Lisa Gilford is a tough critic.
I went with her last week to the DCPA’s production of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” The second- banana role of Hysterium was created by her dad, Jack Gilford, on Broadway in 1962 and again in the movie in 1966. She saw the musical hundreds of times.
So what’s she think of the new Denver version?
It’s not bad – but it’s not Dad.
“I remember every line, every song, every cue,” she says. “And there were so many wonderful backstage stories from the show. Great memories. To compare any other production to that life experience is unfair.”
Ah, go ahead.
“Judging from the audience’s great reaction, there were many people who had never seen the show. That’s wonderful. ‘Forum’ has no roller skates, no special effects. Just smart dialogue, great plot and wonderful songs.
“My father died in 1990. It’s nice to know something that he was a part of still lives on.”
Yuks
Aspen is going to miss HBO’s U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. But Santa Barbara hopes it’s headed there.
When HBO announced May 11 that it was leaving Aspen after 13 years, it blamed it on high room rates and bad weather.
Then people started to opine that the fest left Aspen because it was the pet project of HBO chairman and CEO Chris Albrecht. And when he resigned this month after being arrested in Las Vegas for allegedly assaulting a woman, the fest’s fate was sealed.
Now Santa Barbara is all worked up in the hopes the yuk-in will move there next winter. Santa Barbara was mentioned in a story in The Denver Post, quoting an HBO spokeswoman that SB is “among the possibilities” for a new location.
The Santa Barbara Independent on Thursday ran a story full of optimistic projections that it could host the fest, where the execs would stay, when it would come down – and how the city would be “on Code Red: Jeremy Piven Alert for several days.”
Party town
Cherry Creek is the place to party Thursday night. Elway’s marks the spot for an early Late Night party 5:30-7:30 p.m. Last year, this gathering was smoking.
Starting at 9 p.m., Campo de Fiori invites you in for its Spring Fling, with Josh Hanfling at the door, hosted by Katie Abrams, Shelley Blas, Rachelle Geller, Alma Luglu, Kelli McGannon, Henry Schloss, Amy Symons and Brooke Yunk.
City spirit
MTV’s “The Real World: Denver” post- season wrap-up show, taped at the Highland Haven in Evergreen, skedded to air at 6 p.m. Wednesday followed by the outtake episode, if you can imagine what possibly could have been taken out. … Ticketholders for the shuttered Country Dinner Playhouse production of “Evita” can use them to get $10 tix to the DCPA’s “Taffetas” and “Forum.” … Denver artist William Matthews is out with a 100-plus-plate book this fall, “Working the West,” with an introduction by Pulitzer winner Annie Proulx. A show of watercolors of exotic birds opens June 8 at his gallery at 1617 Wazee St. … Sez who: “Father’s Day is coming, but I figure, why get a tie for a guy who only goes out to the liquor store?” David Letterman
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Husted also appears Tuesdays and Fridays on “Good Day Colorado” on Fox 31. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or bhusted@denverpost.com.
