There are big musical titles on the Arvada Center’s newly announced theater season, as always, among them “Legally Blonde” and new versions of “Ragtime” and “Chess.” But 2011-12 may be best remembered for the sea change in the way area arts organizations go about doing business.
The name of the game is no longer competition. It’s partnership, cooperation and collaboration.
In the coming year, the Arvada Center will present, share, import and export new works along with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Creede Repertory Theatre, the handicapped company PHAMALy and the soon-to-open Lone Tree Arts Center.
The Arvada Center’s 35th season will mark a full expansion into a new business and artistic model it began test-driving this season. One that will result not only in more theatergoing opportunities for its own audiences, but for those across the state. And it will save money.
“Forging these new relationships advances our mission and fulfills our long-term goal of reaching a broader, more regional audience,” said Arvada Center executive director Gene Sobczak.
The Arvada Center will create six of its own works, as usual, among them “The Importance of Being Earnest” and its third staging of “The 1940s Radio Hour.” But its full subscription package will include seven titles, including Creede Rep’s visiting “The Road to Mecca,” after that heavyweight drama completes its initial run 250 miles southwest of Denver.
“Twelfth Night” will work the opposite way: It will be created for the Arvada Center by Colorado Shakespeare Festival artistic director Philip Sneed, in tandem with an Arvada Center creative team that already shares many members with Sneed’s. “Twelfth Night” first goes before Arvada Center audiences in May 2012, then moves — ready-made and cost-efficient — to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s summer season in Boulder. Sobczak calls it a “win-win” for everyone.
And the Arvada Center is finalizing an agreement with the new Lone Tree Arts Center to move most of its big musical productions to Douglas County for short runs after they are first staged in Arvada. Artistic director Rod Lansberry hopes that partnership will begin with “Ragtime,” which launches the Arvada Center’s season Sept. 13.
In addition, the Arvada Center will again welcome PHAMALy and its production of “The Elephant Man” as a nonsubscription offering, after its initial run at the Aurora Fox.
Making for eight total productions for Arvada Center audiences, where once there were just six.
Forging these new partnerships, Sobczak said, “is in the common interest of building a vibrant community for theater statewide.”
Of course, for most Arvada Center audiences, the big news isn’t who is doing what, it’s what musicals are coming when. “Ragtime,” the epic adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s novel on turn-of-the-century racism, marks a bold choice for the Arvada Center, given that just two years ago it softened all scripted references to the N-word in “Big River.”
“Racism definitely is the focal point of ‘Ragtime,’ ” Lansberry said. “And all the racial elements will be there.”
The Arvada Center will be staging the 2008 revival version of “Ragtime,” which Lansberry calls “cleaner, tighter and timely as ever with immigration being at the political forefront in Colorado.”
He also will be presenting the British version of the Cold War love story “Chess,” with permission from its creators to add one song from the less-regarded American adaptation, and the specific OK from lyricist Tim Rice to move the order of songs around. The musical is best known for the top-40 hit “One Night in Bangkok, but Lansberry says the score includes “some of the most vocally amazing musical numbers ever written.”
Summer is normally reserved for the good-time musical of the season; witness the upcoming “Hairspray,” opening June 21. Next summer, that slot goes to “Legally Blonde,” written by Tony-nominated University of Colorado grad Heather Hach. It’s the musical adaptation of the Reese Witherspoon blockbuster about the ditzy blonde who finally realizes it’s brains before boys.
“What a thrill,” said Hach, who was giving birth in Los Angeles last year when the national tour of her show visited Denver. “I’ll have to come back to see it at the Arvada Center so I can finally see ‘Legally Blonde’ in Colorado.”
The dramatic titles on the slate mark several Arvada Center milestones: “Twelfth Night” will be its first Shakespeare offering since “The Taming of the Shrew” in 1980. And it’s a given the Arvada Center has never offered anything like Athol Fugard’s “The Road to Mecca,” a difficult play about a woman who is shunned as an eccentric by her small community. It is suggested by the life of South African artist Helen Martins.
Last year, Creede brought a light farce called “The Ladies Man” to the Arvada Center, “and I wasn’t even sure our audience would go for farce,” Lansberry said. That audiences responded so strongly has expanded his notions of what else they might be willing to see.
With “Mecca,” Lansberry said, “it not only broadens the awareness of Creede in the metro area, but it lets audiences know there is far more depth to Creede, as well.”
“The Importance of Being Earnest” will be the first period comedy to take the center’s traditional “historical drama” slot (most recently “A Man for all Seasons” and “The Lion in Winter”). It’ll be Lansberry’s first time directing in the 200-seat, $7.2 million black-box theater he opened in 2006.
It was billed then as a fully transformational space that could adapt for any play, but for “The Road to Mecca,” Nagle Jackson will become the first director to actually change the configuration of the space from the traditional proscenium it opened with. Jackson will go for a semi-thrust configuration for “Mecca.”
Subscriptions go on-sale Monday, April 18. Call 720-898-7200 or go to
Arvada Center’s 2011-12 subscription theater season at a glance:
Sept. 13-Oct. 2, 2011: “Ragtime”
Oct. 11-Nov. 6, 2011: “The Road to Mecca” (Presented by Creede Repertory Theatre)*
Nov. 29-Dec 23, 2011: “The 1940s Radio Hour”
Jan. 24-Feb. 19, 2012: “The Importance of Being Earnest”*
March 27-April 15, 2012: “Chess”
May 1-27, 2012: “Twelfth Night” (in partnership with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival)*
June 26-July 15, 2012: “Legally Blonde: The Musical”
Additional nonsubscription theater productions:
Aug. 19-20, 2011: Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “Romeo and Juliet”
Feb. 24-26, 2012: PHAMALy’s “The Elephant Man”*
*In the black-box theater
A closer look at the subscription season:
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“RAGTIME”
When: Sept. 13-Oct. 2, 2011
Where: Mainstage theater
Writers: Terrence McNally (book); Lynn Ahrens (lyrics); Stephen Flaherty (music)
Director: Rod Lansberry
The story: “Ragtime” sets to song E.L. Doctorow’s sprawling tale of turn-of-the-century America through three intersecting families:
WASP, post-slavery black and Jewish immigrant. In its miraculously personal stage adaptation, “Ragtime” captures the era in all its complexities: The emergence of cities and new technologies, robber barons, racism, separatism and the rags-to-riches optimism that caused the huddled masses to flood the land of unequal opportunity with hope. And all these bittersweet contradictions are expressed in the new music of the age: Ragtime.
Last performed locally: This will be the regional premiere of the 2008 revival version. Boulder’s Dinner Theatre collaborated with the Shadow Theatre Company for a landmark staging of the previous version in 2007.
Says artistic director Rod Lansberry: ” ‘Ragtime’ allows our audiences to experience what we do best from the very start of the season — an elaborate musical staged with the greatest ambition and skill.”
Pictured: Reynelda Snell, left, as the maid and Jeffrey Nickelson as Coalhouse in the 2007 Boulder’s Dinner Theatre/Shadow Theatre collaboration in Boulder.
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“THE ROAD TO MECCA”
Presented by the Creede Repertory Theatre
When: Oct. 11-Nov. 6, 2011
Where: Black-box studio theater
Writer: Athol Fugard
Director: Nagle Jackson
The story: Living in a white South African village on the verge of seismic change, folk artist Helen Martins is a woman adrift in a world suspicious of her independent and creative spirit. Miss Helen’s fragile understanding of her own self-worth and place in the village invites visits by two well-meaning helpers who surprise themselves by revealing their own dark secrets. A sometimes humorous and sometimes surprising drama unfolds in the midst of Miss Helen’s self-created “Mecca.”
Last performed locally: Denver Center Theatre Company, 1989
Says artistic director Rod Lansberry: “We met with (Creede artistic director) Maurice LaMee this winter to discuss the possibility of continuing our partnership, following the success of ‘The Ladies Man.’ It made sense not only to extend the arrangement into the new season, but to use it as an opportunity to try something new and different. ‘The Road to Mecca’ on a semi-thrust stage will offer audiences a brand new theatrical experience at the Arvada Center.”
Pictured: The Seattle Rep’s presentation of “The Road to Mecca.” Photo by Chris Bennion.
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“THE 1940s RADIO HOUR”
When: Nov. 29-Dec 23, 2011
Where: Mainstage theater
Writer: Current Colorado State University theater professor Walton Jones
Director: Bev Newcomb-Madden
The story: This is the Arvada Center’s third staging of the original “Radio Hour” phenomenon. It’s Christmastime in 1942. On a cold and snowy evening in New York, a close-knit group of entertainers at the WOV radio station are broadcasting the final holiday variety show for the troops overseas. Patriotic, sentimental and overwhelmingly nostalgic, this holiday production, with songs including “Strike Up the Band,” “I’ll Be Seeing You,” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” – is reminiscent of an era long since passed but never completely forgotten.
Last performed locally: 2007 at Boulder’s Dinner Theatre. The sequel, “The 1940s Radio Christmas Carol,” premiered at Bas Bleu in Fort Collins in 2008.
Says artistic director Rod Lansberry: “This is still our highest-selling holiday-themed show that we have ever presented. Bringing it back is our way of celebrating and commemorating the 35th anniversary of the Arvada Center. Remounting one of our most popular musicals, however, puts us in direct competition with our own past. Our audiences hold dear the personal relationships and associations they develop with previous productions.”
Pictured: Marcus Waterman (Clifton A. Feddington) and Joan Leslie Simms (Ann Collier) in the Arvada Center’s 2004 production of “The 1940s Radio Hour.” Photo by P. Switzer.
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“THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST”
When: Jan. 24-Feb. 19, 2012
Where: Black-box studio theater
Writer: Oscar Wilde
Director: Rod Lansberry
The story: A witty comedy of budding romance and feigned identity, this Oscar Wilde classic set in 1895 London is a humorous exposé on British society and pokes gentle fun at pretense, all in the context of well-crafted language and delightful repartee.
Last performed locally: Colorado Springs TheatreWorks, 2007
Says artistic director Rod Lansberry: “This might be my favorite title of the season. It’s been on my ‘short list’ for so long. Having ‘The Road to Mecca’ already picked out allowed me to look for something lighter to balance things out. The chance to direct Oscar Wilde was one that I was not willing to pass up.”
Pictured: Andrew Schmidt (Jack) and Jessica Austgen (Cecily Cardew) in TheatreWorks’ 2007 production. Photo by Tom Kimmell.
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“CHESS”
When: March 27-April 15, 2012
Where: Mainstage theater
Writers: Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (music), and Tim Rice (lyrics)
Director: Rod Lansberry
The story: Set against the backdrop of a Cold War-era chess tournament between an American and a Russian, this rock opera uses the game of chess, with all its power plays, manipulations and sacrificial pawns, as a metaphor for love and life. This is a regional premiere of a new revision of the London version.
Last performed locally: Next Stage, 2006
Says artistic director Rod Lansberry: “I think ‘Chess’ has some of the most vocally amazing and emotionally strong musical numbers in it, far beyond ‘One Night in Bangkok.’ My goal is for those numbers to be staged in a way that will strengthen the audience’s understanding of the book, and the characters.”
Pictured: David Fletcher (Molokov) woos Janelle Christie (Florence) in Next Stage’s 2006 production of the Cold War rock romance “Chess.”
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“TWELFTH NIGHT, OR, WHAT YOU WILL”
Presented in partnership with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival
When: May 1-27, 2012
Where: Black-box studio theater
Writer: William Shakespeare
Director: Philip Sneed
The story: What do you get when you mix a double-shot of love triangle, an ambitious young woman disguised as her twin brother, a pair of buffoons, one amorous fool … and one wise fool? A cocktail of romance and pathos, silliness and laughter. Shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria, Viola, calling herself Cesario, pursues employment in the court of Duke Orsino, who is in love with the Lady Olivia. Comedy ensues when Viola’s “male” identity causes confusion of colossal proportions, and the fat Sir Toby Belch calls in the clowns.
Last performed locally: Jones Theatre, Westcliffe, 2009
Says artistic director Rod Lansberry: “The partnership enables us to mount a production that draws upon the respective strengths of each organization. It also gives us an uncommon opportunity to introduce the works of Shakespeare into our subscription series with one of the country’s leading figures in this area of theater.”
Pictured: Matthew Erickson as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Dennis R. Elkins as Sir Toby Belch and Damian Thompson as Fabian in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s 2006 production of “Twelfth Night.” Photo by Lou Costy.
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“LEGALLY BLONDE, THE MUSICAL”
When: June 26-July 15, 2012
Where: Mainstage theater
Writers: Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin (music and lyrics); Uinversity of Colorado graduate Heather Hach (book)
Director: Gavin Meyer
The story: This upbeat musical comedy tells the tale of Elle Woods, a blonde sorority darling who turns the stereotype upside down and heads to Harvard Law School to win back her boyfriend … or so she thinks. A feel-good story about girls learning to do for themselves first. Based on the 2001 movie starring Reese Witherspoon.
Last performed locally: The national tour came through Denver last year but this is the first time “Legally Blonde” has been staged by a local company.
Says artistic director Rod Lansberry: ” ‘Legally Blonde’ has somewhat of a cult following, and there’s actually more there than people give it credit for. It has its moments, it has its message … and yet you can really enjoy and have fun with it. We’ve all heard the dumb blonde jokes, and to have this character surmount all of the obstacles that come her way, you can’t help but root for her.”
Pictured: Denver Post Ovation Award winner Becky Gulsvig starred in the 2010 national touring production of “Legally Blonde.” Photo by Joan Marcus.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
