Denver playwright Jonson Kuhn is trying something kinda crazy: He’s staging his own new boxing play as an entreaty to his fellow young adults, those hipsters who are far more at home at the Bluebird Theater than the Buell Theatre.
(And if you don’t know the difference, that’s Kuhn’s point: The former is home to rock concerts, the latter to national touring productions like “A Chorus Line.”)
Kuhn is inviting the cool kids to give live theater a try by luring them with what they already love, which is live rock music.
“Manhattan’s Last Fight” is just a bite-sized one-act, so every performance begins with a short set by the loud local rock band Tijuana Pillbox, followed by a short opening playlet, also written by Kuhn. Then, the main event. Which is short. In fisticuffs parlance, we’re talking three quick rounds.
The novelty of the programming makes for a casually festive kind of evening, and the short duration of “Manhattan’s Last Fight” lessens the stakes for the actual play, which has its charms, but comes off us unfinished and a bit nebulous.
Kuhn, a prolific writer who’s just in his mid-20s, made a strong impression last year with his oddly futuristic and apocalyptic Western simply titled “Denver.”
“Manhattan’s Last Fight” doesn’t carry with it nearly the same stakes. It’s a far more lighthearted and linear tale of a boxer named Bobby Manhattan whose neck is as red as it is thick. It’s the eve of a big fight that comes with a huge payday, but Bobby has fled to White Cloud, Kan., just outside the reservation where his girl is, this day, to marry an Indian. She quit Bobby because Bobby wouldn’t quit boxing.
Kuhn is a quirky writer with a strong voice, a unique world vision and a strong sense of both character and the Western region. But to see “Manhattan’s Last Fight,” you’d presume the play to be much more likely a precursor to “Denver” than its followup. It lacks the metaphor, the allegory, the artistic import of the former.
But it is a breezy comedy populated with likably stupid characters. From the moment we meet Brady Darnell’s hard-headed (and oddly near-naked) Manhattan in his remote hotel room, you empathize. More accurately: He’s passed out in a horse trough filled with empty beer cans. Soon he’s joined, voluntarily or otherwise, by a colorful array, including his dumb copper brother, a stripper, his former gal and her current fiance. Some of the support work is a bit sketchy, though Kuhn himself provides a brief but memorable cameo.
Unlike “Denver,” this play doesn’t cover any particularly new territory. It does provide moments of nice physical comedy and a great opportunity for Darnell to show off.
But it’s hard to get a fix on the setting of this play. It’s present- day, but it feels for all the world like 40 years ago. Bobby, who could pass more for an old-fashioned carnival wrestler than a modern pugilist, talks about drive-in dates watching Frank Sinatra’s 1965 “Von Ryan’s Express.” Mona the stripper strips to the old warhorse “Luck Be a Lady.”
More consternating is the ending. The play does not necessarily end happily, and in no way is it obliged to. But it ends as a first act might, not as might a completed play — at whatever length. That’s why I say “necessarily.” The play’s not done, just incomplete. The script even says so.
Its final words read, “End of Act I — To be continued.” And that’s a bit of a gyp, because the audience is never apprised that this is merely the first half of a work in progress. Then again, the audience isn’t apprised of much, as there are no programs.
Still, this is a promising, unassuming night at the theater. One the cool kids might like. In boxing parlance, call it a draw.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“Manhattan’s Last Fight” ** (out of four stars)
One-act play. Crossroads at Five Points Theatre, 2590 Washington St. Written by Jonson Kuhn. Preshow music by Tijuana Pillbox. Total program 2 hours. Through Sept. 7. 7:30 p.m. Fridays-Sundays. $12. 303-832-0929, .
Read a script sample
Read a 12-page sample from Jonson’s Kuhn’s
This weekend’s theater openings
“12 Angry Men” Reginald Rose’s 1955 courtroom drama about jury deliberations in the trial of 19-year-old man accused of the fatal stabbing of his father. It looks like an open-and-shut case — until a foreign-born juror digs deeper. Things then get personal in what becomes a varied character study. Jurors include Paul Page, Roger L. Simon, Rick Bernstein and Denver Post Ovation Award winner Christian Mast. Through Sept. 27. Spotlight Theatre, at the John Hand Theatre, 7653 E. First Place (Lowry), 303-232-0363 or
“Billy Hell” Gunslinger Silly Billy and beloved ex-whore Messy Bessy take a mythic Old West journey in this surreal original comedy that combines music, dark humor and the ultimate theological showdown. Written by Denver Center Theatre Company actor Steven Cole Hughes (“Slabtown,” “Cowboyily”). Through Sept. 27. Creede Repertory Theatre, 124 N. Main St., Creede, 719-658-2540, 1-866-658-2540 or
“Little Shop of Horrors” The popular musical about Audrey, Seymour … and a plant that threatens to eat the world. Through Sept. 27. OpenStage & Company, Lincoln Center, 417 W. Magnolia St., Fort Collins, 970-221-6730 or
“Murder at an Irish Wake” Colorado’s only mystery dinner theater presents interactive comedies like this one, in which Mr. Limerick’s wake takes a turn for the worse. Through Sept. 28. Appropriate for all ages. Adams Mystery Playhouse, 2406 Federal Blvd., 303-455-1848 or
“Over the Tavern” A bittersweet comedy looking back at family living over a blue-collar bar in 1959. Four children are caught between the claustrophobic authoritarianism of the Catholic Church and an emotionally abusive father. Through Sept. 27. Grand Theatre Company, 78415 Park Place No. 203, Winter Park, 970-726-5048 or
Compiled by John Moore
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This week’s podcast: Running Lines with . . .
This week, Denver Post theater critic John Moore talks with young and her son, who will perform “My Favorite Things,” a tribute to Rodgers and Hammerstein, Sept. 6-7 at the Colorado Festival of World Theatre in Colorado Springs. (719-576-2626 or 866-464-2626). Run time: 21 minutes.
