Plays, musicals and dance festivals continue all month from Pagosa Springs and Cripple Creek to Denver and Golden

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 and dance. While many arts groups have yearlong seasons from fall through spring, other festivals and theaters only bloom in the summer around Colorado. Here are a few of our favorites.

Pagosa Springs repertory shows continue all month

Some summer theater seasons are wrapping up (alas poor Colorado Shakespeare Festival), but the little-known Thingamajig Theatre season is still going strong at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts. Stephen Sondheim’s classic “Company” is open through Aug. 19. The remarkable and true post-9/11 story “Come From Away” runs through Aug. 27. And Tevye carries “Fiddler on the Roof” through its final sunset on Aug. 29.

“Dames at Sea” continues in Cripple Creek through Aug. 23

The campy and nostalgic “Dames at Sea” opened last week at Cripple Creek’s Butte Theater, and continues Thursdays to Sundays until Aug. 23. The off-Broadway cult hit musical debuted in 1966 as a parody of over-the-top 1930s movie musicals, and helped launch the career of Bernadette Peters.

Vail Dance Festival runs July 31 to Aug. 10

The diverse and world-class Vail Dance Festival runs July 31 to Aug. 10. The festival includes performances by Martha Graham Dance Company, Rennie Harris Puremovement American Street Dance Theater, Colorado Ballet, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance and many other international dance stars.

“The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals” coming to Denver Aug. 6 to 9

If you know a guy who doesn’t like musicals, maybe take him to the Bug Theatre for a cult-favorite musical about a non-fan whose town is invaded by a mysterious force that makes everyone burst into song. Singular Sensation Arts will stage six performances over four days at the small and always creative Bug Theatre in north Denver. In August, the Bug also hosts comedians, movie screenings and its long-running live variety show.

Phamaly stages world premiere Aug. 6 to 23

Phamaly Theatre Company will premiere a play that might be particularly meaningful to cast members. For more than 37 years, Phamaly has cast plays entirely of performers with all types of disabilities. Now they will stage the story of a 1977 San Francisco protest for disability rights enforcement. “504: The Musical” runs from Aug. 6 to 23 in the Killstrom Theatre in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Another world premiere opens in Golden Aug. 7

“Taco Town” is also a world premiere, coming to Miners Alley Performing Arts Center in Golden. The show, which revolves around a fast-food worker sit-in that devolves into a hostage comedy, is by Luke Sorge, the award-winning writer of “National Bohemians.” The show runs Aug. 7 to Sept. 13.

“Spamalot” gallops back to Denver Aug 11 to 23

The Denver Center is also bringing Eric Idle’s loving Monty Python tribute (or spinoff or spoof or…?) “Spamalot” back to the Buell Theatre. The show won best musical at the Tonys 21 years ago, and it is still selling out around the world. “The Sound of Music” and “Beetlejuice” also have short runs at the Buell in August.

As always, please send us your events and announcements. We’re happy to share them. If they don’t fit in the performing arts preview, we will add them to our events calendar.