Four of the most impressive years by members of the Colorado theater community were accomplished by two sets of brothers.

Matthew Dailey, who has been performing on area stages since he was just a wee Denver boy, came into his own as a director and choreographer with a knockout production of “Jersey Boys” for the Littleton Town Hall Arts Center. And at a time when available performing venues are quickly drying up, his sibling, Chris Gottlieb, made a very different but equally significant contribution of his own by reimagining the Denver Improv comedy club he manages at Northfield to accommodate cabaret evenings and its first fully staged theatrical production.

Meanwhile, Marco Alberto Robinson and his younger bro, Christian Ray Robinson, both had breakout acting years on stages from Arvada to Colorado Springs that are culminating right now in a Dickensian-worthy (don’t say Oliver!) twist, with both again performing together in the DCPA Theatre Company’s “A Christmas Carol.”

And Dailey is performing just a few hundred feet away from them at the Garner Galleria Theatre in select performances of Denver Center Attractions’ homegrown “Gutenberg, the Musical.” 

Matt and Chris

Matt Dailey and Chris Gottlieb (himself also a drummer) come from a performing family. Mother Mary Dailey has been a music director and educator for 40 years. Their father, Phil Gottlieb, performed on Broadway, danced with Ann-Margret in Las Vegas and for two years played Penny Marshall’s boyfriend on “Laverne & Shirley.”

Phil’s sudden death in 2009 at age 56 was a gut-punch to the entire Colorado theater community. All four in the family were performing in a production of “The Fantasticks” at the Breckenridge Backstage Theatre at the time.

Phil’s boys were making their father proud then. And they’re most definitely making him proud now, Mary Dailey said. Especially given Matt’s breakthrough, triple-threat performance as Bobby Child in The Candlelight Dinner Playhouse’s “Crazy for You.” Bobby is one of the most demanding roles in the musical-theater canon, requiring a wide variety of dance styles, physical comedy and romance. And, oh yeah: Vocal chops.

“I just think getting to see an actor of Matthew’s talent and caliber play what he has always said was his dream role – and watching the work ethic that he put into it, song after song, dance after dance – was really exciting to watch,” his mother said.

“But I am just so proud of both my sons, who have each excelled in their own unique ways. Christopher has taken his Denver Improv club in directions that have ever been tried before, and that required redesigning his stage and upping the quality of the lights so his venue could be used in new ways. And, as a mother, I also appreciate that he uses his club to look out for area nonprofits like the Denver Actors Fund.”

Because of Gottlieb’s foresight, Beehive Productions had a venue to launch its inaugural production of “The Rocky Horror Show,” which was staged midweek so the comedy club could continue to have weekend headliners. Otherwise, Webb said, the show never happens.

“Chris does have a vision, and he will fight for that vision,” she said. “He thinks outside the box. Allowing ‘Rocky’ to be staged at a comedy club when I’m sure his corporate bosses were like, ‘What are you doing?’ took guts. But he stood by his decision. There’s a lot to be said for that kind of dogged determination.”

Matt Dailey brought a wealth of personal experience to his directing debut at Town Hall, where he often performed as a teenager. Dailey logged nearly 1,000 performances with the Broadway touring production of “Jersey Boys” before the pandemic brought him home to Colorado, where he has carved out a balanced life as a highly sought actor, director and choreographer – while making a livable wage as a newly licensed Realtor.

The boys, both grads of Arapahoe High School, are now in their 30s but, Jersey or otherwise, they will always be “boys” to their mother.

“Phil and I raised the boys in the arts, and the thing that makes me most happy is to see both their talent and their appreciation for the arts coming full circle,” said Mary, who made her own mark in 2024 as the music director a huge production of “Legally Blonde” at the PACE Center, and launching her own annual fundraiser for the Denver Actors Fund. (It’s called PAWS for Applause, it’s at her son’s club (naturally), and it returns Feb. 10).

“But I think Phil would be particularly over the moon with Matt’s performance in ‘Crazy for You,’” she said. “I think it’s the best dancing he’s ever done. And Phil having been a dancer – he would have totally appreciated the ability Matt showed in that performance.”

Marco and Christian

Marco Alberto Robinson has been steadily employed Colorado stage actor for the past decade, culminating in 2023 with his starring role in the DCPA Theatre Company’s “The 39 Steps.” But his wife, 2023 True West Award winner Adriane Leigh Robinson, calls 2024 “his range-y year.”

Robinson captured lighting in a bottle when he was cast opposite Anne Terze-Schwarz in the Arvada Center’s regional premiere of “Waitress,” a potentially problematic story that thoroughly won over audiences largely on the strength of its two lead actors.

Robinson played Dr. Pomatter, a gynecologist who offers a young woman an escape from her abusive marriage. He was praised for taking a quirky approach to a rather dicey ethical relationship. Alex Miller, editor of onstagecolorado.com, wrote, “Robinson is a hoot as the awkward, confused doc who’s highly aware that everything he’s doing with Jenna is stupid and wrong.” Robinson’s wife agrees.

“Marco was funnier than anyone I’ve ever seen in that part,” she said. “Knowing how adorably awkward he is at home, to see him put all of that ‘Michael Scott’ (from ‘The Office’) into the part was frickin’ hilarious to me. It was perfection.” 

The Brothers Robinson, who grew up in Colorado Springs and attended Pine Creek High School, are separated by three years, yet remain an uncommonly close band of brothers. “Christian really idolized Marco growing up and followed him in the same career path, so to see them performing together now as peers is really lovely,” said Adriane, who lived with both brothers through their shared years at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.

“Even though they look similar to the eye, and even though they still call each other up and play Mario Kart online – even though they live 20 minutes apart – they are vastly different people in real life,” she said. “Christian has all this energy and buoyancy, while Marco got all the … I’ll say stoicism and deep caring.”

Christian showed enormous range in 2024, first as Mark in a big production of “Rent” at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, then starring in an offbeat modern (yet period) Sherlock Holmes takeoff called “The Adventure of the Elusive Ear” at Miners Alley Playhouse in Golden.

“Christian will willingly try anything and everything in his pursuit to be true to his character,” said 2023 True West Award winner Marisa D. Hébert, his director for “Rent.” “He is honest and open with what he brings as himself and into the rehearsal room. He is a  pure joy to create with.

Marco Alberto Robinson

• Frank Churchill/Robert Martin, “Emma,” DCPA Theatre Company

• Dr. Pomatter, “Waitress,” Arvada Center

• Young Ebenezer/Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, “A Christmas Carol,” DCPA Theatre Company

Christian Ray Robinson

• Mark, “Rent,” Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College

• Holmes, “Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear,” Miners Alley Playhouse

• Topper, “A Christmas Carol,” DCPA Theatre Company

Matthew Dailey

• Bobby Child, Crazy for You, The Candlelight

• Swing: “Gutenberg,” Denver Center Attractions

• Director and Choreographer: “Jersey Boys,” Town Hall Arts Center

• Choreographer: “The Rocky Horror Musical,” Beehive Productions  

• Choreographer: “Scrooge, The Musical,” The Candlelight

Chris Gottlieb

• General Manager, Denver Improv Comedy Club – venue for “PAWS for Applause” benefit and Beehive Productions’ “The Rocky Horror Show”

Note: The True West Awards, now in their 24th year, began as the Denver Post Ovation Awards in 2001. Denver Gazette Senior Arts Journalist John Moore celebrates the Colorado theater community by revisiting 30 good stories from the past year without categories or nominations.

Unsung hero of the day

If you’ve ever attended a performance at Wonderbound. Or the Denver Fringe Festival. Or just about any other grassroots arts organization, chances are good you were met by Esther Overman Varney at the door. She is considered the “superest” of super volunteers, even as she balances her own busy life as the parent of a child with a disability. She leads tours of the Denver Performing Arts Complex, Denver Public Art, the Denver Art Museum and Clyfford Still Museum.

“Esther is the most on-top-of-it arts patron, and an incredibly generous volunteer,” said Christine Woods, a director at Immersive Denver.” She sees more shows locally than anyone I know and is such a generous and positive force for the arts.”