The Denver Center Theatre Company will premiere a drastically reconceived and more historically accurate version of the Broadway musical “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” when the developing project debuts as a staged reading at the company’s fourth Colorado New Play Summit from Feb. 12 to 14.
The classic 1960 musical by Meredith Willson (music) and Richard Morris (book) chronicles the rise of Denver’s indefatigable businesswoman, who was immortalized in pop culture after surviving the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.
The new book has been written by Dick Scanlan, a protege of Morris who was asked by the writers’ estates to polish up the sprawling script to make it more manageable to produce and more accessible to modern audiences.
Scanlan, who has worked in cooperation with Denver’s Molly Brown House for the past three years, soon saw an opportunity for a wholesale re-imagining of one of history’s most complex women.
“Richard became infatuated with the legend, but I was much more drawn with the actual life,” said Scanlan, a two-time Tony nominee and co-creator of “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”
He soon learned that the woman often depicted as a vulgar, rich hayseed or an outcast bore virtually no resemblance to the real Brown. Scanlan set out to add some of the real complexities and contradictions of the woman, and eradicate the falsities of the legend.
He discovered a devout Catholic who was also an avowed social progressive, a woman who became inconceivably rich at the very time the country was plunging into a silver depression. Brown became committed to labor causes and often joined picket lines against her own husband, “Leadville” Johnny Brown. And their marriage fell apart.
“Molly was a controversial figure who talked about birth control and day care and women’s rights and labor rights and treating juvenile criminals differently from adults, at a time when no one was talking about those issues, certainly not a woman,” said Scanlan.
But it’s a short step from activism self-righteousness and unilateralism, Scanlan said. Brown had critics who thought she was addicted to attention and that her passion for her causes was self-serving.
“There’s some truth to that,” he said, “but it takes a certain kind of ego to stand up and say, ‘I know how to make the world better.’ ”
The musical’s score not only adds never-before heard Willson compositions to the existing favorites, but also Scanlan’s book will emphasize a major new character: Colorado itself.
“I had no idea when I started that Colorado was the first state that had voted suffrage into law,” Scanlan said. “This was astonishing to me, as a New Yorker who thinks that the East Coast does everything first, to learn that Colorado was decades ahead of what I think of as the progressive state.
“As time went on, I began to get a sense of the mystique of Colorado being emblematic of the American spirit, which is both its enormous generosity and the ethic to roll up your sleeves and make things happen.
The public reading of the new “Molly Brown” (complete with music), will by directed by two-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall (“The Pajama Game,” “Wonderful Town”). This first-ever musical addition to the Colorado New Play Summit will serve as a trial for the Denver Center’s soon-to-be-announced new annual Colorado New Musical Summit. If all goes well, a Broadway date would seem inevitable.
If so, Scanlan said, audiences will still very much recognize the musical they have loved for nearly 50 years.
” ‘Molly Brown’ remains an old-fashioned musical,” Scanlan said. “You could never have Meredith’s songs in anything but — they would sound out of place.
“But I am trying to approach it more from the Rodgers & Hammerstein template, where the characters are a bit more dimensional, and they have contradictions.”
2009 Colorado New Play Summit readings.
The upcoming Colorado New Play Summit will spotlight full world-premiere productions of “Inana” by Michele Lowe and “Dusty and the Big Bad World” by Cusi Cram.
The DCTC also announced Wednesday the following new works to be presented as staged readings at the February Summit (descriptions provided by the DCTC):
*”Eventide” by Eric Schmiedl, based on the novel by Kent Haruf. This DCTC commission serves as companion piece to Schmiedl’s 2007 adaptation of Haruf’s “Plainsong.” “Eventide” continues the story of the aging McPheron brothers and their “adopted” daughter, Victoria Roubideaux. At the same time, Haruf turns his focus on a mismatched group of parents and children, residents of Holt, whose unvarnished lives are both fragile and tough. An honest, compassionate tale of how families in this small Colorado town are forged out of necessity.
*”When Tang Met Laika” by Rogelio Martinez: In the 1990s, Americans and Russians started to work together building the International Space Station. With more than a half century of hostilities under their space suits, can two old foes start to trust one another again? A play about the cold war warming up, a space shuttle program finding its purpose as it nears retirement, one very large robotic arm, weightlessness and a gun. (Workshopped at the 2008 New Works Festival (Andrew Leynse, artistic director) at Perry Mansfield Performing Arts Camp in Steamboat Springs).
*”Take Me to the River,” by Constance Congdon: Working a farm that’s been in the family for four generations, the Campbells face the loss of their crops, their home and wayof life over a water dispute. Kansas is suing Colorado for water owed from a river that originates in Colorado, but is shared with Kansas and Nebraska. Based on real stories, two families, the Campbells and theMontoyas, become torn apart as they are engulfed in this contentious environmentaland political crisis.
*”Flooded,” by Julie Marie Myatt: A star TV meteorologist turns oracle when he abandons bland L.A. for the wilderweather of North Carolina. As natural disasters mount world-wide, William unknowingly channels an on-camera voice of doom that ties extreme climate events to the sins of mankind. Despite the show’s popularity, he finds to his sorrow that telling truth to powermay cost him everything he holds dear. Playwright Myatt deftly plucks the dark threadsof myth, folk tale, and religious prophecy that lie unquiet beneath the surface of modernexistence.
Artistic director Kent Thompson commented: “We called the event a summit because of the glorious Rocky Mountains, but also have built this event into a ‘peak’ experience – we have created a new play festival that we feel is a must-see event for theater professionals from across the United States.”
2009 Denver Post Ovation Awards finalists
Look for our eighth annual list of finalists honoring the best in Colorado theater in the Dec. 15 paper.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
This week’s openings
Opening Thursday, through Jan. 3: National touring production of “Jersey Boys,” Buell Theatre
Thursday-Dec. 21: El Centro Su Teatro’s “Joaquin’s Christmas” (at King Center)
Friday-Dec. 14: Colorado Homegrown Tales’ “Home for the Holidays” (Byers-Evans House)
Dec. 14: Stories on Stage’s “Making Merry” (Stage Theatre)
This week’s closings
Thursday: Naropa University’s “Our Town” Boulder
Dec. 14: Jesters Dinner Theatre’s “Mame” (reopens Dec. 31-Jan. 4) Longmont
Dec. 14: Germinal Stage-Denver’s “The Show Off”
Dec. 14: Vintage Theatre’s “Little Foxes”
Dec. 14: Lake Dillon’s “Lend Me a Tenor”
Dec. 14: Festival Playhouse’s “The Christmas Express” Arvada
This week’s video podcast: Running Lines with . . . Zina Mercil
This week, John Moore visits with the actor who plays the statuesque singer-secretary Ulla in the first metro-area staging of “The Producers,” at Boulder’s Dinner Theatre.
Run time: 9 minutes. For more information on “The Producers,” go to
Most recent theater openings
“Art” Yasmina Reza’s 1998 Tony Award-winning play about three friends who test the limits when one buys a white painting with a hefty pricetag. Through Dec. 20. Presented by Theatre 13 at the Dairy Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-443-2122 or
“A Christmas Carol” The Denver Center Theatre Company presents the Scrooge story with original songs, ghostly chills, period sets and costumes. Through Dec. 28. Stage Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets, 303-893-4100 or
“A Christmas Carol” The Fine Arts Center’s adaptation of the Scrooge story features music by Oscar-winning composer Michel Legrand with Sheldon Harnick. Through Dec. 21. 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, 719-634-5583 or
“A Fairy Tale Festival” An original story that gathers your favorite fairy-tale characters as they try to save Christmas in Fairy Tale Land. Through Dec. 14. StageDoor Theatre, 25797 Conifer Road, Aspen Park Village, 303-886-2819,
“The Lying Kind” A black comedy about an eccentric, elderly British couple who learn on Christmas Eve their daughter has been killed in a car accident. Through Dec. 21. TheatreWorks, 3955 Cragwood Drive, Colorado Springs, 719-262-3232 or
“On Golden Pond” A spirited elderly couple come to terms with their age and their estranged daughter. Through Dec. 20. Thunder River Theatre, 7 Promenade, Carbondale, 970-963-8200 or .
“Our Town” Naropa University’s MFA students take a unique pass at Thornton Wilder’s classic tale of life and death in small-town America. Through Dec. 11. 2130 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 303-245-4643
“The SantaLand Diaries” Gary Culig ends his 10-year tradition of performing David Sedaris’ hilarious essay on life as a cranky department store elf with this run at the Bug Theatre. Through Dec. 22. 3654 Navajo St., 303-477-9984 or
“Swing!” High-energy swing-era revue, including more than 30 standards like “Blues in the Night,” “In the Mood,” “Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy.” Through March 1. Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, 4747 Market Place Drive, Johnstown, 970-744-3747, 1-877-240-4242 or
“Who Killed Santa?” A twisted mystery set in Santa’s living room, where all is not jolly between murder suspects Frosty, Rudolph, Tiny Tim and other iconic characters. The audience determines the killer. Through Dec. 28. Dangerous Theatre, 2620 W. Second Ave., Unit 1, 720-233-4703 or
Compiled by John Moore
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.
