In a world brimming with so much cynicism, now more than ever people occasionally need the kind of charming, guileless sentimentality offered up by shows like The Drowsy Chaperone. Though it first hit Broadway in 2006, aside from its meta-structure The Drowsy Chaperone feels like it could easily be a product of the Jazz Age.]]> The year is 2243. The Philadelphia Eagles have just won their first Super Bowl. And much to everyone’s surprise, God himself decides to take a leisurely stroll down 5th Avenue in New York City (now known as Little Beijing) with his arm ensconced firmly in the backside of the corpse of Charles Darwin.]]> Do you enjoy plays or musicals (Sure, we all do!) but can never convince your husband, wife, lover, son, daughter, friend, co-worker or mail delivery person to join you for a show? Well, if that husband, wife, lover, son, daughter, friend, co-worker or mail delivery person is a baseball fan, you may finally be in luck because The Catch.]]> It’s a testament to the playwright, cast and director of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s Noises Off that something as subtle as a missed stage direction can become a hilarious running joke in a play.]]> An ambitious project, Women of Will examines Shakespeare’s evolution as a writer through the prism of his female characters. It is not one play but actually five distinct plays that span Shakespeare’s entire folio in chronological order. ]]> A fierce and earthy Carmen stalks the stage at the Central City Opera this summer. Director Daniel’s Pelzig’s production of Bizet’s ever-popular opera, starring mezzo Kirstin Chávez in the title role, opened the CCO’s diverse 2011 season June 25. There are eight more performances through the last day of the season, Aug. 7.]]> In fact, it amuses me to no end that some of the material on their website (particularly the description of Penumbra in the Garden of Twilight’s Cucumbers, the fictional play they’d intended to produce before settling on Delirium Tremens) and in the program so far exceeds in cleverness and craft the dialogue in Delirium Tremens itself.]]> You would not expect to meet Aunt Eller and Curly, two of the homespun characters of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic American musical Oklahoma!, at the opera house. But up in Central City this summer, that’s exactly where they are.]]> Put the name of Quebec billionaire Guy Laliberté, the mercurial founder of Cirque du Soleil, into YouTube, and the first result isn’t circus-related but a six-and-a-half-minute clip from a high-stakes game of Texas Hold ’em.]]> Remembering the spirit of Christmas can get difficult when parking lot road rage and wrestling over smartphones overtake Santa and good cheer.]]> Even if you are a Dawkins-lovin’, God-mockin’, card-carryin’ atheist, the odds are that during your youth you spent some time in and around a church or synagogue.]]> For 35 years, Philip Sneed has been hearing that the theater is dying as quickly as its gray-haired audience. ]]> So, you owe me. Yes, you, the reader of this review who will not have to endure the gastronomical atrocities that I, Christ-like, have suffered for thee. Before you start flipping pages or reviewing the table of contents, this is not a restaurant review.]]> Founded just five years ago, BETC immediately announced itself as an up-and-comer to be watched. BETC quickly proved its worth by choosing challenging, enlivening material and producing it deftly and successfully. It is happily and without hesitation then that I declare BETC to be one of the absolute best theater companies working in Boulder today.]]> Christmas time is again upon us. Depending on your orientation, it is a time for celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, a time for jubilant gift-giving in the name of secular bonhomie or a time to get all Grinch green in the gills and decry every thought and action of anyone subscribing to either of the first two groups.]]> Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island rounds out the CSF’s 2012 season. It shares Mary Rippon outdoor theatre space with Twelfth Night and Richard III, so its set can sprawl and the action on it flow fast and furious. ]]> After the rather lackluster The Other Place, the usually metronomically reliable Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (BETC) comes back strong with Bach at Leipzig. If you enjoyed the movie Amadeus — and if you haven’t seen that film I can’t recommend it enough — you’ll revel in this jaunty, cheeky, fictionalized look at the cutthroat competition to assume one of the highest posts in the rarified world of music in Germany circa 1722.]]> This charming, hilarious, often touching play deserves to be sold out for the rest of its run. It is by far the best LTC production I have ever seen, and it stands toe-to-toe with the finest “major league” shows in Denver — or anywhere else along the Front Range — in the recent past.]]> After an extremely abbreviated amount of Internet-based research, I am guessing that, unfortunately, Mr. Sheen had nothing to do with the titular modification. (Regardless, Go Team Crazy!) According to the Inter-webs, this bingo-centric play is commonly referred to as Bingo: The Winning Musical, Bingo: The Musical.]]> For troupes like Playback Theatre West, audience participation isn’t about who can shout their ridiculous word loudest. Audience members are instead invited to share personal stories for actors to interpret on stage.]]>