“Chess” is tactical, at times complicated, but rewarding
For those who play the game, chess is at times intense and overly complicated but in the end it is always rewarding and the same holds true for the Arvada Center production of Chess, the musical. This freshly renovated version of the musical, gutted of much of its satirical focus on the game of chess...
Xana-who? Xanadu…FOOL!
The title doesn’t ring a bell? Let me refresh your memory. You probably remember how Olivia Newton-John, the pert, wholesome pop thrush, rocketed to film stardom opposite John Travolta in the Hollywood version of the musical “Grease.” That was in 1978. A mere two years later she roller-skated into oblivion — or at least back to Australia —...
Missing American Idiot would be Idiotic
American Idiot has something its taboo-baiting predecessors didn’t: an already-smash soundtrack courtesy of Green Day, the Bay Area band largely responsible for taking punk rock from the snarling, safety-pinned fringes to the multiplatinum mainstream over the past two decades. The surprise in this fast-moving 90-minute spectacle (originated at California’s Berkeley Rep) isn’t seeing a genre...
An “Earnest” You Can’t Live Without…
Oscar Wilde’s 1895 comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, now playing at the Arvada Center, is a delicious piece of writing — a verbal playground you wouldn’t want to add a single word to or subtract a single word from. Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean it can’t be compromised by a less-than-perfect production. Luckily, this new mounting,...
DCTC’s “The Whale” is well…HEAVY
Imagine if you woke up to suddenly find, you are nearly 500 lbs. That’s basically what happens to Charlie in the Denver Center Theatre Company production of The Whale. Sure it doesn’t happen overnight but after the loss of his partner, Charlie eats. Then he eats some more. The Whale is both fast and slow...
A funny thing about “A Funny Thing…”
All roads led to Rome on Saturday for a night of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum“ at Town Hall Theatre. The Littleton production of this classic musical comedy is here in for a limited engagement with local actor, Scott McLean in the role of Pseudolus. Inspired by the farces of the...
Ross Lekites: A Jet Side Story
Boys meets girl, they fall in love and have a life full of happiness, it’s simple. Wrong. If you’re name is Tony and you’re a part of the Jets, this is certainly not the case. You are bound to face trials, tribulation and whole gang of trouble…literally. 303 Magazine caught up with Ross Lekites, the...
Michelle Aravena: A Shark Side Story
Before she was high-kicking as a Sharkette, listing the possibilities in America and warning poor Maria to “stick to her own kind”, Michelle Aravena was just a regular girl like everyone else. She still is just a regular girl but now she’s also a leading lady in one of Broadway’s most timeless productions. 303 Magazine...
The 1940′s Radio Hour: Jazzy, Fun & Full of Christmas Warmth
The 1940’s Radio Hour depicts the December 21st, 1942 broadcast of the NYC based weekly variety show. We as the studio audience are invited to applaud and cheer when necessary as all the backstage drama and on stage performances unfold right before our eyes. As with any variety show, the performers are a rather eclectic...
Stage Door: Blind Date
Mythology describes muses as women who inspire creativity. So who knows when Thalia, the muse of comedy, set forth to inspire Rebecca Northan. Blind Date is so seemingly simple but so brilliant when you take the time to break down how much effort is actually necessary to make a production of this nature succeed. The...
Stage Door: Hair
Hair is back and more relevant than ever, much to director Diane Paulus’ simple yet inspired direction that doesn’t take the musical on any ironic, modern angle, but lays it bare as a look back in history to the times when a generation of change was still possible.
The original Hair was produced forty years...
Stage Door: Billy Elliot, chatting with Susie McMonagle
Billy Elliot might just be the hottest musical touring the nation these days. I mean who doesn’t want to watch in awe as 13-year-old dancing phenomenon, Billy Elliot flies up into the sky spinning and twirling with ease and dances almost effortlessly across the stage each night. If anything it’s enough to just make your flat-out jealous. The...
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