Only two plays will be staged by more professional American theaters this season than Michael Hollinger’s “Opus,” which opens Saturday at Denver’s Curious Theatre.
And it sat on a shelf for more than a year. Not because no one wanted it, but in part because . . . most everyone did.
Such are the vagaries of bringing new American plays to the stage.
“Opus,” an insightful look into the backstage world of chamber music, bowed in Philadelphia in 2006. And its potential was immediately recognized. After a string of regional productions leading to a successful off-Broadway run, the producers of the long-running musical revival juggernaut “Chicago” took out an option for a Broadway production.
It’s every playwright’s dream, “and that option was very much deserved,” said Curious director Chip Walton.
But three factors can conspire to keep an option from turning into ovations: securing a Broadway theater, pinning down dates and star power. As an ensemble piece that features five equal characters, that last task proved to be a magnum for “Opus.”
The play sat dead on a shelf for nearly 18 months. And no other theater in the country could get its hands on it until that option expired.
Fortunately, Hollinger is a patient man.
“I’m pragmatic to the point of pessimism,” he said this week from Villanova University, where he teaches.
“The way I figured it, we’d have a Broadway production, and that would be cool. Or it would eventually be done by a lot of regional theaters, and that would be cool, too.”
But cool can be the death knell for any hot new play, said the play’s Denver director.
“It’s frustrating when you have this great new play right in front of you, and you can’t do anything with it,” Walton said. “And any period of dormancy can change things entirely. You might have a producer who says, ‘I wanted to do that play two years ago.’ ”
That wasn’t the case here.
“This story has a happy ending,” Walton said, because producers were lining up to do “Opus” as soon as its option expired. “But more often than not, stories like this do not.”
That’s why Curious is a major player in the National New Play Network, a consortium of like-minded theater companies that pick a play and put their full weight behind it, guaranteeing it at least four separate stagings around the nation. Previous network offerings at Curious have included “26 Miles,” “End Days” and Steven Dietz’s “Yankee Tavern,” which joined “Opus” on the list of this year’s most popular plays.
“Opus” is not a network play, and it got shelved in New York, which means it has managed to proliferate the old-fashioned way: “It’s just that good,” Walton said.
The play is an insider’s look at a high-strung string quartet that’s struggling to prepare for its highest-profile performance ever. This is terrain Hollinger knows well — he only began writing plays after studying viola at the Oberlin Conservatory.
So what makes Mr. Hollinger’s “Opus” so highly sought? Walton says it’s our ongoing fascination with exploring the creative process.
“Whether it’s Vincent Van Gogh or Marlon Brando, the intersection of personalities and their stories of how they make art is really fertile ground to cover,” said Walton, who has strung together some of the area’s most lauded actors in William Hahn, Erik Sandvold, David Russell and Josh Robinson.
“Opus” explores not only charged interpersonal dynamics, but also the interdependent relationship between musicians and music itself.
“Music is ephemeral,” Hollinger said. It needs players, and yet the instant it’s played, it disappears. The players remain, for a time. But over centuries, it’s the music that ultimately endures.
Hollinger is aware of how elevated and arcane that might sound. Just know that Variety called his play “Sex, drugs . . . and chamber music!”
“It’s really a workplace drama,” Hollinger said. “That’s the title: It’s work. It’s about people who are trying to pull together to achieve a high ideal that’s bigger than the sum of their parts . . . or kill each other trying.”
It’s not unlike “VH1 Behind the Music,” in that it’s the story of a band that’s breaking up.
“Think ‘Metallica Goes Into Therapy,’ ” he said of the documentary that followed the consummate heavy-metal band into counseling, “or watching the Beatles put together ‘Let it Be.’ ”
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“Opus”
Backstage drama. Presented by Curious Theatre at 1080 Acoma St. Written by Michael Hollinger. Directed by Chip Walton. Starring Erik Sandvold, William Hahn, Josh Robinson, David Russell and Kari Delany. Through April 24. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays (no shows March 14 or April 4). $18-$42. 303-623-0524
This weekend’s best bet: “Highly Evolved Human”
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Cancer isn’t usually thought of as something to joke about, which is precisely the reason Denver native and New York transplant Nick Ross’ diagnosis of lymphona led him to create “Highly Evolved Human,” a comedic look at a serious subject. Three years ago, Nick Ross was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, and has since, gone into remission. “Highly Evolved Human” is a hard-hitting comedy attempting to resolve the mental fallout of his cancer experience. Featured by Fox News and Newsweek Magazine, Ross sold out the Avenue Theater when he came here last September. Ross has been a company member of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre troupe for six years. Prior to moving to New York in January 2004, Ross wrote and produced sketch comedy in Denver. He’s a graduate of the University of Colorado-Denver. His show plays at the Avenue Theater through March 20. Tickets are $12-$18. Avenue Theater, 417 E. 17th; 303-321-5925; or
– Suzanne Brown
This weekend’s other theater openings
“The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged)” Three comic actors attempt to perform all the plays written by William Shakespeare — in less than 90 minutes. Through April 3. Evergreen Players, 27608 Fireweed Drive, 303-674-4934 or
“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” When an empathetic museum worker answers a ringing phone beside her in a cafe, she is soon playing unwitting comforter and confessor to a dead man’s grieving friends and family. By Sarah Ruhl (“Eurydice”). Through April 10. Theatre O, 5311 Western Ave., Boulder, 720-323-4665 or
“Microworld(s), Part #2: The Undiscovered Country” Thaddeus Phillips’ sequel to last year’s one-man play that now follows Milo and his rubber duck, Fumio, as they brave the Pacific Ocean in an epic journey to Brazil with the dream of starting a touring shadow puppet theater — on the back of a bicycle. Through Sunday. Presented by Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental at Buntport Theater, 717 Lipan St., 720-946-1388, or
“My Fair Lady” The Broadway musical about Professor Henry Higgins, who takes a bet that he can transform unrefined, dirty cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a lady. Starring Marcus Waterman and Gina Schuh-Turner. Through May 30. Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, 4747 Market Place Drive, Johnstown, 970-744-3747, 1-877-240-4242 or
“Same Time, Next Year” Enduring romantic comedy that follows a love affair between two people, married to others, who rendezvous once a year. Through April 11. Lake Dillon Theatre Company, 176 Lake Dillon Dr., 970-513-9386 or
“Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You” Nancy Thomas stars as the quippy nun who lectures her audience on the tenets of Catholicism. Performances at 10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 7:30 p.m. Sundays only. Through April 3. Vintage Theatre, 2119 E. 17th Ave., 303-839-1361 or
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