Oh, yippee: Another survey telling us how much more important the arts are than sports in the lives of Denverites – and here I’ve just gone another week seeing four plays whose combined crowd count couldn’t match the line to the bathroom at a Broncos game.
This is not to denigrate the latest data, which have determined the combined economic activity of the metro area’s cultural institutions in 2005 to be $1.4 billion, more than double what it was a decade before.
Attendance was 14.1 million, according to the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts. By comparison, there were 8.2 million skier visits (though the study inexplicably limits that total to 15 scattered resorts), while Denver’s professional sports teams drew 4.5 million to their home games.
“So you could say that attendance at cultural events is more than three times that of Denver’s professional sports teams combined,” said Ed Chambers, executive director of Littleton’s Town Hall Arts Center.
You could, but you wouldn’t be taking into account that Denverites also attend college and high-school sporting events by the tailgate party. They also have been known to participate in myriad sports and recreational activities, as well.
Here’s the thing: Taking a jog, playing a game, reading a book or sitting at work, in a church, on a couch or in a cinema – everything we do is competition for our time. And the arts community, particularly the theater community, has a long way to go before the masses think of it as a populist activity they want to do as a matter of habit.
Even within the arts paradigm, there is a huge schism. They say a day at the zoo qualifies as a cultural experience. That’s sketchy, but still, about the same number of people go to Denver’s one zoo each year (1.6 million) than to all 96 of the state’s theater companies combined. A small company can perform a play three times a week for a month and not be seen by as many people who will sit through one screening of “Jackass 2” at the Pavilions.
Chambers respectfully requests that I look at the bright side of the data, which was compiled from Scientific and Cultural Facilities District grant requests. There is no question the arts wield significant economic clout. In fact, our cultural non-profits employ 10,800 workers, which combined exceeds Lockheed Martin (7,700), HealthOne (7,900), Wal-Mart (7,900), King Soopers (8,600), and Qwest (9,500).
“This survey is telling people that the arts are a major contributor to our economy and our society,” said Chambers. “And when people who aren’t going to the arts see how many people who are, maybe they’ll want to try it, too.”
See you at the zoo.
Cub returns a “Lion”
Deanar Ali Young, who has toured with “The Lion King” for five years, holds a record among the hundreds of actors who have performed in Disney’s stage mainstay. He has performed in 29 different roles in the national touring production in Denver through Nov. 5.
Young was a member of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance and the Denver Center Theatre Company, appearing in “House of Flowers” and South Pacific” in the 1986-87 season.
He’s the brother of Denver chef Daniel Young, who has worked everywhere from Diced Onions to Fat Daddy to the Denver Press Club and will open his own place, D., on New Year’s Eve, at 1147 Broadway.
“Cabaret” records
One show that had no trouble attracting a crowd was Town Hall’s “Cabaret,” which set 24-year records for revenue ($131,437), attendance (5,609) and occupancy (86.3 percent of capacity). The show drew 900 first-timers to Town Hall.
“What this has taught us is that our patron base is willing to look at something that’s more edgy than maybe they have been in the past,” Chambers said. “And that no matter what you do, if you do it really well, people will come.”
New seats at Mizel, Bug
The renovated Shwayder Theatre’s new seats, lighting and sound systems will be unveiled Nov. 30, its young-adult production of “Gypsy,” directed by Nick Sugar. But the main beneficiary may be the Bug Theatre, which has inherited the Mizel’s “old” seats. They have transformed the Bug in their debut for the current run of “The Turn of the Screw.”
Briefly …
Denver’s Michelle Miracle makes her television debut on ABC’s “Help Me Help You” at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday on KMGH-Channel 7. The show, starring Ted Danson, is about a famous self-help author who is as messed up as his patients are …
Shadow Theatre Company’s collaboration with the 75-member Spirituals Project choir for the world premiere of “The Spirit of Frederick Douglass” bows at the University of Denver’s Newman Center for three fundraising performances starting Friday before its regular run at the tinier Emerson Center (sans 75-person choir) …
Joe Donahoe, graduate of Chatfield High and the University of Northern Colorado, is playing Steve in the national touring production of “Rent,” which stops this week in Illinois, Michigan and Indiana …
And finally … he’s back. The Bug Theatre has decided to present an eighth annual production of “The SantaLand Diaries” after all. And, yes, it will once again star Gary Culig, its one and only Macy’s Christmas display elf. The Parker native will come home from New York for the holiday run (303-477-9984).
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
This week’s theater openings
FRI-MARCH 3 | Boulder’s Dinner Theatre’s “Crazy for You”
FRI-DEC. 23 | Miners Alley Playhouse’s “Amahl & the Night Visitors” | GOLDEN
FRI-NOV. 5 | Shadow’s “The Spirit of Frederick Douglass” (at the Newman Center, University of Denver campus)
FRI-DEC. 3 | Score Marketing’s “Urinetown” (at the Denver Wastewater Management Building)
SAT-DEC. 16 | Curious’ “tempOdyssey”
This week’s theater closings
TODAY | Modern Muse’s “Turn of the Screw” (at the Bug Theatre)
TODAY | Buntport’s “Something Is Rotten” (at TheatreWorks) | COLORADO SPRINGS
TODAY | Festival Playhouse’s “Doctor Jekyll, No Place to Hyde” | ARVADA
TUE | Backstage’s “Cannibal! The Musical” | BRECKENRIDGE
TUE | Butte Opera House’s “The Vampire of Cripple Creek” | CRIPPLE CREEK
SAT | The Other Theatre Company’s “Some Unfortunate Hour”
SAT | Paragon’s “Hedda Gabler” (at the Phoenix)
SAT | Victorian Playhouse’s “The Weir”
SAT | Hunger Artists’ “An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe” (at Byers-Evans House)
NOV. 5 | Heritage Square Music Hall’s “Svengali” | GOLDEN
NOV. 5 | Cabaret Dinner Theatre’s “Honky Tonk Angels” | GRAND JUNCTION
