One of the biggest lights on Broadway was at work this week in a Denver Center Theatre Company rehearsal room, shaping a crew of Broadway veterans for the New Play Summit.

"We just need the ladies in the lifeboat," Kathleen Marshall said to the crew gathered around the two pianos, and it was clear that Molly Brown had just escaped the Titanic.

Colorado is a major star in The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and that connection is a major reason for workshopping the Broadway- bound revival in Denver. It came together through Dick Scanlan, who previously created the book for the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Both musicals were the original creations of Richard Morris (who wrote the book for Molly Brown, with Meredith Willson creating music and lyrics), who before he died handed Scanlan the keys to Molly Brown. Scanlan, in turn, brought Marshall on board.

"Richard Morris had always said to Dick, 'When we're done with Millie, let's fix Molly,' " she says. "It's a show that's beloved mostly because the character is so beloved."

But Marshall says the 1960 musical had its problems.

"It's a show that isn't done a lot, and there's a reason why. It doesn't totally work. The character of Molly Brown is not very true to who she really was. It was based on an exaggeration. And the style has a sort of old-fashioned quality to it. It's got a lot of corn pone in it."

The director has wide experience reviving classic musicals, whether as artistic director of New York City's acclaimed Encores series or as director of Broadway fare such as The Pajama Game and Grease (the latter closed just a few weeks ago).

"Of all the revivals I've done, this is probably the biggest alteration," Marshall says.

In addition to reworking the book, Scanlan is adding seven "trunk songs" - those written by Willson that never made it into a show. Wonderful Plan was cut from the original productions of both The Music Man and Molly Brown. Share the Luck was written as a Red Cross anthem.

"To me, it sounds like the score because they're all Meredith Willson songs," Marshall says. "They're all sort of the big, open, Americana spirit."

After performances - with just slight blocking, two pianos and no costumes - in Denver, Marshall will stage a workshop next week in New York for about 50 invited guests. Both will include industry leaders. The Unsinkable Molly Brown has a director, a musical director and a writer but no commercial producers. Now the creative team is walking into the worst economy in their lives looking for money for a Broadway show, a risky investment in the best of times.

"When we started working on this show, we had no idea what was ahead," Marshall says. This show has a kind of can-do American spirit to it, but, of course, that's not why we did it (at the time)."

Broadway is like much of the country: bracing for the shock but not feeling it yet.

"A number of shows closed in January, but that's part of the natural cycle," she says. "What we'll have to look for is what happens in the fall. It is a bit of a scary time, but I don't think the sky is falling. Even during the Great Depression, theaters and movies kept going and thrived. We all have to be more responsible about what we do and how we do it."

So no more $30 million extravaganzas?

"I'm not sure why a show should cost $30 million in the first place," Marshall says. And she adds that the artistic team hasn't begun to cultivate commercial producers, other than inviting them to the New York reading.

"Which is what's so great about this summit. When you have industry readings, you learn a certain amount, but it's an insider crowd. To be in front of a real audience, a 'civilian' audience, it's a great opportunity because they don't fake it."

bornsteinl@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5101

The Unsinkable Molly Brown

* When and where: Tickets are sold out for the remaining workshop, 3 p.m. today, Space Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex. Patrons can line up for tickets released before curtain.

* Cost: free

* Information: 303-893-4100

All about Marshall

* Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Kathleen Marshall and her brother Rob (director of Chicago) have become a Broadway team. She began her career as a dancer, then joined Rob as his assistant choreographer on Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1993.

* You might know her as: a judge on TV's Grease: You're the One That I Want, a reality show that cast the leads for the recent revival, which she directed.

* You may have seen: her Broadway shows, including The Pajama Game (director, 2006), Wonderful Town (director, 2003), Seussical (choreographer, 2000), and Kiss Me, Kate (choreographer, 1999)

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