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The 2025 Theatre Aspen Performance Apprentices rehearse “9 to 5” at the Theatre Aspen Sneak Peak on Sunday. Courtesy of Theatre Aspen
Theatre Aspen is bringing back its three-part cabaret series for the summer season.
Theatre Aspen’s new apprentice class will handle the performances and provide technical work at the Hotel Jerome once each month this summer. The shows will feature fan-favorite songs accompanied by dances from different categories.
“Hooray for Hollywood,” is first on Sunday, to be followed by “Summer Super Bowl Sunday” on July 20. The third, on Aug. 20, will be “Come Together: A Celebration of The Beatles.”
“We have found that what people really enjoy is not just great singing of Broadway and pop songs, but they really appreciate how we curate them together into these various themes,” Producing Director Jed Bernstein said Monday.
Bernstein explained that contrary to the diversity of themes in this summer’s series, sometimes there is a plan to relate all three of the performances to each other.
The first show in the series, “Hooray for Hollywood,” will be held Sunday at 6 p.m. It will feature both Oscar-winning songs that either originated as Broadway shows or later were transferred onto the Broadway stage. The parallels between Hollywood and Broadway continually fascinate Theatre Aspen, Bernstein said.
“We’re also going to take a look at the lucky losers,” he said. “You know, some of the most famous songs and some movies didn’t win. And it’s kind of amazing. ‘9 to 5,’ for example, did not win best song. And you think, Dolly Parton, my gosh. So, [playing the lucky losers] is kind of fun, too.”
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Sofia Macaluso, a 2025 Theatre Aspen performance apprentice, sings at the Theatre Aspen Sneak Peak on Sunday. Courtesy of Theatre Aspen
Some songs expected to be included are icons from films such as “A Star is Born,” “Barbie,” “Rocketman” and more.
The next show, “Summer Super Bowl Sunday,” is set twice for July 20: at noon for brunch and 6 p.m. for a dinner. The performance will be a salute to the most renowned Super Bowl halftime performances throughout the years.
Songs from The Weeknd, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and more can be expected. Bernstein alluded to the idea that some of the actual performances — not just the singing — may be mimicked too.
“Imagine if you had to produce the Super Bowl halftime show in the space of the Prospect restaurant,” Bernstein said. “That’s my clue. All the extravaganza of a Super Bowl halftime show in the middle of the Superdome in New Orleans, but down to the Prospect restaurant at the Jerome.”
The concluding performance, “Come Together: A Celebration of The Beatles” will take place at noon and 6 p.m. on Aug. 10. Due to the theater company’s previous success in performing pop-rock songs, The Beatles felt like something the audience would be interested in, he said.
The dinner performance is already sold out, and tickets are running out for that same-day performance at noon.
“... The couple of shows on Broadway that were made up of Beatles’ music, neither of them were super successful,” Bernstein said. “But that’s perhaps because they tried to impose plots on them that didn't really serve the music. We thought listening to the songs in a cabaret format would be kind of interesting for folks, which it is proving to be so far because it's very popular.”
The stars of the cabaret company — including the performative, technical and behind-the-scenes team — are all part of the 2025 Theatre Aspen Apprentice Class. There are 30 spots in the class, with eight reserved specifically for performers, making the program extremely competitive for the remaining spots in design, theater administration and education, stage management and more.
“We’re very serious about how we position this program because despite the fact that it’s so popular and we get so much interest, I don't think it’s for everybody,” Bernstein said. “The metaphor we use is that this is a teaching hospital, and the participants in the apprentice program are both learning and doing at the same time.”
He said while Theatre Aspen always looks for apprentices with expertise in their chosen areas of interest, it also chooses candidates based upon whether their professional development will be enhanced through the program.
While Theatre Aspen encourages its apprentices to go wherever their careers best take them, many apprentices return as full-time employees.
Nevada Riley, who will be the lead in the Hurst Theatre production of “Mamma Mia” this summer, was an apprentice in 2021 and spent the beginning of her career performing in the summer cabarets. She also starred in “Beetlejuice” on Broadway.
“I think a lot of folks get a lot of pleasure out of seeing people at the very onset of their careers and enjoying what that’s like,” Bernstein said.
The brunch performances will offer a two-course meal with a mimosa; ticketholders to the dinner performances will receive a three-course meal.
Tickets for the cabaret performances are available at theatreaspen.org/2025-summer-cabaret-series.