This is the time of year when purists scoff at the contradiction of art versus economics. More people attend theater in December than any other month, yet the mostly predictable holiday-themed material they are spoon-fed could not be more safe or less artistically challenging. While production values are often quite high, rarely does a holiday offering stand accused of being a good play.
Holiday standards like “A Christmas Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” are comfort foods audiences go back to again and again. But they serve valuable purposes by reinforcing nostalgia and religious faith at the coldest and darkest time of the year.
The artists who run our theater companies are often chided for not having good business sense, but not this time of year. Holiday fare is the economic engine that drives theaters large and small for the entire year. Of the state’s 42 companies operating this December, two-thirds are offering seasonal or religious titles.
And when the economy is going this far south, you won’t find a single one that will apologize for giving the people what they want. This year, that’s a respite from the overhanging gloom of economic uncertainty.
Heritage Square Music Hall’s annual holiday show generates one-third of its business for the entire year. “This is by far our most important time of the year,” said co-owner Connie Helsley, whose current offering is Dickens’ “Cricket on the Hearth.” “That’s what gets us through.”
When the Bug Theatre housed a resident theater company, its annual December staging of “The SantaLand Diaries” accounted for half its revenue for the year, allowing it to stage more artistically challenging (and much less-attended) plays the rest of the year. Ironically, the Bug is no longer a producing company (it’s now primarily a rental house), but its “SantaLand” tradition (read: cash cow) continues by popular demand.
Boulder’s Dinner Theatre is another company that packs in as many performances as it can during December to accommodate demand. But this year, it’s one of the few companies not offering a holiday title. It has a much bigger drawing card: the first metro homegrown staging of “The Producers.” It takes a show of that caliber and character to upstage a Christmas revue.
“We’ve found that giving people big musical spectacles with lots of dancing works best at this time of year,” said artistic director Michael J. Duran. “As long as it’s a lot of fun, it doesn’t matter whether it is holiday-themed.”
And yet, marquees all over town are filled with pandering, sentimental old classics, or the equally obvious “counter-Christmas” comedies like “SantaLand.” Even when the fare is new, it’s old, such as “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.”
Is it too much to ask for a happy medium? Instead of giving us its 18th “A Christmas Carol,” would it kill the Denver Center Theatre Company to try, say, “A Christmas Story?” Even better, to put the full force of its new-play development program into introducing a great new holiday play into the world?
That, said Helsley, may be what critics want, but not audiences, who prefer the known. “This time of year is just different,” she said. “Given a choice between something that is familiar to them and something that is unknown, it doesn’t matter how great that unknown play is — they are going to choose the familiar.”
The good news is that theater attendance spikes at all each December. My theory: Theater is a place families can take their out-of-town guests — and not have to talk to them for two hours. There’s nothing wrong with harmonic — and economic — holiday convergence.
Boulder movie chain faces “Milk” boycott
Opponents of California’s Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, plan to protest outside of the Century Boulder Theatre today. The goal is to convince theatergoers to see the new film “Milk” — anywhere else.
Cinemark-Century owner Alan Stock made a $10,000 donation in support of Prop 8, spurring nationwide boycotts. “Milk” tells the true story of San Francisco’s Harvey Milk, who was assassinated in a hate crime in 1978, the year after he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Gay-rights advocates can’t stomach the idea that a theater chain run by a man fighting against equal rights for gays stands to profit off a film about a man who is a martyr to the gay community.
Though the film was released nationally on Wednesday, Century Boulder Theatre is scheduled to start running it in December.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
This week’s openings
Opening Monday, Dec. 1, through Dec. 18: Adams Mystery Playhouse’s “Death for Dinner”
Opening Tuesday, Nov. 2, through Dec. 23: The Avenue’s “What the Dickens!” (Tuesday, Wednesdays and Sundays only, plus Dec. 13)
Opening Thursday, Nov. 4, through Dec. 28: Denver Center Theatre Company’s “A Christmas Carol,” Stage Theatre
Opening Thursday, Nov. 4, through Dec. 22: The Bug’s “The SantaLand Diaries”
Opening Thursday, Nov. 4, through Dec. 20: Theatre 13’s “Art” Boulder
Opening Thursday, Nov. 4, through Dec. 21: TheatreWorks’ “The Lying Kind” Colorado Springs
Opening Thursday, Nov. 4, through Dec. 20: Thunder River’s “On Golden Pond” Carbondale
Opening Friday, Nov. 5, through March 1: Candlelight Dinner Playhouse’s “Swing!” Johnstown
Opening Friday, Nov. 5, through Dec. 21: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center’s “A Christmas Carol”
Opening Friday, Nov. 5, through Dec. 28: Dangerous Theatre’s “Who Killed Santa?”
Opening Friday, Nov. 5, through Dec. 11: Naropa University’s “Our Town” Boulder
This week’s closings
Today, Nov. 30: Candlelight Dinner Playhouse’s “Nunsensations” Johnstown
Saturday, Dec. 6: Upstart Crow’s “Lady Windermere’s Fan” Boulder
Most recent theater openings
E-Project’s “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” The six meanest, nastiest group of unruly siblings in town will ruin the annual Christmas Pageant, for sure … or will they? Through Dec. 21. 9797 W. Colfax Ave., Lakewood, 303-232-0363 or
Aurora Fox’s “Escanaba in da Moonlight.” This remount reunites Michael Morgan, William Hahn, John Arp and Jack Casperson for a third go-round at Jeff Daniels’ (“Dumb and Dumber”) twisted comedy about five “Yoopers” — residents of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula — at their deer camp on the eve of the opening day of the 1989 hunting season. Through Dec. 21 in the studio theater. 9900 E. Colfax Ave., Aurora, 303-739-1970 or
Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.” Artistic director Philip C. Sneed’s adaptation of Dylan Thomas’ classic lyric poem about the joys of childhood. Through Dec. 31. University of Colorado mainstage, 303-492-0554 or and here’s
The Avenue’s “A Chicken Lips Christmas.” A whole bunch of laughter and merriment in songs, improv, sketch comedy and audience participation. Through Dec. 31. 417 E. 17th Ave., 303-321-5925 or
Arvada Festival Playhouse’s “The Christmas Express.” Nostalgic tale of a lonely train stop where, after Leo Tannenbaum’s arrival, magic starts to happen. By Pat Cook. Through Dec. 14. 5665 Olde Wadsworth Blvd., 303-422-4090 or
Backstage’s “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.” A live radio variation of the holiday classic. Through Dec. 28. 121 S. Ridge St., Breckenridge, 970-453-0199 or
Gaslight’s “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.” A live radio variation of the holiday classic. Through Dec. 20 at the Gaslight Theatre, 7287 Lowell Blvd., Westminster, 720-232-7285 or
Thin Air Theatre’s “Miracle on Bennett Avenue.” Thin Air Theatre. A Cripple Creek retelling of “Miracle on 34th Street.” Through. Dec. 31. Butte Opera House, 139 E. Bennett Ave., Cripple Creek, 719-235-8944 or
Arvada Center’s “A Wonderful Life.” Musical adaptation of the classic holiday movie starring Jimmy Stewart. A sentimental holiday favorite about George Bailey, the depressed small-town banker who is rescued on Christmas Eve by Clarence, his guardian angel. Through Dec. 28 at the Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., 720-898-7200 or
Complete theater listings
Go to our complete list of every currently running production in Colorado, including summaries, run dates, addresses, phones and links to every company’s home page.
