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Delays, red tape and resilience

Reaching this moment took far longer than anyone anticipated. When Tobey signed the five-year lease on the building with the option to extend for another five years back in April, she imagined the path to opening would be straightforward. Instead, she found herself caught in a bureaucratic maze.

“Every time we would do something, the city would say, ‘Well, now that triggers this and this and this,’ and the worst part was there was no guide to the process,” Tobey said. “You just kind of get broadsided by information left and right. If I had known it was going to take all of this, I wouldn’t have signed the lease on this building.”

There were retail food licenses to correct — at one point she applied for the wrong type and had to restart the process — and zoning requirements that surfaced months after initial applications were filed. One of the biggest recent shocks came when the city raised the possibility of requiring a fire sprinkler system in the theater, an expense that could top $80,000. Even the pace of communication with the city became a hurdle.

“There was a week or two where everything stalled because one person was out with an injury,” Tobey recalled. “One person holding up an entire business, it’s just not sustainable. And you can tell the city employees are all frustrated; that must be a hard way to work.”

The uncertainty rippled outward. Performers who had committed to dates had to be canceled and rescheduled, frustrating both artists and audiences. The company tried to press forward with smaller cabarets and rentals, but without the necessary permits, even selling popcorn was off the table. Eventually, Tobey made the painful call to postpone the planned September 27 grand opening and channel all energy into cutting through the red tape.

“It was maddening,” she said. “But stopping was the only way forward. We had to put 100% of our focus into doing whatever it took to get the doors open.”

Opening the doors

Now that the wait is over, Ballyhoo is launching big. The November 1 grand opening begins at 10 a.m. with a ribbon cutting, followed by fun activities and live music spilling through the café. Actor-singers Clark Destin Jones and Emma Maxfield will also appear in character as Hedwig and Yitzhak, teasing Ballyhoo’s first major production, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, opening November 6.

That show will kick off a busy first season of programming. In January, beloved Colorado composer and music director David Nehls will debut his original work Do You Wanna Go? on the café stage, offering an intimate glimpse into the kind of cabaret and new works Ballyhoo hopes to nurture. And in July 2026, the theater will mount a special 30th anniversary production of Rent, directed by original Broadway cast member Rodney Hicks with Nehls as music director.

Tobey said Hicks has been in touch with Jonathan Larson’s sister, Julie Larson, about reimagining the musical for a new generation. “I get goosebumps thinking about it,” she said. “Rent was the Hamilton of my generation. It totally blew us all away and redefined what musical theater was. To bring it here with Rodney at the helm feels historic.”

Beyond those headline shows, Ballyhoo plans to balance Broadway remounts with burlesque, circus cabaret, comedy and original work from local playwrights. Tobey envisions the café stage as a laboratory for informal readings and small-scale performances that could one day graduate to the main theatre.

“We’ve been flooded with interest from artists already,” she said. “In the new year, we’ll be able to start saying ‘yes’ to those collaborations.”

Right now, though, Tobey and her team are focused on making sure people know they are open. “The big thing is just making the community aware that we are actually open, because I think the neighborhood has seen us and are thinking, ‘Are they open? Are they not open?’” Tobey said. “We just did exterior paint to kind of show we are a thing.”

For Tobey, though, the real joy lies in the small moments — seeing her vision finally connect with the community. She recalled one recent afternoon when a man came into the café, ordered a coffee and lingered in the space.

“I’ve been so buried in the minutiae of everything that when I saw a stranger come in off the street, I just marveled at them,” she said. “It was powerful seeing somebody looking around and taking in the space. And then he came up with tears in his eyes and said, ‘I’ve been looking for this kind of space for years. Ever since I moved to Denver, I’ve just haven’t found an inclusive space that I can co-work and see friends.’ That meant the world and is the reason we are here.”