The holiday theatergoing season is the most important time of the year for most every metro performing arts company. It’s the one time of year they can count on to consistently fill houses, no matter what they put on stage. Some Colorado companies generate up to 50 percent of their annual revenue in the final two months of the year alone.
Everyone, it seems, wants to gather the family together at the holidays and take them to a show they can enjoy together – without having to actually talk to one another for two hours.
Time was, that meant you could count on a metro-wide invasion of Scrooges and other (rhymes with fall) busters. Oops, I mean “Nutcrackers.”
But, more and more, companies are serving up non-holiday holiday fare, both to mix things up and to be mindful that the world is changing. Because not everyone celebrates Christmas. And some of those who do are just a bit sick of Christmas (at least in their show-going.)
“There’s actually a very limited number of holiday titles, and everyone repeats them.” Arvada Center Artistic Director Lynne Collins said. “I mean, does anyone really need to see yet another –”
(I can’t tell you the random title she threw out there because it might get her into unintended trouble. But it is merry, bright – and being staged by three Colorado theater companies this holiday season.)
On Nov. 22, the Arvada Center will open “Once Upon a Mattress,” a musical based on “The Princess and the Pea” fairytale. Last year in that same calendar slot was “Cinderella.” In 2022, it was “Beauty and the Beast.” Collins says that historically, the offering in that slot is always the Arvada Center’s best-selling show of the year (holiday-themed or not).
“The goal is to create a shared family experience for all during the holiday season that does not have to be specific to any particular holiday tradition – and we are providing that,” said Collins, adding with a laugh: “The goal each year is to offer something parents don’t have to suffer through – and the kids can enjoy.”
The first first national touring company of “Funny Girl” is coming to Denver just in time for the holidays – even though it’s not a holiday show. It plays the Buell Theatre from Dec. 12-22, 2024.
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is having its holiday stuffing – and eating it, too, with a wide mix of upcoming stage fare for the season. Its homegrown Denver Center Theatre Company is staging its 30th seasonal offering of “A Christmas Carol,” which is closing in on 1 million attendees since 1990 (Nov. 2-Dec. 29). Meanwhile, the Broadway division will soon shift from “Hamilton” (closing Nov. 22) to “Funny Girl” in the Buell Theatre (Dec. 10-22). In between, there will be short runs of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical” (Nov 29.-Dec. 1); “Avatar: “The Last Airbender In Concert Live” (Dec. 2); and “Mannheim Steamroller Christmas” (Dec. 6-8). Meanwhile, the silly cabaret (non-holiday) offering of “Gutenberg! The Musical” continues through May 4 in the Garner-Galleria Theatre; and the Denver Center’s experiential Off-Center wing offers “Monopoly Lifesized Travel Edition” through Jan. 5 at 407 S. Broadway.
Other major companies offering notably secular titles right now include Curious Theatre Company’s “Confederates,” a time leap that traces two Black American women – one from the Civil War, the other contemporary (through Dec. 8); the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center’s “The Little Mermaid” (Nov. 21-Dec. 29); Colorado Springs Theatreworks’ “Sense and Sensibility” – a fast-paced adaptation of the Jane Austen classic by Kate Hamill (Nov. 29-Dec. 22); and Bas Bleu’s air-guitar musical “Airness” in Fort Collins. (Yes, air guitar is a musical thing.) (Nov. 29-Dec. 22).
Other companies are looking for tweener shows, and “Little Women,” by the ubiquitous Hamill, fits that bill. Firehouse Theater Company (Nov. 23-Dec. 22) and the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (Dec. 5-29) are both staging Hamill’s update of the genteel, impoverished March sisters fending for themselves through a Christmas with their father away.
Dave Shirley and Rattlebrain Productions have been been presenting “Santa’s Big Red Sack,” a collection of holiday-themed sketches, most every December since 2002 at venues around town. It will be back Dec. 5-23 at the People’s Building in Aurora.
The fact is, just because some families want holiday-themed fare doesn’t mean that all families do. But if you do want the Christmas in your Christmastime stocking, not to worry: You can find it in every conceivable tone and around every single corner. Just the tiniest sample: “Miracle on 34th Street” at the Littleton Town Hall Arts Center; “Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big Aurora Fox Christmas Show” at, yes, the Aurora Fox; Rattlebrain Productions’ “Santa’s Big Red Sack” (randy sketch comedy) at the People’s Building in Aurora; Performance Now’s “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” in Lakewood; “Black Nativity” at Vintage Theatre in Aurora; “Christmas en Colorado” at the Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center; and even a mobile “Audacious Immersive Drunk Christmas.”
In addition to the Denver Center, if “A Christmas Carol” is your non-negotiable jam, you can find tiny-cast versions at Theatre SilCo in Silverthorne and Miners Alley Playhouse in Golden; a musical version (“Scrooge”) at the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in Johnstown; and a radio-play version by the Upstart Crow in Boulder.
Not to mention companies offering holiday stage fare in Westcliffe, Montrose, Pueblo, Cripple Creek, Windsor, Durango, Trinidad, Wheat Ridge and more. There’s even a “Murder at North Pole Land” dinner offering at the Adams Mystery Playhouse in Denver.
Still just scratching surfaces. The Colorado Symphony will be screening “How the Grinch Stole Christmas in Concert” set to a live score (Nov. 29-30); Celtic Woman: White Christmas Symphony Tour (Dec. 5); and Broadway star Leslie Odom Jr. performing holiday favorites (Dec. 7) among lots more.
Stories on Stage’s annual “Making Merry” program comes to Arvada, Boulder and Denver from Dec. 13-15. And yes, of course, The Colorado Ballet has your “Nutcracker” covered from Nov. 30-Dec. 29.
Bottom line: Something for everyone, humbug or huzzah!