“Balloon Boy! The Musical” gets a send-up on . Written by Ben Greenman, it’s smart and funnyso why doesn’t the DCTC produce it?
The action begins when the ghosts of Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Anna Nicole Smith visit Richard Heene one night, urging him take his son to the air. (Montgolfier and his brother invented a hot-air balloon in the 1700s; Smith invented herself.) She sings: “Nice to meet you, Richard Heene/ I’m wearing a bikini/ Like that girl in “I Dream of Jeannie”/ Nice to meet you, Richard Heene. . . . I like publicity/ That much is true/ But giant balloons/ Were my trademark too.”
You get the idea.
After liftoff, the Heene character sings: “My son, balloon/ Backyard, wind, rope/ I fear, I cry/ I give up hope/ He just climbed in/ And off he floated/ This tragedy/ Must be promoted/ Call the papers! . . . This story has hooked/ Every woman and man/ Eff you, health care crisis/ And Afghanistan!”
Hey, they made a musical about the Bat Boy. And Heene was just on “Larry King Live.” Anything is possible.
Money matters.
Aspen singer-songwriter Dan Sheridan has a protest song titled “Big Money.” It laments how Aspen has lost its simple ways and sense of humor through the invasion of millionaires and their castles.
One lyric: “Down in the graves you can hear the miners sing/ ‘Big money ruins everything.’ ” He sings of pricey boutiques and plastic surgery.
Big deal? It was to Aspen Skiing Co., which, according to the Aspen Times, dismissed Sheridan for playing the song at Sneaky’s, a tavern in Snowmass Village owned by the Skico.
“He decided to sing a song that we felt was inappropriate to the venue and the audience,” a Skico spokesman said. “An artist can express himself how he wants. But that doesn’t mean we have to provide him the stage.”
Said Sheridan: “I didn’t want a conflict or a war. I just wanted to be funny.”
Good cheer.
Gimme a W! Gimme an A. Gimme an R. What do we got? War! Where do we got it? Iraq. Who’s gonna win it? We are!
Liz Harris, a Broncos cheerleader and spirit coordinator at the University of Colorado at Boulder, took four CU cheerleaders to Iraq and Kuwait from Dec. 27 to Jan. 3 on a holiday mission. The trip was sponsored by the USO and Tostitos.
In addition to Harris, the CU contingent was composed of Lorraine Aceron, Nicole Erpelding, Lisa Fikany and Kaitlin Nonko. They played flag football on New Year’s Day with the troops, mixed it up with some soldiers and brought cheer to a grim scene.
In a release, Harris said, “To me, this was a gift. I was blessed to have the opportunity to go over there and do this.”
City spirit.
LeBron James hosts Suite 200 tonight, bottle service required for entry. . . . Today would be Elvis’ 75th birthday, so head to the Oriental Theater in northwest Denver tonight for a party with Jonny Barber, a.k.a. The Velvet Elvis. . . . Longtime Strings barkeep Kris Lykins takes on ‘tenders from Steuben’s and The Avenue Grill in the Bing Challenge, 5-7 tonight. . . . Sez who: “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” — physicist Niels Bohr
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or at bhusted@denverpost.com. Take a peek at Husted’s next column at .
