The symmetry was exquisite and heartbreaking.
A grown son, like millions before him and millions to come, struggling with how best to care for his sad, sick parents, reading them bedtime stories — the same ones they had read to him as a boy.
It was especially hard for actor John Lithgow to reconcile the depressed man before him with the father he had always known. “He had lost his spirit, and his will to go on,” said Lithgow. “He had all but given up.”
Arthur Lithgow had lived as the consummate gypsy, an actor and director who instilled in all his young Lithgows a love for storytelling. He was a man of such gusto, he once covered for an ill fellow actor by playing both Baptista and Petruchio in “The Taming of the Shrew” — at the same time. He used a black cloak and an orange cap to distinguish the two characters, “and the audience just roared,” said John Lithgow, award-winning star of stage and screens big and small.
But in 2002, after months of caring for his parents, Lithgow just could not cheer his father up, “and I knew that was my No. 1 task,” he said.
The idea hit him like a bolt.
He combed through his parents’ bookshelves until he came upon an old tome called “Tellers of Tales,” a collection of 100 short stories his father had often read to his kids.
“I told my parents to pick a story as they were lying in bed, and they chose P.G. Wodehouse’s “Uncle Fred Flits By,’ ” Lithgow said.
Lithgow launched into the zany tale, “and as I was reading it, my father started to laugh,” he said. “In my mind, in that moment . . . he came back to life.”
Seeing it, Lithgow said, “crystallized all my thoughts about acting and performing and entertaining and storytelling.” It hit him why we all want and love stories in our lives: “They persuade us we are human, and they reacquaint us with our own emotions,” he said. “They are the life’s blood to all of us.”
Lithgow comes to Boulder’s Chautauqua Auditorium on Sunday to perform his one-man stage memoir, “Stories by Heart.”
It’s billed as the inaugural production by the LOCAL Theatre Company founded by Boulder’s Pesha Rudnick. She’s Lithgow’s niece — the daughter of another sibling who grew up spellbound by Arthur Lithgow, teller of tales.
But that’s not why he’s coming to Boulder.
“Oh, I’ll do the show at the drop of a hat,” Lithgow said of “Stories by Heart.” “If I were a vaudevillian in the old days, this would be called my trunk show. I just carry it around and do it anywhere.”
Lithgow appears in the box-office hit “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” His memoir, “Drama: An Actor’s Education,” comes out as a book on Sept. 27. And he returns to Broadway next April in David Auburn’s “The Columnist,” about powerful newspaperman Joseph Alsop.
In Boulder, he will reflect on how storytelling shaped his upbringing while he’s performing — not merely telling! — “Uncle Fred Flits By” and the decidedly darker “Haircut,” by Ring Lardner. The first is a silly British comedy in which Lithgow plays 10 outrageous characters (including a parrot). The second he calls “a darkly comic and extremely mordant American story.”
Lithgow believes there has been a renaissance in great storytelling of late, citing Elizabeth Stroud’s “Olive Kitteridge,” Jennifer Egan’s “A Visit from the Goon Squad,” Tom Rachman’s “The Imperfectionists” as favorites, as well as old standby John Irving, who helped vault Lithgow to fame by penning “The World According to Garp,” the film version of which earned Lithgow his first Oscar nomination.
But as a matter of nightly routine, storytelling has been under siege in households across America for decades. “And it all started with that (expletive) remote control!” Lithgow said.
“I think our sensibilities have changed in the way stories are delivered to us,” he said. We’ll rotely sit in front of a TV for five hours, but we can’t stand still for 40 minutes while our own parents tell us tuck-in tales.
But Lithgow is an optimist. He cites the recent sold-out, seven hour off-Broadway production of “Gatz,” which takes the audience through every word of “The Great Gatsby.”
And Irving’s recent opus, “Last Night in Twisted River” — another period novel Lithgow says his hero writes “almost in defiance of the snappy 200-page novels that are so popular.”
“People do respond to great storytelling,” he said. “People get surprised by their patience. And I like to think that there’s a great hunger for that, almost because of and in the face of the digital revolution.”
Those who sate that hunger with Lithgow on Sunday will hear two stories framed by the narrator, now 65, telling his very personal story about telling stories to his parents.
“People identify so powerfully to that aspect of the evening, especially people of my age who have older parents,” he said. “Once you get north of 50 or 60, that experience becomes extremely poignant and intense.”
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
John Lithgow’s “Stories by Heart”
Chautauqua Auditorium. 7 p.m. Sunday. Written and performed by John Lithgow. $38.50-$81.50 (plus fees; $75 post-performance meet-and-greet requires separate ticketing). 303-440-7666, box office or
Best Bet: National touring production of “Les Misérables”
Opening Tuesday, Aug. 30, through Sept. 10: “Les Misérables” has visited Denver many times before, but the production coming to Denver this time is the official “25th anniversary” production of the world’s longest-running musical. Producer Cameron Mackintosh’s is promising “a glorious new staging and spectacular, reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo.” Based on the Hugo novel, “Les Misérables” is the epic saga of one man’s escape from social injustice. After Jean Valjean’s parole from prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family, he is haunted by a constant cloud of suspicion and distrust.The score includes “I Dreamed a Dream,” “On My Own” and “Do You Hear the People Sing?”
It opens at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Buell Theatre and continues daily — often twice daily — through Sept. 10. “I’m delighted that 25 years after ‘Les Mis’ originally opened in London, the audience for the show is bigger and younger than ever before,” Mackintosh said in a statement. “Over the years, I have seen many successful but visually different productions, so it has been exciting to draw inspiration from the brilliant drawings and paintings of Victor Hugo himself, integrated with spectacular projections. The new ‘Les Mis’ is a magnificent mix of dazzling images and epic staging, driving one of the greatest musical stories ever told.” Les Mis originally opened in London on Oct. 8, 1985, and has since been by nearly 60 million people worldwide in 42 countries and in 21 languages. “Les Mis” made theatrical history this year with an international first — three different productions playing in London at the same time. The celebratory 25th anniversary concert was shown in cinemas throughout the U.S. last November and has since run frequently on cable television.
Showtimes: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays; also: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4; 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7; and 2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9
At the Buell Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets, 303-893-4100 or
This week’s other theater openings
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Sunday, Aug. 27, only: Local Theatre Company’s “Stories By Heart,” at Chautauqua Auditorium, Auditorium Boulder
Opening Tuesday, Aug. 30, through Sept. 10: National touring production of “Les Miserables,” at the Buell Theatre –>
Opening Thursday, Sept. 1, through Sept. 4: Lake Dillon Theatre’s “Shout, the Mod Musical”
Opening Friday, Sept. 2, through Nov. 12: Midtown Arts Center’s “Next to Normal” Fort Collins
Friday, Sept. 2, and Saturday, Sept. 3: Jones Theatre’s “New Rocky Mountain Voices” Westcliffe
Opening Friday, Sept. 2, through Sept. 4: Backstage Theatre’s “The Music Man,” at the Riverwalk Center Amphitheater Breckenridge
Opening Friday, Sept. 2, through Sept. 17: Upstart Crow’s “Uncle Vanya” Boulder
Opening Saturday, Sept. 3, through Oct. 15: Curious Theatre’s “Clybourne Park”
This week’s theater closings
Sunday, Aug. 27: Boulder International Fringe Festival, at various Boulder locations
Sunday, Aug. 27: Lake Dillon’s “The Who’s ‘Tommy’ ”
Sunday, Aug. 27: Miners Alley Playhouse’s “A Touch of Spring” Golden
Sunday, Aug. 27: Germinal Stage-Denver’s “Uncle Vanya”
Sunday, Aug. 27: Theatre ‘D Art’s “Theatregasm Pleads the 5th” Colorado Springs
Sunday, Aug. 27: Edge Theatre’s “Faithful” Lakewood
Tuesday, Aug. 30: Nomad Theatre’s “Feathers on the Breath of God” Boulder
Friday, Sept. 2: Dangerous Theatre’s “An Empty Chest”
Saturday, Sept. 3: “Heritage Square Music Hall’s “A Musical: In Perfect Harmony” Golden
Saturday, Sept. 3: Thin Air Theatre Company’s “Hazel Kirke” Cripple Creek
Sept. 4: Union Colony Dinner Theatre’s “A Chorus Line” Greeley
Saturday, Sept. 3: Thin Air Theatre Company’s “Calamity Jane” Cripple Creek
Sunday, Sept. 4: Union Colony Dinner Theatre’s “My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra” (Sundays only) Greeley
Most recent theater openings
Rocky Mountain Rep’s “Almost Heaven: The Songs of John Denver”
Through Sept. 24: This Denver Center Theatre Company creation weaves together the songs of John Denver to create a theatrical narrative that reflects on both the country and the man’s life. There are 29 Denver songs, including “Rocky Mountain High,” “Sunshine on My Shoulders,” “Annie’s Song” and “Leaving on a Jet Plane.”
Showtimes: 8 p.m. Aug. 26-28; 2 p.m. Aug. 30; times then variable
404 Vine St., Grand Lake, 970-627-3421 or
Candlelight Dinner Playhouse’s “Annie Warbucks”
Through Nov. 13: The world’s most famous orphan returns in this sequel to the popular family musical “Annie.” The action picks up where “Annie” left off. Child Welfare commissioner Harriet Doyle arrives on the scene to inform Daddy Warbucks he must marry in 60 days so the newly adopted Annie can have a proper mother. In the end, Daddy Warbucks’ whirlwind search for a fitting bride uncovers not only a plot by Doyle and her daughter to strip him of his fortune, but also his true feelings for Grace Farrell.
Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays (dinner service 90 minutes before). Selected Saturday matinees.
4747 Market Place Drive, Johnstown, 970-744-3747, 1-877-240-4242 or
Curtains Up’s “Carousel”
Through Oct. 2: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s dramatic musical about 1870s barker Billy
Bigelow and his pursuit of his love, Julie Jordan. Songs include “If I Loved You” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
Showtimes: 2 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays, Sept. 18 and Oct. 2
6690 W. 38th Ave., Wheat Ridge, 720-308-2920 or
Firehouse’s “The Guys”
Through Sept. 17: In Anne Nelson’s fact-based drama, a New York City fire captain struggles to prepare simultaneous eulogies for the majority of his squad who died in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. He talks about what made these men who who they were, why they were firefighters, and what they meant to him and the community – with a writer who is enlisted to help him get through their memorial services. In the process, the two embark on their own journey of friendship. With Rita Broderick as the writer and Michael Ingram as the fire captain. The performance runs 75 minutes without an intermission. At its conclusion, Firehouse will present “Aftermath” – 15 minutes of unrehearsed staged readings of stories written by and about Firefighters. The production marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; additional performances at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 29; 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4; and at both 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 11.
John Hand Theatre, 7653 E. 1st Pl., 303-562-3232 or
Equinox Theatre’s “Reefer Madness”
Through Sept. 17: This “hit” show from 2010 is back at the Bug Theater. This raucous musical comedy, inspired by the 1938 propaganda film of the same name, pokes a tongue-in-cheek fun at the hysteria caused when clean-cut kids fall prey to marijuana, leading them on a comic downward spiral filled with evil jazz music, sex, and violence. Songs include “Listen to Jesus, Jimmy” and “The Brownie Song.” Equinox’s 2010 staging of “Reefer Madness” was nominated for a Denver Post Ovation Award for best musical, though the star of that stagig, Eric Mather, is not in this year’s version.
Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
At the Bug Theatre, 3654 Navajo St., 720-434-5245 or
Afterthought Theatre’s “The Wiz”
Through Sept. 24: In this African-American musical adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy’s adventures have been set to a lively mixture of rock, gospel and soul music. This staging is getting lots of attention because Denver’s first lady, acclaimed performer Mary Louise Lee, is playing Glinda the good witch. Book by William F. Brown. Music and Lyrics by Charlie Smalls.
Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Fridays; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; 5:30 p.m. Sundays
At the Dayton Street Theatre, 1468 Dayton St., Aurora, 720-365-7754 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 the latest theater news:
