[/media-credit]Robert Garner, left, with Chuck Morris, president of AEG Rocky Mountain, at an event in June, 2012.
Word of theater producer Robert Garner’s death Thursday got eclipsed by the immeasurably sad news of the shootings at a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora. Garner, 80, died at his home after a brief illness.
But our silence has come to an end. Here’s a peek at Joanne Davidson’s obit for the man who helped make Denver a stop — and better, a starting point — for national tours of Broadway shows:
“(Garner’s) showbiz career was launched in 1961 when he served as local producer for a one-week run of the musical “Fiorello!” …As he told former Denver Post columnist Bill Husted in 2011, “I thought: ‘This isn’t a bad gig,’ and I never looked back.”
Tuesday morning, I came into the office to find an email from theater aficionado Randy Wren. It’s fairly brief, so I’m running it in its entirety. The note captures Coloradans love of theater and honors a man who helped stir that passion.
“It was the last time, I will ever see Robert Garner. I didn’t know it. I was dashing to the Teller House Men’s Room, Sunday, July 8, at intermission, in Central City. ( Oklahoma was playing. ) Coming out, of the Orchestra Door, was Bob Garner, on the arm of Randy Weeks. I was in a hurry, and just shouted, Hey Bob! Hey Randy! Little knowing, that would be the last time I would ever see Robert Garner.
I met Robert Garner, while I was working in Group Sales, at what is now called The Garner Galleria Theater. It was then StageWest, and I was having lunch, with our Marketing Director, Thomas Hardy, at the Theater Cafe. When Thomas Hardy introduced us, I told Mr. Garner, he was much younger than I had imagined. The picture of Springtime, with his trademark Nantucket Sweater tied around his shoulders looking preppy, in all those Palm Beach pastels. Robert Garner was Mr. ShowBusiness. No two ways about it.
How ironic, because, when I went up to Central City to see Oklahoma again ( yes, it was that good… ), I came home, and saw that Bill Husted had posted Robert Garner’s death on Facebook. That barely predated the awful theater shootings in Aurora. Spooky. Garner had an incredible spirit! He was one powerful personality!
There was only one Bob Garner. The Swell, and Wonderful Man, Robert Garner knew the in’s and out’s of theater — New York Theater — better than any Denver personality, ever.”