John Ashton has sold operational control of the Avenue Theatre, which he has owned since 1990, back to Robert Wells, who founded the company in 1986. Wells takes over with Saturday’s opening of the comedy “Parallel Lives,” starring Pam Clifton and Beth Flynn.
Ashton moved the Avenue to its current downtown location in August 2003, opening a sparkling 96-seat, three-sided gem in a space he rents at 417 E. 17th Ave. He has enjoyed commercial and critical successes, notably “Metamorphoses,” which ran for more than seven months and won the Denver Post Ovation Award for best drama.
Wells, who has sought a space of his own for three years, will be sole owner of the business thanks to a Colorado Enterprise Loan. The Avenue’s current loan with the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development will transfer to Wells.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but Ashton put $175,000 into opening the new space, and said he walks away debt-free. He said the business “always has been totally current on all of our financial obligations,” and that while debt played no part in his decision, the constancy of financial pressures did. Still, he freely admits, “the decision was probably more gut-level than intellectually reasoned.
“I was getting burned out on producing theater with almost no staff and high overhead, and it was starting to gnaw at me considerably,” Ashton said on a conference call with Wells, who then joked, “Well, after what John just said, I’m not sure I want to go ahead with this after all.”
Actually Wells plans to go full-speed ahead with main- stage theater, late-night entertainment, weeknight programming, improv comedy classes, a weekly political musical revue, lunchtime comedy and a full children’s theater slate beginning in the fall. The Avenue also will give Wells a base for his Chicken Lips Comedy Theatre company, which presents workshops and customized entertainment for schools and corporate organizations around the world.
“The key to making this work is just a matter of using the space daily in whatever way we can,” said Wells. One immediate candidate for late-night programming is Nick Sugar’s “The Rocky Horror Show.” Sugar is talking to several producers, and said Thursday the Avenue is “a major contender.”
Wells joined the Bonfils Theatre as an actor in 1973 and was named resident director in 1982. Ashton, a former theater critic, met Wells when writing about Wells’ 1980 Bonfils production of “Isadora Duncan Sleeps With the Russian Navy.” Ashton later joined Chicken Lips, and together the pair wrote the audience-participation murder mystery “Murder Most Fowl,” which they have performed regularly at the Avenue for 17 years.
Ashton said he probably never was meant to be a businessman and is happy to focus on the creative side of things. He will direct next fall at the Aurora Fox, and will remain active with the Avenue as an actor and director.
“It’ll be about the same … without the headaches,” he said. But his immediate plan?
“To take a nap.”
“Brooklyn” to tour
The Denver-born Broadway tuner “Brooklyn the Musical’ was shut out of last week’s Tony nominations, but director-producer Jeff Calhoun is undaunted. He plans a 60-city tour next year, 45 of which already are booked.
For now, Denver is not on the itinerary. Randy Weeks, president of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, said it’s unlikely it will be. “But they broke through the (bad) reviews and found an audience, so who knows?” he said.
Briefly …
Grand Junction’s Cabaret Dinner Theatre gets a jump on the Arvada Center on Friday when it becomes the first company in the nation to open a locally mounted production of “The Full Monty” (877-255-0999). The Arvada Center’s opens June 28 (720-898-7200). …
Denver natives Chuck and Jeff LaGreca bring a sanitized version of their quirky comedy theater to the Nickelodeon TV network 3-5 p.m. MDT Thursday as guests on the “U Pick Live.” “We will be doing all sorts of wacky high jinks throughout those two hours, so all of our regularly crass naughty humor will be null and void,” said Chuck, who performs with his brother as Minimum Wage in New York. …
Jo Anne Lamun, producer of Boulder’s Peanut Butters Players professional children’s theater school, has acquired the 1.3 acres of property where her new $4.6 million Harlequin Center for the Performing Arts will be built next year in south Lafayette. “It’s been a long six months of waiting, but it is finally settled, and we are moving to the next stage,” Lamun said of a facility that will include 500- and 250-seat theaters. …
Patty Kingsbaker’s return to Donna Baldwin Talent was short-lived. The guru of Denver talent agents quit after a week back at her old employer, and told clients she intends to form a rival agency. …
Denver Center Attractions is bringing “Stomp” back to the Buell June 21-26. Tickets go on sale today. …
And finally, Tyrone Giordano, starring as Huck in the DeafWest production of “Big River” at the Buell, appears in the film “A Lot Like Love” as Ashton Kutcher’s brother.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
