Tracks is also one of the few queer bars that hosts 18+ nights, allowing LGBTQ+ folks under 21 a space to find community. With multiple rooms - each with its own theme, DJ and dance floor - it’s almost like a three-ring circus, which is great for folks who are easily bored, or for friend groups with diverse music tastes. From circuit parties to balls, theme nights, watch parties and monthly roller discos, Tracks has the space to offer it all (this venue is huge). However, it’s been a staple of queer nightlife in Denver since opening in 1980, and is still your best bet for big events with national or international headliners. to 2 a.m., Tracks is not exactly a place where you go to grab a casual beer with friends. Open Thursday through Saturday from 8 p.m. If you’re wondering what the difference is between a queer bar and a queer club, go to Tracks and find out.
So, which establishment is right for you? You don’t want to accidentally take Grandma to an underground fetish bar or end up in a food coma when you’re dressed for a night out dancing.Įach venue occupies its own little niche in queer entertainment, so here’s a guide to some of the best, and what they do best. Whether you’re in the mood for a late-night boogie session, an after-work happy hour or Sunday brunch, these five LGBTQ bars in Denver are here to provide whatever you’re craving. The extent of queer nightlife in Colorado used to be little more than a few underground nightclubs for gay men, but now the scene has expanded to include options for just about everyone. And performances from the ensemble are uniformly strong, committed to the sitcom setup and believably tender as the details of their characters are more fully revealed.Denver’s LGBTQ+ community has come a long way in the last fifty years. A dizzying-print carpet and bland sconces on textured walls are a suitable assault on the eyes (set and lighting design are by Brian Sidney Bembridge). The production, directed by Rob Ruggiero, is playful and polished. It could be provocative if the lesson weren’t so basic, and if Sammy didn’t eventually capitulate to sharing the emotional needs that are fueling the fiasco. Sammy’s open relationship becomes a point of rage for Rachel, who’s in the business of monogamy, and an occasion for Sammy to explain how gay men relate to each other differently than straight people (complete with a tutorial on anal sex). No union could ever be perfect - and what does perfect even mean? - but López still defers to the value of conformity. The 90-minute comedy, which premiered in Denver in 2018, predates the playwright’s saga about late-20th century gay Manhattanites, and demonstrates his sustained interest in the dynamics of connection amid the limitations of convention.
Unlike his two-part “ The Inheritance,” an ambitious epic for which López won a Tony Award in 2021 for best play, “Zoey’s Perfect Wedding” is ready-made and on the nose, like a trifle you might pluck off the dessert table at a function less calamitous than this one. (Rachel really ought to know better.) A bride who shrieks and sobs and retreats to the bathroom? (Don’t forget that bottle of Cuervo.) Not until it seems as if nothing more could go wrong does the play push deeper into its exploration of relationships, which does not exactly reveal new territory: friendships wane, marriages fall apart, and romance rarely resembles a fairy tale. A cringe-inducing speech from a drunk guest oversharing her personal problems? Check. Every cliché about bad weddings probably occurs during the first hour of Zoey’s.