Rancho
Mirage
Curious
Theatre: through Dec. 7
Sometimes one is simply overwhelmed by the artistry on the Denver stage.
For a rolling world premiere “Rancho Mirage” rocks. It’s the funniest of Steven
Dietz’s plays to date and one of the most entertaining productions to have been
seen at Curious for a long time.
Director Christopher Leo has assembled a cast of Curious Theatre’s brightest
stars and gives the proceedings a quicksilver pace that keeps us totally
enthralled throughout.
Playwright Dietz has great compassion and a great sense of humor about
his characters’ frailty, frustrations and foibles. These characters are friends in the true sense of the word. Since they know each other so well the are able to
annoy and madden each other with their
petty peeves and critical gaze. What they do for the audience is destroy funny
bones.
Left to right: C. Kelly Leo and Karen Slack
Bill Hahn pulls out all the stops with a performance that is comic gold!
C. Kelly Leo is at her best in a searing melt down near final curtain. Karen
Slack, Erik Sandvold, David Russell and Devon James are all at the top of their
game.
Left to right: Bill Hahn, C. Kelly Leo and Karen Slack
Left to right: Bill Hahn, C. Kelly Leo and Karen Slack
The professionalism is
everywhere present and there is a budget that allows for visual and auditory
satisfaction many times missing in theatres with a more modest allowance. Every
actor onstage delivers Mr. Dietz’s wordsmithing with an undeniable naturalness.
Everything feels fresh and as if these characters were all encountering these
dilemmas for the first time. Dietz’s characters have known each other forever…know
the buttons to push as well as the pitfalls of conversation to avoid - and in
no time flat - to wallow around in with glee.
It’s Christopher Leo’s best directorial work to date and it will make you roar!
Curious Theatre Company
1080 Acoma St.
Denver, CO 80204 For tickets go online to curioustheatre.org or call
the box office at 303-623-0524Marlowe's Musings
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