The first thing to understand about the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ interactive “Monopoly Lifesized Travel Edition” production is that the strategies usually deployed during the board game will not earn a victory here.

As a lifelong Monopoly player, I grew up loving real estate and later covered it for years at the Denver Business Journal. The popular Parker Brothers board game first published in 1935 is engaging and a wonderful blend of luck, strategy and wheeling-dealing trades.

It does tend to bring out my competitive nature — perhaps too much, which is why my wife Clare declines to play when my adult daughters and their significant others and I break out the board.

But she joined daughter Brittany, her husband Shane, and I for the experience on a recent Friday at the DCPA’s Off-Center at Broadway Park production.

It’s the London-based production’s first foray into the U.S. market and was just extended through March 9.

The facility is the first draw, brightly lit in the former Ace Hardware building at 407 S. Broadway (which technically is almost two blocks west of Broadway). The familiar Monopoly logos and Mr. Moneybags welcome you to the game site.

The merch stand includes a wide variety of the board games for sale — from Barbie to Elf to The Beatles to a juniors’ edition of Paw Patrol — as well as coffee mugs, bags and plushies.

Peak Beverage’s Jordan and Greg welcomed us to the Top Hat Bar, where we enjoyed pre-event beverages. Jordan makes a mean rye whisky Manhattan. Players should be warned not to imbibe too much, as everyone’s wits will be required to succeed.

It starts when the four teams assemble. Some groups of six all know each other, but it’s often three couples, families of four or strangers. Attendee Kathy issues our first task: Line up shortest to tallest (immediately separating me from Clare). The anticipation builds as we wind the colorful hallways painted with property cards and signs with advice like “Go with the cashflow” and “Roll with it” (good advice for life, really).

Participants read the rules highlighted on a giant screen in one room before entering the board room. Each team is assigned a token familiar to players — top hat, race car and, for our team, Scottie Dog. While players get to walk the board at first, the rest of the game is moved by performers with token hats. The game master, played by Larry Mitchell, asks the teams to select a leader, banker, dice roller and property manager — everyone has a role.

Two team reps roll huge foam dice as the token actor moves to the corresponding space like Park Place, Pennsylvania, Jail, etc. Teams must duck into a door behind the property and solve the escape-room like puzzles to earn the property. Our team crushed it, quickly getting St. Charles, Pennsylvania and Oriental. When the game master offered us the choice of earning cash, or buying a house or hotel, team members Dan and Rachel of Denver and Quentin and Claire of Aurora, Clare and I quickly agreed on taking houses and hotels.

Turns out we chose poorly. Because the game length is limited to a little more than a hour, the team that got the most cash ended up beating the property-rich teams. Daughter Brittany and son-in-law Shane relished finishing higher than our team, too. 

But everyone seemed to have a good time, with short bursts of music and dancing between turns and Mitchell keeping track of money, chance cards and game flow. The utilities had a revenge twist as Electric Company or Water Works owners could cut the supply to property owners, depriving them of rent. Landing on Go was a thrill, too, as two players (one at a time) get to enter a cash-grab booth filled with Monopoly money. Since my shirt had a front pocket, I volunteered. It was more challenging than it looks but a thrill.

Winners get a plate of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and a picture with a big “winners” certificate.

Off-Center Executive Director and Curator Charlie Miller said DCPA has been using Off-Center as a “theatrical test kitchen” since 2010. The organization got access to the 407 S. Broadway building in 2024 and have a two-year lease on it.

“It’s grown to a signature programming line,” Miller said via email. “Off-Center is credited as bringing immersive theatre to Denver (in 2016) and helping make our city an international hub for immersive art and entertainment.”

The ample free parking is a draw, as are the bars, restaurants and live music on the popular South Broadway strip just east of the venue. 

Miller said players often return so they can play more of the challenge rooms, as well as bringing other friends and family to enjoy the experience. 

Standard tickets are around $60 each, with full game buyouts available for up to 24 players. It’s open Tuesdays through Sundays.

The best thing about Monopoly Lifesized? No one goes bankrupt.