{"id":2448441,"date":"2019-09-06T15:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T21:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/goss-takes-vaudeville-to-a-new-level\/"},"modified":"2019-09-12T08:49:21","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T14:49:21","slug":"goss-takes-vaudeville-to-a-new-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/goss-takes-vaudeville-to-a-new-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Goss takes vaudeville to a new level"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
John Goss with the 1918 Wurlitzer Photoplayer located above the stage of the Glenwood Vaudeville Revue.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

When John Goss first opened the Glenwood Vaudeville Revue in the city\u2019s historic Masonic Lodge in 2009, he did so \u201con a dime and a prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

By that time, Goss had already spent a decade in the Roaring Fork Valley acting in venues like the Crystal Palace and Thunder River Theatre Co., and directing and choreographing shows for Aspen Community Theatre.<\/p>\n

He and two friends began talking about opening their own theater in Glenwood, which Goss knew was \u201ca great little tourist town.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had worked in 10 or 12 different small theaters like this in tourist towns where people were looking for something fun to do, and they always did well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His friends ultimately decided to go in a different direction, but Goss held onto his dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cI scraped up 30-grand \u2014 that\u2019s everything I had \u2014 and I put it all into one summer and took a big risk,\u201d he said. \u201cIt had its real highs and its real lows and some real challenging times, but it was a very entertaining show and people were asking for more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just perform<\/p>\n

Goss grew up in Albuquerque, N.M. doing high school theater \u2014 \u201cthe only thing I was good at that I enjoyed doing,\u201d he said \u2014 and then began performing with the Albuquerque Civic Light Opera in the 2,000-seat theater on the University of New Mexico campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an amazing experience to be in such big productions with 60 to 70 actors,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery now and then I\u2019d get a good role or leading part. I was going up through the ranks there and it was a great learning experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

He enrolled at UNM, but found himself spending a lot of money on tuition to learn theater, performing and music. So he changed his career path and started auditioning for professional theater productions where he could get paid to learn theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think theater and music are things where it\u2019s not necessary to have a degree, unless you want to teach, direct or go into certain fields,\u201d Goss said. \u201cBut if you want to perform, sometimes the best thing is to just perform, and do it as much as you can and get experience and work with many people and be as versatile as you possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that realization, Goss spent the next 30 years on the \u201cmelodrama circuit,\u201d bouncing around the West and working in beautiful places.<\/p>\n

Transformation<\/p>\n

In 2013, Goss approached John Buxman, owner of the Springs Theater and asked if he was planning on continuing to show movies at the theater with the industry trending toward digital as opposed to analog formats.<\/p>\n

The two men worked out a deal, and Goss moved in six months later \u2014 transforming the theater by removing the sloped floor and installing two-tiered, dinner theater-style flooring, adding a theatrical lighting system, changing the theater\u2019s concession and office areas into a new kitchen and bar, and building dressing rooms for the performers backstage.<\/p>\n

He also bought and refurbished a rare, early 20th century Wurlitzer photoplayer piano \u2014 a player piano\/sound effects machine originally used in theaters as the audio for silent movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did all the work, put the kitchen in and paid for everything,\u201d Goss said. \u201cAnd six years later, I\u2019m slowly paying if off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Familiar is funny<\/p>\n

When Goss first opened the Vaudeville Revue, his troupe performed classic, hilarious bits, skits and songs \u2014 in the older, classic vaudeville theater style \u2014 that he had gathered through the years from other theaters where he had worked. But as the years have passed, his shows have morphed into more of a modern vaudeville style, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use the term \u2018vaudeville\u2019 loosely and we do everything from dispensary numbers to roundabout songs,\u201d he said. \u201cThe most popular song we have in the current show is about that crazy roundabout Glenwood has now. The audience just goes nuts because everyone can relate to that roundabout and how crazy it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you make it something that they\u2019re really familiar with, and you take it over the top, of course \u2014 we make it out to be this horrifying experience of trying to drive through the roundabout \u2014 its amazing the response we get from people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another popular song in the show is the \u201cTaco Bell Canon\u201d \u2014 a parody of the classical piece \u201cPachelbel\u2019s Canon\u201d \u2014 where the cast dresses up in giant taco and burrito outfits and sings different pieces in the tune of the Pachebel Canon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became one of the most popular things we ever did,\u201d Goss said.<\/p>\n

Goss writes much of the material for the shows, and said he usually takes an idea from something else or some one else and either Americanizes it, modernizes it, or changes it to work for the vaudeville.<\/p>\n

But sometimes he\u2019ll write something that is completely original.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll get an idea and say \u2018I love this theme\u2019 and sometimes the music is original,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing a show right now called the Aspen Tour Guide, and it is a true story. I used to be an Aspen tour guide \u2014 we called it the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous tour \u2014 and I gained all kinds of ridiculous questions from people and the silly things that I would do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really proud of those when the idea is original, the music is original the dialogue is original. But they are tons of work and energy to make them entertaining and to find out how they work together and how the concept works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Big productions<\/p>\n

Goss directs three vaudeville shows each year \u2014 a spring show, a summer show, and a holiday show, and three years ago he had the idea to do a Broadway musical.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a minimalized version of \u2018Sweeney Todd,\u2019 \u2014 we had an orchestra, we had 14 cast members, and we had a second stage out in the audience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, the theater was inhabited by \u201cLittle Shop of Horrors,\u201d which including an 8-foot, man-eating plant, and last year they did another full production with \u201cA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now we\u2019ve got this reputation for doing one big production show a year,\u201d Goss said. \u201cIn the past we\u2019ve done it in the fall, we called it our \u2018Fall Musical.\u2019 The problem with that is that in the fall, we\u2019re competing with Thunder River, Defiance and Aspen Community Theater.\u201d<\/p>\n

So this year, Goss is moving the theater\u2019s annual musical to February and March, and renaming it the \u201cWinter Musical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI finally got the rights to do \u201cInto The Woods,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve had a great response from a lot of talented people \u2026 Everybody\u2019s like \u2018you\u2019re doing \u2018Into The Woods?\u2019\u2019 I want to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

jbear@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Goss with the 1918 Wurlitzer Photoplayer located above the stage of the Glenwood Vaudeville Revue.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent When John Goss first opened the Glenwood Vaudeville Revue in the city\u2019s historic Masonic Lodge in 2009, he did so \u201con a dime and a prayer.\u201d By that time, Goss had already spent a decade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2448441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 07:38:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2448631,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448441\/revisions\/2448631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}