The Next Caveman? Lows and Highs Explored in Solo Show, Addicted, in Denver Aug. 6-25 | Playbill

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News The Next Caveman? Lows and Highs Explored in Solo Show, Addicted, in Denver Aug. 6-25 Denver Center Attractions, no stranger to new works as it looks ahead to mounting I Love a Piano and Dorian in August and September, will workshop and produce the new solo show, Mark Lundholm's Addicted: A Comedy of Substance, at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Aug. 6-25.

Denver Center Attractions, no stranger to new works as it looks ahead to mounting I Love a Piano and Dorian in August and September, will workshop and produce the new solo show, Mark Lundholm's Addicted: A Comedy of Substance, at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Aug. 6-25.

Normally, Denver Center Attractions is known for bringing big national tours of plays and musicals into the Auditorium and Buell Theatres within the DCPA (and producing in a smaller cabaret space there). Now, DCA will offer the limited engagement of writer-comedian Mark Lundholm's Addicted in the intimate Ricketson Theatre, a space usually used by the DCPA's Tony Award-honored not-for-profit resident troupe, Denver Center Theatre Company. The company is dark in summer, allowing Denver Center Attractions additional venue options.

Lundholm's work has been championed by Rob Becker, known for his solo show about men and women, Defending the Caveman. Becker brought Lundholm's still-germinating work to the attention of Denver Center Attractions president Randy Weeks.

(An observer can't help but wonder: Is Addicted the next theatrical sensation along the lines of the populist Broadway and touring comedy Defending the Caveman?)

The piece is based on Lundholm's stand-up comedy. Billed as fiercely funny and severely dysfunctional, and recommended for adults, the dawning Addicted takes "a look at one man's journey from the depths of addiction and self centeredness to a victorious return to productive society member." It's called emotionally dark, brutally honest and "seriously hilarious." According to the announcement of the show, "While serving time, Lundholm volunteered for a variety show and ended up performing stand-up comedy in jails, treatment centers and halfway houses where he spent time because of his own addictions. Rob Becker (the comedian and star of the solo show, Defending the Caveman) saw Lundholm's work and asked him to write a theatrical piece about his life and his views on addiction."

Addicted marks the third recently-announced production produced by Denver Center Attractions in the 2002 season. A revised version of an earlier regional revue, I Love A Piano, directed and co-created by Ray Roderick, opens in August at the Auditorium (and will likely tour); the show is a celebration of the music and lyrics of Irving Berlin. In September, Dorian, a contemporary musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, bows at the Buell, with DCA as co-producer. Denver Center Attractions' cabaret production of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change is currently in its third year at The Garner Galleria Theatre in the DCPA.

Addicted is an added attraction in Denver Center Attractions' 2002 season. The first high-profile Broadway tour to come into DCPA in 2002-03 will be the road debut of The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, starring Valerie Harper, Sept. 10-15, at the Auditorium. A run of The Vagina Monologues, with Margot Kidder making an appearance, plays another borrowed DCTC space, The Stage Theatre, July 30-Aug. 18.

Previews of Addicted play Aug 6-11 (all tickets $20). Official opening is Aug. 14. Tickets top at $28 during the regular run. Tickets go on sale July 28.

Denver Center is located at 14th and Curtis Streets.

To charge by phone, call Denver Center Ticket Services at (303) 893-4100 or TicketsWest at (866) 464-2626. Outside Denver, call (800) 641-1222. For more information, visit denvercenter.orgt.

— By Kenneth Jones

 
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