March performing arts preview: Colorado’s best theater, music and dance

From “Cannibal! The Musical” in Durango to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in Denver, here are the can’t-miss March shows

By the Thirst Team

Here are some of the best events across Colorado for the next few weeks. For more happenings, check out our events calendar.

This week, we are focusing on performing arts across Colorado. Here are our top picks in Colorado theater, dance and music. Let us know what you think, and tell us what we missed.

Theater

The Durango Arts Center can’t get more Colorado than its production of “Cannibal! The Musical,” Trey Parker’s cult production about Alfred Packer, coming March 20 to 29.

The Longmont Theatre Company is staging Dan Gordon’s adaptation of the 1983 film “Terms of Endearment,” starting Friday and running on weekends through April 12.

Stories on Stage is bringing back Wild Women: Hear Us Roar, with three female actors and a musical accompanist sharing tales of independent women throughout history. The show comes to Boulder’s Nomad Playhouse on March 14 and to Su Teatro in Denver on March 15. There will also be a silent auction at both performances.

Music

Dazzle Denver is celebrating Women’s History Month and Women in Jazz Month with a series of concerts from women bandleaders and innovators. Performances include the Enion Pelta-Tiller Quartet on March 3; a Florence Price Tribute produced by Monique Brooks Roberts on March 4; the Camilla Vaitaitis Quartet on March 5; Eugenie Jones on March 6; Jane Monheit on March 14 and 15; and Lakecia Benjamin on March 25 and 26.

Denver Brass prepares for St. Patrick’s Day with Celtic Mania on March 7 and 8, with bagpipes, pipes and drums, and highland dancers.

The Colorado Chorale presents a vocal jazz concert on March 14 at the Arvada Covenant Church; and Great Choruses, including Haydn and Handel works, on May 17 at the Lakewood Cultural Center.

The Friends of Chamber Music has a busy month, with the Owls string quartet on March 1 at the Lakewood Cultural Center; Masakazu Ito on March 8 at the Clyfford Still Museum; and Le Consort, a Parisian baroque ensemble, on March 19, at Augustana Lutheran Church.  

Dance

The Newman Center hosts two diverse dance events. Cirque Kalabanté performs on March 12. The group’s performances blend circus arts with traditional African dances, and are backed with live Afro-jazz, percussion, and Guinean kora music. 

MOMIX is coming to the Newman Center on March 21 and 22, with another blend of dance and acrobatics. The contemporary dance group will bring back “Alice,” its show inspired by Lewis Carroll’s “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.”

Boulder Ballet brings “Rebels & Innovators” to the Dairy Arts Center March 6 to 8. Choreographers Amy Seiwert and Stephanie Martinez created the works with mentees Ben Needham-Wood and Ching Ching Wong. 

Colorado Ballet returns to the Ellie Caulkins Opera House March 6 to 15 with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” adapted by Tony Award-winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon.  

Wonderbound’s latest original production, “Decadent Desires,” runs tomorrow through March 8. It is set in the roaring 20s, and features live music by the Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra.

As always, please send us your events and announcements. We’re happy to share them. If they don’t fit in the Get Out of Town column, we will add them to our events calendar.