It was a big week at the Aurora Fox, where producer Charles Packard announced the regional premiere of a Pulitzer-winning play, the restaging of an award-winning musical from 2005 and plans to move forward with the building of a black-box studio theater.
Four years ago, I was sitting next to Nilo Cruz on a couch in Louisville, Ky., when he took the call from his agent telling him his “Anna in the Tropics” was the surprise winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. Because bigger local companies since have passed, Packard gets to give area theatergoers their first look at the Cuban-American’s play, which will open the Fox’s 2007-08 season Sept. 7.
Next Stage Theatre Company, which has been performing at the now for-sale Phoenix Theatre, will remount the Stephen Sondheim musical “Assassins” on the Fox’s mainstage this August. “Assassins” won the Colorado Theatre Guild’s inaugural Henry Award for best musical, and newly named company president Jenny Hecht said the original cast will be back except for Daniel Langhoff (the Balladeer), Todd Coulter (Charles Guiteau) and Jasper Ryckman (Billy, the kid).
Returning are Hecht, Tyler Collins, Rich Hicks, Brian Hutchinson, Gregg Adams, Jessica Clare, David Kincannon, Ken Paul, Amanda Goldrick, Adam Lee Brodner, Kirsten Krieg and John Richter.
Most exciting is Packard’s plan to convert his 40-by-40-foot rehearsal room into an 89-seat studio theater. The Fox is a city-owned facility but Packard hopes to complete the $35,000 project within his own production budget. If all goes well, construction will take place in January, with the theater opening a month later.
“I am convinced that this is not only feasible but absolutely the right thing to do for the Aurora Fox,” said Packard, also Colorado Theatre Guild president.
“Anna in the Tropics” is the 1929 story of the uneducated female employees of a Florida cigar factory whose lives begin to change when their new lector reads to them from Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina.” Packard says the story’s appeal lies in its depiction of a specific working class American subculture.
“The culture is patriarchal but the women actually hold all the power,” he said. “We feel the women’s imaginations stirring as Juan reads.”
The new Fox season includes the regional premiere of “Honus and Me” by Colorado-born Steven Dietz, Eugene O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones” and “Moby Dick! The Musical.”
A month ago, Next Stage’s future was threatened by the possible sale of the Phoenix Theater. Since, artistic director Gene Kato has ceded his president title to Hecht and, if all goes to plan, the rejuvenated company will perform its entire 2008-09 season in Fox’s new studio theater.
“Jenny and I have always shared the same vision and this partnership is just a logical extension of that,” said Kato, who has pulled double-duty for three years. “She’s like family.”
“Hats” off; Hot flash on
The New Denver Civic finally admitted its Red Hat Society musical “Hats” won’t be reopening March 16 as previously promised. “It’s definitely coming back,” said president Richard Bernstein, but he can’t say when. Cast members have been given permission to take other roles.
Instead, “Menopause the Musical,” which ran there for 18 months, returns starting April 20. Since the shows attract identical audiences, they may not even know there’s been a change. The tentative cast is familiar – Dee Etta Rowe, Julie Ann Cadwell, Mary Louise Lee and Cherie Price – though not yet official.
Two other nibbles: The Civic’s next pre-Broadway world premiere will be a one-woman musical featuring “a well-known star with a deep Colorado background,” Bernstein said. That opens in early September. Bernstein also said the Civic, for the first time under his management, soon will announce a subscription season.
Briefly …
The Playwrights Showcase of the Western Region returns to the Arvada Center after a yearlong hiatus July 18-21. The 19-state showcase boasts an impressive list of luminaries to lead critical discussions of each play, including, for the first time Denver Center Theatre Company artistic director Kent Thompson, Curious Theatre artistic director Chip Walton and acclaimed playwright Richard Dresser (“Rounding Third”) …
Kato won the playwriting award at the recent Rocky Mountain Theatre Association Festivention convention for his “18 Holes.” The $500 award is funded by Dietz. A full list of winners is posted at denverpost.com/theater…
The University of Colorado at Denver presents “Front Doors,” an original, multimedia performance piece exploring urban homelessness, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through March 11 at the King Center on the Auraria campus (303-352-3500).
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
This week’s theater openings
TUE-AUG. 5 | Denver Center Attractions’ “The Taffetas”
WED-MAY 6 | Country Dinner Playhouse’s “Guys & Dolls” | G’WOOD VILLAGE
THU-APRIL 23 | Metro Playhouse’s “On Golden Pond” | GRAND JUNCTION
FRI-MAY 26 | Boulder’s Dinner Theatre’s “Ragtime”
FRI-MAY 26 | Nonesuch’s “Urinetown” | FORT COLLINS
FRI-APRIL 1 | Evergreen Players’ “Moon Over Buffalo”
FRI-MARCH 24 | Longmont Theatre Company’s Solid Gold Cadillac”
FRI-MARCH 24 | Arvada Festival Playhouse’s “Barbecuing Hamlet”
SAT-APRIL 21 | Curious’ “A House With No Walls”
SAT-APRIL 15 | Modern Muse’s “Seascape” (at the Bug Theatre)
This week’s theater closings
TODAY | Country Dinner Playhouse’s “Clue, The Musical” | G’WOOD VILLAGE
TODAY | Germinal Stage Denver’s “Diversions and Delights”
TODAY | Coal Creek Community Theatre’s “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940” | LOUISVILLE
SAT | Theatre Group’s “Dirty Blonde” (at Theatre on Broadway)
SAT | ROA Productions’ “Right On, America!” (late nights at the Avenue Theater)
SAT | Bas Bleu’s “Dirty Story” | FORT COLLINS
SAT | Paragon’s “Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune”
SAT | Ami Dayan’s “The Man Himself” (at the Avenue)
SAT | Upstart Crow’s “Waiting for Godot” | BOULDER
SAT | The Octopus League’s “Priscilla: A Rock and Roll Ride Through Teenage Hell” (Dairy Center) | BOULDER
SAT | Vintage’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (at Buntport Theater)
MARCH 11 | Fine Arts Center’s “Little Shop of Horrors” | COLORADO SPRINGS
