I’ve seen a lot of theater companies over the years stage “Legally Blonde, the Musical,” which was written by former Denver improv comic and now novelist Heather Hach. She earned a Tony Award nomination for writing the Broadway stage adaptation of Elle Woods’ journey from sorority girl to Harvard Law grad.

From the “I Did Not Know That” Department: It turns out the Air Force Academy has a theater company. Really. They are called the Bluebards. Really. They go all the way back to 1963. Really. And they are about to stage “Legally Blonde.” Really.

“The thing I love most about the character of Elle Woods is her imagination,” said Col. Michelle Ruehl, the show’s director and a 2003 Academy graduate. Yes, the musical is being directed by a colonel. Really.   

The Academy is offering two free (really) public performances at 7 p.m. Sunday and Monday, May 25-26. If you’re an outsider like me, though, you must register for base access in advance at usafa.edu/visitors/getting-on-base. Also: These shows sell out. Really. So it’s first-come, first served in the Arnold Hall Theater.

The Bluebards, it turns out, produce several shows annually, featuring more than 75 cadet actors and technical crew, as well as faculty, alumni and community volunteers.

I asked Hach if she had any advice for our resident service academy staging her pretty-in-pink musical. Her response? “Fly high and think pink!”

No word yet on the casting of Bruiser Woods. But I’m just guessing the Air Force’s version of the UPS guy will be just about as good as it can get.

Concert news

The Sting 3.0 Tour comes to Red Rocks for three big shows May 19, 20 and 22 … Brandi Carlisle don’t need no stinking Elton John. A third Carlisle show at Red Rocks has been added, joining the already sold-out Sept. 5-6 gigs. …

Elsewhere, Jon Batiste will play the Ford Amphitheatre in Vail on Sept. 3, and at Red Rocks on Sept. 4 …

Rolling Stone (the magazine, not the band) has announced that “Gather No Moss,” its four-city tour spotlighting forward-thinking bands, will kick off in Denver on July 26 at The Fillmore, with Mk.gee, Black Noi$e, and a guest to be announced. Tickets at livenation.com … Amy Grant also drops into the Paramount on Sept. 11, then on Sept. 14 at the Avalon Theatre in Colorado Springs … Elsewhere, a second night has been added for Jesse Welles at the Ogden Theatre on Oct. 30 … And Wyoming rodeo athlete turned country star Chancey Williams plays the Wide Open Saloon in Sedalia on June 13 …

On the comedy front, Maria Bamford is coming to Boulder Theater on Nov. 21. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday (but don’t they all?) at bouldertheater.com. … And if you like to play games, circle these dates for “Wheel of Fortune LIVE!” which is coming to the Paramount on Nov. 18 and the Pikes Peak Center in Colorado Springs on Nov. 19 as part of a 60-city national tour (with a celebrity guest host). At the live show, audience members are randomly selected to spin the famous wheel for prizes.

Bobby G Awards tonight

Reminder: The Denver Center’s 11th annual Bobby G Awards, which celebrate achievements in Colorado high-school theater, will be held tonight (May 16) at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. This year, Durango High School and Fossil Ridge High School of Fort Collins lead all schools with 12 nominations each. The complete list of nominees is posted at denvercenter.org.

The public is invited to attend the ceremony, which begins at 7 p.m. Tickets at denvercenter.org/bobbygawards.

Briefly …

This is sure to be good: “Saturday Night Live” legend Tim Meadows joins with fellow comedians Matt Walsh, Brad Morris and Joe Canale for three nights of improv at the Denver Center’s Galleria Theatre. Their task? To take a single audience suggestion and develop an entire show about it right on the spot. It’s Friday through Sunday only under the downtown arches. Info at denvercenter.org  …

Arturo Gomez, music director at KUVO for 24 years, has been named the 2025 winner of the Marian McPartland-Willis Conover Award for career achievement in broadcasting …

Denver’s former Ross-Barnum Library has a new name: The Ross-Phyllis Bigpond Library at 3570 W. 1st Ave. Bigpond, founder of the Denver Indian Family Resource Center, left a powerful legacy of service to Native families in Denver when she died in 2009 …

And finally …

The fourth graders at Murphy Creek P-8 school in Aurora on Thursday continued a longstanding rite of passage that called on them to thoroughly study a chosen historical figure or famous contemporary person, and then turn that research into a Wax Museum exhibition in the school gymnasium.

Students were instructed to hold as still as possible to create the look of a wax figure, then “come to life” whenever a passerby pressed a button, prompting them to share some interesting biographical information about themselves with their visitor. Students chose everyone from Harriet Tubman to Neil Armstrong to Cynthia Erivo to Nikola Jokic. My favorite was a gray-bearded Steven Spielberg. But the kid who chose Travis Kelce looked pretty cool, too.