We had an evening of opening nights last night here in downtown Denver. After dinner at the new Ocean Prime on their second evening of being open to the public, we walked down 15th Street to see “The Catch” on its opening night at the Space Theatre in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
We arrived at 1465 Larimer Street on foot in time to hear something like a baseball crowd cheering upstairs. The maître d’ sheepishly explained that it was the pre-shift meeting of the staff. So they were psyched, and our waiter, Cameron, provided top-notch service with a certain grace and confidence. He recommended a tower of seafood appetizers to start, and it arrived shrouded in cold smoke because of a piece of dry ice hidden in the display. This added a flavor of mystery to the fresh and delicious crab legs, oysters, and shrimp.
“The Catch” is potent theater with strong acting and lots of laughs amidst its dark portrayal of the sometimes tragic limits of positive thinking. A guy loses everything in the dot.com bubble and decides to regain his fortune by catching the record-breaking homerun ball to be hit by a character resembling Barry Bonds. There is a crusty father visiting, who hates California — this plays well with a Colorado audience — a wise and discouraged soon-to-be-ex-wife, and another guy who happens to come up with the baseball without ever wanting it. The play runs through February 26th, and if you’re in Denver I hope you’ll check it out.
I also like the lively video promo for the play that I’ve embedded in this post above (not viewable on your Kindle – sorry about that). Something as simple as the images of the women painting lines on the stage makes you realize the incredible amount of work that goes into staging a high-quality play.
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