{"id":26947,"date":"2024-06-26T13:46:20","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T19:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/creede-rep-opens-59th-season-with-classic-comedies\/"},"modified":"2024-06-26T19:46:20","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T19:46:20","slug":"creede-rep-opens-59th-season-with-classic-comedies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/creede-rep-opens-59th-season-with-classic-comedies\/","title":{"rendered":"Creede Rep opens 59th season with classic comedies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"From
From left: Katie Drinkard, Matthew Tyler Horn, Graham Ward, Anne Faith Butler and Julian Ibarra star in Creede Repertory Theatre\u2019s production of \u201dYoung Frankenstein.\u201c (Brooke Ashlee\/Creede Repertory Theatre)<\/span>BROOKE<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Creede Repertory Theatre will launch its 59th season over the weekend with three winning shows. If you like comedy in all its forms \u2013 farce, satire, parody and the mother of them all, a crackling comedy of manners \u2013 CRT\u2019s 2024 season is for you.<\/p>\n

Oscar Wilde\u2019s brilliant send up of Victorian manners, \u201cThe Importance of Being Earnest,\u201d begins the weekend trilogy Saturday afternoon. Wilde\u2019s hilarious mashup will be followed in the evening by Ken Ludwig\u2019s revisionist spoof of a famous Sherlock Holmes tale: \u201cBaskerville.\u201d On Sunday afternoon, \u201cYoung Frankenstein,\u201d opens to showcase Mel Brooks\u2019 goofy, idiosyncratic musical talents.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s not to like or reimagine in summer 2024?<\/p>\n

\u201cEarnest\u201d was first produced at the St. James Theatre in London way back in 1895, but there\u2019s nothing old about it. Wilde packed zingers into just about every line, and the teatime parody of English courtship and class still resonates. Key roles will be played by some of CRT\u2019s most able company members. The inimitable Christy Brandt, who is celebrating her 50th season with the company, will play the pompous Lady Bracknell. Graham Ward, another CRT stalwart, will do the honors as Jack Worthing, the bachelor who leads a double life \u201cBunburying\u201d in London with his fictional brother Earnest.<\/p>\n

\n

If you go<\/h4>\n

WHAT:<\/strong> \u201cYoung Frankenstein,\u201d \u201cBaskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery\u201d and \u201cThe Importance of Being Earnest.\u201d<\/p>\n

WHEN: <\/strong>Opening weekend: June 28. Season runs through Sept. 14.<\/p>\n

WHERE: <\/strong>Creede Repertory Theatre, 124 North Main St., Creede.<\/p>\n

TICKETS: <\/strong>Flex passes begin at $185 for four, eight and 12 tickets. Single tickets: Adults and seniors $25 and $38; students $20. Plus $3 ticketing fee.<\/p>\n

MORE INFORMATION: <\/strong>Call (719) 658-2540 or visit www.creederep.org <\/a>for schedule and ticket information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Because CRT is a repertory company, you\u2019ll see actors in a variety of other roles. Ward also plays the title character in \u201cYoung Frankenstein.\u201d Dr. Frederick Frankenstein is the grandson of Victor, the infamous fictional scientist who first appeared in Mary Shelley\u2019s legendary 1818 novel. Her story of a man playing God by bringing an assembled corpse back to life has had a long life in literature, film, the stage and this quirky musical.<\/p>\n

In 1974, Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder, his partner in comedy crime, revitalized the Frankenstein juggernaut by parodying Hollywood\u2019s craze for horror movies in the 1930s. The Brooks-Wilder layering resulted in their black-and-white film spoof featuring Wilder as the young Frankenstein. Decades later, Brooks and Thomas Meehan concocted a musical based the film. The 2007 musical was a huge hit on Broadway. The creators scaffolded all the layers of Shelley\u2019s original \u201cFrankenstein\u201d into a fresh form, and that\u2019s how some stories achieve eternal life.<\/p>\n

Playwright Ken Ludwig seems to be a favorite of CRT. The company has most recently staged two of his works: Last season\u2019s tribute to Ludwig\u2019s parents: \u201cDear Jack, Dear Louise\u201d and earlier one of his telltale comedies based on a legend: \u201cSherwood.\u201d<\/p>\n

He smartly reconfigures memorable stories into modern farces for the stage, and \u201cBaskerville\u201d falls crisply into that camp. It\u2019s Ludwig\u2019s compelling adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle\u2019s famous mystery \u201cThe Hound of the Baskervilles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Erik
Erik Sandvold, left as Sherlock Holmes, and Cameron Davis as Dr. Watson, in CRT\u2019s production of \u201cBaskerville.\u201d (Brooke Ashlee\/Creede Repertory Theatre)<\/span>BROOKE<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Like Wilde\u2019s stories, Conan Doyle\u2019s tales date back 100 years but are still evergreen and ripe for fresh interpretations.<\/p>\n

\u201cMystery and comedy have a lot in common,\u201d CRT notes in its program. \u201cLudwig sets his play in a brand of storytelling right at that intersection.\u201d<\/p>\n

In \u201cBaskerville,\u201d Ludwig takes a familiar mystery story and re-creates it in a modern form.<\/p>\n

And then CRT brings Ludwig\u2019s imagination to fruition when five company actors play 37 roles. Now, that\u2019s live theater.<\/p>\n

Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theater company stages \u2018Young Frankenstein,\u2019 \u2018The Importance of Being Earnest,\u2019 \u2018Baskerville\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,28,2401,910],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-headlines","tag-musical-theater","tag-theatre"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26947"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}