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Henry VIII. Shakespeare's Henry VIII is not the licentious, swollen-bellied, wife-dispatching monster we know from Hollywood. When we meet this Henry, he's relatively young, under the thumb of the scheming Cardinal Wolsey, and still consorting with his first wife, Katharine of Aragon. As the action proceeds, he'll divorce Katharine for Anne Bullen (Boleyn), learn to see through Wolsey's wiles, and gather the confidence, power and cruelty that characterized the real-life Henry's reign. This play, which scholars believe is the result of a collaboration between Shakespeare and John Fletcher, doesn't fit easily into the categories to which we usually assign Shakespeare's works, and it's rarely performed. Which is a good thing, judging from this production, one of the most misconceived I've seen in ages. The set design is rudimentary, neither eye-pleasing nor evocative, and the costumes are really troubling. Their materials look cheap; the lines are ghastly. Everyone wears what appear to be canvas boat shoes under tights. White is one of those colors that pulls the eye, and you can't help noticing who's toeing in, who out, who walks gracefully and who like a bouncy college freshman. Director James Symons has peopled the stage with many actors who seem unready for prime time, and some of these actors perform pivotal roles. Often the scenes play like parodies of Shakespeare, with actors gabbling incomprehensibly at each other, never seeming to consider the meaning of the words flying out of their mouths. Presented by the Colorado Shakespeare Festival through August 12, Mary Rippon Theatre, University of Colorado at Boulder, 303-492-0554, www.coloradoshakes.org. Reviewed July 24.

The Hot L Baltimore. Director Terry Dodd has arranged one of the sweetest, smartest, loveliest evenings of theater you'll ever have, by staging Lanford Wilson's The Hot L Baltimore in the lobby of the Barth Hotel. The play is a kind of extended tone poem about life in a seedy hotel filled with society's rejects — hookers, dreamers, drifters, a wise one-time waitress, a kvetchy old man, a young man haunting the lobby in search of his own past, and the low-wage desk clerks and managers who keep the place going. The nineteen-year-old Girl (that's what she calls herself, having tried and rejected several other names), who represents the soul of the piece, has traveled all over the country and is in love with railroads; she grieves for their demise. But the play is not just a bloodless paean to times past and lost places; it is also a very lively piece of theater. The intertwining stories keep us emotionally involved and the action humming along, and Wilson's technical innovations as a playwright — he frequently has two conversations going on at once, or several sallies overlapping — work brilliantly to evoke a sense of intertwined and communal lives. The cast ranges from good to excellent, with some of the best performances in the smaller or less obviously dramatic roles. No other local director has the understanding of place and its effect on people that Dodd has, and no one else can suggest depth and complexity in quite the same quietly unpretentious way. Through August 23, Barth Hotel, 1514 17th Street, 303-595-4464 ext. 10, www.seniorhousingoptions.org. Reviewed July 31.