Applause -- Chicago, January 30-February 4, 2024

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VOLUME XXXIV NUMBER 4 JAN – MAR 2024

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SIGHTLINE

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BY JANICE SINDEN

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VO LU M E X X X I V • N U M B E R 4 • JA N - M A R 2 0 24

EDITOR: Suzanne Yoe DESIGN DIRECTOR: Kyle Malone DESIGNER: Brenda Elliott CONTRIBUTING DESIGNERS: Paul Koob, Lucas Kreitler CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sarah Crompton, Emma Holst, Genevieve Miller Holt, John Moore, Joanne Ostrow

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Hello and happy 2024! We are delighted to welcome you to our winter lineup with eight productions, the Colorado New Play Summit, and the culmination of our Middle and High School Playwriting competition.

First up from Broadway is the return of two beloved favorites of American musical theatre — Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s groundbreaking Jesus Christ Superstar and Bob Fosse’s choreographic masterpiece Chicago. These are followed by a new dance-theater piece Message In A Bottle from director/ choreographer Kate Prince set to the music of Sting, which portrays the humanity of refugees as they hope for a brighter future.

The Denver Center Theatre Company welcomes its peers from across the nation to the 18th Colorado New Play Summit at which four scripts will be read in a crucial playwright-audience exchange that influences the development of the play. This year features Cowboy and East Indians by Nina McConigley and Matthew Spangler, Ghost Variations by Vauhini Vara, Godspeed by Terence Anthony, and One-Shot by Andrew Rosendorf.

As part of the Summit, attendees will attend Cebollas by Leonard Madrid and Rubicon by Kirsten Potter, two plays that were read in 2022 and now receive their professional debut. We invite you to be among the first in the world to experience these new plays as they enter the American theatre canon.

At the same time, DCPA Education’s Middle and High School Playwriting competition awards top honors to three middle school 10-minute plays and three high school one-act plays. The one-act scripts are read in conjunction with the Colorado New Play Summit.

We invite you to attend the full Summit and add on a Broadway show to your winter activities.

Vladimir Script

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Janice Sinden Janice Sinden, President & CEO

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The Denver Center for the Performing Arts honors and acknowledges that it resides on the traditional and unceded territories of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Peoples. We also recognize the 48 contemporary Indigenous Tribes and Nations who have historically called Colorado home.

IN THIS ISSUE Cebollas ..............................................................pg 10 Message In A Bottle..................................pg 12 Rubicon ...............................................................pg 14 Jesus Christ Superstar .......................... pg 19 Chicago ................................................................pg 21 4

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WO RL D P RE MIER E

The Righteous

LA TRAVIATA Giuseppe Verdi

DON GIOVANNI Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Gregory Spears Tracy K. Smith

WORLD PREMIERE

THE RIGHTEOUS Gregory Spears Tracy K. Smith

July 13, 17, 26, 30 August 7, 13

DER ROSENKAVALIER Richard Strauss

THE ELIXIR OF LOVE Gaetano Donizetti

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Explore the Season

For tickets and more information visit santafeopera.org or call 505-986-5900

The Righteous Illustration

by Benedetto Cristofani

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BY S U Z A N N E YO E

If you’ve been to downtown Denver in mid-summer, you might have encountered creatures from a different planet…known locally as FAN EXPO but known nationally as Comic Con. That one weekend a year when sci-fi enthusiasts convene to embody their favorite character, meet celebrities and delve into all things comic-sci-fi-horror-anime-gaming.

Fast forward six months and you might stumble upon another convention — ThesCon — a slightly different opportunity for middle and high school students across the state to explore workshop offerings, meet actors and theatre professionals, engage with college programs, audition for main stage performances and scholarships and delve into all things theatre-drama-plays-musicals.

In December, the Colorado Thespians held the 59th ThesCon at the Colorado Convention Center. More than 5,500 students from Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico gathered for performances, workshops, panel discussions and competitions.

Unsurprisingly, DCPA Education played an integral part in the 2023 event. Continuing a long-standing partnership, the full team led 17 workshops ranging from the Choreography Styles of & Juliet to stage combat and improv to movement. Additionally, the Community Engagement team hosted five behind-thescenes tours of DCPA studios and production facilities while other teaching artists participated in adjudication of student performances.

New to the DCPA’s participation, was a performance of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot in the Bellco Theatre. The cast and crew offered an abridged version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as part of the Middle School Opening Ceremony. Also, as a special treat, the actresses playing the Queens in the national tour of SIX participated in six panel discussions with the star-struck teens.

Through their efforts, the Colorado Thespians lived up to their mission — to promote and strengthen theatre arts in education through theatrical experiences that provide creative enrichment for students and teachers.

Bravo!

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RUBICON

There’s still a robust lineup of plays awaiting you at the Denver Center Theatre Company.

We’ve got absurdity and espionage still to come. Romance and rhythm waiting in the wings. Epics and everyday heroes inbound.

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CEBOLLAS Illustration by Kyle Malone

WHEN A ROAD TRIP IS A FAMILY JOURNEY

BY JOANNE OSTROW

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This world premiere work by New Mexico playwright Leonard Madrid drew loud laughs from audiences at the 2022 New Play Summit. The tagline says it all: Three Sisters, four wheels, four hundred miles, and one dead body.

From a comedic premise, a heartwarming comedydrama emerges when three Latina sisters embark on an unexpected drive, Albuquerque to Denver. Their mission: to get the body of the youngest sister’s lover back to Denver before his wife finds out how and where he died.

Cue the family secrets, sibling grudges and endless highway. Are we there yet?

It’s pedal to the metal as well-drawn characters bicker and laugh all the way north on I-25. Landmarks scroll by — Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Huerfano, Colorado Springs, Castle Rock — along with family memories and secrets. The sisters’ distinct personalities enliven the proceedings, and sharp dialog keeps the play speeding along. While humor fuels the trip, serious issues test the relationships.

Director Jerry Ruiz said the play is “about healing the rift in their family.” Specifically, “the sisters must tell (youngest sister) Yolie the truth about her origins and help her move on.”

As the miles tick by, “there is the sense of a new beginning, a rebirth for the family,” through the fact of the baby that very pregnant Yolie is going to have.

“The more we’ve worked on it beyond the witty banter, there really is a lot of real human material in there that gives it the heft of a drama and also roots the humor in something very real and very emotionally understandable.

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“I’d call it a comedy-drama,” Ruiz said.

The story, while outrageous, is actually quite universal, concerning family, siblings and legacy.

“That’s the hook,” Ruiz said. “You don’t have to have driven a body across state lines to appreciate family dysfunction and the legacy of your parents and to grapple with the choice they made. I think we all can connect to that in some ways.”

The question at the outset is, are these women going to come back together and be in each other’s lives or will they be pulling in different directions?

The production aims to be immersive, to seemingly invite the audience along on the trip.

“We are going to have a car, or part of a car, onstage,” Ruiz said. Audiences will see the characters getting in and out of the shell or skeleton of the vehicle. Meanwhile Ruiz will use projections to create the sense of motion and travel.

Cebollas projections designer Alex Basco Koch and an assistant have made the actual drive, Albuquerque to Denver, with a video camera to capture the view from out of their car.

That road trip footage will be projected onto various surfaces on and around the set, with road signs and landscapes changing as the story progresses to create an immersive environment. The Singleton Theatre is “a great space for it,” Ruiz said, “very intimate, so we’ll feel very close to the actors and also get that sense of travel.”

The casting is “definitely all Latina, you want to have

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

that authenticity. The cultural representation is important,” Ruiz said.

Two of the actors return from the New Play Summit reading, the third is from New York.

The culture of New Mexico figures prominently in Cebollas.

“There are some terms in there that I didn’t even know, and I’m a fluent Spanish speaker,” Ruiz said. “They are so regional. Regional slang and Spanglish.”

A lobby display is planned to familiarize audiences with the unique culture and language of that area.

For instance, Ruiz said, “’ombers,’ is it Spanglish? I’d never encountered this word. Leonard said it’s like when you’re in trouble, it’s very contextual.”

BLAST OFF!

You don't have to have driven a body across state lines to appreciate family dysfunction and the legacy of your parents and to grapple with the choice they made. I think we can all connect to that in some ways.

— JERRY RUIZ, DIRECTOR

Or the expression “burque,” which Ruiz learned means Albuquerque.

“It’s like shortened Spanish slang. These are things even Spanish speakers might not be familiar with. We’ll try to give that context.”

Citing the Denver Center Theatre Company productions of Laughs in Spanish (2023), American Mariachi (2018), FADE (2016, which he directed) and others, Ruiz said the Denver Center “has a pretty good track record of producing Latina and Latino playwrights and other playwrights of color…. They feel that mission to represent different facets of the community.”

He credits the company with figuring out a sustainable model at a time when theater generally is struggling. “They are continuing to serve their established audience but also inviting new folks in, and then picking shows that are culturally specific but that can speak to a broader audience. It’s a balancing act.”

The fact that Cebollas rose through the process of the New Play Summit is a sign of that commitment to keeping the pipeline fresh and inviting in new playwright voices. Since it began 18 years ago, the Summit development process has introduced 68 new plays, more than half of which were picked up as full Theatre Company productions.

“To see a play go from being read for the first time at the [Summit] to a full production two years later, that’s actually a quick turnaround in the life cycle of plays in the American theater,” Ruiz said. More typically he has worked on plays for six or seven years before they were produced.

“To have that reading, to get people excited, then turn around and do it the very next year — that’s a wonderful opportunity.”

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JAN 26 – MAR 10 • SINGLETON THEATRE ASL Interpreted and Audio Described performance: Feb 11 at 1:30pm Post-show Discussions: Feb 22 & 29

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THE MAKING OF

BY SARAH CROMPTON

M

Message In A Bottle takes as its theme the biggest, saddest subject facing the world today: the international refugee crisis that is separating families and causing suffering and unrest across the globe.

Yet its origins are in a small, personal — and happy — moment in the life of the choreographer Kate Prince. She was on her honeymoon in Greece, listening to Sting’s Message In A Bottle. She’d loved it since she was a child, and it had been one of the songs she’d chosen to play at her wedding. “I started wondering, as you do, what it would be like to use Sting’s music to create a dance story.”

She mentioned the idea to Alistair Spalding, Artistic Director and Chief Executive at Sadler’s Wells. The next thing she knew, she was in a hotel lobby with Eliza Lumley, Head of Theatre for Universal Music UK, trying to pitch the idea to Sting himself. “I was really nervous, in that way you can be when it’s a physical reaction and very much out of your control,” she says, with a broad smile. “For someone who’s a dancer, I was so physically awkward.

“And I didn’t like that I was nervous because he’s just a guy. But I think he had that impact because when I was a kid, I was so far away from even thinking that one day I might work with such a legend.

“But he was really lovely and he listened. He was just really open, and from that we got his permission to do a

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workshop, and I worked on it for two weeks and at the end of two weeks he came in with his manager and sat on a chair and fourteen dancers performed for him.”

The workshop was a revelation. “I was blown away by it,” Sting said later. “The response for me was very emotional not just because I was honoured that they were using my music to express something, but there was something happening at a deeper level beyond understanding. It was moving me in ways that I couldn’t quite interpret. I have had very little experience of dance so being moved was what led me to say yes, carry on. I was just intrigued by it.”

He also felt that in some ways, the exercise for him has been one of discovery. “This is my dream life exposed. I write songs in isolation. I don’t see any overriding themes, so watching people interpret the songs in a larger narrative, it’s therapy.” Excited by the entire prospect, he gave the go ahead, giving Prince carte blanche on story and on interpretation, while keeping control of approval over the music.

Meanwhile, she began working on the project. She doesn’t quite remember where the idea of making a narrative about refugees first came to her, but gradually it made itself impossible to ignore.

She had been in the audience in Edinburgh in 2013 when a North Korean refugee, Joseph Kim, gave a TED talk. “He

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

COMING UP FROM BROADWAY

made a massive impact on me and that story got me started.” She then watched other documentaries including Human Flow, Refugee and The White Helmets on Netflix, two Guardian documentaries — Escape from Syria: Rania’s Odyssey and We Walk Together — and more recently For Sama.

All this research forms the background to the fictional narrative she has created in Message In A Bottle, about a family torn apart by civil war, and about ideas of home. The two brothers and their sister each have a different story to tell “because no one story of any refugee or immigrant is the same,” Prince explains. “Every single person in it and every bit of information is extracted from the truth.

“When I make dance, it’s important to me that it’s about something and that we’ve got loads of story, background, research and layers.

The audience doesn’t have to receive everything we put in. There is no dialogue, no narration. I just want the bodies to respond to the music, because the music is brilliant.” Nevertheless, as the piece has developed, every dancer has in their mind a clear storyline they are trying to convey. “I want it to have a very clear narrative, but it’s not like musical theatre. There you don’t stop to express a single emotion in a piece of dance. That’s what we do here.”

— KATE PRINCE, DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER

In doing so, Prince is asserting the power of dance — and of hip hop dance in particular — to tell huge stories, and deal with important themes. She wants to use its language to draw attention to the central, often forgotten, message of the refugee crisis.

She also quotes Alonzo Westbrook, the writer and hip hop pioneer.

“He said ‘hip hop is the artistic response to oppression.’ If you look through history, whenever the worst thing has happened, it has brought the best art. Art is cathartic. It gives us release. I can show you a news film about refugees that’s really disturbing, and you might watch it for a while and then change the channel. But if you really engage with the story, through dance, it communicates to you in a different way. You absorb it as a work of art.”

Nevertheless, she believes that Message In A Bottle offers hope. “It’s there to uplift and inspire like all our work, because all our work is really about one thing: love. Everything comes back to love and the power of love and the healing power of love, forgiveness and acceptance. This is a piece about the strength human beings have to keep going, to find peace again in their lives, despite trauma. It’s about resilience.”

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

FEB 13 – 25 • BUELL THEATRE ASL Interpreted, Audio Described and Open Captioned performance: Feb 25 at 2pm

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Roman Banks as 'MJ' and the cast of the MJ First National Tour.

Photo by Matthew Murphy, MurphyMade.

I want it to have a very clear narrative, but it’s not like musical theatre. There you don’t stop to express a single emotion in a piece of dance. That’s what we do here.

MJ

Michael Jackson’s iconic music and signature moves are taking the Buell stage in 2024. The Tony Award-winning musical MJ offers an insider’s perspective of the artistry that catapulted Michael Jackson to international superstardom and legendary status. MJ was created

by Tony Award-winning Director/ Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and playwright Lynn Nottage.

The show takes audiences behind the scenes as Michael Jackson prepares for his 1992 Dangerous World Tour. As the team rehearses the setlist — packed with Jackson’s most famous tunes, including “Thriller,” “Smooth Criminal,” “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and “Bad” — audiences witness the genius of Jackson’s creative process and are transported to pivotal moments in his career.

The Washington Post called MJ “a riveting adrenaline rush of a show.”

WGN Radio said, “MJ is one of the best shows ever.” Don’t miss the biggest musical of the decade as it takes its first national tour. MJ stops in Denver April 10 - 28, 2024. Sing along, dance in your seat, and flashback to the live performance of one of pop music’s most celebrated musicians.

RUBICON: SEX, ESPIONAGE AND A WOMAN FINDING PURPOSE

Illustration by Kyle Malone

BY JOANNE OSTROW

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APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024

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Do you remember a sexy movie with Lauren Bacall as a glamorous society woman turned wartime spy named Betty, blazing through men and countries, from South America to Europe, seducing her way to crucial information for the Allies in WWII? No? That’s because there was no such movie — although perhaps there should have been.

Betty Pack was a real-life character sidelined by history, an affluent wife and mother who became an espionage agent, a sultry and successful woman, who was denigrated for using her sexuality to prevail.

Instead of a romantic, high-gloss movie that never was, witness Betty coming to life in Rubicon, a world premiere written by Kirsten Potter and directed by Chris Coleman, Artistic Director of the Denver Center Theatre Company.

At its core the play is about “the cost of purpose,” Coleman said.

“It’s about a woman who comes from immense privilege and doesn’t really have a sense of purpose at the outset. She was kind of wandering through her life….

She discovers both a sense of excitement and purpose when she fumbles her way into the world of espionage and realizes that she has a real gift for it.”

Not that the art of seduction was admired in a well-bred Minnesota daughter of a U.S. Marine Corps officer. She went on to be called “the ultimate honey trap,” as she worked for both British and American intelligence outfits.

It was not necessarily a compliment.

“I think she was ahead of her time, and the system she was working in didn’t know what to do with her,” Coleman said. “A woman with the kind of sexual autonomy that she had was outside the realm of understanding or acceptability of that world.

“In the play, it’s crushing.”

Betty’s comfort with her function as a Mata Hari, trading sex for secrets, was clearly outside the norm.

“It’s the heritage of our culture, isn’t it?” Coleman said.

“Who gets to use their sexuality however they want to, whose sexuality has to be tightly contained? That’s so old in our culture, even when it’s being commandeered and deployed for a greater good, it still makes people uncomfortable that a woman has that much control and is actually not apologetic about it.”

It shouldn’t spoil the action for audiences to know that the five cast members worked with an intimacy choreographer. Samatha Egle, who previously worked on Rattlesnake Kate, Hotter Than Egypt, A Little Night Music and Much Ado About Nothing, is “a really valued collaborator,” Coleman said.

She choreographs the sex scenes as one would a fight or a dance. “She will say ‘talk to me about this kiss, what’s the flavor? A two-count, a five-count?’ I really appreciate it. It takes any kind of awkwardness out of my hands.”

A celebration of this unsung hero is overdue. There are books about Betty but you are forgiven for never having heard of her. Neither had the director.

“I love forgotten history,” he said.

Betty was a force of nature. “She clearly was an adrenaline junkie. Situations most of us would feel terrified by and run from, she ran right

— CHRIS COLEMAN, DIRECTOR

ELIZABETH PACK

Elizabeth Pack was a World War II spy for the British and American governments. Here are five facts about this unsung heroine.

1 straight into. Even before she’d actually been recruited. You could justify it by saying she was going to help out her imprisoned lover, but it’s more than that. She just found it exciting.”

Coleman laughed at the idea of ’40s film star Bacall playing Betty in a glamorous black-and-white film version of the story. “The actress we cast sounds a little like Lauren Bacall…. It’s hard for the play not to be glamorous, given the period and settings. From a ball at the embassy in Santiago to meeting rooms in Madrid…’ It’s a fancy world.”

The famous Enigma machine — used by the Germans to encrypt and decrypt messages — provides a pivotal plot point for the play. A boundary-breaker but not a code-breaker herself, Betty managed to steal the Vichy Papers in an elaborate scheme that helped the Allied landing in North Africa in 1942.

“Getting the Naval codes from the Vichy French embassy was going to give the allies an advantage that could turn the tide of the war,” Coleman said.

For Betty, “it was all intuition, she definitely was interested in older powerful men, both romantically but also they were of interest to her as a human.”

Appraising the character, Coleman said he was reminded of Robert Caro’s biographies of Lyndon Johnson. Betty’s talent was “like LBJ’s uncanny ability to sense what an older powerful man needed from a mentee, that built entree for him and a power base for him that he utilized to great effect. Betty had a similar sense of how to endear herself to people in power, whether she slept with them or not, to get them to say ‘yes’ to her…”

And what of her personal Rubicon? Her point of no return? “I think it’s nice if it’s left as a question mark for the audience,” Coleman demurred.

The playwright always imagined the set for her play’s production as a puzzle box, Coleman said. “It feels like it’s filled with surprises that reveal themselves in ways you don’t expect.” Designer Tony Cisek came up with “a solution that feels sleek, elegant and surprising.”

The resulting set will be “beautiful but very simple,” Coleman promised, “with some magic tricks that let it transform very elegantly.”

Rather than fussy furniture, audiences will be transported via simple devices like a sound cue or a chandelier.

“It will be very cinematic,” Coleman said.

RUBICON

FEB 9 – MAR 10 • KILSTROM THEATRE ASL Interpreted and Audio Described performance: Feb 18 at 1:30pm Post-Show Discussions: Feb 27 & Mar 7

RUBICON

A woman with the kind of sexual autonomy that [Betty Pack] had was outside the realm of understanding or acceptability of that world.

FIVE FACTS ABOUT

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Amy Elizabeth Pack also went

by Betty Pack, Betty Thorpe, Amy Brousse and Cynthia (her official codename). She was also referred to as the “Minnesota Mata Hari” and “the greatest unsung heroine of the war.”

She was born to a Marine Corps officer and a Senator’s daughter, placing her in the heart of the Washington political scene.

As a promiscuous teen, she got pregnant at age 19 by an unknown partner and later married British operative Arthur Pack 19 years her senior.

When they relocated to Spain at the onset of the Spanish Civil War, her activism began. She smuggled rebel Nationalists to safety, transported Red Cross supplies to Franco’s forces and coordinated the British embassy evacuation.

After moving to Poland, she enlisted as a British spy and befriended a colleague of the Polish foreign minister from whom she extracted information on the Enigma machine and Hitler’s plans to dismantle the former Czechoslovakia.

But her most dangerous and sensational escapade involved breaking into a Vichy French embassy and extracting naval codebooks.

See how she did it at Rubicon, playing February 9 – March 10 in the Kilstrom Theatre.

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CHICAGO

SEASON SPONSOR

Chicago The Musical LLC presents

CHICAGO Music by

Lyrics by Fred Ebb

Book by

John Kander

Fred Ebb & Bob Fosse

Based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins

Original Production Directed and Choreographed by Bob Fosse

Starring

Kailin Brown Connor Sullivan

Katie Frieden Robert Quiles

Also Starring Illeana “illy” Kirven J. Terrell Paul Amrani Olivia Lacie Andrews Bentlei Benak Faith Jordan Candino Jason Carroll Austin Taylor Dunn Ed Gotthelf Olivia Greco Chelsea James Liz Lester Joe Meldrum Adolfo Ortiz-Feder Lauren Teyke Kodiak Thompson Francisco Thurston Cait Zuckerman

Scenic Design John Lee Beatty

Costume Design William Ivey Long

Lighting Design Ken Billington

Sound Design Scott Lehrer

Supervising Music Director Robert Billig

Music Director Cameron Blake Kinnear

Orchestrations Ralph Burns

Vocal Arrangements Rob Fisher

Wig & Hair Design Bernie Ardia

Makeup Designer Justen M. Brosnan

Dance Music Arrangements Peter Howard

Script Adaptation David Thompson

Music Coordinator JP Meyer

Associate Conductor Andy Chen

Casting ARC Duncan Stewart, CSA & Patrick Maravilla

Tour Marketing & Press Anita Dloniak Melissa A. Hazek

Resident Director/ Assistant Choreographer Camden Loeser

Resident Company Manager Marc Ciemiewicz

Tour Company Manager Taneal Williams

Production Stage Manager Bethany Sortman

Associate Producer Lauren L. Sobon Brian J. Enzman

Production Manager Russell A. Thompson

General Manager Ryan Parliment

General Management APEX Touring

Executive Producer William T. Prather

Re-creation of Original Production Choreography by

Gregory Butler

Re-creation of Original Production Direction by

David Hyslop

Choreographer Original New York Production

Ann Reinking

in the style of Bob Fosse Director Original New York Production

Walter Bobbie

Based on the presentation by City Center’s Encores!

CHICAGO

KAILIN BROWN

KATIE FRIEDEN

CONNOR SULLIVAN

ROBERT QUILES

ILLEANA “illy” KIRVEN

J. TERRELL

PAUL AMRANI

OLIVIA LACIE ANDREWS

BENTLEI BENAK

FAITH JORDAN CANDINO

JASON CARROLL

AUSTIN TAYLOR DUNN

ED GOTTHELF

OLIVIA GRECO

CHELSEA JAMES

LIZ LESTER

JOE MELDRUM

ADOLFO ORTIZ-FEDER

LAUREN TEYKE

KODIAK THOMPSON

FRANCISCO THURSTON

CAIT ZUCKERMAN

Velma Kelly..........................................................................................................................................................KAILIN BROWN Roxie Hart............................................................................................................................................................KATIE FRIEDEN Fred Casely ........................................................................................................................................................... ED GOTTHELF Sergeant Fogarty........................................................................................................................... FRANCISCO THURSTON Amos Hart......................................................................................................................................................... ROBERT QUILES Liz...................................................................................................................................................................... CAIT ZUCKERMAN Annie................................................................................................................................................. OLIVIA LACIE ANDREWS June......................................................................................................................................................................... OLIVIA GRECO Hunyak.................................................................................................................................................................. LAUREN TEYKE Mona.....................................................................................................................................................................BENTLEI BENAK Matron “Mama” Morton................................................................................................................... ILLEANA “illy” KIRVEN Billy Flynn................................................................................................................................................... CONNOR SULLIVAN Mary Sunshine............................................................................................................................................................. J. TERRELL Go-to-Hell-Kitty..........................................................................................................................................................LIZ LESTER Harry...................................................................................................................................................... ADOLFO ORTIZ-FEDER The Doctor................................................................................................................................................KODIAK THOMPSON Aaron.......................................................................................................................................................................JOE MELDRUM The Judge.............................................................................................................................................................. PAUL AMRANI The Bailiff......................................................................................................................................................... JASON CARROLL Martin Harrison.......................................................................................................................................KODIAK THOMPSON Court Clerk..................................................................................................................................................... JASON CARROLL The Jury............................................................................................................................................... ADOLFO ORTIZ-FEDER THE SCENE: Chicago, Illinois. The late 1920s.

UNDERSTUDIES

Understudies never substitute for a listed player unless a specific announcement for the appearance is made at the time of the performance.

For Roxie Hart- Olivia Lacie Andrews, Lauren Teyke For Velma Kelly- Liz Lester, Cait Zuckerman For Billy Flynn- Joe Meldrum, Francisco Thurston For Amos Hart- Adolfo Ortiz-Feder, Jason Carroll For Matron “Mama” Morton- Cait Zuckerman, Lauren Teyke For Mary Sunshine- K. Thompson, J. Carroll For Fred Casely- Austin Taylor Dunn, Adolfo Ortiz-Feder SWINGS Faith Jordan Candino, Austin Taylor Dunn, Chelsea James

Dance Captain: Chelsea James Assistant Dance Captain: Austin Taylor Dunn

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CAST

(in order of appearance)

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MUSICAL NUMBERS Overture............................................................................................................................................... The Band and Company “All That Jazz”.......................................................................................................................................... Velma and Company “Funny Honey”......................................................................................................................................................................... Roxie “Cell Block Tango” ............................................................................................................................................ Velma and Girls “When You’re Good to Mama”.....................................................................................................Matron “Mama” Morton “Tap Dance”............................................................................................................................................ Roxie, Amos and Boys “All I Care About”................................................................................................................................................... Billy and Girls “A Little Bit of Good”......................................................................................................................................... Mary Sunshine “We Both Reached for the Gun”............................................................ Billy, Roxie, Mary Sunshine and Company “Roxie”.....................................................................................................................................................................Roxie and Boys “I Can’t Do It Alone”.............................................................................................................................................................Velma “My Own Best Friend”...................................................................................................................................Roxie and Velma

INTERMISSION Entr’acte..............................................................................................................................................................................The Band “I Know a Girl”.........................................................................................................................................................................Velma “Me and My Baby”..............................................................................................................................................Roxie and Boys “Mister Cellophane”...............................................................................................................................................................Amos “When Velma Takes the Stand”................................................................................................................. Velma and Boys “Razzle Dazzle”.............................................................................................................................................Billy and Company “Class”..............................................................................................................................Velma and Matron “Mama” Morton “Nowadays”........................................................................................................................................................Roxie and Velma “Hot Honey Rag”..............................................................................................................................................Roxie and Velma Finale....................................................................................................................................................................................Company Original choreography for “Hot Honey Rag” by Bob Fosse

ORCHESTRA Music Director and Conductor: CAMERON BLAKE KINNEAR Associate Conductor: ANDY CHEN Piano 1: BRENT C. MAULDIN Reed 1: JASON WHITMORE Reed 2: HEATHER KRIESEL Reed 3: CLAY STEINER Trumpet 1: JORDAN WEBB Trumpet 2: WILL ESPOSITO Trombone 1: ANDY SHARKEY Banjo/Mandolin/Ukulele: TRAVIS WELCH Tuba/Bass: ADAM HAMMER Percussion: JEREMY WISLER

The photographing or sound recording of any performance or the possession of any device or such photographing or sound recording inside the theater, without the written permission of the management, is prohibited by law.

KAILIN BROWN (Velma Kelly) (they/ them) is so excited to embark on their national tour debut! Company member of Thistle Dance seen in Unbound: Art of Sin (Lust) and Unbound: Haus of Haunts (Daemon), Off-Broadway choreographer for the new play, Egg Frame. Pace MT ‘23! Huge thanks to CTG, the friends, fam-jam, roomies, Grace, and mom.

KATIE FRIEDEN (Roxie Hart) (she/ her) is thrilled to rejoin the company of Chicago in this dream role.

Recent credits: Chicago National Tour/ International Korea Tour (Roxie Hart), Sweet Charity (Charity Hope Valentine), Netflix’s A Bridgerton Experience (Maria), Fame. Proud Oklahoma City University graduate. Love to my family and friends for all their support! @katiefrieden8 CONNOR SULLIVAN (Billy Flynn) (he/ him). National tour debut! Favorite credits include Tangled: The Musical (Disney Cruise Line), SAMSON (Sight and Sound Theatre), and all the roles he performed while putting on plays with his siblings in the basement. HUGE thanks to the Chicago creative team, and to casting by ARC. Love to Brielle. @connorpsully ROBERT QUILES (Amos Hart) (he/him/ his) is thrilled to be making his national tour debut; especially in this dream role.

He would love to thank his team at Take3Talent, as well as his friends and family, for always supporting his dreams; he never feels like cellophane around y’all. Love you Mom, Dad, Sam and Juli! @robertredpanda ILLEANA “illy” KIRVEN (Matron “Mama” Morton) (she/her). Last seen on the 25th Anniversary international tour in South Korea and 25th Anniversary North American tour.

With 100s of shows on her resume, a few favorites are: Caroline in productions of Caroline, or Change, Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act, the Narrator in productions of Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Illy dedicates her shows to her one of a kind, beautiful angel Mama, Mildred.

Enjoy the show. IG: @321illy J. TERRELL (Mary Sunshine) is very excited to be touring with such a vibrant production. Recent credits: Daniel Tiger’s

Neighborhood Live! (National Tour), Dreamgirls (Regional), and Stoopkids Stories Live! (Regional). Terrell would like to thank the cast and crew for helping spread a little bit of good along the way! @justin.alright PAUL AMRANI (The Judge) (any pronouns). National tour debut! Credits include: An American in Paris (Lise’s Partner), Seussical (Wickersham), A Chorus Line (understudy Mike, Bobby), Guys and Dolls (Hot Box Girl), Hair (Tribe). BFA Musical Theatre Texas State University. Thank you to ARC and the Chicago team! paulamrani.com @paul.amrani OLIVIA LACIE ANDREWS (Annie/Roxie Hart Understudy) (she/her). National tour debut! Regional: Music Theatre Wichita, Syracuse Stage, Bucks County Playhouse, Theatre Aspen. Recent graduate from Syracuse University BFA Musical Theater. Many thanks to the Chicago team and the most supportive friends/family! Eternally grateful. @livdrews BENTLEI BENAK (Mona) is so excited to be making her national tour debut with Chicago! Previously: Footloose (Norwegian Cruise Lines), Mamma Mia! (Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines), Christmas Wonderland Tokyo (Spirit Productions), Christmas In The Air (Rand Productions). Training - AMDA NY. Eternal love to my family, friends, and Lucille DiCampli Representation! @Bentlei_Benak FAITH JORDAN CANDINO (Swing) (she/her). National tour debut! Regional credits: West Side Story, A Chorus Line, Pelagius, Norwegian + Regent Cruise Lines - Burn The Floor, Awakening inaugural cast. Film credits: Hallmark Channel, LionsGate, Apple TV+, Warner Bros. Love to Mom + Dad, my dreams are a reality because of you. Love to Nathan, friends + Resolute Artists Agency. @curlycandino JASON CARROLL (The Bailiff/The Clerk/Amos Hart Understudy) (he/ him/his) is thrilled to be returning to Chicago for the third time. Favorite credits include Chicago (2020 National, 2023 International), The Wizard of Oz (International Tour), Broadway Bares, Vegas! The Show, and more. Many thanks to the entire

Chicago team, Peter, and my family! But, oh, it’s heaven. Nowadays. @jason_carrollnyc AUSTIN TAYLOR DUNN (Swing/ Assistant Dance Captain/Fred Casely Understudy) (he/him) is excited to be making his national tour debut with Chicago! Austin recently graduated from Point Park University where he received a BFA in Musical Theater and a minor in dance. He would like to thank his family, friends, and CTG for everything! @austintdunn ED GOTTHELF (Fred Casely) studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France and went on to work professionally in the UK before moving to the US. Favorite credits include National Tours: An American in Paris (Henri Baurel understudy), South Pacific (Henry). International: Chicago (South Korea). Regional: Newsies (Race), Les Miserables (Marius), Nice Work If You Can Get It. Special thanks to casting by ARC and Dino May Management. IG and TikTok @edgotthelf OLIVIA GRECO (June) (she/her) is thrilled to be making her national tour debut and following in her mother and uncle’s footsteps of performing in this iconic show! BA from Hofstra University (Dance/Psychology). Credits: A Christmas Story, Paint Your Wagon, Coming Home for Christmas. Love to my family, friends, dog babies, Kelcey, MTA, and ARC! @olivegreco CHELSEA JAMES (Swing/Dance Captain) (she/her) is excited to continue her journey with Chicago stateside! Recent credits include: Chicago (International Tour/Swing), Hairspray!

(Amber Von Tussle) and Cats (Syllabub/ Dance Captain). Dog mom, avid traveler, fitness enthusiast and proud fiancé to Michael Chau. Eternally grateful to family and friends for their continued love and support! @activelychelsea LIZ LESTER (Go-To-Hell-Kitty/Velma Kelly Understudy) (she/her) is beyond honored to be continuing her journey with Chicago! She was recently a part of the 25th anniversary tour in the role of Hunyak. Liz was previously a part of the national tour of Finding Neverland in 2018/19 as Miss Potter/ dance ensemble and again in 2020, with APEX Touring as Miss Bassett!

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WHO’S WHO

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A huge thanks to all her loved ones who continue to offer support, guidance, and love throughout her journey! @lizzlester JOE MELDRUM (Aaron/Billy Flynn Understudy). An American In Paris (Henri Baurel understudy), Chicago Korea (Billy Flynn understudy), West Side Story (Snowboy), La Cage Aux Folles (Clo-Clo), The Boy From Oz (Trick), Oklahoma! (Joe), Chicago Australia (Swing, Fred Casely understudy), Pippin (Lewis understudy), Singin’ in the Rain, and Curtains. TV/Film: “Beautiful” (Kojo), “Dream Deep” (Museums Victoria). @joe_meldrum ADOLFO ORTIZ-FEDER (Harry/The Jury/Amos Hart & Fred Casely Understudy) is thrilled to join the national tour of Chicago! National Tour: Fiddler on the Roof (dir. Bartlett Sher).

Regional: Elf: The Musical (Ogunquit Playhouse). RCCL: Grease, Saturday Night Fever. Much love to About Artists, ARC Casting, & the Chicago team. A mi familia, no estaría aquí sin tu apoyo! @aortizfeder KODIAK THOMPSON (The Doctor/ Harrison) grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania. This past year, he appeared as Annas in Jesus Christ Superstar, the 50th Anniversary Tour.

Kodiak loves the sharp wit, dark humor, and dynamic choreography of Chicago and is thrilled to be here! Thanks to About Artists and Kodiak’s deeply supportive family and community! @kodiakthompson LAUREN TEYKE (Hunyak/Roxie Hart & Matron “Mama” Morton Understudy) has recently been seen in the Anastasia North American tour (Odette, Dance Captain) and regionally in Something Rotten (Portia understudy). Lauren has performed internationally in both Cuba and China as well. She is a Sarasota native who wants to thank her family, buddies, and fam at Ovation. @laurenetyke FRANCISCO THURSTON (Sergeant Fogarty/Billy Flynn Understudy). International Tours: Chicago (Ensemble/ The Judge & Billy Flynn understudy), A Chorus Line (Al Deluca/Zach understudy); National Tours: Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (Ensemble/ Bruce Sudano understudy/Dance Captain), Grease (Danny Zuko), On Your Feet (Ensemble/Jose Fajardo understudy), The Wizard of Oz (Ensemble), Priscilla Queen Of The Desert (Ensemble).

A big thanks to all his loved ones for their support! @itsfranciscoofficial CAIT ZUCKERMAN (Liz/Velma Kelly & Matron “Mama” Morton Understudy) is excited to get back on the road!

National Tours: Elf. Other credits include A Chorus Line, The Little Mermaid, Escape to Margaritaville, and more.

Cait has been itching to do Fosse’s choreography to Chicago for as long as she can remember. This show is a dream come true. All my love to Mom, Dad, Tommy, toots, and Emil.

JOHN KANDER & FRED EBB (Music, Book, Lyrics). The John Kander and Fred Ebb collaboration of four decades created what many would consider Broadway standards and contemporary classics: Flora, the Red Menace, Cabaret (Tony Award), The Happy Time, Zorba, 70, Girls, 70, Chicago, The Act, Woman of the Year (Tony Award, Best Score), The Rink, Kiss of the Spider Woman (Tony Award, Best Score) and Steel Pier. Their collaboration also transferred itself to movies and television as they wrote original material for the Academy Awards, “Liza With a Z” (Emmy Award), HBO’s “Liza Minnelli’s Stepping Out” (Emmy Award), Funny Lady (Oscar nominated for “How Lucky Can You Get”), Lucky Lady, New York, New York, Stepping Out and Chicago (Oscar nominated for Best Song). In the mid ’80s the song “New York, New York” became the official anthem of New York City. At the time of the unfortunate death of Mr. Ebb, Kander and Ebb had several projects in different stages of completion waiting in the wings: All About Us, Curtains and The Scottsboro Boys. Life goes on.

BOB FOSSE (Book). First director in history to win Oscar, Tony and Emmy awards in one year (1973) for the film Cabaret, the musical Pippin and the TV special “Liza With a Z.” He won the first of eight Tonys as choreographer for The Pajama Game followed by directing and choreographing Redhead, Little Me, Sweet Charity (stage and film), Chicago, Dancin’. Other choreography: Damn Yankees, New Girl in Town, How to Succeed…, Big Deal. Film: My Sister Eileen, The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees. Director: Lenny (Oscar nom.), All That Jazz (Oscar nom.), Star 80.

WALTER BOBBIE (Director) directed the New York productions of Bright Star, Venus in Fur, The Landing, Golden Age, School for Lies, Irving

Berlin’s White Christmas, Chicago, The Submission, Cabin Pressure, The Savannah Disputation, New Jerusalem, High Fidelity, The Other Woman, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Sweet Charity, Twentieth Century, Footloose, Durang/Durang, For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls and A Grand Night for Singing. He was Artistic Director of City Center Encores! where he also directed Fiorello!, Chicago, Tenderloin, Golden Boy, No, No, Nanette, and Zorba, as well as the Carnegie Hall concerts of South Pacific and Carousel. Mr. Bobbie served for 12 years on the Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. He is the recipient of Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Tony awards.

ANN REINKING (Choreographer). 1997 Tony Award, Best Choreography for Chicago, as well as Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Astaire and NY Drama Critics awards. Other credits include: director, co-choreographer for Fosse (1998 Tony Award for Best Musical), Tony nomination for Best Director in a Musical, Fosse. Nominations for Tonys in four different categories: Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Choreographer, Best Director (won the Tony for Best Choreography), as well as Tony nominations for her leading performances in Dancin’ and Goodtime Charlie, won the Lawrence Olivier Award for Fosse, recipient of Theatre World, Clarence Derwent and Outer Critics Circle awards for her work as Maggie in Over Here!. Film credits: Movie Movie, All That Jazz, Annie, Micki and Maude. Recent choreography: Sondheim Suite for Pacific Northwest Ballet, Suite Kander for Missouri State Ballet, Ritmo & Ruido for Ballet Hispanico, Legends for Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, The Threepenny Opera for Williamstown Theatre Festival, Nilsson/ Schmillson for Seattle’s Spectrum Dance Theatre, “Bye Bye Birdie” for ABC-TV, national tour of the revival of Applause.

Co-choreographed The White City and Light In The Dark/Thodos Dance Chicago. Choreographed The Harrison Tribute/American Ballet Theatre. She is the recipient of the National Broadway Theatre Award for Best Choreography, Fosse, 2001, the Drama League Award for Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre 1999, Musical Hall of Fame Award 1999, Dance Library of Israel Award 1998, Distinguished Artist Award 1998, School of American Ballet

JOHN LEE BEATTY (Set Design).

Broadway: Plaza Suite, Junk, Disgraced, Venus in Fur, After Midnight, The Nance, Other Desert Cities, The Color Purple, A Delicate Balance, The Heiress, The Sisters Rosensweig, The Most Happy Fella, Burn This, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Talley’s Folly, Fifth of July, among 100 others.

Off-Broadway: Sylvia, The Substance of Fire, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, A Life in the Theatre, many seasons at MTC, Circle Rep, Lincoln Center and Encores. Major regional theaters, film, opera, TV and the circus. Multiple Tony, Obie, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards.

Graduate: Brown and Yale.

WILLIAM IVEY LONG (Costume Design).

Mr. Long is currently represented on Broadway by Chicago (now in its 27th year) and on tour by Chicago, Hairspray, Tootsie, and Beetlejuice. In addition to his countless design credits for ballet, opera, film and television, Mr. Long has won six Tony Awards, with eighteen nominations. He was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2005. www.williamiveylong.com KEN BILLINGTON (Lighting Design).

100 Broadway shows including the original production of Sweeney Todd and the current Chicago, the longestrunning American musical in history.

Hundreds of US and worldwide tours including Waitress, White Christmas, also Chicago in 20 countries. Awards include the Tony, the Lumen (architecture), Ace (television). Inducted into The Theatre Hall of Fame in 2015.

SCOTT LEHRER (Sound Design).

Credits include: Into the Woods, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Piano Lesson, The Music Man with Hugh Jackman, Carousel, Hello, Dolly! with Bette Midler, The Front Page, Shuffle Along..., Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, A Raisin in the Sun with Denzel Washington, Mike Nichols’ productions of Betrayal and Death of a Salesman, Lucky Guy with Tom Hanks, Richard Nelson’s Rhinebeck Panorama, over 60 NY City Center Encores!

including Chicago, and South Pacific (first Tony Award for Sound Design).

Recordings include An American in Paris (Grammy nomination), Loudon Wainwright’s High Wide and Handsome (Grammy) and Meredith Monk’s Mercy.

A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, he has taught at Bennington College, Hunter College and NYU. ROBERT BILLIG (Music Supervisor) has been music director, conductor and/or supervisor for Broadway, OffBroadway and national touring musical productions for over 45 years.

A graduate of New York University with a BA in Music, he has been music director/conductor of the original Broadway productions of Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Man of La Mancha (2002 revival), Singin’ in the Rain and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Other Broadway productions he has conducted include Chicago, Wicked, Song and Dance and My One and Only. National tours include Wicked, The Drowsy Chaperone, Young Frankenstein, Les Misérables (25th anniversary production), Chicago and most recently, Hello Dolly!. OffBroadway he was music director and vocal arranger for the original production of Little Shop of Horrors and provided the vocal arrangements for the film version of the show. In addition, he was Musical Director for Disney’s Geppetto. Mr. Billig’s other conducting credits range from intimate nightclubs to international symphony orchestras and everything in between.

DAVID HYSLOP (Re-Creation of Original Production Director). Over 20 Broadway credits including Chicago, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Democracy, The Rocky Horror Show, Bobbi Boland, The Blue Room, Jekyll & Hyde, Diary of Anne Frank, An Ideal Husband, and A Few Good Men. Associate Director for seven national tours of Chicago as well as Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Peter Pan 360. Much love and gratitude to all the people who influenced and guided me early on at The Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, The American Conservatory Theatre and The Actors Studio.

GREGORY BUTLER (Re-creation of Original Production Choreographer) is a former dance major of The Juilliard School. He is the associate choreographer for the six time Tony award winning Chicago. He has mounted productions

around the world including Moscow, Denmark, Korea, Amsterdam, Germany and the US. In 2013 he choreographed Chicago for the famed Hollywood Bowl, directed by Brooke Shields. He has restaged Ann Reinking’s Tony Award winning choreography for The Tony Awards, Dancing With the Stars, Germany’s Bambi Awards, The Today Show, Let’s Make A Deal and The Helene Fisher Show. As a performer Gregory made his Broadway debut in the musical Raggedy Ann. He has also appeared on Broadway in Chicago and All About Me. He appeared Off-Broadway in the original cast of Here Lies Jenny, starring Bebe Neuwirth. National Tours: Applause, Chicago, Evita and Martin Guerre. He has performed in numerous stock and regional productions, tv and film while also directing and choreographing for theatre, tv, film and concerts. Gregory can be seen in the Emmy nominated documentaries Pamela: A Love Story and Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields. He is also in the feature film 88, written and directed by Eromose.

Facebook: Gregory Butler, Twitter: @GregKButler, Instagram: @gkbut CAMDEN LOESER (Resident Director/ Assistant Choreographer) is forever grateful to be a part of this dazzling show. Camden has participated in the UK tour of the Chicago limited engagement in Tokyo as the Swing/Dance Captain. He is the Co-Choreographer for the upcoming production Jack Cole: A New Musical, and teaches the Jack Cole technique in NY and around the world. Camden recently created a piece in honor of the life and memory of his mentor Chet Walker, and Chet’s devotion to passing on the legacy of Jack Cole that was presented at Jacob’s Pillow. He also serves as the Associate Choreographer for the Broadway revival of Pippin, which he helped remount in Australia and Japan. Many thanks to the entire team, the cast, and the crew of Chicago – what a brilliant gift to share this with you all!

BERNIE ARDIA (Wig & Hair Design) is a California native with a 40-year career starting in print and television.

He has designed for over 75 productions including: Cameron Mackintosh’s Les Misérables and Oliver, Kiss of the Spider Woman with Chita Rivera, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express (Las Vegas), Cinderella with Eartha Kitt, and Hairspray (recreating Paul Huntley’s

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Artistic Achievement Award 1997, National Art Club Award for Service to the Arts 1995, Governor’s Award— Ambassador of the Arts for the State of Florida 1994, Honorary Doctorate from Florida State University, Dance Magazine Award, Ford Foundation Scholarship for the San Francisco Ballet Company and the Robert Joffrey Scholarship with the Joffrey Ballet.

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designs). He is also the author of Barbra Streisand in New York City, and presenting the upcoming At Sea with Patrick Dennis, My Madcap Mexican Adventure with the Author of Auntie Mame (pub.

Ratteling Good Yarns).

JUSTEN M. BROSNAN (Makeup Designer). “The Creation of Beauty is Art”- Ralph Waldo Emerson. Award Winning Makeup Designer + Artist.

Broadway: Hairspray The Musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, Legally Blonde The Musical, and more. Thank you to Rosie, Chita, Bernie & The Source.

DAVID THOMPSON (Script Adaptation). Broadway productions include the librettos for The Scottsboro Boys (Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations, Hull-Warriner Award), Steel Pier (Tony nomination) and Thou Shalt Not. Off-Broadway: And the World Goes ‘Round (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards), Flora, the Red Menace (Drama Desk nomination). Regional: McCarter Theater’s A Christmas Carol.

Television: “Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall,” “My Favorite Broadway.” Thompson is a graduate of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.

JP MEYER (Music Coordinator) is the Music Supervisor and Contractor for APEX Touring (Hairspray, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, Pippin, Finding Neverland, Chicago, Cabaret, Wizard of Oz) and has been the Resident Music Director at the Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania since 2014. He also serves as the Organist and Music Director at Old Zion Lutheran Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

CAMERON BLAKE KINNEAR (Music Director/Conductor). National Tours: Chicago, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Regional: premiere of Frank Wildhorn’s Wonderland, Disney’s When You Wish, Rock of Ages, Sister Act, Ghost, La Cage Aux Folles, Gutenberg!, The Musical, 1940’s Radio Hour, Ring of Fire, Sweet Charity, Big River, Urinetown, Assassins, All Shook Up, His Eye Is On The Sparrow, Mary Poppins, The Music Man, Crazy for You, Fiddler On The Roof, Rent. Cruise Lines: Swing!, Legends In Concert.

ANDY CHEN (Associate Conductor) (he/him) is a NYC-based music director, pianist, and music educator. Recent credits include Little Women and Bright

Star at Arizona State University and Trial by Jury at College Light Opera Company, where he has served as an associate conductor for multiple seasons. He holds an MM in Music Direction from Arizona State University. @andychenonkeys THE BOOKING GROUP (Tour Booking Agency) has represented 28 Tony Award® winning Best Musicals and Plays. Current tours include The Book of Mormon, Chicago, Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Funny Girl, Hadestown, Hairspray, Hamilton, Mamma Mia!, Mean Girls, MJ The Musical, Mrs. Doubtfire, My Fair Lady, Pretty Woman, Six, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, To Kill A Mockingbird, Waitress and The Wiz. Future tours include: A Wonderful World, How to Dance in Ohio, The Karate Kid, Parade, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Some Like It Hot and Sweeney Todd.

ARC (Casting). 150+ productions across the globe & 13 Artios Awards for casting.

Broadway/NY past & present productions include: Life of Pi, Chicago the Musical, Disney’s The Lion King & Beauty and the Beast, Hadestown, Lost in Yonkers, Great Comet of 1812, Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes, 39 Steps, Pippin, La Cage aux Folles. TV/Film: Netflix, 20th Century Fox, NBC, Lionsgate, Disney Channel.

West End/U.K.: Hadestown, Thriller Live, Menier Chocolate Factory. Tours: 1776, Hairspray, Waitress, Urinetown, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Finding Neverland, Into the Woods, We Will Rock You. Regional: A.R.T., Berkeley Rep, Alley, Bay Street, Goodspeed, Hollywood Bowl, McCarter, Signature. ARC, Part of RWS Global. www.castingbyarc.com IG: @castingbyarc MARC CIEMIEWICZ (Resident Company Manager). For over 30 years Marc has worked as an actor, director, stage manager, company manager, and production manager from coast to coast. Tours: Yeston and Kopit’s Phantom, It’s Swingtime!, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (directed and choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler), Footloose 10th Anniversary Tour, The Wedding Singer, Finding Neverland, Chicago, and the national and international tours of The Wizard of Oz. Marc holds a BFA and a MFA in Musical Theatre from Shenandoah Conservatory and San Diego State University respectively. Let Art Live!

TANEAL WILLIAMS (Tour Company Manager) is an actor, arts manager, and director from New Orleans, LA. The Gilman Scholar and National Theatre Institute alum graduated with a BFA in Theatre from Stephens College and also studied at the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia. She was a member of the Wallis Studio Ensemble in Beverly Hills.

She has performed in plays, musicals, and operas, and originated the role of Regina/Nameless in Tearrance Chisholm’s In Sweet Remembrance with Endstation Theatre Company. In 2021, she made her Off-Broadway debut working as a Guide for Tectonic Theatre Project’s Seven Deadly Sins. Taneal has worked as an arts administrator for Opera on the James, The National World War II Museum, Nashville Symphony, and Berkshire Theatre Group. @capt_taneal BETHANY SORTMAN (Production Stage Manager). National Tours: Chicago: 25th Anniversary Tour, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, Finding Neverland, Wizard of Oz, Cabaret. International Tour: Wizard of Oz. Regional and ‘Stock favorites: Anything Goes (The Gateway, starring Sally Struthers and Andrea McArdle), A Chorus Line (John Engeman Theater, starring Jessica Lee Goldyn), Young Frankenstein (The Gateway, starring John Bolton and set by Jeff Whiting), White Christmas and 42nd Street (The Gateway, directed and choreographed

by Randy Skinner with Mary Giattino), Mary Poppins, Spamalot, A Christmas Story and more. Other past adventures include a season of Celtic Fyre (Busch Gardens Williamsburg), many years of PSM’ing Gateway’s Haunted Playhouse as well as serving as the Company Manager for The Gateway and Argyle Theatre. Family. Friends. Colleagues.

None of this would be possible without you. Love and a pebble for DH. BRIAN J. ENZMAN (Associate Producer) has 35 years of experience in the entertainment industry. He has been involved in over 400 productions from A Chorus Line in 1987 to the recent national tours of Hairspray, Cabaret, Once, The Musical and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. As resident director, credits include: Evita, Yeston and Kopit’s Phantom, Les Miserables, The Civil War, Jekyll and Hyde, The Drowsy Chaperone, South Pacific, Hello Dolly, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,

LAUREN L. SOBON (Associate Producer). Recent credits include Associate Producer of Chicago, the Musical and Associate Producer/ Casting for Hairspray. Recent credits include Director for the 2021 tour of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, Associate Producer for the 2020 national tour of Chicago, Artistic Producer/Casting Director for the 2020 national tour of Finding Neverland, 2019 international and 2018/2019 national tours of The Wizard of Oz as well as the 2017 national tour of Pippin.

She was the Director and Artistic Producer for the 2016 national tour of Million Dollar Quartet. Choreographer and Associate Producer for the 2014 national tour of Fiddler on the Roof.

RUSSELL A. THOMPSON (Production Manager) has been the Production Manager for multiple national touring productions and the international tours of Chicago and Cabaret. Mr. Thompson was the Lighting Designer & Production Manager for the international and national tour of The Wizard of Oz, and national tours of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, Finding Neverland, Once, Pippin, Million Dollar Quartet, Memphis, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Hair, Fiddler on the Roof, All Shook Up, Footloose, The Wedding Singer, and Beehive: The 60’s Musical.

Thompson’s other designs include Jesus Christ Superstar, On Your Feet, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Mamma Mia!, Jersey Boys, Rock of Ages, A Bronx Tale and Cats.

He also designed the world premiere of Around the World in 80 Days and the regional premiere of The Civil War. APEX TOURING, LLC (General Management) is the producer of the current tours of Chicago, being presented by Chicago Razzle Dazzle, LLC and Hairspray, being presented by Hairspray On Tour, LLC. Now in its seventh tour season, APEX has produced recent national tours which include Hairspray, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, Once and Finding Neverland. APEX was honored to produce the first company to bring a live production to the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Middle

East with the international tour of The Wizard of Oz, which also performed across China. APEX produced the 2018 tour of Cabaret and 2017 tour of Pippin.

APEX has been created to serve the ever-expanding need for high quality, Broadway-caliber touring productions around the world. APEX looks forward to many years of producing Broadway’s brightest new shows.

WILLIAM T. PRATHER (Executive Producer) is the Executive Producer and Founder of APEX Touring. He is a second-generation theatre producer following in the footsteps of his parents, Tom and Debbie Prather, who produced live theatre for over 58 years. A graduate of the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, he returned to the family business in 1993 after spending a couple of years in the corporate world.

As an Executive Producer, Prather has worked on successful tours including Footloose, The Wedding Singer, BLAST, Fiddler on the Roof, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Memphis and Million Dollar Quartet.

CITY CENTER’S ENCORES! GREAT AMERICAN MUSICALS IN CONCERT. City Center, a not-for-profit theater founded in 1943 as Manhattan’s first performing arts center, is home to many of America’s leading dance companies, education programs and popular engagements. The awardwinning series Encores! was created in 1994 to revisit rarely heard scores, of which Chicago is one.

Presented by special arrangement with American Play Company, Inc., Sheldon Abend, President.

STAFF FOR CHICAGO EXECUTIVE PRODUCER WILLIAM T. PRATHER GENERAL MANAGEMENT APEX TOURING GENERAL MANAGER RYAN PARLIMENT PRODUCTION MANAGER RUSSELL A. THOMPSON ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS LAUREN L. SOBON BRIAN J. ENZMAN CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER RACHELLE WINESETT TOUR MARKETING AND PRESS ANITA DLONIAK MELISSA A. HAZEK TOUR BOOKING and ENGAGEMENT MANAGEMENT THE BOOKING GROUP Meredith Blair Richard Rundle Brian Brooks CASTING ARC Duncan Stewart, CSA, Mark Brandon, CSA Amber Snead, CSA Patrick Maravilla, Jarrett Reiche, Anthony Pichette, CSA, Kyle Coker Ryan Stana, CEO RWS Global Ryan Saab, SVP RWS Global” RESIDENT COMPANY MANAGER MARC CIEMIEWICZ TOUR COMPANY MANAGER TANEAL WILLIAMS PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER BETHANY SORTMAN PRODUCTION STAFF Head Carpenter.................................................................. Aaron Collins Assistant Stage Manager............................................... Elspeth Bustard Carpenter/Rigger...........................................................Starrett Pattison Head Electrician.................................................................. Dallas LaFon Electrician ........................................................................... Kelcie Nutile Electrician......................................................................... Hope Honaker Head Audio........................................................................Adam Visconti Audio.............................................................................Conor Gregersen Head Props..................................................................Weston Breshears Head Wardrobe/Wigs..........................................................Mica Pointer Swing Technician.....................................................................Daisy Luna VP of Marketing.............................................................. Denise S. Trupe Payroll Services........................................................ Paycom Payroll, LLC Legal Council.......................................................Littler Mendelson, P.C. Banking.................................................................................. Chase Bank Insurance..................................................... Maury, Donnelly & Parr, Inc. Art Design........................................ KellyAnne Hanrahan & EJZ Design Production Photography...................................................Jeremy Daniel Web Design...................................................................The Beardy Boys Merchandising.................................................................Creative Goods Trucking....................................................................................Stage Call Busing.......................................................................On the Road Coach Concierge.......................................................................Road Concierge CREDITS Scenery built and painted by Hudson Scenic Studios.

Lighting equipment from PRG Lighting.

Sound equipment by PRG Audio.

CONNECT WITH CHICAGO ON TOUR

CHICAGOONTOUR.COM Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @ChicagoOnTour #ChicagoOnTour

CHICAGO

Cabaret, Gypsy, Mame, The King and I, Damn Yankees, Music Man and Annie, to name a few. Brian is a graduate of Millersville University in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

CHICAGO

2/3 page Applause program ad (black & white) DENVER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE FOLLOWING SUPPORT IN ITS 2024 BROADWAY SEASON

PLEASE BE ADVISED • LATECOMERS and those exiting the theatre are seated at predetermined breaks in designated areas.

• PHOTOS, RECORDING & CELL PHONE USE are prohibited.

• CHILDREN 6+ are welcome in our theatres and must be ticketed.

• DRINKS are allowed in provided containers.

• ASSISTIVE LISTENING DEVICES, LARGE PRINT PROGRAMS & BOOSTER SEATS are available in most theatres. Ask an usher to direct you.

• BRAILLE PROGRAMS are available with 2 weeks’ notice to amcmullen@dcpa.org or 303.446.4836.

Members of Denver Theatrical Wardrobe, Wigs, Hair and Make-up, IATSE Local 719 Robin Appleton Julie Bassignani Vonnie Clough Craig Cory Cyndie Cory Steve Davies Anne Davis Amber Krimbel Carolyn Dore AnnSue Gunter Judy Holabird Will Holabird Lauren LaCasse Kelsey Lambert

Leslie Lambert Sarah Lambert Sharon Millikan-Hale Callie Morrow Tim Nelson Lisa Parsons Wagner Laura Payne Dave Poole Jessica Rayburn Alan Richards Elisa Spadi Amy Tepel Eliza Vlasova Barbara Wilson

DPAC House Crew Mark Anthony Perry Elliott Kiko Marra Allen Olmstead

Albert Sainz Sr. Josh Thurman Derek Tovar David A. Wilson

The Denver Performing Arts Complex is owned and operated by Denver Arts & Venues for the City and County of Denver.

City and County of Denver Mike Johnston, Mayor Denver Arts & Venues Gretchen Hollrah, Executive Director Denver Arts & Venues, Arts Complex Operations Mark Heiser, Venue Director Jody Grossman, Assistant Venue Director, Booking Todd Medley, Facilities Superintendent Kelly Graham, Safety, Security and Garage Operations Manager Carol Krueger, Patron Services Manager artscomplex.com | (720) 865-4220 For immediate assistance & security (720) 865-4200

MAR 5 – 10 • BUELL THEATRE SEASON SPONSORS

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LET’S KEEP IN TOUCH ve i e c ort e r to upp n i s s tr p e O tom age ! s cus t mes DCPA ential, ut o tex the u’ll get emssation ab , m fro ing so, yinoute infocrellationcsant road do e-m can signifi lex.

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t e r og cen scre subsc ” e 1. L enver s d hom tion & rence r u a e o enu n y munic al pref m O n o 2. Com new dow age t p “ e r o p s odr aut rst rence ts i f e e e th r Pref for tex s U 3. n you Yes” o -in “ opt

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BRIGHT LIGHTS OF

BROADWAY Direct from Broadway to the Buell, these larger-than-life hits and intimate cabaret shows will fill your calendar in 2024.

Secure your seats today!

5 0 TH A N N I V E R S A R Y T O U R

JAN 3 – 28

JAN 23 – 28

JAN 30 – FEB 4

FEB 7 – MAR 31

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MAR 5 – 10

GARNER GALLERIA THEATRE

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MAR 14 – 17 BUELL THEATRE

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APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

Elvie Ellis and the company of the North American Tour of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR IS REBORN

BY JOHN MOORE

F

From blasphemy to Broadway to banned to broadcast television, few pop-culture titles have generated the buzz Jesus Christ Superstar has generated.

When Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice dared to imagine the final weeks in the life of Jesus Christ through a decidedly late 1960s rock ’n’ roll lens, it was received much like a revolution in world history.

“Superstar was written like a radio play, because that was the closest thing we had available to us,” Lloyd Webber told Rolling Stone magazine. “I think it works best when it’s closer to a rock concert.”

From the start, Superstar was slammed as blasphemous.

Imagine the audacity of a new rock musical that dared to tell the story of Christ’s downfall from the sympathetic perspective of his chief betrayer?

The writers couldn’t find a producer at first. “We were told it was the worst idea in history,” Lloyd Webber recalled. So he and Rice transformed their stage musical into a two-record concept album that was released in 1970.

Rice was inspired by the Bob Dylan anthem “With God On Our Side,” which features Judas in its penultimate verse. Rice was fascinated by the idea of Judas not as a craven back-stabber but rather a close friend struggling with the implications of Jesus’ growing popularity.

“From a very young age, I had wondered what I might have done in the situations in which Pontius Pilate and Judas Iscariot found themselves,” Rice wrote. “How were they to know Jesus would be accorded divine status by millions and that they would as a result be condemned down the ages?”

When the legendary concept album hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts, a Broadway staging went from impossible to inevitable. American fans had begun staging unauthorized live performances in churches and theaters.

But what bowed on Broadway in 1971 was polarizing.

Webber himself called that first (of four) Broadway productions “brash and vulgar” — and he was not alone.

The show was banned in South Africa and protested by everyone from the American Jewish Committee to the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith to evangelist

Billy Graham. (Though Graham did acknowledge that “if the production causes young people to search their Bibles, to that extent it may be beneficial.”)

Ironically, Jesus Christ Superstar found favor with Catholic popes. Jewison, who directed the 1973 film, arranged a special screening for Pope Paul VI. Neeley quotes Paul VI as saying: “Mr. Jewison, not only do I appreciate your beautiful rock-opera film, I believe it will bring more people around the world to Christianity than anything ever has before.”

From its birth, Superstar reflected the rock roots that defined a generation. And as time has passed, it has proven to be a musical that demands to be re-interpreted again and again.

We were told it was the worst idea in history.

– ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER, COMPOSER

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

JAN 23 – 28 BUELL THEATRE

ASL Interpreted, Audio-Described and Open Captioned performance: Jan 27 at 2pm

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

19

HANDCRAFTED THEATRE

BUILT RIGHT AT HOME Want to see the real impact from investing in the arts?

Support classic, contemporary and new works by our local Denver Center Theatre Company.

SPOTLIGHT SPONSOR - $10,000+

Sponsor a show of your choice and get access to exclusive Opening Night festivities, meet-and-greets with the cast and crew, recognition in Applause magazine, and more sponsor perks!

PREMIERE SPONSOR - $25,000+

Get everything included in a Spotlight Sponsorship, plus behind-the-scenes tours, access to rehearsals, and invitations to a sponsor dinner with the show’s Director and Managing Director.

HONORARY PRESENTING SPONSOR - $50,000+

Get everything included in a premiere sponsorship, plus a guided tour of the DCPA costume, prop, or scene design workshop. You’ll also get two complimentary Directors Society memberships, private meet-and-greets with the creative team, and a private luncheon with the company’s Artistic Director.

HONORARY SEASON SPONSOR - $100,000+

Sponsor the entire season and experience theatre like never before! The DCPA will build a customized theatre experience for you and your guests. And you’ll get unprecedented access to every step of the play’s development, from first rehearsal to final product. Almost anything is possible!

GET INVOLVED Contact: cmaxwell@dcpa.org

20

(TOP PHOTO) The cast of A Little Night Music. Photo by Amanda Tipton Photography.

(INSET PHOTO) Matt Zambrano and Brittany Mendoza-Peña in LITTLE RED. Photo by Amanda Tipton Photography.

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

Connor Sullivan in The Touring Production of CHICAGO. Credit Jeremy Daniel.

CHICAGO STILL HAS THAT

“RAZZLE DAZZLE”

T

B Y G E N E V I E V E M I L L E R H O LT

every gesture, every bit of lighting, every word and The 1975/76 Broadway season made history. Meryl moment were all woven together to create the story,” Streep earned her first Tony® nomination and Sondheim’s said Brown, who played the role of June.

Pacific Overtures premiered on Broadway. And two of Chicago opened on Broadway on June 3, 1975, to musical theatre’s most enduring musicals were created enthusiastic audience response. Fosse considered it a nearly simultaneously. compliment that some took In the preceding year, offense at his cynical take on the while visionary director and American justice system and the choreographer Michael Bennett cult of celebrity. “When people was developing A Chorus Line, walked out,” said Brown, “Bob got the equally visionary Bob Fosse tickled because he figured that in enlisted composer John Kander order to be offended, they must and lyricist Fred Ebb to create a have ‘got it.’” new piece too: the musical version But when the Tony Awards of a 1926 play about an infamous came around, the unconventional dame who’d killed her husband.

A Chorus Line won them all. In Fosse was an established his review of Chicago’s 1996 Broadway director and revival, New York Times critic choreographer at this point with Ben Brantley reflected that the a corps of loyal dancers. Denver — CANDY BROWN, 1975 production of Chicago had resident Candy Brown was one ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST been, “in a sense, the evil twin of of them. its rival musical, as acerbic and In January 1974, while Brown cold-hearted as the other was was dancing in Pippin, she and 18 sentimental and warm.” other dancers gathered to discuss the challenges of being But Chicago would eventually get its due. The 1996 a Broadway gypsy, which eventually became the basis revival was a resounding success, winning six Tonys of Bennett’s A Chorus Line. His project was an unknown and remains the longest-running American musical on quantity with only the glimmer of becoming something Broadway today. Still considered one of Fosse’s towering bigger, so some participants defected to more secure gigs, undertakings, Chicago returns to Denver and it’s still got Brown among them. She joined Fosse’s Chicago. that razzle dazzle.

“I felt a loyalty to Bob,” she said, “as Chicago would be my third project with him...not to mention the fact that no Genevieve Miller Holt is the Vice President for Broadway Across one knew if the Michael Bennett workshop would even be America in Cincinnati. a show.”

A year later, Brown arrived for the first day of rehearsal, yet just after lunch, the cast was told that Fosse had been hospitalized. “I went numb,” said Brown. “We all were in CHICAGO a state of disbelief.” Work stopped as Fosse suffered two JAN 30 – FEB 4 • BUELL THEATRE heart attacks and underwent bypass surgery.

ASL Interpreted, Audio-Described and Open Captioned Months later, the Chicago team reassembled and Fosse performance: Feb 3 at 2pm began to construct his iconic musical. “Every costume,

Every costume, every gesture, every bit of lighting, every word and moment were all woven together to create the story.

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

21

PROUD SPONSOR OF MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

T [The arts] inform, inspire and uplift while bringing the community together.

The arts are a significant part of making Denver an amazing place to live and work. U.S. Bank believes in the power of play, which includes the arts, because it brings joy, encourages creativity, teaches problem-solving skills and builds emotional learning. That is why U.S. Bank is a long-time supporter of the magnificent programs and spectacular performances at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA).

The arts educate, promote understanding, broaden our perspectives and enable communities to share rich cultural experiences. Denver is fortunate to have a thriving arts community, which is home to some of the nation’s finest theatres, museums and artists.

“We’re proud to serve the DCPA because it provides a world-class venue offering the best in live entertainment, in addition to education for all ages through the art of theatre,” said Andy Aye, Market Leader for Colorado and New Mexico.

“We know the critical role that the arts play in our society.

They inform, inspire and uplift while bringing the community together.”

In 2022, U.S. Bank committed $64 million to nonprofit organizations through Community Possible, with an emphasis on community development diversity and inclusion, financial education and the environment. Additionally, its employees volunteered more than 311,000 hours, demonstrating that employee engagement is a major component of its community success.

“The DCPA brings us together to appreciate our diversity of thought, perspective and talent,” said Aye. “I am always amazed at how much we share in common when we all laugh or gasp during a key moment in a performance. It is a sense of participation and belonging that strengthens our community.

Supporting the DCPA is making an investment in ourselves, the arts and the place we call home.”

— ANDY AYE, COLORADO/NEW MEXICO MARKET LEADER

22

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

“One of the best musicals of the decade” - Time Out New York

Titanic, The Musical Story and Book by Peter Stone · Music and Lyrics by Maury Yeston Presented by Eklund Opera and the Musical Theatre Program

March 15-17, 2024 · Macky Auditorium Robert Westenberg, stage director Tickets start at $17 at cupresents.org.

TITANIC is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Tams-Witmark LLC. www.concordtheatricals.com

Second Wind Fund pays for up to 12 sessions of therapy for Colorado youth at risk of suicide.

February 16 - March 31, 2024

For more information visit thesecondwindfund.org or scan the QR code

arvadacenter.org |

Underwritten by Diana and Mike Kinsey

| 720.898.7200

PROUD SPONSOR OF THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES AND SATURDAY NIGHT ALIVE

DAVITA: COMMUNITY FIRST

A

As a leading provider of kidney care services in the United States, DaVita is committed to making a lasting impact, starting with the care it provides and extending to the broader communities it serves.

Since first calling the Mile High City home in 2010, the company has remained dedicated to supporting causes that uplift the Denver community while fostering a culture that encourages teammates to get involved. As a company, DaVita invests in opportunities that advance leadership, sustain cultural institutions, and respond to the community’s most pressing needs.

DaVita is proud to support the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, a vibrant organization committed to increasing access to performing arts for all individuals. DCPA’s mission to serve, engage and inspire its community aligns with DaVita’s efforts to support healthy communities around the world, as well as in its own backyard of Colorado. DaVita is proud to play a role in DCPA’s Theatre for Young Audiences program, engaging more than 15,000 pre-K through 3rd grade students and educators from 128 schools across metro Denver.

Following are examples of other local community collaborations DaVita is proud to support: Funding 10 Denver Scholarship Foundation recipients as they pursue a pathway to healthcare related careers.

Preparing teen moms at Florence Crittenton Services for future livable wage opportunities through a summer exposure program that matches them with paid internships. The program provides them with flexibility of job choice over the summer while helping to ensure they are ready for medical internships and gain necessary professional skills.

DaVita is a proud premier supporter of Urban Peak’s annual fundraiser, Urban Nights. The nonprofit is the only organization in Denver that provides wrap-around support services for youth experiencing homelessness.

24

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

FEB 8TH - APR 7TH, 2024 SCAN OR CALL TO GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!

(970) 744-3747

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6/19/25 – 8/31/25

DCPA TEAM DCPA TEAM DCPA

Stori Heleen-O’Foley................Event Technical Katie Davis .....................Manager, VIP Ticketing Prop Shop Manager Billy Dutton...........................Associate Director, Meghan Markiewicz ...........................Supervisor Janice Sinden..........................President & CEO Operations Sara Pugh ........................Associate Supervisor Donna Hendricks...........Executive Assistant, Shane Hotle.................................Audio Engineer Danielle Freeman ...................................Manager, Bennet Goldberg, Georgina Kayes, President & CEO David Mandlowitz, Customer Service Ashley Lawler .............................................Artisans Julie Schumaker......................................Manager, Will Stowe, Ian Wells ...........Video Engineers Andrew McGlothen................Prop Carpenter Board Relations Tara Miller...........................................Event Sales & Claire Hayes, Ella Mann, Operations Director Rocco Williams ...........Managers, Box Office ACCOUNTING & FINANCE Brook Nichols ........Event Technical Director Chris Leech.......... VIP Ticketing Coordinator Scene Shop Eric Moore.............................. Technical Director Jane Williams...................................................CFAO Kate Olsen................Event Sales Coordinator Katie Spanos .......................Associate Director, Subscriber Services Albert “Stub” Allison, Robert L. Orzolek, Sara Brandenburg................................... Director, Benjamin Peitzer...........Event Technical Lead Josh Prues ....Associate Technical Directors Accounting Services Alex Taylor ..............................Lighting Designer Group Sales Jeremy Althoff, Tyler D. Clark, Michaele Davidson ....Accountant, Treasury Brooke Wyatt........Event Logistics Manager Jessica Bergin..................... Associate Director Amy Wynn Pastor, Blythe Kamin.............................................Manager, Kyle Scoggins .....................Scenic Technicians Jennifer Jeffrey....................Director, Financial Audience Development Planning & Analysis INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Louis Fernandez III.....Lead Scenic Technician Kristina Monge .......................................Specialist, Lisa Roebuck.................................Vice President Elias Lopez...........................................Coordinator Brian “Marco” Markiewicz ....Lead Carpenter Accounts Payable For security purposes, the IT team has been omitted. Maddie Young .......................................Associate, Education & Group Sales Scenic Design Jennifer Siemers ...........Director, Accounting Operations Lisa Orzolek .................................................Director Audrey Smith....................Associate Manager, Vincent Bridgers ........................Senior Analyst OFF-CENTER Kevin Nelson, Accounting Adam Busch................................. Junior Analyst Charlie Miller ...Executive Director & Curator Nicholas Renaud..................................Assistants Aaron Chavez ....................................................Lead BROADWAY & CABARET Courtney Ozaki............................ Line Producer Sound Design Ruben Cruz, Jordan Latouche.... Engineers John Ekeberg.........................Executive Director Alex Billman .......................................... Supervisor, Simone Gordon .................Associate Director PEOPLE & CULTURE Sound & Technology Administration Kyle Greufe, Sam Nolte, Laura Maresca ................................................ CPCO Lucas Swinehart..........Associate Supervisor, Ashley Brown.......................Business Manager Tara Perticone............................................Analysts Sound & Technology Alicia Bruce ............................. General Manager Brandon LeMarr ......................................Manager Equity & Organization Culture Meagan Holdeman+, Lisa Prater .........................Operations Manager Sarah Martinez ..............................Administrator Lydia Garcia .........................Executive Director Timothy Schoeberl+, Seán Kroll .............................................Coordinator Joseph Reecher ......................Senior Engineer Dimitri Soto+ .......................................Technicians Garner Galleria Theatre Cordelia Taylor ..................................Coordinator Human Resources Abel Becerra ............................Technical Director Stage Management Brian Carter.............. Senior Business Partner Michael Morales ..................................Production Jason Begin+, MARKETING & SALES Andrew Guilder ....HR & Recruiting Specialist Anna Hookana+ ...................Core Stagehands Stage Manager Angela Lakin....................................Vice President Paul Johnson..............................................Payroll & Corin Davidson, Harper Hadley, Whitney Testa..................Executive Assistant, DEVELOPMENT Compliance Manager Sage Hughes, Anne Jude, Marketing & Broadway Laurie Moore ........................... Business Partner Nick Nyquist, Malia Stoner, Jamie Clements .............................Vice President Monica Robles...............Supervisor, Mailroom Kristin Sutter.............................Stage Managers Connor Carlin......................Associate Director, Marketing Major & Planned Gifts Heidi Bosk ...........Associate Director, Press & Kinsey Scholl .................Operations Specialist Magdalena Tronina, Georgia Wood, Rain Young .....Apprentices Promotions, Broadway & Cabaret Caroline Eppers .......................................Manager, Wardrobe Corporate Partnerships Erin Bunyard.............Senior Digital Strategist THEATRE COMPANY Heidi Echtenkamp .............................Supervisor Kara Erickson-Stiemke.................Coordinator Sofia Contreras .....................Graphic Designer Administration Kaylie Groff........Manager, Grants & Reports Brenda Elliott, Charles Varin .......................Managing Director Robin Appleton^, Amber Krimbel^, Paul Koob..............Senior Graphic Designers Emily Kettlewell .................Associate Director, Madysen Hunter....................Business Admin/ Lauren LaCasse^, Lisa Parsons Wagner^, Annual Giving TJ Forlenza ............................................Copywriter Assistant Company Manager Nicole Watts^, Kami Williams^........Dressers Michael Garcia ..........Manager, Web Content Caitie Maxwell.... Senior Director, Major Gifts Alex Koszewski ................ Company Manager Wigs Claire Graves............................................... Director, Marc Ravenhill ....................Associate Director, Produced Programs Ann Marshall........................... General Manager Diana Ben-Kiki......................................Supervisor Donor Relations Abby Schmidt^, Brittany Gutierrez...................................Manager, Artistic Megan Stewart........................Manager, Events Communications Chris Coleman .......................... Artistic Director Marisa Sorce^ ..............................Wig Assistants Linda Horan...............................Project Manager Jessica Eckenrod.................Artistic Associate EDUCATION & VENUE OPERATIONS Jeff Hovorka .... Director, Sales & Marketing, Grady Soapes ....................Artistic Producer & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Glen Lucero....................................Vice President Broadway & Cabaret Casting Director Allison Watrous ................. Executive Director Emma Holst .......................................Coordinator, Leean Kim Torske.................................... Director, Merry Davis ..........................Financial Manager Stuart Barr ............................. Technical Director Communications & PR Literary Programs Jane Deegan ..................................Administrator Leslie Channell .......................................... Director, Emily Kent........Director, Insights & Strategy Costume Crafts Facilities Business Operations Lucas Kreitler .........Junior Graphic Designer Kevin Copenhaver....................................Director Jerad Ayala, Steven Bilbao, Lyndsay Corbett ...................Teaching Artist & Michael Ryan Leuthner ........................

Director, Chris Campbell.........................................Assistant Abraham Cervantes, Lindsey Cervantes, Manager, Playwriting & Bobby G Digital Marketing Carmen Molina, Judith Primero Molina, Elliot Davis ......................... Evening Registrar & Costume Shop Office Coordinator Emily Lozow .............Assoc. Director, Sales & Janet Macleod... Director/Design Associate Juan Loya Molina...............................Custodians Marketing, Broadway & Cabaret Dwight Barela, Mark Dill, John Howard, Rachel Ducat.................Executive Assistant & Meghan Anderson Doyle ....Design Associate Bryon Willingham ............................... Engineers Business Manager Kyle Malone................................Director, Design Stephanie Cooper, Michael Kimbrough....Manager, Engineering Rya Dyes .................................................Registrar & Dan McNulty.........................Marketing Analyst Amoreena Knabb, Ingrid Ludeke, On-Site Class Manager Todd Metcalf .................................Media Producer Carolyn Plemitscher ................................. Draper Brian McClain .....................Manager, Custodial Gavin Juckette ......Teaching Artist & Theatre Hannah Selwyn ....Manager, Email Marketing Patron Experience for Young Audiences Program Manager Brad Steinmeyer .............................Coordinator, House Crew Evan Gendreau .................. Associate Director Douglas Taylor+ ...................................Supervisor Broadway & Cabaret Jesús Quintana Martínez ....................... Director, Elliot Shields...............................................Manager Community Engagement Julie Whelan ...........................................Associate, James Berman+, Forest Fowler+, Kaylyn Kriaski, Leilani Lynch, Produced Programs William Loving+, Dave Mazzeno+, Timothy McCracken................Head of Acting Aaron McMullen, Stacy Norwood, Kyle Moore+, Matt Wagner+ ....Stagehands Mikayla Woods.................................Coordinator, Rick Mireles ...................................................Manager, Valerie Schaefer...............Assistant Managers Produced Programs Calli Lavarnway+, Community Engagement Nora Caley, Teresa Gould, David Saphier......Teaching Artist & Manager, Suzanne Yoe.......................Director, Content & Kelley Reznik+ .......................................Assistants Robin Lander, Myrisa Martin, Communications Lighting Design In-School Programming Selin Ozcelik, Barbara Pooler, Charlotte Talbert ......................................Librarian Ticketing & Audience Services Charles MacLeod......................................Director Wendy Quintana ..................House Managers Rachel Taylor .....Teaching Artist & Manager, Jennifer Lopez ...........................................Director Lily Bradford..............................................Assistant Safety & Security Literary Engagement & Resiliency Christina Adamoli*, D.J. Dennis*, Joseph Price+ .............Production Electrician Jodi Benavides, Justin Walvoord ....................Teaching Artist & Edmund Gurule*, Alison Orthel*, Bryan Faciane............Lead Security Officers Paint Shop Manager, Shakespeare in the Parking Lot Lane Randall*, Hayley Solano*, Calum Abeywickrema, Brian Adams, Samuel Wood.........................Teaching Artist & Sam Stump*...................Counter/Show Leads Jana Mitchell....................Charge Scenic Artist Mayte Armendariz, David Bright, Kristin Hamer MacFarlane, District Liaison Kirsten Anderson*, Scott Lix*, Tyler Edwards, Arden Jones, Melanie Rentschler .....................Scenic Artists Liz Sieroslawski*, Manuel Amaya Loera, EVENT SERVICES Greg Swan* ..................... Subscription Agents Production Gabe McNally-Nakamura, Saundra Bergman, Tamika Cox*, Mekenzie Dalton*, Jeff Gifford ...................................................Director Isabella Samaniego, Shayne Thullen, Phil Rohrbach ...........................Event Managers Zeah Edmonds*, John Fish, Jen Gray*, Julie Brou................Administrative Assistant/ Tori Witherspoon............Security Specialists Daniel Davidek, Noa Halpern, Natalie Jaramillo*, Office Manager Judy Briggs...........................................Front Desk Arias Goldanloo, Jacob Sorling, Phi Johnson-Grimes*, Noah Jungferman*, Matthew Campbell......Production Manager Quentin Crump..........................................Director Drake Watkins ..................... Event Technicians Holly Stigen*, Andrew Sullivan*, Peggy Carey................. Associate Production Samantha Egle, Cody Gocio ....Senior Sales Robert Warner*, * Member, I.A.T.S.E. Local B-7 Manager & Event Managers Joseph Williams*..........................Ticket Agents + Member, I.A.T.S.E. Local 7 ^ Member, I.A.T.S.E. Local 719 Jon Collins.....................Manager, Subscription Staff list current through December 21, 2023

APPLAUSEWORTHY EVENTS DCPA Event Services

Bring some theatricality to your next all-team meeting, annual gala, or corporate retreat and leave your guests starstruck! DCPA Event Services makes it easy, with everything from coat check to catering facilitated by our in-house professionals. Contact us today!

BOOK NOW

DENVERCENTER.ORG/VENUE-RENTALS

6 CORE VALUES. 1 DENVER CENTER.

4. CREATIVITY

AB IL

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We cultivate open, responsive, affirming relationships and partnerships for a greater collective impact.

T RI EG

3. COMMUNITY

I NT

We produce our best possible work together by engaging people with diverse perspectives, lived experiences and talents around our shared goals.

C O

2. COLLABORATION

SUST AIN

We build a respectful and empathetic culture through our active commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility.

CO L

Y IT

TION RA BO LA

1. BELONGING

BELONGING

CREATIVITY

We embrace innovation and imagination in our daily work to advance our mission.

5. INTEGRITY

We act responsibly, with honesty, accountability and transparency.

6. SUSTAINABILITY

We prioritize the wellbeing of our team, our finances and the environment to ensure our thriving future.

Learn more about what drives the DCPA, and where we’re going, at denvercenter.org/plan

PROUD SPONSOR OF DCPA EDUCATION’S HIGH SCHOOL/MIDDLE SCHOOL PLAYWRITING COMPETITION

The Aegon Transamerica Foundation is proud to support the DCPA and the brilliant programs and events it brings to life.

From Broadway tours to immersive experiences to educational programs for kids, DCPA is an integral part of Denver’s thriving artistic community — and it’s a big part of what makes our city so special.

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Transamerica employees are dedicated to helping people live their best lives, whether it’s saving and investing for the future or protecting themselves and their loved ones. They bring expertise, creativity and heart to everything they do — and to the communities where they live and work.

Transamerica’s private, nonprofit foundation is proud to do its part in helping to create a brighter and more secure future for people in our community by supporting programs that enhance their opportunities and capabilities while broadening social networks, interactions and aspirations. Through our charitable giving and employee volunteer efforts, we contribute to a wide range of worthy causes in Denver, including the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA).

We believe our longtime support of the DCPA — one of the nation’s largest nonprofit theatre organizations — helps to enliven our community and bring new perspectives that can enable Denverites see the world through another’s eyes.

The Aegon Transamerica Foundation looks forward to supporting another great year of DCPA programming.

We are proud to play a role helping DCPA make theatre accessible to all.

— MELISSA SMITH, CHAIR OF THE AEGON TRANSAMERICA FOUNDATION’S DENVER ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Transamerica employees help serve meals at Denver Children’s Home.

Transamerica employees help prepare “Bags of Fun” for children fighting long-term or life-threatening conditions.

Transamerica employees help build homes for families in need with Habitat for Humanity.

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APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

Attention to detail like no other.

Guaranteed.

CREMATIONS LIFE CELEBRATIONS CEMETERIES

FREE Planning Guide: DignityMemorial.com

Proud to support the performing arts in Denver.

8 LOCAL PROVIDERS TO SERVE YOU, INCLUDING:

Olinger

MORTUARIES & CEMETERIES

303-233-4611

Olinger Crown Hill Mortuary & Cemetery

PROUD SPONSOR OF DCPA OFF-CENTER’S CAMP CHRISTMAS

Union Pacific is proud to support the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and its commitment to embed diversity, equity and inclusion into its organization and programs.

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Union Pacific Railroad, through its Community Ties Giving Program, is proud to support DCPA Off-Center’s Camp Christmas Community Access program, ensuring equitable access to underserved populations in the Center’s surrounding communities.

Union Pacific proudly supports organizations that improve the quality of life where its employees live and work. Investing in high quality, nonprofit programs positions communities for future growth and prosperity.

Union Pacific is proud to support the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and its commitment to embed diversity, equity and inclusion into its organization and programs. Camp Christmas brings together the local community in a secular celebration to remind everyone that joining together as a community is important during the holiday season and year-round. This program meets the community’s need for an affordable, family-friendly program that showcases differences and unites us through immersive storytelling.

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

Photo: From the Hip Photography

CELEBRATE THE COLORADO SYMPHONY’S CENTENNIAL WITH THESE CONCERTS AND MORE ALL SEASON LONG!

Mozart & Now with Peter Oundjian

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2

The Wizard of Oz in Concert

Stravinsky’s The Firebird with Christopher Dragon

JAN 26-28

FEB 9-11

MAR 2-3

MAR 8-10

COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG | 303.623.7876 VIEW ALL EVENTS USING THE QR CODE

( 3 03) 86 2 -3 90 0 | r igh t t i m e . c om