that the festival would be more than an annual event. It’d be a catalyst for economic and cultural growth and investment in Colorado’s future workforce.

Toni Tresca (23:37)
Yeah, I saw that. She opened with a very lengthy Hamilton reference in the op-ed. We’re going to take our shot like Hamilton. Yeah, but I think Day’s advocacy here is pretty significant. And if I were going to make a guess, I’d imagine we’ll be seeing a lot more of these kind of op-eds or advocacy in the upcoming weeks from local politicians and other arts advocates, because the decision about where Sundance is going to be is expected to be made.

Alex Miller (23:41)
really?

got it, got it.

Toni Tresca (24:06)
late March, early April, which is right now. So we are literally, it’s literally any day.

Alex Miller (24:09)
Annie, yeah.

Wow, exciting. Well, in Santa news, we wanted to remember James Simons, who chaired CU Boulder’s Department of Theater and Dance from 1984, when I was actually there, through 1999, a teacher to the core, frequent director for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, who passed on March 7th from pneumonia. So he was 87. But in his later years, he remained an emeritus professor at CU teaching theater history and dramatic literature.

also directing plays at graduate and undergraduate levels.

Toni Tresca (24:39)
Yeah, he had a really storied career and from reading John Moore’s piece about him and just hearing, reading some of the quotes that people such as Philip Snead, who’s now over at the Arvada Center, said about him, it was just really touching. In his career, he directed more than 60 plays, including 11 for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, most recently Richard III back in 2013. But James is survived by his daughters.

Tracy, Kelly and Carrie, as well as his three granddaughters. A celebration of life is gonna be held at 1 p.m. on June 21st in the Canyon Theater at the Boulder Public Library. And in lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation in his memory to any local library. So rest in peace, James.

Alex Miller (25:26)
Yeah. All right. Well, anything else to note before we move on to our main topic?

Toni Tresca (25:30)
Happy opening to the most expensive ticket on Broadway, Othello, which is averaging roughly $900 to $1,000 for a single ticket. I know. It debuted on March 23rd. And in addition to Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal in the titular roles, the ensemble also includes Denver’s own Jean Gallette. So

Maybe it’s Gene who’s driving up those ticket costs. Get out of way Denzel and Jake. It’s our Denver boy.

Alex Miller (25:58)
Yeah,

that’s right. All right. Well, let’s move on to our spring theater preview. So let’s we’re going to talk about what’s what’s coming up as the the blooms come out, the weather warms up and the mountain snowstorms continue.

Toni Tresca (26:13)
That’s right, Alex. So for this list, we have limited ourselves to a couple of criteria in order to prevent this from going on into eternity. So each production on this list must open between March 20th and Friday, June 20th, which is the actual season of spring. And we will only select one show per producing company. So even if a company has multiple shows opening,

Alex Miller (26:14)
Ha ha ha.

Toni Tresca (26:39)
Throughout this time, we’re only going to discuss the one that excites us the most.

Alex Miller (26:43)
Yeah, all right, well, let’s kick off with Boulder and surrounding areas with national Bohemians. And we’re to be talking a lot about this more. So I’ll just say this is going to be at Miners Alley Performing Arts Center in Golden, March 28 through April 20. Luke Sorge, a local playwright. And it’s a dark comedy about some beer drinking guys in Maryland. So that’s coming up. I’m excited to see that one.

Toni Tresca (27:04)
Yep. Also opening this weekend is A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at the Arvada Center, which runs March 28th through May 11th. And this is a musical about a guy getting away with murder. We’re also going to be talking more about this in our headliner section. So that’s all I’ll say about this musical for now.

Alex Miller (27:23)
Yep. And then at Theatre Company of Lafayette, April 4 through 19 is Martine Out of Time. So this is something about a chicken farm and an egg festival and I don’t know, all kinds of other stuff. So that’s coming up in Lafayette.

Toni Tresca (27:38)
That’s right. At the Dairy Arts Center done by Betsy is The White Chip running April 10th through May 4th. And this is coming to Boulder straight off its critically claimed run off Broadway. And it is about one man’s journey from alcoholism to recovery. although that premise may sound pretty dark, Mark Reagan came on the podcast a few weeks ago and promised that there are plenty of laughs to be had in this journey.

Alex Miller (28:05)
Yeah,

I know he’s super excited about getting this play to Boulder, so watch out for that one. And then in late April 25th through 27th, our friends at Local Theatre Company are doing the annual new play festival, Local Lab. This is the 14th edition, so it’ll have three stage readings of new plays, conversations, playwrights, panels, parties, you name it, it’s happening at Local Lab.

Toni Tresca (28:25)
That’s right. they’re going to be making the announcement of what plays are coming out. It should be this week, I believe. So keep your eye out on that, and we’ll keep you updated on those shows next week.

Alex Miller (28:36)
Yep, and we are going to have one of the artistic directors, co-artistic directors at local Betty Hart up on the podcast here in another week or two. So I’m sure she’ll talk all about that.

Toni Tresca (28:45)
Great point, Alex. Also in the Boulder area over at the Dairy Arts Center, the Upstart Crow is doing Romeo and Juliet May 1st through the 18th. And they say this version of R &J will be set in a high society, regency era America with a gender non-conforming twist, which begs to question what if queer people were allowed to exist in high society and what if they were allowed to exist loudly?

Alex Miller (29:10)
Wow, okay. All right, also at the Dairy Arts Center, Viva Theater, which is the theater for older actors, doing, they’re doing Our Town, so we all know what that is. That’ll be May 9th through 25th.

Toni Tresca (29:20)
The Boulder Ballet at the Derry, May 16th through the 18th is doing Queen of Hearts, which is a kind of a riff on Alice in Wonderland, but it’s telling the story from the perspective of the Queen of Hearts. from talking with the artistic director, he’s like, it’s basically Wicked, but for the Queen of Hearts and in ballet form. So if any of those things intrigue you, check this one out.

Alex Miller (29:43)
huh.

Pro tip, if you’re into ballet, get on the Betsy mailing list because Mark Reagan is also a big supporter of Boulder Ballet and often comes out with deals like free tickets or very, very highly discounted tickets. So check that out. Head Over Heels is going to be presented by Shifted Lens Theater Company at the Arts Hub in Lafayette in May. This is jukebox musical set to music from the go-go. So if you love 80s, this one’s for you.

Toni Tresca (29:59)
That’s a great point.

We’re gonna be moving down south to Colorado Springs and the surrounding areas for our next couple of shows. Starting off with The Disturbance at Delta or Hear Fishy Fishy Fishy at Iron Springs Chateau in Manitou Springs. This is running March 28th through August 2nd. And it’s a turn of the century classic melodrama where the evil seafood restauranteur, Led Robster,

Alex Miller (30:25)
Ha

Toni Tresca (30:42)
I’m sorry, I’m just reading this for the first time and this is hilarious. Along with his beautiful accomplice, Helen Handbasket is working hard to swindle the kind and unsuspecting people of Skeeterbunk. So I think that sounds hilarious. So maybe check this one out. The show includes dinner and parking and all of the above.

Alex Miller (30:44)
Yes

You

That’s great. Yeah.

Yeah, one of the few dinner theaters left in Colorado. And you know, if you’ve never seen a melodrama, you should go at least once. They’re super corny. It’s like the villain twirling his mustache, you know, and stuff like that. And they’re just, it’s full of corny puns and stuff, and they’re just a lot of fun.

Toni Tresca (31:21)
I mean, if it’s even half as funny as the description, I’m sure I would just be dying the whole time.

Alex Miller (31:21)
you

Yeah.

And then also at Springs Ensemble Theater Company in June, they’re doing the Revlon Girl. this is a play based on true events following the 1960s. I’ve heard about this. This is this terrible disaster where a coal, a bunch of coal, like waste fell on a school killing 116 children and 28 adults. And man, that’s a crazy story. And it sounds like an interesting topic for a play, but that’ll be

Springs Ensemble Theater Company loves this kind of stuff.

Toni Tresca (31:57)
Yeah, they’re kind of known for doing the kind of really edgy stuff that you’re like, how will they stage that?

Alex Miller (32:00)
Dark.

Yes.

Toni Tresca (32:04)
So rounding out our picks in the Colorado Springs area is Four Old Brods on the High Seas by Funky Little Theater Company. Lots of fun show titles happening in this area. So this is being done June 6th through the 28th and it’s featuring our old Brods and Sam from last year’s smash hit Four Old Brods plus an all new supporting cast. So this is a sequel to that and

Alex Miller (32:09)
You

Yeah.

Toni Tresca (32:29)
about these sassy senior crews that mixes in a little drag and murder mystery for a fun time.

Alex Miller (32:31)
You

It still makes me cringe that broads thing, but I guess that’s what it’s called. Yes. All right. Well, let’s get back to our stomping grounds, the Denver Metro area at Firehouse Theater Company. It’s really been on a roll in the last year or five. In April into May, they’re going to do in perfect arrangement. So this is kind of a Red Scare themed thing with sexual deviance and, you know,

Toni Tresca (32:41)
That is what it is called.

Alex Miller (33:03)
a story about their partners and trying to hide all that and so that sounds like that’ll be a pretty pretty intense drama.

Toni Tresca (33:09)
Yep. At the Denver Center by their theater company, April 25th through May 25th, they’re doing the Hot Wing King. And this is set on the eve of the annual Hot Wing Festival in Memphis, Tennessee. And it’s kind of interrogating what it means to be a black man, a father figure, and part of a loving family in this kind of cooking setting. So it should be a fun show.

Alex Miller (33:31)
Huh.

Great title, The Hot Wing King. Platte Valley players are doing The Cottage. So that’s up in Brighton, May 9th through 17th. this is a friend of the Podge. The playwright was on our podcast not too long ago, and now I’m like blanking on her name. Sandra Sandy Rustin, sorry about that. So this is a play that I’ve heard mixed things about.

Toni Tresca (33:54)
Sandy Rustin.

Alex Miller (34:01)
Is it great? Is it not so great? but if it has any validity whatsoever, I am sure that the great crew up at Platte Valley Theater Arts will bring it to life. So I’m looking forward to seeing that.

Toni Tresca (34:14)
Yep. Over at Wonder Bound in Denver, May 8th through the 18th, they’re doing Space Cowboy, which promises to be a Western of galactic proportions. Garen Amand, Clay Rose, Tom Hagerman, and Dave Devine are team up to create this Odyssey of live music and dance that is equal parts a fistful of dollars and Blade Runner. So.

Alex Miller (34:36)
I am

all over this one. mean, Clay Rose, you know, from Gasoline Lollipops was, he did one of their Halloween shows with kind of another one of his bands. That was just fantastic. And of course, Tom Hagerman is from Devachka, very well known Colorado band. So this should be a lot of fun.

Toni Tresca (34:52)
And this one will feature live music. So not every Wonder Bound show features that, but this is gonna have these musicians playing there. So I’m with you, Alex. This one sounds like the Wonder Bound show of the season. Both Sundays are already sold out. So if you want to see this show, you probably wanna act now.

Alex Miller (35:12)
Yep. And all right, the next gut punch from Curious Theater is Exhibit, May 9th through 25th. This is about an African-American woman who recalls pieces of her child as she integrated into a school in Muskogee and her personal recollections of flashes of a sharply polarized America. So sounds like another challenging show from Curious.

Toni Tresca (35:33)
Yep. Town Hall Art Center is wrapping up its 42nd season in Littleton with On Your Feet running May 23rd through June 22nd. And this is a high energy love story that illustrates what can happen when you believe in yourself and reach for the stars. And it’s following the stories of Gloria and Emilio Estevan.

Alex Miller (35:53)
Cool. Real quick, Denver Fringe Festival is back June 4th through 8th, so that’ll just, we’ll have plenty of information about that on the site and we’ll maybe we’ll have them on the podcast again, because there’s lots of stuff going on as that thing continues to grow each year.

Toni Tresca (36:06)
There’s of stuff coming through the Denver Center’s Broadway division, but the one I’m most excited about is Anne Juliette coming through June 4th through the 15th. This is a musical created by the Emmy award-winning writer from Schitt’s Creek, and it flips the script on the greatest love story ever told, asking what would happen if Juliette doesn’t end it all over Romeo. It’s a jukebox musical that’s got stuff like Roar, Baby One More Time, Larger Than Life, Can’t Stop This Feeling, and a whole bunch more.

heard really, really strong things about this production from New York, so I’m curious to see if it lives up to the hype.

Alex Miller (36:43)
Yeah, I’m looking forward to that one too. At the Aurora Fox, June 6th through 29th is Little Miss Sunshine. So this is an adaptation of the film. It celebrates the power of love, determination, and the joy of following your dreams no matter the obstacles.

Toni Tresca (36:56)
Over at Buntport Theater, June 13th through the 28th, they are bringing back an audience favorite from 2018, The Book Handlers. This is a comedy about the anti-intellectual movement that’s inspired by a short story by Brian O’Nolan. I wonder why they would choose now to revive that play.

Alex Miller (37:13)
Hmm.

Toni Tresca (37:15)
Also, the final one in this area over in Lakewood by Performance Now is 42nd Street running June 13th through the 29th. This is a razzle dazzle musical comedy with a spectacular score of hit standards and a chorus line of tap dancing feet. You know I love tap, so I had to include this on the list.

Alex Miller (37:33)
Yeah.

Speaking of performance now, I’ve heard great things about their production of Fiddler on the Roof that’s up right now that I haven’t gotten over to see, but yeah, I won’t check that out. All right, well, let’s move into the mountains. So the mountains can mean a lot of things. It can mean everything from Evergreen to Vail or Breckenridge to Telluride. So it covers a big part of the state, but roughly speaking, in the mountains, Cripple Creek, which is kind of in the mountains outside Colorado Springs there.

The Butler did it again. So this is another outrageous comedy mystery and a follow-up to their popular The Butler Did It. So this sounds like another just kind of fun thing going on there at the Bute Theater.

Toni Tresca (38:13)
Over at Theater Silco in Silverthorn, their improv troupe Reply All is performing on select dates, April 11th through June 6th. this is kind of in between their two main stage shows. They don’t really have a spring show going on. So to kind of fill in that space, they’re doing some improv.

Alex Miller (38:29)
Uh-huh.

Yeah. And yeah, there’s just not, it’s not a great time of year to do theater in the spring. There’s just not as many people around up in Summit County.

Also, if you get back on I-70 and head west and then get on 82 and head towards Aspen, you’ll run into Carbondale where Thunder River Theatre Company is doing these Shining Lives, April 25th through May 11th. So this is a story about survival in Play Chronicles, the strength and determination of women considered expendable in their day. And I think this has to do with those women that were like licking brushes to put the radium glowing stuff on wristwatches. Yeah, it’s a terrible…

Toni Tresca (39:11)
That’s right.

Alex Miller (39:11)
weird story,

so yeah.

Toni Tresca (39:13)
Over at Creed, kicking off their main stage season is Xanadu, which runs May 24th through the 7th. And this is a musical comedy that follows Kira, who is a magical Greek muse who descends from Mount Olympus to Venus Beach to help an aspiring struggling artist named Sunny. I really do love this show. Xanadu, I’ve seen it a million times, it feels like, but…

Alex Miller (39:37)
It is a good show.

Toni Tresca (39:39)
You know when it’s you’ve got the Electric Light Orchestra and hits from Olivia Newton John in there like what more can you ask for?

Alex Miller (39:47)
Yeah. Over in Bailey theater company, which is a little closer to town here, they’re doing for some reason a tune of Christmas in May, like May into June. So this is, you know, these two guys in Texas at their radio station. And yeah, I don’t know why, but why not? It’s Christmas in July, why not Christmas in May and June in Bailey?

Toni Tresca (40:09)
That’s a good point, Alex. I wonder if it has to do with the rights are cheaper in months that are not associated with the holidays because I know from negotiating to purchase the rights of Rocky Horror in the past that if you do it between September and October and November, the rights are so much more expensive to do a shadow cast or something of Rocky. I bet that there are some limitations around Tuna Christmas. If you do it during the Christmas time, it’s…

Alex Miller (40:13)
I bet it is.

Yeah.

It’s

surge pricing, they call it. But Bailey is a neat little theater. It’s at this curious little cabin resort place. Yeah, it’s really interesting. And they do a nice job up there with these small shows.

Toni Tresca (40:38)
Mmm.

That’s right.

We’re gonna be changing regions just a little bit, so if you wanna whip out your compass, we’re going up north. And I’m kicking us off with Bright Star happening at Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in Johnstown. This is running April 10th through June 8th. And it’s inspired by a true story and features the Tony nominated score by Steve Martin and Eddie Braquel and tells the sweeping tale of love and redemption set against the rich backdrop of the American South in the 1920s and 40s.

Alex Miller (41:16)
Wow. All right. Open Stage Theater Company in Fort Collins. They’re usually at the Lincoln Center. They’re doing this, which I haven’t seen this in around in a little while. Agnes of God. This is a really hard hitting drama about this nun. And yeah, it’s just a really intense show where she’s got bleeding stigmata and heavy duty, but really a great show.

Toni Tresca (41:37)
Yeah, another kind of heavy duty production is being done by Baz Blue and also in Fort Collins. Yes.

Alex Miller (41:43)
Hey Tony, it’s Bablu. You don’t pronounce the S.

It’s a French.

Toni Tresca (41:49)
Eh, French. Okay.

Another intense production in the Fort Collins area is Bob Blue, who is doing another Madea May 23rd through June 15th. So this is the story of the incarcerated person Marcus Sharp, who is a charismatic New York actor who describes in graphic detail how his obsessions with a wealthy doctor named Jason and the Madea myth lead to horrific, unspeakable events.

Alex Miller (42:14)
Yikes. All right, we’re to zoom way back down south again. know, Creed was included in the mountains because it’s down south, but it’s also in the mountains. you’re just talking about Durango, which is kind of all’s in the mountains. But anyway, it’s also way down south. They’re doing Pippin at Fort Lewis College Main Stage Theater, April 11th through 19th. So this is Stephen Schwartz’s iconic musical, which also, Tony, this is one of the first shows I ever saw on Broadway as a kid with Ben Varine. Ben Varine was in that original.

Toni Tresca (42:39)
Wow.

Alex Miller (42:41)
show who went on to play Chicken George in Roots. So that’s a distant memory of mine, but I slept with them many, many years ago. So they do a nice job down there at Fort Lewis College. that’s check that out in April.

Toni Tresca (42:53)
at Steel City Theatre Company in Pueblo, opening, funnily enough, the same day as the Denver Center’s production, Little Shop of Horrors, April 11th through the 27th. Yeah, literally the exact same day. And this is the story of the meek floral assistant Seymour Crubhorn, who stumbles across a plant called Audrey II, who convinces him to do a whole lot of murder so that he can feed the plant and the plant will grow real big.

Alex Miller (43:00)
Yeah. that is interesting.

Ha ha.

Toni Tresca (43:21)
and take over the world. This is one of my favorites. I love Little Shop. If you can see it here in Steel City or at the Denver Center, I would definitely encourage you to.

Alex Miller (43:23)
Yeah.

Yeah, I just got my invite for a little shop at the Denver Center today and I immediately responded and said I will be there. I love that. It’s probably my favorite musical.

Toni Tresca (43:36)
same.

Alex Miller (43:39)
Also down south in Trinidad, Little Women, the musical is going to be at Main Street Live in April 18th through 27th. So of course this is based on Louisa May Alcott’s life in the book, Little Women.

Toni Tresca (43:51)
Over in Durango, Marilee Players is doing Guys and Dolls, April 25th through May 11th. So this is that golden age musical that just closed its run at Vintage Theater.

Alex Miller (44:00)
Well, yeah,

yep. I feel like it could be a hundred years from now we’ll still be seeing productions of guys and dolls coming around.

Toni Tresca (44:08)
That’s right, you know how folks producing theater, don’t love to rock the boat.

Alex Miller (44:13)
Yeah. Also down south in La Junta, which is more Oklahoma than Colorado, but Picket Wire players are doing the Wisdom of Eve for short run mid May. So this is adapted from the story by Mary Orr and which the film all about Eve was based on. And it’s a story about New York City’s theater world told through the eyes of an unscrupulous ingenue.

Toni Tresca (44:36)
Our final area of Colorado we are going to be featuring on this list is the Western Slope. So kicking us off with the 39 steps over at the Mesa Experimental Theater at CMU in Grand Junction. They’re doing this Hitchcockian thriller, April 24th through the 26th. This is a show that’s been seen a lot around the state, but it’s always really fun. It’s got inventive stagecraft, four actors playing all the parts, two clowns,

Alex Miller (45:00)
Punch out. Yep.

Toni Tresca (45:05)
one female enginu and then one detective kind of doing all the the brunt work. It’s very wild. It’s very fun. Very silly.

Alex Miller (45:14)
Yep. And then our last one from Western Slope, is an area of Colorado that’s very large, but does not have a ton of theater. So we definitely celebrate the theater companies out there, especially Magic Circle Players and Montrose, who doing Into the Woods May 9th, June 1st. This is everybody’s favorite fairy tale characters come into life in this Sondheim musical that if you haven’t seen, maybe you should.

Toni Tresca (45:38)
I think it’s

funny that you gave yourself into the woods, Alex, given that you don’t actually really even love Sondheim or this musical all that much.

Alex Miller (45:46)
Not my fave. Yeah,

well, that’s all right. I still celebrate theater, no matter where it is.

Toni Tresca (45:52)
You’re a sport for that, Alex.

Sit, don’t go anywhere. Right now we are going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsors and when we return we will share our top 10 Colorado Headliners as well as Alex’s interview with the Arvada Center’s Lynn Collins.

Alex Miller (46:06)
Onstage Colorado is supported by the Aurora Fox Arts Center, whose production of The Curious Incident of the Dog of the Nighttime runs March 21st through April 13th. The player in six Tony Awards, including Best Play, and delves into the mind of a remarkable young man on a quest for the truth. Tickets at aurorafoxartscenter.org. Also supporting Onstage Colorado is Denver’s Curious Theater, presenting Downstate, March 13th through April 13th. The hard-hitting play shares the story of four men convicted of sex crimes who share a group home post-incarceration.

Tickets at curioustheatre.org. Support for Onstage Colorado also comes from the Boulder Ensemble Theater Company, whose production of The White Chip runs April 10th through May 4th at the Boulder Dairy Center. Straight from its critically acclaimed run off Broadway, The White Chip is the true story of one man’s journey from alcoholism to recovery in a play the New York Times described as laugh out loud funny and gasp inducing self-inflicted tragedy. Tickets at betc.org.

Onstage Colorado is brought to you by the Town Hall Arts Center, presenting ONCE, March 28th through April 27th. Featuring all the captivating music from the Oscar-winning movie musical of the same name, ONCE features a cast of multi-talented actors and musicians who will invite audiences into a magical world powered by creativity, passion, hope, and song. Tickets at townhallartscenter.org.

Alex Miller (47:22)
All right, we are back and ready to hit this week’s Colorado Headliners. So even after we ran through all of those spring shows, there’s still plenty still to talk about in March and early April here. So here’s some of the shows that we think you should know about or maybe see in no particular order. So Tony, you want to kick it off?

Toni Tresca (47:37)
Sure, I’m going to kick us off with The Minutes, which is being produced by Open Stage Theatre & Company in Fort Collins. It just opened this weekend, March 22nd, and runs through April 19th. And this is set at a city council meeting where The Minutes are noticeably absent from last week’s meeting. And when a newcomer comes in and starts asking questions, all of the old-timey political power players, it gets intense.

Curious Theater Company just did this and it’s a very wild satire. It’s written by Tracy Letts, who wrote one of my favorite plays of all time, The Bug. And while I don’t think this play is quite as sharp as The Bug, it’s still a whole lot of fun.

Alex Miller (48:23)
It’s a great play. I love the minutes. My first one is Turn to the Screw at the N Center in Colorado Springs. This is up now, ends April 16th. this one is adapted. It’s a, this was a Henry James novel or short story, and it’s adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher. So it’s apparently a terrifying story to celebrate, to separate the ravings of one woman from the horrors of she may or may not have witnessed. So this has Annie Barber who

killed in the Arvada Center’s production of Dracula, a feminine revenge fantasy, really. And she’s, it’s just a two-hander. So Bradley Allen’s czar is the other person in this one. So that’s at the end center and our reviewer April just saw that. we’ll have a review of that up soon.

Toni Tresca (49:09)
The aforementioned National Bohemias, which we mentioned as part of our Spring Theater Preview, is coming to Miners Alley Performing Arts Center March 28th April 20th, and it’s my next pick as a headliner for this week. This is a dark comedy written by a local playwright and it’s making its world premiere at Miners Alley. It follows two estranged brothers who returning to their tiny hometown in the Cheapskate Bay, but they find that their older brother,

has taken their mom out of her care facility and is planning to quote, put an end to her suffering. Legal ramifications, financial implications and family history are all uncovered as is this brother’s true motive. This play is being directed by associate artistic director, Warren Sherrill and I’m looking forward to checking this one out. It sounds like it should be a really dark romp.

Alex Miller (50:04)
Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there

on Friday night at opening as I’m sure you will be and you, National Bohemians is named after a beer, a local beer in that area called National Bohemian and they are gonna, they told me that they will have some of that extracurricular beer there if you wanna dare have it, although they certainly have some much better beers on tap there at Miners Out. I’d more recommend, but the novelty is definitely there, so.

In Longmont, the Longmont Theatre Company is doing a show called The Kitchen Witches and that ends March 30th. So this sounds like just kind of a wacky comedy about two cable access cooking show hostesses who hate each other’s guts or something. So and then they wind up doing something together and it becomes a smash and they have to kind of stick it out. So it sounds like fun.

Toni Tresca (50:47)
Yeah, I really like that play. It’s a the kind of gimmick of the show is it’s the whole play is set during the taping of a cooking show. And so even as things keep going wrong, they have to just plow forward. It’s it’s it’s a lot of fun. Over at the Town Hall Arts Center in Littleton once is running March 28th through April 27th. This musical follows a young Czech woman.

Alex Miller (50:56)
huh.

That does sound like fun.

Toni Tresca (51:14)
who approaches a brokenhearted Irish busker on the streets of Dublin. She’s taken in by his music, most of which he says he wrote for an ex-girlfriend who left him. But when these strangers meet again, they form an unexpected friendship that turns into a creative collaboration that then turns into a very moving love story. So this features all the music from the Oscar award-winning musical of the same name and features a cast of actor, musician. So they’re all playing the instruments live on stage.

Alex Miller (51:44)
great show. I’ve seen it at Miners Halley, saw it at Stage Door, and yeah, maybe I’ll go check this one out too. Next up is Rattle Brain Productions. They do a lot of improv, including they do Santa’s Big Red Sack every year, but they’re doing something now called Ruby and Price Start a Cult. It’ll be at the People’s Building in Aurora, runs through April 6th. An uproarious journey, and it’s a side-splitting quest to turn the mundane into the absurd. you know, this, the

this description on our calendar that we put in from them. breaks our hyperbole rule. And this is the second instance of side splitting in this week’s episode. So Tony, when was the last time you saw a side splitting comedy?

if ever.

Toni Tresca (52:27)
I’m on my side is currently intact. I guess I have to, I think I might be with you and it might be time to retire side splitting from the PR, from the PR words. It doesn’t, what does it mean? Do you really want someone’s side split open? That sounds like it’s going to result in a trip to the hospital and you’re going to get sued.

Alex Miller (52:29)
you

Yeah, what does that mean? I don’t know. Exactly. Yeah,

yeah. sued the theater company because my side split. anyway, but that sounds like fun. And that’s going to be at the People’s Building. It’s a busy, busy place.

Toni Tresca (52:57)
Just make sure that you have your doctor on call in case your side splits.

Alex Miller (53:01)
And your chiropractor for the seats at the people’s building.

Toni Tresca (53:03)
That’s a good point, Alex.

My next headliner is A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at the Arvada Center, running March 28th through May 11th. And this follows Monte Navarro, who discovers that he is in line, albeit distantly, for succession in the Die Swift family. If he can just kill eight people,

He can become the inheritor to all of this money and he plans to do exactly that. So this is a slapstick musical about how Monty kills his way to the top of the Dicequith family.

Alex Miller (53:43)
All right. Well, on the other side of the spectrum, Vintage Theater in their little theater is doing Grand Horizons. It ends April 27th. I think it’s up now. It’s a two-hand, or no, it’s not two-handed. It’s actually got a sizable cast, they’re they’re promoting Deb Persoff, the busy, busy, busy Deb Persoff who seems to be in every play over at Vintage lately. So this is something about, you know,

a woman, older woman, after 50 years of marriage with a shocking divorce announcement, sending her adult children into emotional turmoil. So that’s another play set in a retirement community, Tony.

Toni Tresca (54:20)
It’s been a popular theme as of late. Jukebox for the Algonquin earlier this year, Morning After Grace, and now this. Although guess Morning After Grace wasn’t technically a retirement home.

Alex Miller (54:22)
Yeah.

Well, if you look at, no. Yeah,

it was like an over 55 community or something like that. But yeah, if you look at the average theater audience, maybe you shouldn’t do anything other than retirement.

Toni Tresca (54:44)
My final pick for a headliner this week is Defying Gravity, Bewitching Broadway at the Bocher Concert Hall in Denver.

on March 29th. So this is a concert that features the lineup of songs from Wicked, The Little Mermaid, Phantom of the Opera, Hamilton, and more, all played by the Colorado Symphony. And although I normally wouldn’t include symphonic performances, I figured since it had this Broadway hook, it might appeal to fans on stage.

Alex Miller (55:09)
All right. Well, my last headliner is not necessarily something I would shout out, but I just love the title of this burlesque, the House of Shimmie Shake. It’s Telluride Theatre. It’s got just a couple of performances. Ends March 29th is their annual fundraiser. And Telluride Theatre has a really interesting side story of burlesque. think I think the founder was involved in that in some way. So there’s always some burlesque stuff going on. So they know what they’re doing down there. And this year’s theme is Welcome to Telluride.

Also, I just wanted to give a quick shout out to two of our mountain theaters that have extended shows due to popular demand. So at Breckenridge Backstage Theater, they’ve extended through April 5th, their production of Every Brilliant Thing. And at Theater Silco and Silverthorne, their production of The Book Club Play was also extended through March 30th. So props to those guys. Great to see that the people are.

Getting a seat at some great shows up in Summer County.

Toni Tresca (56:03)
Yeah, it’s clearly people are, they’re hitting the slopes and then hitting the theater.

Alex Miller (56:07)
Yeah, don’t forget your chainmail and shield to fight off the spring break crowds if you do go up there. Yeah.

Toni Tresca (56:13)
Good point, Alex. It’s a pro tip right there.

So that is it for this week’s Headliners. Now we are gonna throw it over to Alex’s interview with Lynn Collins.

Alex Miller (56:25)
Hey, we are here with Lynn Collins, artistic director at the Arvada Center and thanks for being on the podcast, Lynn.

Lynne Collins (56:32)
You are very welcome. Thank you for having me.

Alex Miller (56:34)
Hey, do people mostly say Arvada or Arvada?

Lynne Collins (56:37)
It’s Arvada, like Nevada.

Alex Miller (56:41)
Okay. Yeah,

a lot of people don’t even know that I know Nevada is very particular about that pronunciation. Oh, Nevada. Okay, I will try. I will try very hard to use that pronunciation in the future. So, so it’s great to have you on the pod. think you’re on in July of 2023. Talk to Tony Tresca. So thanks for being back here. It’s kind of a big, big news week, I guess. It’s just announced the new season for

Lynne Collins (56:46)
Yes, and so is Arvada if you’re one of those folks, they get very mad when they hear Arvada. Arvada.

Alex Miller (57:08)
The Arvada Center in its 50th season. So wow, that’s that’s quite a quite a run.

Lynne Collins (57:14)
That is, that’s a long darn time.

Alex Miller (57:17)
Yeah, so you joined the Arvada Center in 2016 as director of plays and then you became artistic director, was it 21?

Lynne Collins (57:24)
I became artistic director of both spaces in 21, yes.

Alex Miller (57:30)
And so what’s the difference between director of plays and artistic director?

Lynne Collins (57:35)
Well, the way we used to be organized was the artistic director, Rod Lansbury had done both Black Box and then musicals. And then the organization made a change and split those two. So Rod continued being artistic director in the main stage for musicals. And I was hired to create a kind of a new program in the Black Box to kind of focus on.

on plays. And then when Rod left, he retired and they asked me to take over the whole thing under one umbrella.

Alex Miller (58:12)
Okay, I do

remember most of that. just wasn’t sure about the nomenclature. So that makes a lot of sense. well, so I’m just gonna hit so real quick. The next season coming up is going to be the Mouse Trap in September directed by you Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill directed by Lady Robertson in later. Oops.

Lynne Collins (58:30)
No. Directed

by Christopher Page Sanders, Lainey Robertson is the playwright. They must have gotten that wrong. I’ll call them.

Alex Miller (58:35)
Okay, let me do that. No, no, no,

no, that was my fault. I was just editing it a little bit. and then Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill by Lainey Roberts and directed by Christopher, Robert Michael Sanders. Page Sanders, Robert Page Sanders? Christ, my God, I’m getting confused with of Robert Michael Sanders over at Town Hall.

Lynne Collins (58:41)
okay.

Paige Sanders.

Christopher Page Sanders. Yes, exactly.

Alex Miller (59:01)
Okay, and then Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill by Lainey Robinson, directed by Christopher Page Sanders, and that’ll be in later September into November. The big musical Disney’s Frozen November into January directed by the great Kenny Moten. And then you’re you’re directing Romeo and Juliet in the Black Box Theater in February into March. And then it’ll wrap up the season with Come From Away at the Main Stage, another Kenny Moten directed

show March 27th through May 10th. So wow, it’s a neat lineup. It’s kind of a good mix of some more, a little more challenging stuff and also some of the more popular things. So the Mousetrap is obviously is just such a classic title. It’s a show that’s been seen by millions of people. It was one of the longest shows, show runs of all time, right?

Lynne Collins (59:51)
They say the longest running play anywhere ever is, don’t know quite how they count that, but that’s the London production has that.

Alex Miller (59:57)
huh. Yeah.

So what did what was behind picking that one? Why did you want to direct that?

Lynne Collins (1:00:04)
I wanted to do something in the 50th anniversary that was a nod to the last 50 years, a remount of something. And the Mousetrap had been one of the most popular plays we’ve ever done in the 50 years of the Arvada Center. So it seemed like a good choice to remount that, to sort of do a nod to kind of classic, old school.

Alex Miller (1:00:12)
Right.

Lynne Collins (1:00:31)
that one of the kinds of things that Arvada is particularly skilled at bringing to life these kind of plays.

Alex Miller (1:00:42)
And is that in the big theater? Okay. Okay. And then Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill I’m not familiar with. What’s that one about?

Lynne Collins (1:00:43)
That’s on MainState,

Lady Day is, they call it a play with music. It’s sort of a hybrid musical play with music. It is basically a kind of a fictional retelling of one of Billie Holiday’s final concerts, final performances, not a concert, in a small bar and sort of the end of her career where she’s struggling a lot with her

her addictions and just the traumas of her life, which were many. And so it’s her singing all of her sort of classic, amazing standards, as well as talking about her life, her career, her experiences. So it’ll be pretty immersive. There’ll be cabaret tables, bistro tables, where she’ll interact with a…

part of the audience is sort of in the club and part of the audience is just a traditional sort of theater audience. So that you’ll make that choice when you buy your ticket, which experience you want. And it’s her in a small combo, just singing and talking about her life through, especially a lot about her experiences in the South.

Alex Miller (1:01:55)
Uh-huh.

Lynne Collins (1:02:08)
being one of the few white performers who, I mean, black performers who ever performed with a white band and the experiences she had on the road with a white band. And she’s beautiful. And I worship her as a singer and as just an icon of a very important time in American history.

Alex Miller (1:02:27)
And she did have that really troubled, troubled past as her career really kind of fizzled, but she still kept performing no matter how the size of the venue.

Lynne Collins (1:02:34)
Yeah, and sounded

great until the end of her life, even though you know when she was offstage, life was.

Alex Miller (1:02:40)
Right. So you did the cabaret style thing last year with Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet. And how was the audience response to that? Did they enjoy that kind of thing?

Lynne Collins (1:02:49)
really good. It was one of those things where we programmed it not knowing how it would go over at all. It was a bit of a shot in the dark because it wasn’t very typical of what we do. It it sold amazingly well. The audience response was great. Couldn’t have been happier with how it turned out, both the quality, I thought it was a really good show and audiences really enjoyed it. This will be a little bit more

It’s not completely immersive. It’s not, you know, actors up in your face everywhere and all that. It’s much more like a club, like going to a nightclub.

Alex Miller (1:03:30)
All right.

Well, the next one Disney’s Frozen you can’t go wrong with that in terms of a crowd pleaser bringing all the families in and it’s such a great show and of course Kenny Mott and a great director to manage that one. You know I’m trying to remember have there been other non-Broadway touring versions of Frozen that have come through?

Lynne Collins (1:03:35)
you

No,

it’s, they’ve taken it off tour for the way I understand it is they, they, they do this sometimes where they’ll pull it off tour for like a year. And in that, in that little window, they’ll give regional theaters the opportunity. So we got the regional production, the regional, regional theater premiere of, of, of the play they gave, they gave it to us. And

they’ll probably pull the rights again and take it back on tour. That’s kind of the thing they do. So we got a little window that they made it available and we felt like we should jump on it in spite of its many challenges.

Alex Miller (1:04:33)
Yes, that is a

huge shared amount. So I’m sure it is Brian doing the set.

Lynne Collins (1:04:38)
Brian Mulgrave is designing the set and one of the interesting side note is Disney requires approval of basic set and costume design concepts in order to grant you the rights that Disney’s Disney’s Disney. So he designed did his basic design work many, many, months ago. And this costume designer, Emily Valley did basic.

sketches many, many months ago to get approval, which we have now from Disney. They’re very persnickety about these, about they don’t want it to look exactly like them, but they want it to be on brand. So it’s, it’s a tricky line.

Alex Miller (1:05:21)
sense. I mean, Brian’s just been just on fire in the last couple of years with all of us sets around town and especially Yeah, so looking looking forward to bringing my granddaughters to that one. That’s one of their favorite shows. And then going back in time again to Romeo and Juliet. This will be in the black box theater directed by you of all the Shakespeare’s. Why this one?

Lynne Collins (1:05:27)
Yeah, we are so lucky to have him. He is such a gift.

Ha ha ha!

A couple of reasons. We very rarely have done in our 50 years Shakespeare. So this is sort of another kind of 50th anniversary nod to a place in theater history where we have not gone very often. And we did a midsummer that got shut down by COVID. I think it performed maybe four times before COVID hit. It was a gorgeous production that nobody ever saw.

Alex Miller (1:06:09)
Yeah.

Lynne Collins (1:06:13)
So we haven’t done much Shakespeare. So I really wanted to do that. I really wanted to do something that would appeal to school groups, to younger audiences. I’m a big believer in, you know, the reason Shakespeare survives in part is not studying Shakespeare in class, which often I think kills it, but seeing Shakespeare done well in a theater. I always, I consider that an important thing.

that theater makers should do. Romeo and Juliet specifically because I want to look at it in terms of not so much the love story as the story of violence and patriarchy and inability to forgive and connect and find peace as a way that societies destroy themselves and destroy their youths, obviously thinking about

our current world. And just, I’m very interested in the sort of patriarchal, violent sort of way this world works that makes it impossible for these young people to find love or joy or anything. So I’m really, it’s a small cast, eight actors playing all the roles. It’ll be very, very modern sort of youth focused.

and an attempt to remind ourselves that Shakespeare speaks to us when sometimes it’s hard for us to speak about what’s going on in our world.

Alex Miller (1:07:50)
Right, yeah, and in that smaller theater, that should be a really cool experience. And honestly, I don’t, if I’ve ever seen Romeo and Juliet, it was so long ago, I don’t even remember. So, looking forward to that one. And then the season wraps up in March into May with another Kenny Mountain directed show, Come From Away. So this is kind of a, well, it’s not kind of, it’s a 9-11 story about these planes that landed in.

Lynne Collins (1:07:53)
Yeah, hope so. I’m excited about it.

Alex Miller (1:08:15)
Canada when they couldn’t land in the US and it’s a really unusual musical but really kind of moving and what was the decision behind that one to pick it?

Lynne Collins (1:08:26)
That was another one when we got the opportunity to do the regional premiere. It was done up in Aspen, it hasn’t been done in the Denver metro area except for the Broadway tours. So I was excited about that. I’m always really excited about work that our audiences might, unless they happen to catch it at the Buell, wouldn’t have seen. I love the play. We talk about it a lot, not as a 9-11 play, but as a 9-12 play.

that it’s very much, it’s really not about what happened on 9-11. It’s about how humans are able to rise to an occasion and create community and be kind and loving. One of the things I love about this story is it was 7,000 people landed in this tiny town of Gander, which had a population smaller than that. And…

38 planes from all over the world. there’s people who don’t speak English, people who are, you know, long way away from home in the middle of this crisis. And kind of in comparison to the Romeo and Juliet, which I’m thinking about in terms of what we do wrong as a people, as a human race, for me come from a way along with beautiful music and amazing storytelling is about what we can do right. How we can take a

bad situation and salvage it with love and open hearts. So that’s why it appeals to me so very much.

Alex Miller (1:10:02)
Yeah, that seems like a really good message for these days when it seems like we’re on the low road to hear it’s kind of that high road story is great. great, well, that’s a pretty lively season. And I was reading the press release about the new season and you’re quoted saying that the audience is the real magic of live theater, which was certainly true for a lot of people. But how’s your understanding of that audience performer?

theater relationship evolved in recent years especially sort of in this before and after pandemic time.

Lynne Collins (1:10:35)
Well, I guess it’s, I mean, it has changed in so far as I think people’s behaviors in public spaces generally has changed. Not unique to live theater in any way. A little bit more kind of reluctance in public spaces, sometimes a little less sort of, I don’t know, ability to accommodate the fact that when you’re in a live space, other people exist and you have to accommodate all their.

their humanness. But it’s my belief, it’s why I do live theater as opposed to any other career that I could have chosen in my life is that on those, in those magical moments, those really great moments, which is not every night, every show, every season even, where you get that feeling of just kind of breathing together with others, sharing an experience, sharing an emotional journey. I think it’s transformative in our

kind of soul somebody and I can’t remember who I I’ve steal the quote and I can’t remember the quote was close to the great empathy factory that it that the nature of live performers live audience that sort of sharing of of space can create a feeling of empathy that is is harder I think to in our in our modern world to to find so that all that

And it still exists in audiences. It’s changed and we still haven’t quite, we still don’t quite understand the changes fully. don’t think we’re, I think every performance organization is still trying to figure that out.

Alex Miller (1:12:13)
Yeah, yeah, we talk a lot about it on the podcast when we’re just kind of discussing the challenges that the theater faces and, you know, things like, you know, there was just a story in the New York Times the other day about how Boleting Holes will spend, you know, unbelievable amounts of money to go see one concert. But you tell them it’s, you know, 50, 75 bucks to go see a play and they’re like, oh, what? I’m just going to watch Netflix. know, that mentality is something to confront. So I also wanted to ask you, like,

Have you thought about, and I’m sure you have, about how to get that next generation of theater goers, those younger people interested in theater?

Lynne Collins (1:12:46)
Yes, think about it all the time. And we always are looking at at least a portion of our season leaning into that. think Comet did that for sure, like all of our demographic information that we collected after Great Comet was that audience skewed much younger. Dracula last year audience screwed much younger. it’s we’re not doing it. We’re not.

making huge seismic shifts to how we program so much as just finding a couple of titles a year that we hope start getting younger audiences engaging in theater again. It’s a fact that every generation, I am old and I’ve been doing this a long time and we have been having the argument, the conversation and that concern and the.

struggle with how do you get younger people into the theater as long as I’ve been doing it. And my guess is as long as theaters existed. It is to some degree an art form because it’s a little more expensive because it’s a little bit more of a commitment of, you know, specific time and place that tends to be appealing to a slightly older audience. People who maybe have a little bit more disposable money aren’t dealing with, you know, babysitters and all that.

And that’s just a fact of theater and that’s fine. But I do think, I think there’s been a seismic shift, a bigger shift probably than in my lifetime in terms of the way entertainment is delivered to us now that we have not come to terms with in life theater. I don’t know, one of the things I take some heart in is…

There’s a lot of move in this generation of, I can never remember who’s X and who’s Y and all that, but this sort of 30 year olds in that general world, sort of my own children, a real appeal towards certain kinds of retro, like flip phones, people want them again, and this kind of hipster retro kind of thing. I keep thinking maybe theater will become a little retro.

Alex Miller (1:14:54)
Yeah.

Lynne Collins (1:15:01)
You know, that there’s a moment in time where younger audiences are like, that’s cool. And not what we were spoon fed growing up since these kids grew up on screens. That maybe that starts to step in more, I don’t know. I don’t know. It is a long journey and it is a generational journey. When I retire and a new generation of leadership takes over, they will be having the same conversations.

Alex Miller (1:15:15)
screens. Yeah.

Lynne Collins (1:15:30)
I’m curious to see where it goes. I don’t believe you can.

you can create an interest in something that people don’t have an interest in, right? You just put it there, you know, it’s the sort of, you build it, they will come sort of thing. You do good work that you hope speaks to universal experiences. And the dream is that audiences of all ages and ethnicities and, you know, demographics find you. That’s the dream.

Alex Miller (1:15:59)
Mm hmm.

Yeah, that retro thing is really interesting because, know, we talk a lot about, you know, there’s a lot of talk about loneliness and how people are, you know, more likely to stay home and the need for that third place. And, you know, what is that thing that’s going to come back? I sometimes wonder, like, is the Elks Lodge going to get popular again? You know, types of, you know, social clubs, things like that, you know, where people realize it’s really fun to be around other people in the same place. And it seems like theater would be, you know, kind of tailor made to that in terms of

Lynne Collins (1:16:16)
You

Alex Miller (1:16:27)
creating more of an experience. So it’s not just the titles. And have you guys talked about like that experience of going to the show other than having a bar or whatever else? Like what else can you do?

Lynne Collins (1:16:38)
Yeah, mean, think we certainly saw that in Great Comet that I think the appeal and we had tons of return visitors and all of that because it was a little more experiential. Again, there, you know, I think next season, Lady Day and Romeo and Juliet, I think will both have elements of something that feels a little bit more experiential. It’s trickier in our main stage because the nature of its layout, you know, it’s not.

intimate. And it doesn’t really open itself up to that very well. And in terms of the sort of, you know, those theaters that have like, always, you know, there are certain theaters that have the kind of cool bar as part of you come early and have a drink in their groovy bar and, and hang out and stuff, our real estate just doesn’t have it. We just don’t have that, that space, particularly we talk about, you know, creating it at some point in time, but it

it currently doesn’t really exist in our footprint.

Alex Miller (1:17:40)
All right, well, yeah, big questions for longer conversations that we’ll continue to have on the podcast. But Lynn Collins, Artistic Director at the Arvada Center, thanks so much for being on the pod. And just before you go, I want to remind people that, you know, this new season starts in September, but right now Clyburn Park is still up through March 30th. And also a show I’m really looking forward to, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, will start March 28th into May. And then Lyle the Crocodile for the Kittos, starting in April.

into May. So all kinds of good stuff coming up at the Arvada Center. Did I say Arvada earlier? Sorry. Sorry. Okay. All right. Well, Lynn, thanks so much for being on and Rick likes with everything going on there and we hope to see you at the theater soon.

Lynne Collins (1:18:14)
You did it. You got it.

Great, thanks so much, Alex.

Alex Miller (1:18:24)
All right.

Toni Tresca (1:18:26)
That was a great conversation. It’s always really enlightening to hear about the processes involved in creating a theater company season.

Alex Miller (1:18:34)
It really is. I mean, a lot of thought goes into it. And even if you look at that lineup and think, well, that’s not exactly groundbreaking, you know, I think she had a pretty good, pretty good tale to tell about each of them. So, yeah, what else is new or coming up on the site is reviews, including the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime from yours truly downstate, which our reviewer, Tammy Matthews just loved that curious life of five from

you’re our friend here, Tony, The Ever After from me, Turn of the Screw from April at down in Colorado Springs. And then we’ll have a review of the minutes at Open Stage as well as Putnam County, Putnam, Spelling Bee, et cetera, from family up here pretty soon.

Toni Tresca (1:19:15)
Yeah, and next week on the podcast, we are gonna have your interview with Lynn Mathieu and Luke Sorhey to talk about Luke’s new play, National Bohemians. So, what did you guys chat about?

Alex Miller (1:19:26)
Well, we started by me making sure that I was pronouncing Len’s last name correct, because I’ve heard people say Mathéo and Mateo. And after we established that, I said Luke Sorg, or Sorge, and then I had to go through getting his name pronounced correctly. it’s Luke, is it Sorge or Sor-hey? One of those two. But anyway, so yeah, we had a lot of fun talking about Luke’s new play, National Bohemians, which has actually been kind of on the burner for several years. I think it was interrupted by some other

Other things like theaters closing, maybe pandemics, things like that. So sounds like a lot of fun. It’s a really fun conversation. So definitely check that out. So yeah, if you want to stay up to date on what’s going on in theater and some comedy venues, some music across the state, subscribe to the OnStage Colorado Theater Blast Newsletter, which comes out every Thursday except last week.

Toni Tresca (1:19:57)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And if you like what we’re doing here on the podcast, just consider leaving a review wherever you’re listening now and tell the other theater lovers in your life about what we’re doing here.

Alex Miller (1:20:24)
Yeah, well, I know it’s a if you made it this far, thanks for listening to all this stuff. But really, it’s exciting to just see how much live theater is going on. It’s like everybody wants to the ring the death knell of theater. But, you know, maybe not everyone’s getting rich, but they’re certainly out there doing a lot of theater and lots of good theater. So that’s all for this week. Thanks so much. Thanks so much for listening. Alex Miller.

Toni Tresca (1:20:31)
Mm-hmm.

and I’m Tony Tresca and we’ll see you at the show.