Big fall preview episode — with a side of 'Spamalot'

In this episode of the Onstage Colorado Podcast, hosts Toni Tresca and Alex Miller dive into the upcoming fall theater season in Colorado with a look all around the state at the musicals, comedies, plays, world premieres, and more coming up. Later in the episode, Toni interviews Chris Collins-Pisano, who plays four different parts in the Broadway touring production of Spamelot, now on at the Denver Center Buell Theater. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Hey, hello, and welcome to the August 2026 episode of the On Stage Colorado Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

I'm Alex Miller. And I'm Tony Tresca. And this month on the show, we are looking ahead to the fall theater season. And boy, there is a lot going on.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

There is indeed. Yeah. Like right now we're kind of in a little bit of a lull between the summer season kind of winding down and the fall shows gearing up to start. So we wanted to dive into that and look ahead. You know what? Like maybe September, October, November, you know, sort of not including the holiday shows. So that's what we're going to look at.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Yeah, it dipped a little bit into December, as long as the show did not include any holiday gesturings.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Not that we have anything against holiday shows, but they're kind of like, you know, given. They're a given.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Also, that's fodder for another podcast, Alex. We want to give away all of our best material.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Yeah. So uh and then later in this episode, we're gonna have an interview that Tony did with Chris Collins Pizzano, uh, one of the lead actors in the touring production of Spam A Lot, which is now at the Denver Center Buell Theater. Um so uh yeah, so that's it's up through um uh August 23rd. So uh it's got another what week or so. Uh and uh yeah, Chris is a busy guy because he plays four significant parts uh in the play. So I'm curious to hear that conversation you had with him.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Yeah, we talk a lot about the mechanics of comedy and how uh he and the company kind of keep it fresh and in their bones. I also ask about his kind of relationship with Monty Python in general, kind of inspirations. And we talk a little bit about his time in Denver before, because he was here with Forbidden Broadway twice. So folks in Denver may be familiar with Chris. Uh I know I was. I'd see this was my third time seeing him on stage.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Yeah, he definitely looked familiar. So so yeah, you and I were there on opening night, August 11th, and uh it was an awful lot of fun. It's a real musical theater extravaganza, you know. I mean, it is it is the kind of show where anything goes. You can pull uncork any tropes, cliches, whiz bang stuff, dance numbers. It's very silly. Uh and uh we had a lot of fun at it. And then you got a a bit of a a tour backstage. And after the opening night, I was jelly. What was that all about?

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Yeah, so my roommate who I brought with me to the opening night of Spam a lot actually knew one of the stage managers, Tara Toler Payne. And so she we went to the stage door uh at the back of the Buell, and we waited out there for her to come let us in and take us up the elevator to go to the stage and do a little bit of a backstage tour, learn a little bit about the load-in process. They got there that morning at 6 a.m. and uh started unloading all of their trucks that day, and then did not get a single full rehearsal, did not run the show in its entirety until you and I saw it at the Buell that evening at 7:30.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

And it was tight, you know? I mean, it was slick.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Yeah. Uh and I was like, I'm amazed that they didn't have a uh even a tech rehearsal or, you know, scene to scene.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Let me throw in another thing that might just boggle the mind a little bit is they hire when they come into town, every single town they go in, about half of the positions backstage are they there every single time they're with the tour, they go on the uh with them whatnot. Half of them are locals. And so they just get a list of things to do, like they're pulling the ropes on all the different scenic elements, or they're doing props or moving scene uh set pieces and things. And those folks, they're doing it all for the very first time that night when we are seeing it. And like you just said, it was very seamless. There were no errors. It really seeing that kind of process backstage and getting what and walking through what it's like to come into a city and have everything in these massive boxes, unload the boxes that day, and then have to go out that evening. They ran through a couple of moments, like they pulled some stuff, pulled some of the scene pieces so they could get a sense of timing and ran through a couple of transitions, but they don't get to run through the whole show. You certainly don't get to do it a bunch of different times to get it in your bones. It really does, it gave me a new level of appreciation to what goes into bringing a touring production to life.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. And it's certain, you know, I've done the tours of some of the theaters there at the Denver Center, but never when there is a live show uh on there. So that was a really cool experience.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

It it certainly was. And it was very funny to see the folks who I had just seen singing their hearts out and doing these insane bits in these period uh uh costumes, um then backstage in like modern garb, headphones on, listening to music, um just kind of going about their day, trying to get out of the theater because they've been going, going, going all day.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

That's great. All right. Well, uh let's talk a little bit about what we what we've seen lately. Of course, Spamalot being uh being a big one uh that was in town. Uh you and I also made the trek down to Colorado Springs uh over the weekend and saw Eureka Day. Uh so this is uh a comedy about a uh like a private grammar school in in Berkeley, California that we had we had also both seen at Curio Theater a year or two. Was it I think it was 2025, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Yeah, it was I it was almost exactly a year ago, isn't the their kind of this same time slot for them. Uh Christy Montor Larson directed that production. And it was a much larger production. The Acoma Street space where they were performing in really allowed the scenic designers to go big with it and make you fee see every aspect of this library setting in which a lot of the meetings that the folks are doing happen. Uh Springs Ensemble Theater, which performs in the 59er Speakeasy, which is in the back of this kind of game store in old Colorado City. It's the downtown spot. You kind of on the night you and I went, we had to walk through a whole bunch of people playing a lot of tabletop games. It was really bustling in there.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Yeah, yeah. It was it was hopping. And uh yeah, this is a fantastic little space. I mean, it's like, you know, you're just sitting at you're sitting at tables, you can get, you know, like a, you know, there's some some light, you know, food items you can get, and you can get a beer and sit there, and it's just a really comfy spot.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yeah, and the playing space itself is really tight and just slightly elevated in the space, which for this particular play really makes you feel as though you are sitting in this council room. You complete the rest of the library in a real sense. And I think that the director here, uh Jodi Paproth, does a really excellent job with the pacing and kind of how she builds tension throughout, as well and particularly with the casting. It's really a five-person show, and all five of the actors here were really excellent with a I really thought Allie Burroughs' performance um just particularly popped. She it plays Susanna, who is kind of this parent who is mistrusting of the vaccines uh mandates that are being discussed in the show. And she really had uh makes a meal of that role.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

She really does. And like, you know, we don't normally comment on actors' looks uh when we do reviews, but in her case, I mean, she just has this really open, honest face, and she had these big glasses. Uh, and so she really looked the part of this earnest parent who was also this like kind of a huge pain in the ass, but she also had a really legitimate story. So she wasn't just typecast as the you know, the villain, the anti-vaxxer uh person. Uh and so she was fantastic, but really, yeah, like you said, the whole cast was really, really strong, and it was just a it was a it was like theater at its most basic. Like you're right there. You know, the actors are just a few feet from you and doing a great job uh with it.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Yeah. Just a few moments along the way that kind of pulled you out of that. There were a couple of long transitions, particularly one really lengthy one involving some books right near the end. But I I think those only really stuck out to me because the rest of the play was so strong and so tight. I I maybe wouldn't have noticed that if the rest wasn't just so excellent.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Yep. Yeah, so definitely recommend uh getting down to that if you can. Uh it's running through the 30th uh at that uh 59 or speakeasy there in Colorado Springs. Uh and then uh the other uh show that I saw recently was Taco Town, which is uh world premiere at the um Miners Alley Performing Arts Center in Golden. This is uh another sh uh play by Luke Sorge, who's National Bohemians uh last year was uh pretty pretty good hit uh and really uh really a lot of fun. Taco Town, uh our our reviewer Garth Gerston was a little tough on it because uh it really it's a it's a really funny play. Uh and then in the second act, the script kind of veers off track, and and and I kind of agreed with that as well. Uh as much as I wanted to love the whole thing, it just uh it it's it wasn't quite there. It had it had like a uh you know, it kind of turned away from a comedy, you know, and that's what people were really enjoying the comedy, and then all of a sudden it wasn't a comedy anymore. And and uh, you know, and you know, I was thinking about uh Eureka Day, and there's a little bit of that element in Eureka Day as well, but uh I was trying to think about how how the script actually works in that case, and I don't I don't know, I'd have to think more about it. But you know, it's not like you can't do that, but uh it's it's it's tough to do.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Do you think with further development um that the play could kind of fix these issues?

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Well, I I think that that's probably true, but man, this play has he's he's been working on it for like a decade. So I'm I'm guessing that you know he's maybe thinking it's he's done all he's gonna do on it. So but uh that aside, I'm sure a lot of people will go to it and have a good time. It really is it's got a lot of really funny, you know, Luke is a great uh dialogue, uh funny dialogue uh writer, uh, and it's it's definitely a fun play to go uh check out. So um and then uh you were at Families, another world premiere 504, the musical that you uh had a lot of good things to say about, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:16

I did. I quite enjoyed this show. It's a musical that's a little bit of historic, it's a historical riff for sure. It's set in 1977 when a group of about 150 disabled activists uh went to a San Francisco federal building where they were for 26 days protesting that the government enforce section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Uh, and the musical really is just that. It's these kind of different characters who all have different relationships to disability, um, kind of sitting in a room because they're cut off from the outside world and kind of debating what is disability, how do they get what they want, what are the best courses of action, who's inside the movement? Like there's some there is a guy who is a recovering alcoholic, and one of the things that's really questioned is like, are drug addicts and alcoholics are they disabled? Should they be given the same rights as somebody who is uh who has another form of disability, uh like a wheelchair user, perhaps? And that's an active live question in the play, uh, particularly as politicians get involved and kind of question what they're doing and who do deserves rights under this act. And I think the plea, the the music for the most part really soars. It's very witty. It bounces around from a variety of styles based on which character is singing uh in a way that I really like. There's this really cool um kind of patter song uh almost as well uh called All We Need to Do, in which there, because this was a protest that was happening in cities all around the country, but this was the only one that really lasted longer than a couple of days. And as these other cities are dropping out in this in this kind of protest chant song, they just leave the spate, the blank space of the city until like half of the song is basically nothing. It's so powerful and effective because it quite literally makes the movement audibly crumble around them. And there's so many smart moments like that. Second act, as I detail in my review a little bit more, gets a little bit away from them. They kind of try to put this really positive spin on an issue that, as I argue in my review, is still very much actively being debated. Alaska, Florida, and Texas are currently challenging section 504, but the musical kind of ends on this really happy note where the characters literally say, um, after Did we win? Yes. And there's no kind of further questioning of where this goes and the current state of disability. I think that, and the musical is so complicated throughout that I just wish that the ending had continued that kind of uh strong work and strong foundation that it had laid.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Yeah. And that one's uh, you know, you you'd said you really thought this one could have a uh more life beyond Denver, and uh, you know, they'll probably be working on working on tuning it up a little bit before they you know look into that.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

1000%. I really do think that this is an important and unfortunately timely story. Um, it's not awesome that this is being challenged actively by some states uh because this is what gives disabled folks a lot of core rights, such as the ability to kind of to c get care uh in homes rather than being institutionalized. Um and so these are core rights, and it's wild that these states are attacking them. And so more people, the more people who are educated about this fight, what was won, and what's at stake if this goes away, I think the better. And yeah, just a little bit of work to do, but I absolutely think this has uh the chance and hopefully does have a long life after Denver.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Yeah. We hear that phrase a lot these days, unfortunately timely. First that we re-invest, re-litigating and refighting battles of the past uh with these people out there that are trying to take it back. So uh good on them for for uh raising, you know, surfacing this issue. Uh on the lighter side, I loved your review of Comedy of Errors, which is uh Shakespeare in the Wild. It was supposed to be in the park. And uh Jen and I were actually thinking about going, and there were these amazing thunderstorms going on that night. But you you went and you went to see it in the alt in location B. What was that all about?

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Yes. So uh I got the email a little bit before uh the showtime on opening night on Friday, August 14th, that instead of being outdoors in the park and Centennial, Shakespeare in the Wild would be performing in a vacant Ross dress for less, um, which doesn't maybe sound like the most it's enticing space to perform Shakespeare. I mean, you are literally situated between an active open staples and a marshals. As you walk in, I was a little I was carrying my folding chair into the theater along with everybody else, a little bit suspicious, but as I got in, nobody let the change in location get them down. I saw the people had brought in these little tables that they had set up, makeshift charcuterie boards on. People had cases of beer that they were cracking open. It was the probably the most lively a Ross dress for less has ever been in the world. And it was really just an incredible evening. Uh it the production directed by Aaron Vega is a nine-person clown take on the Shakespeare's Comedy of Manners. The plot is famously absurd. It's two sets of identical twins who it who both have the same name and who get into a whole bunch of comic situations. So I think putting this kind of clown spin and embracing a kind of three Stooges sensibility with all the slapstick violence that takes place throughout the show really worked. There's also tons of really cool pantomime moments that happened. There's this really cool speech at the top that this character gives about how the shipwreck happened and these folks got separated, that they act out with this cool ladder and this fabric and these kind of hand puppet things on their hands, and it's just really funny. Um, and then there's all these costume changes because there's a whole lot more than nine characters in Comedy of Ers. But Vega really works with that particular and makes a meal uh out of it for these actors, particularly in the final scene where characters are swapping between their different roles in view of the audience, uh, particularly one character who then is just like literally swapp talking to themselves. It's so funny and so precise and well executed. I wish I could have seen it outdoors in the park location as intended, but Shakespeare and the Ross was a was not a bad uh alternative. I really enjoyed my evening.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Was there any like uh like I don't know, these I imagine these like steel clothes racks with a couple of old moo's and pantsuits hanging on there, but was it completely empty?

SPEAKER_01 17:05

It was pretty much empty for the most part. They had a kind of former like display case that they had set up their merchandise on in one part of the store, and the bathrooms were still active in the back, but for the most part it was cleared out.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

All right. And then tick-tick-boom, this is the rent uh adjacent story that uh who was it to put this on?

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Uh this was done at the Arts Hub, and it was a co-pro between the hub and Shifted Lens Theater Company, uh, who is kind of a mostly Denver-based company, but they do these partnerships up there uh with this Lafayette-based group every now and then. And yeah, like you said, this is kind of the prequel to Rent in many ways, Jonathan Larson writing it. Um, and it's this kind of musical about what it's like to be an artist in New York who's turning 30 and hasn't had any real hits yet. And it's traditionally done as a pretty small cast with just three actors playing the roles. This is a larger production that has an ensemble in it, which I've seen before. It can work. As I'll uh folks can read in my review soon to be on Onstage Colorado, if it's not there already by the time you're listening. There's a little bit of a mishmash with the choreography in that the ensemble is frequently upstaging the actual actors in scenes doing kind of flash mob-esque choreo in the front that kind of physically acts out the words that the characters are saying in a way that literalizes a lot of the kind of thematic things in ways that I found a little bit strange, particularly just how it upstaged the actors in the show. There were some moments where it really worked, like in this bustling diner scene or at the musical um premiere. It really, really works there. But there's other moments like the opening or this green green dress song, which is supposed to be a romantic duo between two people in which they're alone, becomes this kind of full blown-out produced number in a way that I think just sat on uneasily with the source material. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Okay. All right. Well, also new or new-ish on the site, uh, your reviewer of Urin Town from um Rocky Mountain rep, uh the guy who didn't like musicals, uh, from Maddie Browning, uh, checked that out from a new theater company. Uh can't remember their name. Uh Singular Sensation. That's right. Yeah. So that was they had a little bit of a rough uh first show, according to Maddie. Uh As You Like It, which was um done in um uh I think the Colorado Springs from the Star Bar Players, who kind of a uh off-again, on-again theater, but uh our reviewer Judith Sears uh thought it was a really great production. Uh and then uh Funky Theater did Savannah Sippin' Society uh in uh uh Palmer Lake, uh, which uh April took our reviewer, thought it was a kind of a fun golden girls kind of kind of comedy that was uh fun to check out. So uh and then on the music site, I was out at uh in at Dillon uh Amphitheater uh over the weekend. I saw Jesse Wells, uh and my review is uh up on the site of that. Uh second time I've seen him. Great, great musician with a lot to say about the state of the world. Uh and then Maddie uh was at uh out at Red Rocks uh last week also to see uh Mountjoy, uh kind of an indie folk band that uh that uh a lot of people are digging on these days. So that's plenty of stuff on the site and more to come. So uh check it out all on on stagecolorado.com uh and then uh we can move on.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Yeah, let's turn now to our main topic: a Colorado fall theater preview. Uh as Alex mentioned at the top, kind of aside from summer stock and Shakespeare, the front range can feel a little bit quiet during the summer months, but that is all about to change with the start of the fall theater season.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

Yeah. Yeah, fall is when a lot of theater companies uh really kind of hit their stride. It's uh, you know, they'll start their season in the fall. Not all of them, but many of them. So to help kick off the rapidly approaching onslaught of new shows, we've rounded up some of the key productions that are happening all across the state.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Yeah, and so for our list, we're not naming every show or even every show that a company does, but rather spotlighting particular productions that happen between September and December that we think should be on your radar, excluding holiday shows. None of those. Not doing that here.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

All right. Well, let's kick it off with uh kind of on the northern part of the state, Boulder County, that area. Um what have you got to uh to share?

SPEAKER_01 23:07

I've got a couple of dinner theater options right up at the start. Uh first off, Jester's Dinner Theater in Longmont. Even though for years they've been it's been talked about how they're going away, they are still kicking, god damn it. And they're producing the producers. September 4th through November 29th. So you got a nice long run. They've got options. You can see the show with or without dinner, whatever your preference is. And the producers is this rollicking Mel Brooks uh comedy uh adapted from the film of the same name that I'll actually mention another time on the list uh a little bit later. Uh but the other dinner theater option is Candlelight Dinner Theater up north in Johnstown, and they are staging Les Miserables September 9th through November 15th. This is feels like a really perfect pick for this company. It's a big, exciting stage musical, uh, and I'm really curious to see how they sink their teeth into it, what it looks like on that stage out there. That they've certainly got the room for it.

unknown 24:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

For that barricade.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

It's definitely right up there, right in their wheelhouse there. So uh but it's a big it's a big tricky show. So you had on a list here a uh company I hadn't heard of, Indigo Theater Company in Fort Collins. What's you know who these guys are?

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Not a ton. They're a new-ish company in the area, and they're gonna be over at the Lincoln Center for two nights, September 10th and 11th, doing uh Firebringer. This is from the same company, Team Star Kid, that did the guy who didn't like musicals, which we've got a review up of this site on the site right now. They're kind of known for doing uh comedy musicals that they will upload in their entirety to YouTube. So if you want to, you can go watch Firebringer right now. But or you could go to Fort Collins and see it over at the Lincoln Center by Indico Theater, and it's this prehistoric Neanderthal musical comedy about the discovery of fire in the Stone Age.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Oh, wow. Reminds me of that 80s film, Quest for Fire. Have you ever seen that?

SPEAKER_01 25:09

I have not. No. Similar plot, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

Yeah, yeah. Well, it's it's more like they've got the fire, but then they sort of lose it and they have to go find some more. Uh but anyway. Um and then Modus Theater and Boulder is doing something a little different from their usual uh their usually uh their usual programming. They're doing a show called No Contract. So this is uh more of a two-person uh you know, uh physical theater play by Kristen Wilson about the dimension of her mother, and that's running September 17th through October 4th. So yeah, definitely MODIS uh stretching, stretching out uh a little bit of what they do.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Absolutely. This uh Kristen Wilson is the kind of artistic uh leader for MODIS, has been working on that kind that company for years. They do a lot of political theater, kind of uh improv improvisational stuff to kind of engage the community. And so, yeah, it is a little bit of a different thing for them to do it, be doing this world premiere, but it's from a very honest place. This is uh written by Wilson about her mother, who is this very prominent activist, and it's kind of grappling with this idea of like, can dementia ever be a positive thing? Uh, can you find joy from this thing? How do you stay positive in this thing that is so can be incredibly intense? I at least I'm speaking from my own experience in dealing with relatives who have gone through that. It can be a lot. And so I'm gonna be checking this one out on its opening night and very curious to see how they balance that kind of comic and tragic element in the piece.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

And then on the other end of the spectrum, no pun intended, the play that goes wrong at Longmont Theater Company, one of my favorite uh that's just a great, it's just always so much fun. It's and it's kind of you know, it's it's um almost foolproof uh kind of show. You can kind of do it. And even if even if you you know you screw up parts, it kind of just blends in. Uh not saying that that Longmont Theater Company is gonna do that, but uh uh so that's September 18th through October 3rd. Where are they uh so they're they have their own facility there, still in Longmont.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

They do. It's in the on downtown uh on the main street of Longmont. It's this big, massive uh actually theater space. I guess it's probably a 300-seater or whatnot. Um there's like popcorn machine, old-timey popcorn machine in the lobby and whatnot, which you know I like. Um their 70th season. Longmont Theater Company has a whole new team of leadership over there who are really who have really been doing a lot of uh work on community engagement to kind of revitalize this company that for a time there was a lot of uncertainty about whether or not, yeah, they were gonna survive.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

Um over in the Boulder area, local theater company has got another world premiere. Lots of world premieres this fall. That's gonna be a continued trend. Um, they've got drag queen magic or the torturous purgatorial experience of one Miss Let Us Celebrate, which is about this drag queen who um is lip-syncing Lady Gaga, but uh then a strange woman shows up and gives her this kind of choice that then traps her in a groundhog day-like situation. Uh local theater did a little bit of a workshop of this last year. Uh I didn't see it, but I heard really good things. Apparently, it's hilarious. And so they're gonna be doing the world premiere of this October 1st through the 17th.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

All right, that sounds really interesting. Um switching over to uh Golden at Miners Alley, they're doing Goodnight Oscar from October 2nd through November 8th. So this is uh gonna have uh the Denver's own uh award-winning David Neals is the legendary Oscar Levant, the Broadway composer. Um and a lot of times we just see David behind the keys. Uh so is he actually gonna have speaking parts in this in this one?

SPEAKER_01 29:03

Yes, he is. Yeah, he is also uh quite an actor himself. That's I bel I if I'm remembering correctly, he actually got his start as a touring actor on the Rocky Horror, uh, the Rocky Horror show uh many, many many years ago. And he was acting in that, and that's where he met his writing partner for the great trailer park, the trailer park musicals uh stuff. So yeah, he definitely is an actor. That's where he got his start. So I am looking forward to seeing him on stage uh in this production over in Golden for sure.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

Yeah, not a world premiere, but a regional premiere.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

That's right. And then I'm gonna do these next three together because they're all kind of spooky season programming in Boulder County area. So the Arts Hub in Lafayette is doing Little Shop of Horrors October 9th through the 25th. CU Boulder College of Music is doing Sweeney Todd, the Dean Members of Fleet Street, October 23rd through tw through the 25th. And then Longmont Theater Company uh is doing the Rocky Horror Show October 23rd through the 31st. So a performance actually on Halloween itself.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

All right. Gotta be there for that. Uh Col Creek Theater of Louisville is doing uh Doubt, a parable, uh always uh popular drama coming through October 30th through November 14th. So this is one of those pretty heavy-duty uh plays, I guess you would say, uh set at a Catholic school in the Bronx and in the 60s uh about a strict nun uh who suspects a priest of improper behavior with a student.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

And if you want to keep the spooky season going all throughout November, Open Stage Theater and Company is going to be your friend up in Fort Collins, as they have got Steven Dietz's adaptation of Dracula running October 31st through November 28th. I last saw this adaptation staged over at Firehouse Theater Company a couple of years ago. It really is just Dracula. There's a lot of fun stuff for the Renfield character in there, I remember too. Uh so I I got an invitation to come uh review this uh up north in Fort Collins. And I think I am gonna go check this out. Uh I I like their stuff for the most part.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

All right. So uh CU, the Boulder Department of uh CU Boulder Department of Theater of Dance is doing the 150 project, a new play rooted in student stories, November 6th through 15th. So of course this is the Sesquicentennial of Colorado, so there's a lot of 150 things going around. Do you know much more about this one?

SPEAKER_01 31:40

Yeah, I do know just a little bit more about it, is that s the Department of Theater and Dance is partnering with Tectonic Theater Project, who created the Laramie Project to create this new work. So nothing else about the specific stories, but they're gonna be using their kind of signature movement work process to create this devised production based on the student performers and other stories that they collect throughout this process.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

Okay. And then uh back up north to Fort Collins, Bob Blue is coming out of their quiet period doing dancing at Luganus November 13th through December 6th. Um and uh, you know, this is a show I'm familiar with, but I've never seen it. Have you ever seen this one?

SPEAKER_01 32:24

No, I I never have.

SPEAKER_02 32:27

All right. Well, maybe we'll have to make a trek up to Fort Collins. Um what else? There's another one in Boulder you've got here.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Yeah, a couple more in bol in the Boulder area. So the Spark in Boulder is doing Annie, November 20th through December 6th, a very uh very popular musical about a little orphan. Uh Upstart Crow Theater Company, also in Boulder, is doing Harvey, that uh play about a man who's best friends with a giant rabbit. That's going to be at the dairy, December 3rd through the 13th. And then Boulder Ensemble Theater Company uh is doing The Fair Maid of the West, also at the Dairy Center. And this is an adaptation of Thomas Hayworth's Elizabethan drama that follows the adventures of Liz, who is this rat catcher and barmaid who's falsely accused of murder and has to then go on this whole crazy adventure.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

Wow. Rat catcher slash barmaid. That's a resume uh item you don't see very often these days.

unknown 33:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:34

Heading down I-25 to Colorado Springs and the surrounding area, the Fine Arts Center is uh doing Come From Away is a popular uh title there, September 10th through October 4th, and then their sort of counterpoint part ent center at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs doing Sweeney Todd, another kind of sort of a spooky season play, but although it's it's a little earlier, September 10th through October 4th.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

We've already mentioned Sweeney Todd twice, and this will not be the last time Sweeney Todd appears.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

Yeah. Uh and then uh at uh Springs Ensemble Theater Company that we were just talking about, they're doing Heroes of the Fourth Tourney, which was also done at Curious Theater a couple of years ago. This is a uh uh Will Arbery play that uh sort of digs into the whole you know conservative movement uh and like uh some it's pretty fairly political in a lot of ways, November 5th through 22nd. Uh you and I were talking when we were there about how Springs Ensemble Theater is sort of like the curious of the Colorado Springs area. They definitely have similar tastes in the kind of uh material that they like to tackle uh down there.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

Aaron Ross Powell Definitely. And there's absolutely uh a need for it in the market, as none of the other companies in the area, I don't think, would dare touch a show like Heroes of the Fourth Turning, which is essentially like a two and a half hour conversation by a fireside about with a bunch of conservatives just kind of just going through all of the hot button issues. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

Uh speaking of Sweeney Todd, it's not Sweeney Todd, but the Butte Theater is doing the world premiere of and you know, they're mostly doing melodramas there, but they have Sweeney exclamation point, the demon barber of Cripple Creek, October 2nd through November 1st. I'm sure that's uh a ton of fun uh with the the silliness uh that they do down there.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

That god, the Butte Theater and their funny melodrama names that they come up with.

SPEAKER_03 35:31

Those have great names, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

Uh gosh, we always say we need to get down there. Maybe for this one, world premiere uh adaptation of their town, Sweeney Todd, so popular this season. Maybe this is the excuse that we need to just drive down.

SPEAKER_02 35:46

Yep, another road trip south. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

Let's move on over the big dog. That's right, yeah. So kicking things off, technically cheating just a little bit because the show does open in August, but it runs throughout most of September. So whatever. And it's a big one. It's Top Dog Underdog. This is the first show by Curious Theater Company that they're doing in collaboration with Cleo Parker Robinson over in its space while its home on a coma gets renovated. Uh, and so this show follows two brothers who have been abandoned by their parents, and each one is kind of searching for purpose. And as the two navigate work, uh long-standing resentments and old rivalries begin to resurface.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

Yeah, that sounds really uh intriguing, and it'll definitely be it'll be weird to see Curious in any other space uh than that Akoma, the old church there for sure, because I've been seeing them there since the 90s when they opened that theater. So uh in Aurora Third Side Theater Company is doing Brindlewood September 3rd through 13th. So this is a new musical woven with shadow and song following the journey of a young girl who wanders too far from home and finds herself lost in an ancient forest older than time.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

Wow. I am looking forward to checking this one out. It says it's kind of got faulty style music in it as well. Uh, from looking at some of the videos that they've shared on social media, they've got some cool puppetry for the animals in the forest as well. It looks like Third Sight is really kind of specialized in doing this really handmade, down-to-earth style shows, and this seems like very much in that lane.

SPEAKER_02 37:29

Where are they doing this?

SPEAKER_01 37:30

In roaming gnome or uh It's over at the it's gonna be at the People's Building.

SPEAKER_02 37:34

Oh, the People's Building. Okay. Uh and then uh another biggie, uh, Arvada Center is doing misery September 4th through October 11th. Uh so this is gonna have uh Jeffrey Kent and Jackie Wilkie starring in the show directed by Lynn Collins, the artistic director over there at Arvada. This is a pretty uh popular show uh for that people people do. That's uh, you know, it's of course it's a two-hander and uh very creepy. So it's kind of pre-Spooky season. Uh but uh I you know I've never seen the actual play as many times as it's been produced, so I'm gonna go check this one out.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

You miss I you missed the production at Miners Alley with Emma Messenger in the role. Oh my god. She was fantastic in that. I'm so sorry you missed that. I'm sure this one will be great too. But that one is so seared into my mind. It was so excellent. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 38:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

Um over in the Lakewood area, Performance Now Theater Company is kicking off its season with Gypsy, September 11th through the 27th. This is a musical about a show mom and her two daughters who go in incredibly divergent uh uh life paths. Uh and you and I are going to be checking this out on its opening night over at the Lakewood Cultural Center.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm almost ashamed to admit I've never seen Gypsy. Just one of those shows I just never have gotten to. So looking forward to seeing of it.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

I'm not surprised given that you are not a Sonnheim person, because this is one of his. And I thought this is one of my favorites from him. It might even be my favorite if I I don't know. This merrily we go, we roll along and company all kind of switch back and forth for my favorite. But this is definitely up there. It's got you definitely know some of the music from it. Yeah I'm sure as well. We'll talk we'll talk more about that later, though. Um DCPA Theater Company has got a pretty cool sounding regional premiere, Destiny of Desire, a telenovela play with music that's running September 11th through October 4th. Uh, this is a piece that they're doing, it's actually a co-production with the Center Theater Group. Um, and it's set in Mexico. Two baby girls are born, one into outlandish wealth and one into a life of poverty, but then the newborns are swapped at birth, leading to a whole bunch of comic situations. This play is written by Karen Zacaras, who I recently saw her work, Just Like Us, done by Su Teatro. Uh, it's a that script is really cool. That was a Denver-based one. This one sounds like it's in a different direction, kind of riffing explicitly, as the title says, on telenovelas and kind of those themes. And so curious to see what that looks like in execution over at the Denver Center.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

Yeah, for sure. Over in Aurora, if you missed the producers uh at uh Jester's Two Theater, you get a chance to catch it at Vintage Theater September 12th through October 11th. And this is the company's 200th show, which I saw that and I was like, wow, it almost seems like Vintage has done 2,000 shows because they're such a prolific theater company. But uh yeah, 200 is a big number.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

Absolutely. It's a huge milestone. The cast looks uh very cool, like a good company. I'm gonna check this out on its opening night. I've never seen the producer's musical live before, so this will be my first producers when I see it. I I've obviously seen the the original film by Mel Brooks, and then I've seen the movie, the adaptation of the musical that is really bad. So hopefully uh it's easy bar to clear to be better than that.

SPEAKER_03 41:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

So one of the uh one of the theaters at the Denver Center that we always keep a close eye on because they have such long runs, and if they if they have one that's not that's not uh great, they're stuck with it for a while. But uh, the Garnet Galleria is doing Hold On to Your Butts September 16th through October 4th, which was kind of a a short run for the Garnet Galleria, but this was a uh show that um it kind of was it's about Jaws, right? Oh no, Jurassic Park, that's right. And it was done here last year, I think, sometime was it uh I can't remember where it was, but uh it's uh it's basically got uh it's two actors in a fully audience performing a live shot-for-shot parody of Jurassic Park, which I'm keen to check out. I'm a big Jurassic Park fan. I always check out Jurassic Park stuff, it should be fun.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

Did you end up going to Jurassic Parks at uh Jurassic Park at Red Rocks?

SPEAKER_02 42:02

No, I did not. No. Ah I only saw Princess Pride there this this year.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

Ah, okay. I was just curious. I I knew at one point you were talking about going, so I wasn't curious. I was unsure. I heard it sold out. Apparently it was really good, really cool. Yeah. Makes sense. Yep. Next one is uh this is another pick from Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company. It's being done both at the Savoy in Denver and at the Dairy Center. It's called The Where? The Weird? The Weir.

SPEAKER_03 42:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

The Weir. It's Irish, that's right. It's uh this is a play by Connor McPherson, and it is about a woman who arrives at this remote country pub in Ireland, um, and they all the men there all start telling ghost stories, and then she reveals a startling story of her own. This is a very famous and well-regarded play. I've never seen it before, though. Have you?

SPEAKER_02 42:56

No, I haven't. I was talking to Mark Reagan over there at Betsy about it a couple of months ago, and he was telling me they were doing it, and it's it sounds really cool. Um, you know, for and a very different kind of different kind of thing for them. Um, you know, it's this is ghost stories.

SPEAKER_01 43:11

It's it seems very reminiscent of, and maybe not uh maybe it won't end up being, but of the thin place that they did last season in terms of a bunch of folks swapping stories that end up being a little supernatural in nature.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

All right. A miscreant theater collective in Aurora is doing a mochinal or machinal September 24th to October 3rd.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

Yeah, this is a really old play. It's from or not, I guess not that old. Now it depends on your definition of 1928 play. And it's about a real-life woman, Ruth Snyder, who was kind of gone stripped of her identity, and this is about a woman who is pressured into marriage, motherhood, and a life she never controlled, and kind of her battle out of it. It's a very kind of surrealist and intense piece. It's um I'm curious I've only read it before in drama class, uh, for just kind of talk about this period and style of theater that it's riffing on. Um very kind of machine and intense and uh in terms of the the style, so I but I've never seen it before. So this will be my first one over in Aurora. All right. Cool. Over in Firehouse Theatre Company, also in Denver, they're doing the Colorado premiere of the hat maker's wife. Uh, it centers on a young woman who moves in with her boyfriend, expecting domestic bliss, but instead has a little bit of trouble getting comfortable. Her strange new home seems determined to help her out, and soon the walls are talking. This one's inspired by Yiddish folklore uh and is a tale about family home and how we treat people we love, and it's gonna be over on stage there September twenty sixth through August uh through October twenty-fifth.

SPEAKER_02 45:04

Okay. Cool. There's so many titles that end with wife, uh somebody's wife. So it's curious to see what that one is. Elemental Theater Company in Lakewood, formerly Meat Ridge Theater Company, is doing the turn of the screw October 1st to 11th. So this is based on Henry James's uh novel about a young governess hired to care for two children. And this has ghosts going on in it as well. So a little bit of uh spook, spooky stuff there. Um and then I love the title of this one. Buntport Theatre Company in Denver has doing a world premiere. Of course, all of their shows are usually world premieres, if they're not if they're not uh reboots. The Vampire of Lafayette, October 2nd through 24th. What do we know about this one?

SPEAKER_01 45:46

So nothing else other than it is a world premiere and that title, but a little bit of research shows me that there is an urban legend in Lafayette, Colorado that circulated around the 1950s, in which local youth were told by their parents that a vampire was buried in the Lafayette Cemetery and that if they didn't get back in the house uh by a certain time, this vampire would come out and and get them.

SPEAKER_02 46:15

Okay. Sounds fun.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

Yeah, so I'm gonna guess it's riffing on that. Maybe it's a different thing. Maybe they're inventing something entirely new. Uh, you never know with Buntport. Uh all we know is it will likely be a zany uh show.

SPEAKER_02 46:30

All right. And we got more ghosts coming up in Aurora. What's this one?

SPEAKER_01 46:33

So this is over at the Aurora Fox Art Center. It's a show called Feeding Beatrice being done October 2nd through November 1st. It's a regional premiere. It's being directed by friend of the podcast, uh Betty Hart, uh, and it centers a black couple who is haunted by a white ghost in this gothic tale that's exploring both race and class.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

Interesting. Interesting. Aren't most ghosts white? Yes, I suppose you're right, Alex. I guess the classic ghost and the sheeted the sheeted ghost is the white in but uh diaphragm. Yeah, cloud-like. Okay. Family Theater Company is doing tiny beautiful things. Uh another popular title. They're doing it at Aurora, I'm assuming in the People's Building, October 8th through 18th.

SPEAKER_01 47:29

That's right. And they're they kind of got an interesting twist on this in that they are doing this show, which is normally done by the one person plays Sugar, the person who is getting all these letters in to the advice column, and then a couple of actors play the people who all the various people who are writing letters in. Family's doing a different twist. There's only going to be one actor on stage, I believe, the actress who's playing Sugar, and then there's going to be over a hundred disabled actors worldwide who are shown on video being all the different letter writers.

SPEAKER_03 48:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

Not sure how that will work in theatrical effect. Maybe it will feel clunky, kind of transitioning between these different folks. How what will the backgrounds look like? I'm cute. Or maybe that will be a cool thing. It's all these different people who are supposed to be from different locations, and you're actually getting to see them all embodied by different people from all across the world. Yeah. I don't know. We will see uh come October 8th over at the People's Building.

SPEAKER_02 48:27

All right. You want to tell us about the next Sweeney Todd installment?

SPEAKER_01 48:31

Yeah, we've got another Sweeney going on. This one's being done by the Platte Valley Theater Company in Brighton October 9th through the 18th. They always do really, really sharp work uh over there. This is at the Armory Performance Center, kind of in the downtown Brighton area. Pretty big venue. Uh, this is uh one of Kelly Van Osbury's companies that she is a part of. And yeah, just uh we saw a cabaret there that was excellent. I saw much ado about nothing there recently. It's very strong, so I expect this will be another excellent Sweeney Todd. Yep, I'm sure it will be. What do you think it is about Sweeney Todd that's hitting so hard this theater season? It's being done all over in all different regions.

SPEAKER_02 49:16

I don't know. I really don't know. I think it's probably a coincidence. I mean, it's definitely, you know, a good spooky season kind of uh property, but it does seem like there's an inordinate uh number of them. But uh, you know, there's plenty of Sweeney Todd to go around, you know. Yeah, it's uh You don't have to travel for him to see it.

SPEAKER_01 49:34

Absolutely. To me, I guess I'm kind of wondering like it's a Sweeney Todd is a little bit of a story just about this kind of a man who feels upset by and misled by the government who takes actions into his own hands and kind of vigilante justice style. I don't know. I'm just it's a it's something I'm kind of thinking about as maybe that's kind of a thing. That's that kind of sentiment is certainly popular in our times.

SPEAKER_02 50:00

Yep. Back at Vintage Theater and Aurora, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, uh, Robert Lewis Stevenson's classic tale of horror uh going on October 24th through November 2nd, so right in the heart of spooky season. Sounds like fun.

SPEAKER_01 50:15

Yeah, and it's this adaptation features four actors who play Hyde, all the various aspects of that personality, which I I am cute, I don't know. I'm that's an interesting kind of twist on how to approach the that figure of Hyde.

SPEAKER_02 50:33

Yeah, yeah. I've never seen any, I've never read the book. I I mean I know the story, of course, but I've never seen a book or a movie or any plays about it. So go try and check that out.

SPEAKER_01 50:43

I was in a comedy adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde. I played uh Dr. Jekyll's mother uh in this farcical situation. I don't actually never see, I've never read the original story, though, so I only really know that version of it. Uh-huh. Family Theatre Company has got another show they're doing this fall. This one over at Lone Tree, short run, November 5th through the 8th. They're remounting Pericles, an adaptive show for people with cognitive disabilities. So this was kind of co-created uh with Flute Theatre in London, um, and it uses the Hunter Heartbeat method, which is this really this rhythmic style of storytelling that's geared towards audiences with cognitive disabilities.

SPEAKER_02 51:29

Okay. Sounds intriguing.

SPEAKER_01 51:35

Um then this is the long run over at the Garner Galleria that we were talking about earlier. Yeah, but not a comedy. No, not a comedy. They are doing What a Glorious Feeling, um, November 7th, 2026, through April 4th, 2027. And this is a play with music that is a fictionalized account of what may have taken place behind the scenes during the making of the classic film Singing in the Rain.

SPEAKER_02 52:06

I've always wondered what might have taken place during the making of Singing in the Rain. It seems so random. Uh but yeah, that sounds sounds interesting.

SPEAKER_01 52:14

Aaron Powell I guess I'll have to watch Singing in the Rain. I've never I have that's one classic musical that has uh escaped me.

SPEAKER_02 52:20

Aaron Powell Yeah. I've only seen that one clip of them, you know, singing in the rain. Curious Theater Company uh is doing a show called One of the Good Ones, November 14th into December. This is a regional premiere about a Latina daughter who brings her unexpected white-looking boyfriend home to meet her multi-generational Latino American family in California. So that sounds like a sounds like a curious show.

SPEAKER_01 52:43

Yeah, you want something a little bit lighter. Uh the Arvada Center is doing Joseph and the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat November 18th through January 3rd. This is their um holiday adjacent show, but it makes a list because it's not actually about any holiday things in here. Love this musical. I was actually just listening to it today on the treadmill as I was working out. It's a great song to run to, a great album to work to because so many fast-paced upbeat songs. This the genre is always kind of switching between all the different characters. It's definitely one of the cast albums I really do enjoy running to.

SPEAKER_02 53:22

Yeah, it is a great musical, and it's definitely one that uh you know you can see over and over again over the years. So speaking of uh Christmas season shows that aren't Christmas themed, Town Hall is in Littleton is doing Big, the musical, November 20th through December 27th. So this is a stage adaptation of the 1988 Tom Hanks film where he gets turned into a little boy. And I did have not seen this. I didn't know there was a stage adaptation of this, so that sounds like fun.

SPEAKER_01 53:50

Yeah, I also didn't know there was a stage adaptation until I was doing a little bit of research for for this list. But uh yeah, I wonder what the style is of this. It's a it's a fun plot. Little boy gets to become an adult man. Seems like it could be musicalized. Sure. And then Firehouse Theatre Company uh in Denver is doing chicken and biscuits November 21st through December 20th. This is a regional premiere that's full of black joy, grief, and healing uh that follows a gr an extended family who are brought back to St. Luke's Church uh for to, I think it's for the death of their patriarch or something there. Um so looking I'm looking forward to checking that one out at Firehouse to uh around the holidays, but not a holiday show.

SPEAKER_02 54:38

That's right. Firehouse has uh been red hot. They're just doing a lot of great work the last few years, so that should be uh one to check out. All right, we're gonna round things down with uh a swing through the mountain towns and the southern part of Colorado. Of course, mountain towns could mean uh just outside of Denver, kind of in the mountains. It could mean way down south, kind of be part of southern Colorado. So don't take us too seriously about what mountain town means, other than it's probably sort of higher than 6,000 feet. So uh crustace Mountain Theater, which I think has been a little quiet lately, they're doing, but they're coming back with uh a banger, Frankie and Johnny and the Claire Delune. Great play in early September. Uh and then Theatre Silka is doing a Lauren Gunderson play called The Catastrophist, September 15th through 27th. And that is not sure I don't know that play. Tony, you know what the story is of the cat to the catastrophist?

SPEAKER_01 55:29

Um not not really. I um I've never seen it. Uh let me look. I'm looking at I'm doing a Google right now in real time. So it looks like it's a play about a pandemic specialist uh uh uh written during the height of the pandemic.

SPEAKER_02 55:46

Okay. All right. And then uh Thunder River in Carbondale is doing every brilliant thing in September, 11th through the 27th. And then uh I was talking to uh Missy Moore, the artistic director there when I was at Taco Town at uh Binders Alley, and she's really excited about their next show, Beyond Reason, in November. So this is uh Colorado playwright Katie Carlson's comedy about mediums uh in the in the late 1800s. So I told her to try and get up there for that one. Uh not to say she's not excited about every brilliant thing uh as well, but uh the this was one that she also she's like, you gotta come up and see this one. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 56:22

When when she asks you to come up, you gotta do it. I know.

SPEAKER_02 56:26

You've known her all for years whole life, right? Yeah. So I just mentioned that Rocky Mountain Repertory Uh Theater is closing out their season uh with Never Can Say Goodbye, the 70s Beehive musical, September 4th through October 3rd. So man, they have a long season. Uh but yeah, that's uh they've uh all of their other shows will be will be dark and then they they zoom into this one for September.

SPEAKER_01 56:49

Yeah, a little bit of a a last hurrah before I imagine it gets quite difficult to get around uh there because of all the snow. It's beautiful right now, but uh it's super remote.

SPEAKER_02 57:01

Aaron Powell It's a big snowmobile uh place in the wintertime.

SPEAKER_01 57:05

Oh, really? That makes one that makes a ton of sense. Yep. Uh so the Aspen Community Theater is doing Cinderella November 13th through the 22nd. Um do we know if that's the musical adaptation or a play? It is, it's the Rogers and Hammerstein uh Cinderella. Got it. And then Evergreen players are doing Dracula Comedy of Terrors in October. That this was the title that was up at the Denver Center for months, and now is going to be done at the local level.

SPEAKER_02 57:41

Yep. Uh and then in Conifer, which you could argue is that a mountain town? Uh it's pretty close to Denver, but yeah, it's kind of in the in the mountains there. So they're doing Fools by Neil Simon, October 3rd through 27th. They also had something on their site uh saying an original musical called Muse of Fire, but there was no information on timing of it. So I'm not sure what that one's all about, but maybe we'll hear about it at some point. Uh swinging way down south. I just wanted to mention that Creed Repertory uh theater continues its season into September with uh all of their shows, Moriarty, fully committed, 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and working uh that ends up September 19th.

SPEAKER_01 58:20

And then the Mirrorly players in Durango are doing The Importance of Being Earnest, this very classic, very funny Oscar Wilde piece, uh September 25th through October 4th.

SPEAKER_02 58:32

And then we got one more Le Miserable at uh Steel Fit Steel City Theater in Pueblo. They're doing that October 16th through November 1st, so pretty big swing for them.

SPEAKER_01 58:42

Yeah, and the I guess that Pueblo and Johnstown are far enough apart that they didn't that the company wasn't worried about any overlap in audience.

SPEAKER_02 58:53

Probably, probably the Venn diagram of uh theater goes doesn't overlap too much uh between those two theaters. So all right. Well, you know, that's that's a lot of shows. It's not all of them, but uh, you know, we hit we hit lots of them. So uh moving on, as promised, we have Tony's interview with Spamalot Chris Collins Pizzano, who uh plays a number of different roles in the touring production now up at the Denver Center. So let's hear that now.

SPEAKER_01 59:17

I'm here with Chris Collins Pisano, who plays Sir Lancelot, the French Taunter, the Knight of Knee, and Tim the Enchanter in the national tour of Monty Python's Spamalot. I saw the show on its opening night here in Denver and just thought he was hilarious. So I'm sitting down with him now to talk about the big character, Silly Choreo, and how he keeps the comedy fresh on the road. Thank you so much for taking the time to be on the Onstage Colorado podcast, Chris. We really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 59:46

Oh man, thank you so much. I'm just happy to be here. Get to talk a little more about the show.

SPEAKER_01 59:50

Yeah, well, I suppose I should have started with this, but welcome back to Denver. Uh you've been here before. I've seen you on stage with Forbidden Broadway. Uh, what do you remember about that trip and what's it like coming back now with Spam a lot?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:06

You know, it's actually really um a little bit of a full circle kind of thing. Because like uh, you know, we were here. I've actually been to the Garner Galleria twice doing Forbidden Broadway. I was here in 2022, I believe, December of 2022. And then we came back with a new addition um last summer. And I remember being here last summer um working uh doing Forbidden Broadway. And I that the I was here when I got my audition for spam a lot, and I sent my uh my audition tape in from the housing that we had at Brooks Towers right close to the you know performing arts campus. And um, so that it was very interesting because I would I did the tape, and then while I was waiting to hear back, you know, about whether I got a callback or not, which was a couple weeks, I um I would go to the Garner Galleria every day. And because the the Garner Galleria and the Buell are right across from each other, I would look at the season for the next year at the Buell and I would look at Spamalon. I'd be like, hey, you know, maybe you never know, maybe, maybe I'll be back. And it's so so it's really, really crazy to to be back here. I've always been curious about playing the Buell and what it's like, and it's just one of the most gorgeous theaters that I've seen on this tour so far. So it's really it's really crazy to be back.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:23

Yeah, that's so awesome. That going from looking at the poster that uh in the season announcement to now the that big Spamilop poster is all over uh the DCPA arts complex, and you're part of the tour.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:35

Yeah, yeah, it's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:37

Before we get so before we get more into your performance, I'm curious what was your relationship with Monty Python and Monty Python and the Holy Grail like before you joined the show?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:47

Oh man, I was definitely one of those kids who ran around when they were like in their preteens and early teens, just like shouting quotes from the movie all the time. I was totally obsessed with Monty Python when I was in middle school. Um, I think probably because somebody showed me the Holy Grail, and then I started, you know, really going to town on Flying Circus. I got a bunch of DVDs for Flying Circus and wore them out. Um, I would do like Monty Python sketches with my friends at like school talent shows, you know, thinking that it's the most brilliant. Like we're bringing this beautiful comedy to these other 12-year-olds. So, so maybe embarrassing to look back upon, but I, you know, it's like a foundational, like comedic pillar for me. Um, I really, really, really get down for their stuff. And I think they're so funny and their like ensemble work and the way that they're all so different and how they kind of like come together still to create this like beautiful, beautiful ensemble. I think it really, really, it really still gets me going. And just like it's like I don't really have a bad day when I do this show and when I go to work because you know, I I still feel like it's kind of a dream come true to get to do this comedy every day.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:01

How often do you and the folks on tour re-watch the film? Do you guys is that something that's in your rotation on tour?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:08

You know, that's interesting. I don't think I've re-watched the movie in its entirety since like right before rehearsal. I like re-watched it. And I I mean, whenever I have found, and this is especially like earlier in the tour and during rehearsals, that I like was having trouble with um a scene or with any of these characters, I would just go back to the movie and watch, you know, what John Cleese does because I feel like it's so easy to feel like, especially when you translate it to the stage, instead of it just being a movie, like you want to, you can feel the you you'll want to like put a little extra on top of it or you know, find some sort of dazzle for it. And every time that I I've gone back and watched the movie, or even if you like go and like you know research some of the original Broadway stuff, you're like, okay, right. This is this writing is so phenomenal. And I think it's just me doing it, you know, over like 275 times right now that you're like, maybe there's more to get out of this when really you can just say the words and it's you know gonna translate just as it has for 50 years.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:08

So as I as I mentioned up top, you're in your track, you're kind of constantly bouncing around roles between Lancelot, Taunting, Knight of Me, Tim the Enchanter. How do you make all those guys distinct?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:22

Uh, I the joke that I use a lot about this is that I really just kind of start with highway robbery. I mean, with something like this, with like doing like these characters that a lot of people know, you know, there's like expectations that kind of come with it. And I find that kind of like I don't think that's a cage, really. I find that pretty freeing because you're like, great, I know what you guys are looking for, you know what you're expecting. So I can start with that. And you know, that's a great baseline. Um, and I've never done a show that really comes with this many like baked-in fans of not just the musical, but the movie as well. So you kind of feel like you want to deliver the experience that they're looking for. So I feel like that I find exciting. It's exciting to give people like, you know, I fart in your general direction and to say knee for the first time every night and hear a bunch of people in the audience say it back and the laugh when you say Tim as the as Tim. It's like you're like, great, we're all doing this together, so I can just give it to you. And then we're both, you know, we're both succeeding there. So I think it like it keeps just honoring the source material, keeps it fresh, but then also getting to, you know, do it on a stage and kind of the freedom that comes with the role and some of the improv aspects that are a part of it. You know, you get to really kind of take it um in your own direction too, which is very fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:37

Following up on that improv that you just said, one of the things I absolutely loved from Opening Night was how much the show, and specifically you got to play with references specifically to Denver, like you had this incredible Frank Azar bit and the South Park references that you did. How much of the show actually changes from city to city and who comes up with these local jokes?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:01

So, yeah, we like me, Amanda, who plays The Lady of the Lake, and Stephen Telsey, who plays like 500 roles in the show. But um, we each have like some and Robin has some improv too, but we're really the ones that kind of do more local stuff. And uh I kind of like stumbled onto it when we were in uh we were in DC for three weeks. And um, that's not true. I guess I kind of started it in Cleveland when we opened, I would say Cleveland Rocks and do some stuff. But it's just like, you know, I have a few times in the show where I get to do my own thing. And I think one of the greatest perks about getting to take the show on the road and go around the country to all these different towns is it's such a great way to connect with people, especially when you're doing this kind of like crazy highbrow, lowbrow, um, dry British humor that is really, really funny, but maybe some people need a little warming up too to really access it the same way um as the rest of the audience. So I think it's a great way to bring people in. I just get get a kick out of it. I've the amount of like lawyers that I've found around the country that have amazing jingles that people recognize or have been places for like 15 years plus. It's just so much fun. And so I kind of like I take. Upon myself. Whenever we arrive, um, the day we open, I kind of just go on Google, I go on YouTube, and I start doing some you know, little like research of um different like businesses. Like when I was in when we were in Charlotte's, I was doing um a jingo for this air conditioning company, and I would just do that every day. And that is still one of my favorite memories from the tour. So, you know, you just it's a great way to connect with the audience, it's a great way to do it. Like last night, um, I was walking to the theater with a castmate, and we, you know, we'd seen all these people kind of running around, and he was like, Where are you all going? And they're like, Oh, well, there's this Zach Bryan concert at um at the stadium or whatever. And I was like, Okay, great, I can make a joke about that. And so, you know, it's just a cool, it's a cool way to keep it current, it's a lot of fun. I just I really get a kick out of it. And so I also like I change the night of knee thing like every day. I'll keep like the local references because they work, but I kind of like keeping um King Arthur on his toes. I think it's fun to do that. So I mean, I probably it's one of our favorite things to do, but I've definitely been a bit of a a problem for him in that respect.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:15

Yeah, he definitely looked like he was really intensely listening, trying to capture every part of it. I'm guessing you don't obviously fill him in on that before you're making him listen and repeat in real time.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:26

Yes, I mean, like I'll like like I went up to him at some point during act one and I was like, hey, call me attorney Frank Azar, the strong arm. I was like, just have that floating around in your brain. Because if it's stuff that like neither of us really knew before the show, then I'll like let him know because uh, you know, we've talked about it before privately, and I we both think that like, you know, leaving him completely out to dry doesn't really serve really the story or the scene, or just like you know, our relationship as actors there to like leave him completely out to dry. It's so much better when he can come back and succeed and pass the test, and you get that second kind of um response from the audience hearing him have to. Because I think it's cool when I get to surprise them with stuff like local things they're not expecting to hear, or other things they're not expecting to hear. And then I think it's so wonderful to for it to be repeated by King Arthur because then you get a different kind of comedic response because everybody's waiting to hear it a second time, and so I think it's a really great trade-off if we both kind of like if there's a little bit of planning involved.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:28

Totally. So you're performing this comedy over and over while traveling around the country. What is tour life actually like?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:38

Um, it's I mean, it's interesting, it's definitely like got that kind of like glamorous kind of like thing that you that people might idea people might have when you when you think about it outside. I mean, like, you know, you get to travel every week, you get to see all these different cities. I've been to so many bookstores, I've been to so many record stores, I've been to so many, like you really get to live out like whatever strange hobbies you have. You know, you can really find like how, you know, all these wonderful places to kind of seek that out around the country. And I really love just seeing all these different cities and exploring them and the history around, you know, the country. So that's really, really amazing for me and for all of us. I think it's such a it's such a gift to get to meet people from all around the country and you know, especially in times where it seems like it can be hard for everybody to talk to each other about stuff. You know, you get to kind of break through that a little bit. And um Amanda, and some of the talkbacks we've done um after the show, she's kind of had this amazing thing that she says where she's like, you know, uh times are pretty crazy these days, but you know, you go to a show like Spamalon, and if you're laughing at a joke, I bet if you look to your side, you'll see that whoever's sitting next to you is laughing at the same thing. So, you know, we're not all really that unalike on some levels. So that's been great. But you know, at the same time, it's it's hard. I mean, you know, my my girlfriend and my two cats are back in the city, and I I barely ever get to see them. So that part can get hard. And, you know, you have to take care of yourself, you have to take care of your body and your mind. And, you know, different people have different levels of being able to do that. I definitely fall off the horse of taking care of my body. You know, it's just like it's it's like a roller coaster ride. You know, some you have a couple weeks where you feel absolutely amazing, and then you have a couple weeks where you feel homesick every day. You know, so it's you know, it's it is a job and it's work, but uh, you know, to me, it's still like the luckiest job in the world. And, you know, as actors, we don't get to, you know, job security is not really in the in the description of what we do. So getting to have uh like a year straight of work and have it be a show that you know you've always wanted to do. You know, I can't really I can't complain that much.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:49

Totally, yeah. It sounds like there are some trade-offs, but the experience of being on tour is still pretty fun. And you've been to Denver before, and you mentioned you like going and exploring those different spots. Where in Denver do you enjoy hitting up?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:02

Oh man, let's see. Where do I? I mean, I really want to, I think the last two times I was here, um, I kind of just kind of kept to the area. I mean, like, we don't have cars or anything, so you kind of just kind of you know do what you can. But I'm hoping in these two weeks to kind of get out and explore kind of other neighborhoods or go to some places that I haven't been before. But I'm a sucker for live music. I spent a lot of time last summer at um, where did I go? I think I go to Appaloosa Grill on 16th Street a lot because they have music every night. I go to Herb's Hideaway over or Herbs Hideout over near um Coorsfield because I have music every night. Those are kind of my haunts um after Forbidden Broadway for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:42

Um a jazz fan, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:44

Oh, yeah, 100, 100%. Huge, huge, huge jazz fan. I was actually, we were just in Kansas City recently, and I got to go to the American Jazz Museum, which I thought was really cool. Never been to that. I'm also currently re-watching Ken Burns' jazz documentary about jazz for the second time. So yeah, you definitely, you definitely got me there. But I'm definitely looking forward to getting out and doing some more live music. There's some restaurants here that I really love. I gotta go to Sam's again and um challenge myself with one of their amazing, amazing decadent breakfasts. I really, I really love it here. I'm I'm a big fan of this town. The people here are amazing, the way that you guys like handle and treat and um the arts and the respect for it. And just like, you know, like the first time when I was here in 2022 and I stepped into the DCPA like campus, like I really don't think there's another way to describe that area. Like I was just like, wow, this is so you know, not as rare as I think now that I've been around the country a lot to see how like other cities have their arts set up and stuff, but this is definitely like it's it really takes the cake.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:46

Yeah, it's a very beautiful facility. Uh so of all the characters and ridiculous moments that you get to play every night, which one is still the most fun for you?

SPEAKER_00 1:13:56

Oh man, I mean, it's really it really is an embarrassment of riches, and I'm very, very lucky um to get to play, and I'm super grateful to get to play this part because it's so fun. So it kind of like switches off. I mean, the night of like doing the night of knee thing is definitely one of the top things every day. And the French Taunter is just like it's it's just a dream come true. But like these days, you know, we're kind of getting into kind of one of the more towards the last leg of this tour. Sometimes I really like Lancelot is kind of like the best sometimes. One of the things that I find so funny about this show is that, like, you know, at the beginning, you there's a lot of setup of like, oh, these are the knights, like this is the crew, this is the team, we're out, we're always together, we solve all these problems together. And then I don't think I'm in a scene with the other knights as Lancelot, post and like knights of the round table, once we're all like we're all established. I don't think I have a scene with everybody until the end of act two, after Tim. I come on stage. And I'm like, oh, right, right. So I think it's very funny that in all these scenes where the knights have to tackle like these obstacles or these opponents or whatever, Lancelot is never there and it's never like nobody talks about it. And because I have to play these other guys, but so sometimes, you know, those moments is Lancelot, you know, there's the whole like Prince Herbert thing in act two, and he goes on his whole, gets his whole arc, you know, finished up and stuff, and that's so fun. But sometimes I really I really hang on to those scenes with the other knights because the camaraderie is so fun to play, and that group dynamic for them is hysterical, and I don't get to do it as much as the other guys do.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:30

That makes sense. I guess I didn't think about that. There is often you are going and doing those kind of more antagonistic roles rather than to getting to be uh one of the part of the crew.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:40

I know it's really it's really funny, but I think it's a I think it's it's a it's worthwhile as a trade-off, though.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:46

Absolutely. Um well Monty Python Spanalot is now playing at the Buell Theater in Denver through August 23rd. Chris, thank you so much for joining me and enjoy the rest of your time here in Denver.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:59

Thank you so much. Thanks for chatting with me about all this stuff. It was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:07

All right. Well, that was a lot of fun hearing uh his take on what it's like to be on stage with that absolutely sort of batshit roles that he's got in that one. Uh, a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:18

Yeah, absolutely. He was very generous with his time. Really appreciate Chris coming on and just chatting a little bit about what it was like to get this role. It was really cool to hear the story of how he was auditioning for the Spanalot tour while he was here in Denver doing Forbidden Broadway. So just pretty cool tidbits, kind of a full circle moment for that actor as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:41

Yeah. Yep. It's great. All right. Well, uh reviews that are up on the site are coming up, including the comedy of errors that we were just talking about from Shakespeare and the Wild. Uh Tenderly at Theatre Silco, Kim Nicoletti just sent that over to me. So we'll have that up soon. That's Ann Terza Schwartz up there in the uh the role of uh Rosemary Clooney there. She said it was just fantastic. Uh you mentioned Tick-Tick Boom from Shifted Lens, uh, Murder for Two coming up at American Crossroads Theater, uh, Top Dog Underdog from Curious at Curious uh at Clear Parker Robinson, The Grown-Ups from Absurd Rodeo Theater, and more, more, more. So there's two in there. I don't even I don't even recognize what is American Crossroads Theater and Absurd Rodeo Theater. Do you know these two?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:24

So I don't really know much else about American Crossroad Theater other than they are producing Murder for Two at the Dairy this month. So I'll maybe have a little bit more information after I attend the opening night of that on Thursday of this week. Um but I they're a new company. I couldn't even really find a website for them when I was looking to reach out. I had to reach out through the dairy to get in contact with them. So not really sure what their deal is. Um and then Absurd Rodeo Theater is this kind of company started by two younger theater artists, and they're kind of they did some work together, I believe, um, around fringe, and now they're doing this is a scripted production that they're doing at a house in the backyard of a house somewhere. I think it's in North Glen. Uh-huh. Yeah, in North Glen.

unknown 1:18:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:19

Cool. Uh I also mentioned we had a couple of music reviews up there, Mount Joy. Uh also Jesse Wells. You know, it's really cool. I hadn't been up to the Dillon Amphitheater since they did uh they've done a lot of upgrades on it over the over the last decade or so. It's a really cool facility. And of course, it's right on uh like Lake Dillon there, or Dillon Reservoir, if you want to be really accurate. Uh so it's a really, really neat location. Uh, and it's it's kind of like a mini red rocks. It's like 3,000 seats, tops. You know, there's a lawn section, so there's not really any bad seats. Uh and uh boy, if you can get up there and see a show, I highly recommend it. Um, and uh Jesse Wells is was just a really great artist to see there. Uh offstage, other concerts, films, things that we saw, looking to see. I don't know. I'm going to see Courtney Barnett, the Australian uh indie uh rocker on uh Friday. She's she'll be at Mission Ballroom coming up. Excited to see uh her. She was kind of on hiatus for a while. Um and then on uh Annie and I watched uh Monty Python, The Holy Grail, the original uh 1974 film, uh just to kind of refresh our memory. Uh and uh boy, that that really holds up. It's still so damn funny. I mean, we just really laughed through the whole thing um and uh really enjoyed seeing it uh start to finish. Uh you know, it's one of those things where you feel like you see it, but you don't you really don't, uh, you know, because uh it's just kind of embedded in the zeitgeist, I guess, in some ways. So uh and then also Jen and I have been enjoying Ride or Die on Prime. This is the sh the show with uh Hannah um Wordingham from Ted Lasso and Viola um I'm forgetting her last name. Uh but yeah, uh she's she plays a uh hit uh hit she's like a hit woman. Uh and and and Viola is her best friend who didn't know she was doing this. It's it's very silly, but it's it's a lot of fun. So if you're looking for something on uh Prime, that's a good one to check out.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:10

I've heard good things about that. So that's okay. Glad to hear you and Jen are enjoying that.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:17

And then I wanted to talk just a little bit briefly about something kind of phenomenon going on at the box office for films, is we have just recently had the release of two filmed versions of musicals that I had a chance to check out in movie theaters. Uh, those were filmed versions of Hades Town with the original Broadway cast, and then Six, the musical with the original West End cast that was shot and filmed. And both did, I mean, to say nothing of how they captured the experience, which I thought both did very well. Hades Town more effectively than Six for a couple of reasons, um, but both were really strong capturings of their respective musicals. Um, and they did really well at the box office. Hades Town earned uh got $10 million during its opening weekend, surpassing Hamilton to become the highest grossing opening weekend for any live stage capture, and has it's still in theaters and places, and it's made over $20 million uh domestically to date. And six just opened this past weekend as we're recording this, and it earned about three million dollars in the box office, which not quite as big as Hades Town, but there does seem to be demand for this kind of thing at the box office, and all the theater freaks like me are showing up.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:38

Uh-huh. That's cool. Yeah, it's it's not easy to film well uh a live theater performance. So I'm sure it's uh it's a big effort uh to do it right. And uh it sounds pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:50

It costs a couple million usually to do it well if you actually want to capture. So it do you do need to see returns like this for the producers of it to actually be like, yeah, that is a viable thing. Um, I guess the other thing that they're gonna be probably financiers are looking at is like, does this then affect the kind of live version of these shows? Because both Hades Town and Six are touring and in on Broadway and in the West End at the moment, as well as have multiple other versions of this production doing it running internationally. So does do these filmed versions help or hurt? Because uh I I was just listening to an interesting uh argument from uh on a podcast from somebody who's talking about the Wicked uh in New York on Broadway right now. It's actually seeing its worst sales in years after the release of both parts uh from the film. So they were arguing that the filmed version seems to have hurt the live performance of Wicked. People feel like they've already seen it. Uh perhaps. And so we will now we have only time will tell if that trend continues to be true for Wicked and if there is any impact on the live versions of Hades Town and Six, respectively. But it does seem like there are more pro shots on the way. There are plays and musicals both who have announced that they have filmed or are in the process of putting together a theme uh team to film. So I think we are going to see more of these film versions of stage stuff at the box office, which I for one am very, very pro on.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:25

All right. Cool. And then, oh, jealous about this show you saw at Red Rocks. Uh, what what was this one?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:32

Uh last night uh I saw LCD Sound System at Red Rocks. I caught their Sunday show August 16th, and oh my god, Alex, it was it was just a banger set. They had such a big band that just like took over the full width of the Red Rock stage with all their various instrumentations. It was a really elaborately produced show, too, tons of cool light stuff that were flickering off the rocks in that scenic location in Morrison. One point there was a really cool disco, massive disco ball that came down and just like filled all of Red Rocks with this disco glow. I great concert. I went with some of my friends and we just had a hell of a time. Yeah, such a great band.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:18

Yeah, I I had a hard time. You know, imagine what they would be like live. That sounds like they were great.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:24

Oh, yeah. They because I was a little bit nervous about that too, because I was like, a lot of this sounds a little bit artificial and like it could only be done in a production studio. There's a lot of um technical effects and stuff that's done onto it, but they had all of their live, like they had synthesizers and all of the live mixing machines there, and they were doing all of that work in real time, and they had such incredible camera work. It was really a part of the show too, and that like just fading from these different things to show you the production of the music in real time. Which I I just thought it was a really incredible experience. And I wasn't real, I really wasn't expecting that. I didn't really like when they brought out all these different instruments. I was turning to one of my friends who I was there with, and I was like, God, I it's cool that they have all this stuff, but I really hope they end up using it all. It's not just for show, they don't just like hit one instrument one time and then walk away. But no, oh my god, they really did use it all and more. They kept bringing stuff out, and the the band, the the lead singer was constant had different percussion instruments that he was playing off of. He had this really funny exchange with Pat, the jar the drummer, throughout about how he was gonna take over his drum set and whatnot. And oh, is this yours? This is mine, that's yours kind of exchange. It just very fun. All right. Well, that is it for this episode of the Onstage Colorado podcast. If you want to stay up to date on what's going on in theaters across the state, be sure that you are subscribed to our Onstage Colorado weekly blast, which is a newsletter that comes out every single Thursday, features all of our reporting, including our new reviews, our news stories, and then a bunch of calendar listings for the upcoming weekend so that you can get a jump start on that and plan out all of your theatrical outings.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:18

That's right. Alright, as always, thanks so much for listening. I'm Alex Miller. And I'm Tony Tretskum, and we'll see you at the show.