The garage door is coming down on a Golden tradition.
The Heritage Square Music Hall swears that “Garage Sale Loud,” the ninth installment in its remarkably popular series of silly pop-music revues, is the last one. It’s even written into the subtitle: “This Is It!”
Here’s hoping “Loud” is all that’s ending Sept. 5.
Since 1998, more than 200,000 ticket buyers have visited this venerable musical hall on the grounds of the larger Heritage Square amusement park just to see two iconic siblings (played by T.J. Mullin and Annie Dwyer) shamelessly bicker and snicker their way through a night of rotating rock and pop classics.
“Loud” isn’t all they offer at the Music Hall, once a year-round purveyor of classic melodramas until the form began to fall out of favor. But what started as a fingers- crossed attempt to appeal to more contemporary audiences has transitioned into the company’s signature offering. Surely many have long since tired of it, given the troubling smallness of recent crowds. But for some of us, what you do best never gets old.
The formula is simple: Annie and T.J. have traversed the decades, first as 1950s heartland teenagers joined by neighborhood pals to rock out in their parents’ basement (hence the original title: “That’s Too Loud!”). Now they’re adults who’ve returned for the melancholy task of clearing out their childhood home.
All of which is an elaborate ruse to give some of Denver’s most talented singers and comedians — including Alex Crawford, Rory Pierce, Charlie Schmidt and piano man Randy Johnson — an excuse to wear garish costumes and make silly-willies of themselves singing everything from the Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” to more contemporary hits like Beyonce’s “Single Ladies.”
Yes, that’s a parody of the parody: Justin Timberlake’s “boys in unitards and heels” “Saturday Night Live” video, which has since gotten 20 million hits on YouTube.
“Loud” works because it’s comfortable, unpretentious and way more fun than theater has any right to be. Many seek out theater for the intellectual challenge, the history or to explore issues. People come here to kick back, have a beer and sing along to the songs of their lives.
The night starts with a decent buffet meal, but should you happen to miss it, they’ll be happy to bring you yummy fried snacks that will fry you to within an inch of your life.
The show belongs to Dwyer, the only remaining woman in the company. As always, she seeks out an unsuspecting audience member to play her philandering fictional husband, Bobby Lee. If he plays along, as ours did, the audience will later hound him for autographs as if he’s one of the paid performers.
The ensemble is at the top of its game: A lithe Crawford — in his 60s! — drawing shrieks for his “I Feel Good” smooth moves; Schmidt doing “Beat It” as Weird Al; the boys singing the Go-Gos’ “Our Lips Are Sealed” in towels and facial cream.
A funny bit, yes, but endemic of the larger problem in Golden right now: Dwyer’s the last woman because longtime ingenue Kira Cauthorn has left the company. Paychecks are down because performances are down because ticket sales are down. And actors have to pay the bills like everyone else, even if it means taking a better paying, non-acting job.
But at Heritage Square, it’s not the size of the house but just how “Loud” the house wants to be. Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to watch along with a spirited group like the tie-dyed 4H Club of Ohio, as I did. These people were seriously into it, tossing out witty rejoinders as funny as anything the cast had written.
But with a closer like the classic “Forever Young,” the end of “Loud” feels like more than the end of one era.
The third anniversary of the once unthinkable demise of the Country Dinner Playhouse has just passed, which goes to show — “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”
Heritage Square is a local tradition dating to 1972. If you want to ensure that it’ll still be here in the future, you’d best patronize it now.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“Garage Sale Loud: This is It” *** (out of four stars)
Pop-music revue. Heritage Square Music Hall, 18301 W. Colfax Ave., Golden. Starring T.J. Mullin, Annie Dwyer, Alex Crawford, Rory Pierce, Charlie Schmidt and Scott Koop. Through Sept. 5. 2 hours, 20 minutes. 7 p.m. selected Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays (dinner 2 hours before). $27.50-$31 (show only); $35.50-$40.50 (with dinner). 303-279-7800 or
