Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

BORNSTEIN: The year in Denver Theater

By Lisa Bornstein, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 22, 2007 at 8:11 p.m.

Text size  

With far more than 100 plays reviewed in the Rocky Mountain News, 2007 threatens to become a blur. And then, poking through clotted memory, come the shining moments that refuse to be banished. Here, in ranking order, are the top 10 local productions of the year, and heartfelt thanks to those who made them.

1 1001, Denver Center Theatre Company: Theater can be thoughtful or moving or inspiring. Jason Grote's play made it thrilling. Premiering in Denver last winter before moving to New York in the fall, Grote's script (brilliantly directed by Ethan McSweeney) spun from the tales of Scheherezade into a fantasia combining contemporary politics with the ancient Middle East, laden with dance music and anachronistic comedy. In a kaleidoscope of sensation, it showed what theater can do better than anything else.

2 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Paragon Theatre: Director Warren Sherrill showed proper respect for and comprehension of Edward Albee's dizzyingly verbal dark comedy. With Ed Cord and Barbra Andrews as able backup players, Martha Harmon Pardee and Sam Gregory faced off, and the audience won.

3 The Diary of Anne Frank, Denver Center Theatre Company: DCTC brought new life to this story with Wendy Kesselman's new adaptation. A cast led by Aya Cash as Anne and directed by Paul Mason Barnes conveyed the claustrophobia and humanity of hiding from the Nazis. It also gave us a visceral feel for the terror, sorrow and anger that took up residence in that annex.

4 Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Paragon Theatre Company: Terrence McNally's romantic comedy, directed by Michael Stricker, was surprisingly moving. Emily Paton Davies played the bristling, frightened woman, trying her hardest to resist love from the wide-open Johnny (Tom Borrillo). The result demonstrated how many ways lonely people have to push others away.

5 How I Learned to Drive, Curious Theatre Company: To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Curious restaged its inaugural production with almost the entire original cast. It has improved with age; Paula Vogel's script and Chip Walton's direction combined in searing (and searingly funny) drama with C. Kelly Leo aging from 12 to her mid-30s and Paul Borrillo as the strangely sympathetic uncle who molests her. It was the most unsettling night of theater this season.

6 You Can't Take It With You, Denver Center Theatre Company: Three acts of madcap joy were delivered by this 70-year-old play. In the hand of Penny Metropulos, the Kaufman and Hart comedy was a breeze, a stylish screwball that avoided being a museum piece. At the heart of the tornado was Randy Moore as Grandpa.

7 Pure Confidence, Denver Center Theatre Company: Carlyle Brown has made a career of bringing drama and nuance to black history. With Pure Confidence, he told the little- known story of black jockeys before and after the Civil War. Rather than a history lesson, he produced fully realized characters in a production that balanced multiple themes and allowed romance, economics and cruelty to coexist on a single stage.

8 Our Town, PHAMALy: The troupe of disabled actors staged the first nonmusical in its history. Steve Wilson and Nicholas Sugar showed their artistic vision and gift for working with often-inexperienced actors. The result was a subtle, sensitive and often humorous play that showcased the group's best work and touched the heart.

9 A Year With Frog and Toad, Aurora Fox: It's not easy for children's theater to make it into a best-of list, but this musical based on the illustrated stories made it as much fun for adults to watch the children watching the show as it did for the kids just watching. Michael E. Gold and Scott McLean were a perfectly complementary, yin-and-yang pair of pals; seeing the show was like drinking a Coke with sugar after years of corn syrup.

10 Evita, Country Dinner Playhouse: This isn't a run-of-the- show award. Rather, it's for a single performance given in the parking lot of the dinner theater the night after it closed. Performers, staff and crew had been suddenly, shockingly locked out of the building without warning. But they weren't going home that easily. Rather, under cold and rainy skies dancers tossed one another across the asphalt. It was the kind of night that makes you believe not just in the power of theater, but in the power of the people who make it.