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By now everyone in Denver has heard that Hamilton, an American Musical is coming to Denver! It will be here for 5 weeks February 27th through April 1st, 2018. For more details on Hamilton tickets, see How to Get Hamilton Tickets and interview with DCPA CEO, Janice Sinden. It’s not just Hamilton though folks. Next season’s line up at the DCPA brings over a dozen of the best award winning shows Broadway has to offer.
Something Rotten will be at the Buell Theater October 17-29. I have seen this show three times in New York, and can’t recommend it enough! It involves a crazy Shakespeare debacle between a struggling playwright and the great Bard. It is a comedy the likes of which rival even Laverne and Shirley. With big musical numbers, fantastic costumes and funny innuendos to other famous Broadway shows, this show is a delightful hit. The wit and humor is absolutely brilliant. No wonder the show earned 10 Tony nominations. Fun Denver fact: Brian D’Arcy James who played Nick Bottom in the original Broadway cast (OBC) was here in Denver last year performing at the DCPA Gala Saturday Night Alive.
The famous fosse hit Chicago will be in Denver November 28 to December 3rd, 2017. Fun Denver fact: Denver’s own Candy Brown is known for originating the role of June in the 1975 Bob Fosse directed original cast of Chicago. Candy is also a teaching artist at the Denver School of the Arts, an arts magnet school (grades 6-12) in Denver Public Schools with admissions based on highly competitive auditions in areas of Creative Writing, Dance, Music, Stagecraft and Design, Theatre, Video Cinema Arts, and Visual Arts.
The Tony award winning Waitress is coming December 19-31, 2017. This is a show not to miss no matter what! Really–put it on your calendar! Sara Bareilles wrote the songs and is now taking the stage on Broadway to sing them as the star in her own leading role! While Denver won’t get to see Sara Bareilles on stage, there is no doubt the touring cast will also be terrific. Waitress received several Tony nominations and the award for best actress in addition to being nominated for a Grammy for best musical theater album. Fun “kind of” Denver fact: Sara Boreilles’ album, Live at the Fillmore, is NOT referring to the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver but the Fillmore in San Fransisco.
What is a Denver fact: the DCPA raises money for the Women’s Voices Fund, a project that was well ahead of its times in contributing to plays by women nationwide. According to the Women’s Voices Fun, studies have shown that while women make up nearly 60 percent of all live theatre going audiences nationwide, only about 25 percent of all plays and musicals staged in America are written by women. Breaking all barriers, Waitress is a musical based on the book by Jessie Nelson and the 2007 film by Adrienne Shelly, with music and lyrics lyrics by Sara Bareilles–all three incredibly talented women.
In January 2018, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King and I will be here in Denver in all its glory. Seeing the Tony award production at Lincoln Center last year was breathtaking, and I can hardly believe we will be so lucky to have it in Denver. Fun Denver fact: Kelli O’Hara, who won best actress for her lead role in the Revival of the King and I, performed with Brian D’Arcy James at Denver’s Saturday Night Alive Gala in 2016. While we won’t get to see Kelli O’Hara in this famous role, the touring cast is sure to be one of the best!
Also notable in next year’s line up, the first national tour of Disney’s Aladdin (April 6-28, 2018). This is one of those big Disney productions that is very entertaining and memorable. It will be a great family show as well.
School of Rock (in Denver May 29 to June 10, 2018) is a show I had to see in New York multiple times because it is so good. A question that often with this show, is whether the kids are really playing the instruments. The answer is, “yes!” The unbelievable talent in this show will knock your socks off! Fun Denver fact: Denver’s own Sierra Boggess played the straight laced headmistress, Rosalie Mullins, in the original Broadway cast of School of Rock that is still running on Broadway. Boggess went to George Washington High School, a Denver Public School, and made her big Broadway debut after being cast right here in Denver by Disney for the role of Ariel in Little Mermaid.
The Book of Mormon will return to Denver to the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, but we will have to wait a while. It won’t be here until June 2018. Fun Denver fact: Trey Parker, who wrote the Book of Mormon (the book, lyrics and music), graduated from Evergreen High School, right outside of Denver, and went to college 40 minutes from Denver at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Some of the other outstanding shows coming to Denver next season are: On Your Feet, the Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan (August 8-19, 2017); Rent the 20th Anniversary Tour (November 14-19, 2017); the fun holiday show Elf the Musical (December 13-17, 2017), Stomp (February13-18, 2018), and Les Miserables (July 25-August 5th, 2018)! See you at the Theatre!
