7/25/2023 0 Comments Razzle dazzle denver![]() If there had been no Annie, why would you ever take a family to Times Square in 1977?” If there had been no A Chorus Line … if there had been no 42nd Street … there would have been nothing there for people to go and see. “And that cleanup could not have happened without great shows. Live with it.’ But guys like Gerry Schoenfeld, who was president of the Shubert Organization, were already working to clean up Times Square. The various mayors’ attitude toward Broadway was, ‘Where is Broadway going to go? New Jersey? You’re stuck here in this morass. In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, nobody thought Times Square could be turned around. “Everybody talks about how it was (Mayor Rudy) Giuliani and Disney that saved Times Square,” Riedel said. RSVP FOR FREE TICKETS TO MICHAEL RIEDEL’S THURSDAY Q&A He will talk about both the plays and power plays that make up his book, which serves as both a history and exposé of how theatre not only saved itself, but, in large part he believes, saved the city of New York. 15) for what promises to be a fiery discussion and Q&A about his newly released debut book, Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway. Riedel will bring his colorful stories to the Denver Center on Thursday (Oct. Riedel’s stranger-than-fiction real-life story starts with the then-new Columbia graduate’s plans for becoming a lawyer getting derailed when he was offered a job writing for TheatreWeek Magazine – when he was at a kegger. “When shows are disasters,” he said, “I am the first one to get out my spade and start digging their graves.” But he is also a tireless champion for shows he has liked, such as The Lion King, Mamma Mia and Spring Awakening. While most New York theatre writers focus on what is happening onstage, Riedel has relentlessly chronicled all of the off-stage shenanigans for the New York Daily News and New York Post. Because Garth went to jail, and I’m enjoying a glass of Chablis with my oysters right now.” “I had a great time torturing Garth Drabinsky,” said Riedel. Or how about controversial Canadian producer Garth Drabinsky, who in 2009 was convicted and sentenced to prison for fraud and forgery: ![]() “I have a nose for things that smell badly, and from the moment I met him, Mitchell set my nose twitching. For a time, Maxwell ran Denver’s New Civic Theatre (now the Su Teatro Performing Arts Center), where he prepared Brooklyn The Musical for its Broadway run in 2004: Take, for example, what Riedel has to say about controversial producer Mitchell Maxwell. The theatre elite have both demanded and dreaded his attention. Acting as the proudly opinionated moral conscience of Broadway, he has never minced words when it has come to rooting out those he has perceived to be crooks. Riedel’s oversight has spanned gossip to hard-hitting investigative journalism. The Buell is located in the Denver Performing Arts Center, 14th and Curtis streets.įor more ways to rock the night and kill the day, visit /calendar.In the history of Broadway, there have been few characters onstage as colorful and controversial as Michael Riedel, the self-made journalist whose skewering of Broadway gypsies, scamps and thieves in the New York dailies has made him one of the most feared and revered theatre personalities of the past quarter-century. Here's how to get it: For tickets, $20 to $105, go directly to the Denver Center website or pick up the phone and ring 30. MacLeod and Michelle DeJean bring brass and sparkle to the roles of Velma and Roxie, from the opening strains of "All That Jazz" to their sassy closing duo. If you've seen the movie, cast members Tom Wopat and Roz Ryan might leave you hankering for Richard Gere and the fabulous Queen Latifah as Billy Flynn and Matron "MaMa" Morton. The high-kicking Bob Fosse/Kander and Ebb touring musical slunk into town yesterday for a quickie run (nightly though February 8), and I have to tell you, the dancing is hot! The show, with its slinky, rubber-boned choreography by famous Fosse muse Ann Reinking, is sexy, sizzling and a long-legged eyeful from start to finish. When's the last time you saw a musical that stood right up, kicked its gams in your face and screamed, "Broadway!" to the rafters? When I saw Chicago last night at the Buell Theatre, I thought I'd died and gone to the Great White Way, clutching a top hat and singing to the balcony.
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