Christi Esterle - Page 2

Her name was Lee Joseph. She passed away in 2013 at the age of 96, after what was in every sense of the term a full life. She hung around with the sort of people who got called before the HUAC, was married for a time to Arthur Herzog, Jr. (who co-wrote the Billie Holliday standard 'God Bless the Child'), and was an activist up through the later days of her life, when she marched in Occupy Wall Street protests. And she served as the basis for Vera, the punchy nonagenarian at the center of her granddaughter Amy Herzog's play 4000 Miles, now in its Colorado debut at the Fine Arts Center.

'What does it mean?'

Like its title character, Tilly has some flaws to work through but a good heart.

It's not Mary Poppins; it's Mary Jane.

Springs Ensemble tells a sweet, sad story of isolation in the age of mass communication.

The audience sits on either side of a shared backyard flanked by two houses. At first glance structurally identical, closer examination revels distinct differences. One house has a clean patio set, new curtains, and a well-tended window box of flowers. The other shows obvious signs of neglect: peeling paint, dead grass, a rusty charcoal grill tucked away in a corner.

The most successful production in Fine Arts Center history is also its most ambitious.

Take a trip back to the golden era when thrilling radio drama ruled the airwaves. It was a time of thrilling adventures, chilling suspense, and fast-pasted comic banter. A time when men were men, women were dames, and nobody complained if a baby was a cigarette mascot.

You'd think a play called Psycho Beach Party would be a little more, well....crazy. But Charles Busch's affectionate parody of 1960s beach movies seldom seems more unhinged than the cheerful teen romps it draws inspiration from. Oh, it's not all sun and fun in the sand, to be sure. There's a fair amount of sexual kink, a domineering mother who could give Margaret White a run for her money, and revelations of a tragic past, but it all feels so light. The poster for the Theatreworks production, featuring a knife-wielding beach bunny, promises a gruesome good time that the play never really delivers.

Just in time for Halloween, Fine Arts Center brings some old-fashioned horror to the stage.

Shrek doesn't seem like the song-and-dance type, but Inspire Creative has fun with him anyway.

The Ludlow Massacre isn't discussed much in schools, but this collaboration between Theatreworks and The LIDA Project gives ample reason why it should be.

When did simple differences of opinion become so contentious?

Theatreworks' current Shakespeare in the Park production exudes warmth, love, and triumph over adversity--both onstage and off.

If you missed Once when it was at the Denver Center last month, then Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky is probably an acceptable substitute. Like the Tony-winning musical, Floyd and Clea centers around two characters who form a bond through music and end up transforming each other's lives.

The history of 'the butler did it' as a mystery plot device is filled with old-fashioned classism. To proponents of the trope, it was a great twist; who would suspect the servant, a person who ideally is supposed to be invisible? Others, such as S.S. Van Dine, considered it too easy a solution-because of course the lower tiers of the social order would be the logical place for such a culprit. In any case, the notion was already a hoary old cliche by the 1930s, when Todd Wallinger's The Butler Did It! is set-so much so that it's practically the first thing brought up between butler Jenkins and maid Sarah when discussing the popular mystery writer about to descend upon their household.

Forever Plaid has what is probably my favorite premise for a revue show: on February 9th, 1964, a close-harmony quartet called Forever Plaid is on their way to their first big show when their car crashes with a bus and all four members are killed. (The bus was transporting a group of schoolgirls to see the Beatles perform on Ed Sullivan, a symbol of the shifting music paradigm that was already rendering the Plaids' sound obsolete.) Now, years later, the alignment of the planets and other vague metaphysical forces have arranged for the group to finish their earthly business and perform their first-and last-concert before heading to the great beyond.