It’s a lousy way to learn your best friend has died — reading it in the newspaper.
Now imagine you had been his best man.
A shaken Tom McNally says he read here first of acclaimed actor Leo Burmester‘s death June 28. He didn’t see it coming.
“We were just the best of buddies, and he was the finest actor I’ve known in my lifetime,” said McNally, artistic director of the 73-year-old Little Theatre of the Rockies and professor of theater at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. “I had just talked to him two weeks before. He told me he had leukemia but that he had gone to Germany and got it beat.”
Apparently, he had. But his immune system was compromised, and he died of a massive auto-immune attack on his brain.
McNally was Burmester’s roommate from 1970 to ’72, when they graduated in the University of Denver’s first Master of Fine Arts class. Burmester then worked at the Colorado Music Hall and Country Dinner Playhouse. He lived in a cabin near Central City, “fulfilling a dream to become a mountain man,” said Gary Giem. He and McNally are now the only surviving members of that inaugural DU class.
Burmester went on to a prominent stage, TV and film career that included James Cameron‘s “The Abyss.” McNally attended Burmester’s first Broadway performance as Pap in “Big River” in 1985. Two years later, he originated the role of Thenardier in the 1987 Broadway debut of “Les Miserables.”
McNally also saw the opening off-Broadway performance of the Robert Altman– directed “Two by South.” “Leo introduced me by saying, ‘Bob, this is my friend Tom. He teaches acting.’ ”
Altman looked at McNally incredulously and said, “You mean you can teach acting?”
Burmester, a Kentucky native and “the best good-old boy in the world,” McNally said, returned to Denver in 1991 to star with Patrick Cassidy in an otherwise all-local “Robber Bridegroom” that celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Elitch Theatre. Castmates included Jan and Marcus Waterman, Rachel deBenedet, Melissa McCarl and Maurice LaMee. It was co-produced by Giem and Randy West.
“I remember after the first rehearsal, Leo said to me, “Holy (expletive), Giem, you have (a Broadway cast) here in Denver,’ ” Giem said. ” ‘You could mount it right now with these people.’ ”
Burmester’s final Denver visit was in 1997 for the film “Switchback,” with Dennis Quaid, Danny Glover, Jared Leto and Denver’s Louis Schaefer.
“Leo had a huge piece of his heart in Denver and the mountains of Colorado,” said Giem.
Pinnacle for Main Street
The old Pinnacle Dinner Theatre will be put to use again this fall. The Main Street Players, most recently residing in Englewood, move in this October with “Kiss Me Kate,” followed by “Dial M for Murder” and “Camelot.” There are no plans to use the space as a dinner theater, however.
Briefly
Curious Theatre has managed to cover a debt of $40,000 in a 45-day canvass of its supporters, allowing it to finish its ninth season in the black. That was critical because a debt would have jeopardized the company’s ongoing campaign to purchase the Acoma Center, its home since 1997
And finally: Grand Junction’s Metro Playhouse closes Aug. 20. It’s been a sister theater to the Cabaret Dinner Theatre, performing mostly plays to the Cabaret’s musicals. The Cabaret, the state’s second-largest dinner theater, is unaffected by the decision. However, manager and executive producer Kevin McConnell has left for a new job in Denver. He’s been replaced by his brother, Kirk.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
This week’s theater openings
THU-AUG. 27 | Boulder International Fringe Festival (at 14 venues)
THU-SEPT. 1 | Crested Butte Mountain Theatre’s “Reefer Madness, the Musical” | CRESTED BUTTE
THU-SEPT. 1 | TheatreWorks’ “Antonio’s Revenge” | COLORADO SPRINGS
THU-AUG. 25 | Studio 802’s “Hamlet- machine” | COLORADO SPRINGS
THU-AUG. 25 | Colorado State University Summer Festival’s “Scapin” | FORT COLLINS
FRI-SEPT. 16 | Miners Alley Playhouse’s “Prelude to a Kiss” | GOLDEN
SAT-SEPT. 16 | Modern Muse’s “All in the Timing” (at the Bug Theatre)
This week’s theater closings
TODAY | Lake Dillon Theatre Company’s “Chicago” | DILLON
TODAY | Westcliffe Players’ “Everyone Loves Opal”
TODAY | Backstage’s “Crazy Bag” | BRECKENRIDGE
TODAY | A Theatre Group’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (at the Grand Imperial Hotel) | SILVERTON
THU | Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “Julius Caesar” | BOULDER
THU | Southern Colorado Rep’s “Pump Boys and Dinettes” | TRINIDAD
THU | Lake Dillon’s “Forever Plaid” (at Park Lane Pavilion) | KEYSTONE
FRI | Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “Servant of Two Masters” | BOULDER
FRI | Rocky Mountain Rep’s “42nd Street” | GRAND LAKE
FRI | Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “All’s Well That Ends Well” | BOULDER
SAT | Southern Colorado Rep’s “The Italian-American Reconciliation” | TRINIDAD
SAT | Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “Around the World in Eighty Days” | BOULDER
SAT | The Avenue’s “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”
SAT | Rocky Mountain Rep’s “Footloose” | GRAND LAKE
SAT | E-Project’s Listen to the Voices” | LAKEWOOD
SAT | Next Stage’s “Assassins” (at the Aurora Fox)
AUG. 19 | Backstage’s “The Smell of the Kill” | BRECKENRIDGE
AUG. 19 | PHAMALy’s “Urinetown” (at Denver Center’s Space Theatre)
AUG. 19 | Lake Dillon’s “Rocky Horror Show” | DILLON
