1997 rewarding year for Denver-area theater

By Ricardo Baca
The Metropolitan

The Gods have spoken.

The Denver Drama Critics, a group of reviewers (not including me) who see a bunch of theater, have announced
their best-of nominations for the Sept. 1, 1996 to Dec. 31, 1997 season.

I was also asked to write a year-in-review on area theater.
Hence the collaboration.

1997 was a good year for Denver theater. New theater gained credibility with promising seasons and productions. Locals took control and wrote new, thought-provoking works.

But it wasnât fully recognized by the Denver Drama Critics. Angels In America, Parts I and II, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat earned the most nominations.

Angels is understandable. Author Tony Kushner is a genius, and no one should write off director Chip Walton or the showâs talented cast. Hell, Angels was heavenly and deserved more than six nominations.

But Joseph?

This Andrew Lloyd Webber, feel-good musical was funny and well-cast, but nothing stood out that said, ãThis is a great show.ä It is outclassed by many other nominated plays.

I thumbed through the rest of the list hoping I wouldnât see Faithful. In this, the yearâs most overrated show, three people stumbled over a terribly predictable Chazz Palmenteri script like lost dingoes in the Northern Territory.

The show was held over for months because audiences loved it, and its only nomination was for its Ensemble Performance. But I loathed it.

On to my nominations.

In the New Play category, itâs not even a contest. The DDC nominated Brian Freelandâs Eighty-Four, and it is the only logical choice.

This George Orwell-based script is ruthless. Gloominess lurks over the dialogue, which is experimental in nature but very straightforward. And the production only complemented the positively beautiful focus on the Big Brother-like negative utopia.

Unfortunately, the DDC missed all nominations for the players in Eighty-Four, which contained great acting, but they did hit two acting nominations right on the head.

Catherine Di Bellaâs machismo-filled character in HorseChart

Theater Companyâs Tough! was worthy of the Supporting Actress nomination, and k. osiris wadeâs performance of the fluffy characters in Angels were overly worthy of the honor.

One of the hot races that the DDC caught onto falls upon the best direction of a play. Chip Walton worked wonders without wings with Angels. But for Eighty-Four, Brian Freeland turned a 50-seat, old garage into a realm created by another author and adapted by himself.

All things considered, Freeland should prevail since the production as a whole was more uniquely shaped and directed.

However, Angels gets the trophy as the seasonâs best play. This well-rounded performance rocked the party that rocked the party.

And then there are musicals. Boulderâs Dinner Theatre came up big with eight nominations, most of which are for their current production of Phantom (see review this page).

Shelly Cox-Robie, one of the leads in Phantom, is nominated for best musical lead. The other lead Wayne Kennedy, was also nominated, but for his performance in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

The stand-out of the musical year was Lucy Roucis, who won a supporting actress nomination for PHAMALyâs Mame. Her character stood out to many as the most memorable of the show. And, of course, the behind-the-scenes people dazzled us with luminous lights and sacrilegious sounds.

Matthew Morgan should be honored as he was a very busy sound man this year. Let me take you back to a memorable moment in Denver theater:

At the end of Angels, Part I, the angel crashes through a ceiling window so sheâs hanging directly above the character Prior. And then comes the final, fear-of-God evoking lines of the play. Itâs a beautiful theater spectacle.

But the company quickly realized what the Rolling Stones were saying when they sang, ãYou canât always get what you want.ä

On opening night, the windows flew open and the angel appeared, but she couldnât fit through the window and descend to Prior. Morgan saved the moment. His sounds drew the audienceâs attention away from the fact that the angel was still near the ceiling.

Thatâs what theaterâs all about.