No one wants to hear it, but COVID is back. Not that it ever went away. But while science has curbed its deadliness, the virus is again surging, and it is again wreaking havoc on local performing arts organizations.

Public health officials, including infectious disease experts, are seeing a surge of COVID, flu and RSV cases as we enter the holiday season. Just in the past week, for reasons ranging from illness to injury, stage performances were canceled by the DCPA Theatre Company, Curious Theatre and OpenStage of Fort Collins.

The DCPA canceled two performances of its hit play “Clyde’s” – the story of three formerly incarcerated people who work in the kitchen of a busy roadside sandwich shop.

Because the Saturday matinee had to be canceled just 30 minutes before curtain time, the Denver Center not only refunded the full ticket price but paid for affected audience members’ parking as well.

Because “Clyde’s” is nearly sold out for the remainder of its run (it closes Sunday), there was not enough available ticket inventory left to move affected patrons into other performances.

Up north, the venerable OpenStage Theatre canceled its Friday night performance of the Denver Center-born play “The Book of Will,” which imagines how Shakespeare’s canon came to be published and preserved after his death – also citing illness within the cast. The company is offering $15 tickets for its two remaining Friday performances – Nov. 24 and Dec. 1 – to those who use the code FRIDAY15 at openstage.com.

Meanwhile, Curious Theatre, located nearby in the Golden Triangle, canceled all four of last week’s performances of “Letters of Suresh” “out of the utmost regard for the health and safety of patrons, cast and crew.”

Because “Letters of Suresh,” Rajiv Joseph’s poetic intersection of four souls through a series of letters, runs through Dec. 9, the nimble Curious box office was able to move hundreds of affected ticket-buyers to other performances and only had to issue about 20 refunds. Curious has also added an additional performance on its closing Sunday evening (Dec. 9) to accommodate all the shifting schedules.

Artistic Director Jada Suzanne Dixon praised her small box office team for being “really agile” in minimizing the impact of the cancellations, both on patrons and the company’s bottom line.

Still, at this precarious time in the economic lives of all arts organizations, any disruption of revenue can have far-reaching effects. Curious, which is also losing a performance tonight because no one performs on Thanksgiving –  is countering that possibility by launching a “Holiday Flash Weekend” promotion – anyone who comes to see “Letters of Suresh” this weekend only – that’s Friday or Saturday night, or the Sunday matinee – will get 50 percent off when using the promo code GOBBLE, either by calling 303-623-0524 or going to curioustheatre.org.

“We at Curious are still feeling – as are all theater companies both locally and nationally – the aftereffects  of the pandemic,” said Dixon. “That’s both in terms of dollars, and concern for health and safety. As we continue to make great art that challenges us and makes us laugh and makes us feel, we continue to need people to come to the theater, not only to see our shows but also to recommend us to family and friends.”

Mandy Moore back in national spotlight

Much of the credit for the success of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour goes to her choreographer-in-chief, Colorado’s own Mandy Moore. On Tuesday night, the four-time Emmy Award-winner and Summit County High School graduate was in the national spotlight for her work.

An entire episode of “Dancing With the Stars” was themed “A Celebration of Taylor Swift,” with Moore as the guest judge. It was a homecoming for Moore, who worked as a choreographer on the show from 2015-17. Moore also created dance routines for the movies “La La Land,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Babylon.” On Tuesday, her sister, Thunder River Theatre Company (of Carbondale) Artistic Director Missy Moore, was in the studio audience, as well as her dad, Henry Award-winning local actor Bob Moore.

A sad but Majestyk ending …

Fans of the hilariously rocktastic 1970s tribute band Mr. Majestyk’s 8-Track Revival, fronted by acclaimed and formerly clean-cut local-actor-turned-longhair Mark Devine, will not be pleased to read this: After more than 10 years of time-traveling music, the band has announced its final show will be Nov. 25 at The Buffalo Rose – and the blowout is already way sold out.

“It’s been an incredible ride, and we cannot begin to thank every one of our amazing fans, friends and family enough for coming out to see and hear us over the years,” said Devine.

Briefly …

Plan ahead: The Denver Art Museum will welcome “Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak” for the 2024 holiday season, running Oct. 13, 2024, through Feb. 17, 2025, in the museum’s Hamilton Building. Sendak is best known for “Where the Wild Things Are,” but he also designed theater sets and collaborated on films. The exhibit will include an array of objects, drawings, paintings and mockups. Info at denverartmuseum.org …

Castle View High School alumna Jenna Bainbridge will make her national TV debut on Tuesday (Nov. 28) when she appears on an episode of the NBC drama “Found” titled “Missing While Scamming.” Last year, Bainbridge originated the role of a wheelchair user in the world-premiere off-Broadway musical “Suffs” in New York. Growing up, she appeared in many productions with Denver’s disability-affirmative Phamaly Theatre Company …

Wednesday (Nov. 29) is the 159th anniversary of the start of the Sand Creek Massacre on the Eastern Plains. Boulder’s Motus Theatre is inviting anyone with an interest to watch a video of the company’s award-winning founding performance of “Rocks Karma Arrows,” which focuses on how the massacre and its aftermath are woven into the founding of Boulder. It’s free to watch at motustheatre.org …

Central City Opera’s 92nd summer festival season will consist of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta “The Pirates of Penzance,” Puccini’s “The Girl of the Golden West” and Kurt Weill’s “Street Scene” next June 29-Aug. 4. Until April 1, your only way to buy is to subscribe at 303-292-6700 or centralcityopera.org.

And finally …

In October, we told you about an unexpected problem at the Denver Center. It’s homegrown theater company was facing a shortage of volunteer ushers – the kindly bow-tied docents who help patrons find their seats in exchange for a free seat of their own. Just a few weeks ago, the DCPA Theatre Company found itself short of about 100 volunteers. So we, among many others, put out the call for reinforcements.

My first guess was that these selfless stewards are probably getting fed up with widespread audience incivility that seems to have settled in since the pandemic. But not so much.

“The DCPA was thrilled by the overwhelming response to our call for volunteers,” said Communications Manager Brittany Gutierrez, who added the Denver Center is back up to its normal average of 450 ushers, tour ambassadors, library assistants, fundraiser volunteers and trustees.