7 Can’t-Miss Colorado Cultural Happenings from 2023

Below, you’ll find seven cultural phenomena we failed to mention in our pages this year. The good news? You can still see, listen to, or read each one.

1. In January, Colorado Public Radio launched Terra Firma, a podcast that serves up calming doses of serotonin each week thanks to the pastoral musings of writer and host CMarie Fuhrman and nature clips gathered by sound recordist Jacob Job.

2. Artist Virgil Ortiz’s Revolt 1680/2180: Runners and Gliders embraces sci-fi storytelling to bring attention to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, when Indigenous tribes ousted the Spanish from northern New Mexico for more than a decade. The show runs through May 2024, a full year after its debut at History Colorado.

3. Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard, mountain goats, and Jamal Murray all make cameos in the music video for rapper Jack Harlow’s new single “Denver.” Released in April, the song is about insecurity—so we’re trying not to take that personally.

4. A young Boulder woman determined to become a nun died by suicide at 24. The Dear Alana, podcast, which wrapped up in September, examines her journals and interviews her friends and family to determine whether the Catholic Church—and conversion therapy—played a role in her death.

5. After adding to his hometown’s canon of noir with L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia, writer James Ellroy relocated to Denver. But he seems to be having difficulty leaving La-La Land behind: Published in September, his new novel, The Enchanters, takes on Marilyn Monroe, one of the City of Angels’ most bewitching and tragic idols.

6. October’s Butcher’s Crossing, a screen adaptation of University of Denver professor John Williams’ 1960 novel of the same name, features gorgeous wide shots of the Rocky Mountains. Even more captivating, however, is watching a buffalo-hunting Nicolas Cage go full Apocalypse Now in the Colorado wilderness.

7. Last year’s holiday production of Beauty and the Beast proved so popular that the Arvada Center decided to double down on the fairy tales and deck the halls with Cinderella. The show, which premiered in September and runs through December 31, updates the narrative with modern touches, including giving Cinderelly what she really wanted from her fairy godmother: an Instagram account.