The most impressive . . . and depressive . . . thing about watching “A Hotel on Marvin Gardens” is realizing that when Nagle Jackson wrote this biting little comedy for the Denver Center Theatre Company in 1999, nefarious, insatiable cheats like Bernie Madoff and Kenneth Lay had not yet even entered the public consciousness.
Then again, they certainly knew Gordon Gekko. Greed, like winning, is good . . . and long-ingrained in the American mind-set.
Jackson, a 20-time DCTC director, is best-known for writing urbane new translations of old French farces. But his contemporary works are more meaningfully focused on the human consequences of America’s unchecked avarice. That spans the heartfelt “Bernice/ Butterfly,” about a dying Kansas town, to his newest work, “This Day and Age,” about a fiercely independent old widow, bowing July 23 at the Creede Repertory Theatre.
“Marvin Gardens,” only now getting a modest second Denver staging by the Spotlight Theatre Company, is a scathing commentary on unchecked materialism and East Coast elitism. Jackson himself described his play as “a comedy of manners at the end of the Consumer Century.”
It introduces the kind of self-important, upwardly mobile snots you’d never want to be trapped with for one second in real life. But, for two hours on a stage, you might savor watching them go at it in combat, battleship to thimble, devouring one another playing the cherished board game “that brings out the worst in everyone,” we’re told. It’s Monopoly — a Darwinian display of American capitalism.
Jackson’s play is set on a private island off the Connecticut coast that’s inhabited by only one person — a rich, no-nonsense ice pick named KC. She runs a magazine she inherited, the deliciously titled ME magazine. She’s a control freak, the poster child for wealth acquired not through merit but by blood.
Every April Fool’s Day, KC hosts a Monopoly marathon with certain presumed constricts that make the playing of the game as unnecessary as it is unfair. Like life.
Her annual roadkill is her ME publisher/lover, Bo (heir to unfathomable wealth), her longtime editor Henry, and “an interesting person” of Henry’s choosing. This year he’s brought along a dingbat food critic named Erna, who threatens KC’s long-standing domination.
Throughout the evening, there are as many professional power plays as there are of the Parker Brothers variety. But while several farcical interjections keep the mood light, there’s no escaping Jackson’s contempt: To the spoiled goes the victory, it’s always been true, but as the writer, Jackson gets to fashion a savory denouement that’s worthy of “Citizen Kane.”
Director Pat Payne’s serviceable staging gets funnier, and more meaningful, as it goes along. But it struggles with comic tone and never fully mines the acidic emotional nuance of these characters. Of course, Denver was spoiled with Nance Williamson, Annette Helde, John Hutton and Sam Gregory originating these roles.
Faring best here is Bernie Cardell as Henry, the conflicted editor who, through therapy, has recently come to see this ruthless game as an unseemly metaphor for his ill-spent professional life. That affords Cardell, best known for broad physical comedy, the chance to show a far more complex and intellectually honest side.
But Andy Anderson’s Bo comes off as frustratingly nondescript, and, more consequentially, there’s something inauthentic about the simplistic and polar portrayals of chief adversaries Erna and KC. The play starts to take off only once actors Linda Williams and Molly Killoran start to go at it, but while one tries too hard to be wacky, the other is steeped in a humorless kind of self-loathing. From Shake- speare to Wilhelmina Slater (“Ugly Betty”), we tend to love the “rich-rhymes-with- itch” when she revels in it.
This smart little play is tough to pull off, what with the static nature of playing a board game, and the unlikely interjection of a contrarian, middle-class point of view.
But the relevance of the script, combined with the earnest efforts of the cast, promise a thought-provoking evening for its audience.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“A Hotel on Marvin Gardens” **1/2 (out of four stars)
Gamesmanship. Presented by the Spotlight Theatre Company at the John Hand Theater, 7653 E. First Place. Written by Nagle Jackson. Directed by Pat Payne. Through June 19. 2 hours. 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 6:30 p.m. June 6. $16-$18. 720-880-8727 or
Best bet: Hal Holbrook in “Mark Twain Tonight!”
Hal Holbrook returns to Denver on Saturday in his most famous guise … that of author and humorist Mark Twain. This is Holbrook’s 56th year of playing the cigar-chomping humorist, making “Mark Twain Tonight!” one of the longest-running shows in theater history. The one-man, one-night-only act is an evening of Holbrook, 84, delivering Twain witticisms. Holbrook changes his piece once a year, picking from 12 hours of total material that is most resonant with the current state of the world. He’s returning to Denver on Saturday, less than two months after losing his wife of 27 years, TV star Dixie Carter, to uterine cancer. Holbrook can’t light up Twain’s famous cigar here because of the statewide smoking ban. Last time through, Holbrook commented on the ban by saying, “There will always be people worried about their health . . . and people who will worry about it for them.” The show starts at 7 p.m. at the Buell Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets. Tickets $25-$55. 303-893-4100 or .
This weekend’s other theater openings
“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” Offbeat musical comedy in which six awkward adolescents spell their way through the biggest night of their young lives. Through Aug. 21. Creede Repertory Theatre, 124 N. Main St., 719-658-2540, 1-866-658-2540 or
“Gypsy” Broadway musical, based on the 1957 memoirs of striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, about a mother’s drive to turn her daughters into stars at any cost. Songs include “Everything’s Coming up Roses” and “Let Me Entertain You.” Through July 11. 73rd Avenue Theatre, 7287 Lowell Blvd., Westminster, 720-276-6936 or the73rd
“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s irreverent musical lark that comically tells the biblical story of Jacob’s favorite son and his bitter brothers. Through Aug. 22. Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, 4747 Market Place Drive, Johnstown, 970-744-3747, 1-877-240-4242 or colorado
“Lend Me a Tenor” This, the most commonly staged farce of the past 25 years, is set in 1934. A world-renowned Italian tenor visiting the Cleveland Grand Opera Company has, through a series of comic mishaps, been given a double dose of tranquilizers. Through July 11. Bas Bleu Theatre, 401 Pine St., Fort Collins, 970-498-8949 or
“Patience” The Empire Lyric Players, Denver’s 52-year-old Gilbert and Sullivan troupe, presents an operetta about a practical milkmaid, two poets, 20 lovesick maidens and a troop of heavy dragoons. Through June 13. Mizel Center, 350 S. Dahlia St., 303-798-6700 or
“Reefer Mania: Denver Has Gone To Pot!” This new “vaudevillesque pot opera” spans 90 years of musical pot culture — in sparkly costumes. The story follows “Smokey Joe” into a fantasyland starring Cora Vette as Mary Jane. For audiences 16 years and up. Through July 3. Presented by BurlyCute at the Crossroads Theatre, 2590 Washington St., 720-308-5091 or burlycute
“Re-Sourcing” In this new play by Littleton native Laura Shamas, a small software firm in Arkansas has been outsourcing jobs to India. Until a ragtag group of workers comes up with an ingenious plan to save their jobs and get revenge on their boss. Through June 13. Presented by the Main Street Players at the Avenue Theater, 417 E. 17th Ave., 720-763- 2134 or
“Seascape” Edward Albee’s 1975 Pulitzer-winner is a comedy about an older couple who are discussing their relationship and uncertain future while vacationing on a sand dune, when they are joined by a most unusual couple — a pair of evolving sea creatures. Through June 26. Theatre Company of Lafayette, 300 E. Simpson, 720-209-2154 or tclstage
“Seniors of the Sahara” A retired schoolteacher brings home more than just souvenirs from her grandson’s wedding in Israel. She also brings back a geriatric genie named Eugene with a bad back and a penchant for vodka and V8. Through June 13. Festival Playhouse, 5665 Olde Wadsworth Blvd., Arvada, 303-422-4090 or
“Sinatra: Nothing but the Best” Denver Center Theatre Company actor Jeffrey Roark stars in a new cabaret revue inspired by the songs and stories of Frank Sinatra. Written by Lannie Garrett. Fridays only. Through July 31. Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret, D&F Clock Tower, 16th and Arapahoe streets, 303-293-0075 or
Complete theater listings
Go to our complete list of in Colorado, including summaries, run dates, addresses, phones and links to every company’s home page. Or check out our listings or
The Running Lines blog
Catch up on John Moore’s roundup of theater news and dialogue:
Hometown report: New feature on denverpost.com
We’ve added a permanent new feature to our home page called “Honor roll: Coloradans on national stages.” It’ll be a continuously updated hometown report you can always find
