Denver Post owner Helen Bonfils and Broadway producer Donald Seawell started the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in the 1960s. Over the last several decades, staff continues the two’s legacy, creating professional theatre at Denver Performing Arts Complex with classic and world premiere Theatre Company performances and Broadway shows. Check out Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ 2022 lineup:
Broadway Tours
Since 1977 when the Denver Center for the Performing Arts put on Hello, Dolly and several other shows, the organization has brought at least six shows a year, and sometimes three or four times that many, to Denver before or after their run in New York.
Starting November 18, the center is putting on 30 shows through 2022, including classics like "Cats," "Jersey Boys," "Moulin Rouge," "Riverdance" and "Tootsie."
Hadestown
August 30 - September 11
An amalgamation of underworld myths, “Hadestown'' follows Orpheus and Eurydice, along with Hades and his wife Persephone, into Greek folklore’s version of hell. Though Orpheus proposes to Eurydice in the land of the living, Hades soon lures her into the underworld, forcing Orpheus to visit Hadestown and make a deal to save his bride-to-be. In the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Buell Theatre, actors navigate themes of industry versus nature, doubt against faith, fear and love.
Come From Away
October 4 - 9
Set during the week following the 9/11 attacks, this play tells the true story of some of the 7,000 stranded passengers who spent time in a small town in Newfoundland, Canada when 38 planes were ordered to land there after the trade center’s collapse. As travelers meet the town’s residents, tensions run high during the infamous tragedy’s immediate aftermath before survivors learn to trust one another, turning to new friends during such a difficult time.
Ain’t Too Proud—The Life and Times of the Temptations
October 25 - November 6
This new Broadway hit follows quintet The Temptations’ musical journey, from Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and the personal and political conflicts of brotherhood and loyalty that came along for the ride. Including soulful dancing and smooth harmonies to their classic songs “My Girl,” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” among others, The Temptations’ legacy lives on through this production.
Theatre Company Productions
Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
January 7 - March 6
An adaptation of Edward Albee’s 1963 play, this production runs in the center’s newly renovated Singleton Theatre. The story follows jaded couple George and Martha, who invite lovebirds Honey and Nick over for a few drinks, and slowly devolves as the evening continues with conversations on their complicated lives and the frustrations of marriage.
Rattlesnake Kate
February 4 - March 13
Rattlesnake Kate graces the Wolf Theatre stage as a ruthless fighter, battling 140 of the reptiles to save her son’s life near Greeley, Colorado. The true story, co-written by playwright Karen Hartmen and Neyla Pekarek, former member of folk-rock band The Lumineers, follows Kate Slaughterback becoming a global sensation and her journey fighting for love and equality.
In the Upper Room
February 11 - March 13
Based in the 1970s, this play follows the Berrys, a multi-generational, Black family living in one house set in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Kilstrom Theatre. When matriarch Rose’s superstitions and secrets become too much for the aunties and granddaughters, they plan to leave home and start again, possibly losing their close familial ties in the process while navigating loyalty and colorism.
