Jolee Harston feels the love every time she rolls into Phamaly Theatre Company, where actors gathered on a recent weekday to rehearse songs for the world premiere of “504: The Musical.”
As a disabled person who uses a wheelchair, that’s something she doesn’t take for granted.
“I hadn’t acted in a long time just due to my chronic illnesses, and I didn’t think it would even be possible to perform again,” she said. “But a couple of years ago I saw Phamaly do ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show,’ which was my first time seeing one of their productions, and everyone on stage being disabled made me so happy and excited and fulfilled. It blew my mind open to the possibilities of accessible theater.”
Now Harston is playing June, the tuneful lead in Phamaly’s production of “504: The Musical,” which runs at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. With a book and lyrics by Abbie Goldberg, and music by Mason McDowell, the show reimagines the events of a 1977 San Francisco sit-in that forced passage of disability laws in California, and set the stage for revolutions to come.
The “504” in the title refers to , as they’re known, from section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. It “prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education,” the agency’s website reads. The 504 Plans range from wheelchair access for school bathrooms to daily treatment plans for kids with Type 1 diabetes.
And yet, the federal government is retreating from those protections, with the Justice Department last week Legalese is once again threatening the civil rights of disabled people, activists say, and potentially erasing five decades of hard-won progress. “504: The Musical” is meant to bring that into stark relief, even as 504 Plans remain generally invisible to most people, Raanan said.
Breaking ground, again
At Phamaly’s headquarters in north Denver’s Tramway Nonprofit Center, actors funnel past rooms of costumes and props and choreographers rehearsing complicated moves. In these halls, the overall nature of the company is clear: this is a safe space, physically and mentally, for all sorts of disabled people, but also one that pushes for artistic excellence at every turn.
That makes Phamaly the ideal place to debut said AJ Watson, production accessibility manager. After leaving a 17-year job at ESPN and moving from his home state of Connecticut to Colorado, the avowed theater fan caught a Phamaly show and immediately wanted to volunteer.
Now he serves the artists’ needs at the longest-running disability theater in the U.S., making accommodations and providing services for diverse creatives who are blind, deaf, in wheelchairs, and using canes, and some living with invisible disabilities. It’s not just about safety and human dignity, but also basic production logistics, he said.
“We have two members of our cast who are seizure-prone, so when that happens — and today could be one of those days — I’m the person who takes care of that,” he said. “I control the (rehearsal) room, we exit people if they need to be exited, I hold the person often, and I get them the resources that they need.”
Phamaly is a known quantity in Denver’s arts scene, having collected for its groundbreaking productions over its 37 years, and continually asking audiences to reconsider who gets to dance, sing and act on stage — and why.
But even amid past, original shows and their refreshing takes on “A Chorus Line” and “Little Women,” “504” is a unique recipe, with an all-disabled cast bringing to life a narrative that’s more about funny, weird, heart-rending details than political legacy.
It’s a celebration of the love and joy that disabled people experience when working together, said the musical’s director Ben Raanan. Snappy dialogue and earworm songs such as are rooted firmly in their late-’70s period, even as the subject remains immediate and deeply personal for the artists, added Raanan, who also serves as
“Even now we’re still questioning laws and ideas that impact the disabled community,” he said. “How can you change a building that’s been there for 100 years? When is enough enough? So many questions come out of the situation that inspired ‘504: The Musical,’ which is basically a bunch of disabled in people trapped in a building in 1977 for 25 days straight.”
Painful relevance
The issue is especially relevant in Denver because of the city’s pioneering disability-rights activists, whose Gang of 19 forced RTD to add lifts to its buses in 1978, helping kick off the Americans with Disabilities Act movement. They’ll soon be commemorated with at downtown’s Civic Center as part of the renovation of the sprawling public space.
“Despite being arguably the most important single event to occur in the Civic Center district, the Gang of 19 protest remains largely unknown to the broader public,” wrote online in April. The project received $1.8 million from the Mellon Foundation for a bold design that “transforms the south side of the Greek Theatre into a memorial, a new grand entry, and a model of inclusive public space,” the conservancy wrote.
The message people will see on the pavement is “WE WILL RIDE,” the Gang of 19’s rallying cry, surrounded by the names of all 19 activists, according to the conservancy.
Since the late ’70s, Colorado and California’s disability-rights activists have continued to lead the fight for which “504: The Musical’s” activists risked everything, from imprisonment to their own physical and mental health (the song “All We Need to Do” asserts they can “turn the A/C into a fridge” to keep safe their lifesaving medications cold).
It’s an analog for the at-times contradictory process of depicting those events, Raanan said.
“The cast has so many different disabilities and needs, and sometimes those are in conflict with one another,” he said. “But I’m directing the person, not the play. … The best practice is that you talk to the person and figure out what they need to be successful in their own bodies, and you do everything you can to accommodate that.
“Sometimes we can,” he continued. “Sometimes we can’t.”
DOJ backs off 504 enforcement
The federal government under President Trump has directed agencies to loosen enforcement of 1999’s Olmstead Act, which underpins the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act protecting the civil rights of people with disabilities. It compels public and private organizations to provide full and equal access to education, according to nonprofit civil rights organization (formerly Disability Law Colorado).
“Until now, the Department of Justice advised state and local governments to provide services to people with disabilities in the community and to avoid unnecessary institutionalization,” leaders wrote in a statement. “On July 20, the Department announced that it would no longer follow that guidance when enforcing the ADA.”
Local and national disability leaders have strongly condemned the federal government’s new approach, which would re-segregate people with disabilities, according to Disability Justice.
“That means more people with disabilities could face longer waits for home- and community-based services, or lose such services altogether,” said executive director Andrew Romanoff, former speaker of the Colorado House, in the statement. “And it means more people could be forced into nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, and jails — not because they need institutional care but because they have nowhere else to go.”
Stories worth telling
“Accessibility should not be an afterthought,” said “504” actor Harston, who also performs in the local, long-running “Rocky Horror Picture Show” . “And that’s what makes ‘504: The Musical’ such an incredible story, because it’s all about that. To bring it to life with these wonderful people just feels like a family (experience). I’ve never felt so taken care of in a workspace.”
Raanan begins each rehearsal with a gut-check for actors, who share what they’re bringing into the space, and what they’re needing to thrive in that moment. He doesn’t do his job out of charity, he said, but rather because disabled artists are some of the most fascinating and talented people in the world. They deal every day with issues that most people can’t even imagine — such as the constant difficulty of using public transportation to travel to rehearsals (a popular topic at a recent gathering).
“I’m obsessed with the details, and I am told that is because I am neurodivergent,” Raanan said with a laugh. “But being your authentic, vulnerable self in an artificial space is how I define theater. There’s a reason why Jolee is playing the lead, and it’s not just because she’s great at putting on a character.
“It’s because she brings all of herself to June, who is a leader in the history of disability rights,” he continued, referring to late activist “It’s up to me as a director to have high standards, because nothing in this room is just going to be OK because it’s easier. It has to be artistically rigorous. And so how do we channel our intense joy and experiences into it? This musical challenges all of us to be our best selves.”
If you go
“504: The Musical.” World-premiere musical dramedy with book and lyrics by Abbie Goldberg and music by Mason McDowell. Directed by Ben Raanan. Aug. 6-23 at Kilstrom Theatre at Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Speer Boulevard and Arapahoe Street in Denver. Tickets: $30-$47 via
