The land upon which the venerable Country Dinner Playhouse sits has been sold to a California real-estate investment company, and while none of the principal players say they expect anything to change, no one is offering any guarantees for the future of the 35-year-old Equity playhouse either.
“There are no plans right now to change anything,” said Tim Moody of the Uhlmann Offices Inc., of Sherman Oaks, Calif. “We are going to sit down and talk to them, but honestly I don’t know which way it is going to go.”
Sam Newton built the CDP in 1970 and co-owned both the business and the land it sits on until 1995, when the business was turned over to a group now headed by David Lovinggood.
Last week Newton, 85, sold his 5.82 acres in Greenwood Village to Uhlmann for $3 million. A provision in the deal preserves Newton’s office in the small barn on the CDP parking lot, but not the playhouse itself. Lovinggood has been on a month-to-month lease with Newton, at Newton’s insistence, since 2004.
Uhlmann already owns the massive piece of land across the street to the east encompassing South Clinton Street to South Dayton Street, and East Costilla Avenue to Arapahoe Road. That plot includes the Grand Slam Café, Three Margaritas restaurant and a U.S. post office.
“Nothing is going to change,” said Lovinggood, who will meet with Uhlmann officials for the first time Monday. “I have talked to several of the business owners across the street, and they have very positive things to say about the company. It’s not like they are going to come in here and put in a hotel. They are real-estate investors.
“The way I understand it, I simply have a new landlord. I think this is all going to work out very well for the Country Dinner Playhouse.”
Said Newton: “I suppose if they keep it going and pay the rent, it’ll be just like it was when I owned it.”
“Wicked” to return in ’07
Plans are being finalized to bring the national tour of “Wicked” back to the Buell in 2007 – and tickets may even go on sale before the end of the current run Oct. 2.
Hurricane updates
“Wicked” actors will hold two benefit cabaret performances for Hurricane Katrina victims at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Monday at the Galleria Theatre. Hosts are stars Carol Kane, Kendra Kassebaum and Derrick Williams. Tickets are $100 (303-893-4100).
A Miners Alley Playhouse benefit last week raised $4,000 for America’s Second Harvest, which distributes supplies to evacuees now living in Denver.
THAC loses leader
Bil Rodgers, executive director of Littleton’s now thriving Town Hall Arts Center for the past five years, is leaving after 15 years with the company. Rodgers oversaw the THAC’s transition from community theater to small professional company and deftly guided THAC out of a budget crisis that threatened to close it two years ago. But Rodgers is also a veteran actor and is leaving to pursue other interests.
“Town Hall just completed its most successful season ever, and we expect our new season, which began Friday with ‘West Side Story,’ to be even better,” Rodgers said.
Briefly …
American Express has awarded the Denver Center for the Performing Arts a $175,000 grant to fund its “New Visions, New Voices” audience development initiative, a series of programs giving new emphasis to women, Latino and black playwrights. It is one of the largest corporate cash grants to the center since US West sponsored the Denver Center Theatre Company’s TheatreFest in 2000. …
Pinnacle Dinner Theatre reopens Oct. 6 with “Singin’ in the Rain,” but president David Pritchard continues to be plagued by unpaid payroll claims by current and former busboys, actors and administrative personnel. “We are taking care of every last person as fast as I can,” said Pritchard. “I have thrown every penny I have into this.” Pritchard insists the payroll problem is not widespread, but a group of parents of underaged employees has requested mediation from the state labor board. …
Shadow Theatre Company returns Nov. 10 with Hugo Jon Sayles’ “Echoes of God,” an original holiday story of despair and faith. The new season will include a February staged reading tribute to August Wilson, and in June, “Four Queens – No Trump,” a comedy written by Ted Lange. He’s Isaac from “The Love Boat.” …
Barbara Ehrenreich, author of the book that inspired Curious’ 2003 hit “Nickel and Dimed,” appears at noon Monday at the Denver Press Club (reservations required; call 303-571-5260). …
The historic, 69-year-old Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center reopens Friday with “Anything Goes,” starring Broadway veteran Susan Dawn Carson, after an 11-month, $1.5 million redesign. The lights and sound have been modernized, and all seats have been repaired. The décor maintains the building’s 1936 style.
And finally …
New Victorian Theatre owners Wade and Lorraine Wood presented Dottie Ellen Meehan of Delta with pink roses following the Sept. 17 performance of “Voice of the Prairie.” Meehan is the granddaughter of theater founder George S. Swartz and lived at the theater from 1937-44 but had never before set foot on the stage of the basement theater.
After her grandfather died, her cousins and siblings were forbidden from going into the basement. But for one Halloween only, the children were allowed to go downstairs for a ghost story. They did not know an adult family member was hiding in the orchestra pit, and when he clanged the theater’s gong, the children all ran out screaming before reaching the stage.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
