The second-ever iteration of Theatre Aspen’s Solo Flights festival will bring audiences in on the ground floor with a series of developmental one-person shows that focus characters and storytelling, according to the festival’s organizers.
Briefs: Aspen nonprofits seek volunteers; Theatre Aspen and AMFS events on tap aspentimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from aspentimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Special to The Aspen Times
Kalonjee Gallimore catches big air in front of the cast of Theatre Aspen s Rock of Ages during a rehearsal for the 1980s jukebox musical.
Timothy Bates Photography/Courtesy photo IF YOU GO …
Where: Hurst Theatre, Rio Grande Park
When: Through Aug. 21
Tickets: theatreaspen.org
Jukebox musicals such as “Rock of Ages,” now running at Theatre Aspen through Aug. 21, rely heavily on audience participation for their success. Character, plot and intricate lyrical score the fulcrum around which the traditional musical turns is simply not the point. Nostalgia, rather, is. The audience’s collective memory of a different time and place, a youthful, often more innocent-seeming period is the glue that holds the jukebox musical together. Familiarity trumps originality every time.
Photos: First Look at ROCK OF AGES at Theatre Aspen broadwayworld.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from broadwayworld.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Timothy Bates Photography/Courtesy photo IF YOU GO…
When: July 30-Aug. 2
Where: Hurst Theatre, 470 Rio Grande Plaza, Aspen
Tickets and more information: Online at theatreaspen.org, over the phone at 970-300-4474 and in-person at the Hurst Theatre box office.
The creative team behind Theatre Aspen’s “Rock of Ages” didn’t hesitate to embrace the jukebox musical’s 1980s aesthetic with the second mainstage show of the summer, which debuts at the Hurst Theatre Friday night.
“I will say this: there’s a lot of hair-whipping,” choreographer Abbey O’Brien said.
That’s not just a symptom of the year in which the musical takes place 1987, with a lineup that includes hits of the decade like “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “The Final Countdown.”