If You Go
Date: August 14, 2006
Where: Chautauqua Auditorium, Boulder, CO

Portrayed by Bill Mooney

Two-time Grammy and two-time Emmy nominee Bill Mooney of Boulder performed an original one-man show as famed frontier showman William F. Cody in “Tonight! Buffalo Bill!” Aug. 14 at Chautauqua Auditorium. The show was written by Mooney especially for the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

“Of all the thousands of people who have played a part in creating and popularizing the Myth of the West, Buffalo Bill Cody ranks first,” said History Professor Patricia Limerick, Faculty Chair of the Center of the American West, who introduced Mooney. “We constantly confront Cody’s heritage in everyday life: when we plan our vacations, when we dress ourselves up in ‘western wear,’ when we make decisions about the Western economy, and most important, when we vote.

“Spending an evening with Buffalo Bill Cody is a spectacular way to think about what it once meant and what it now means to be a ‘Westerner.’ I can’t think of many occasions when you can, on one and the same evening, have such a good time and learn so much.”

Mooney appeared on television for 13 years as Paul Martin in All My Children, for which he received two Emmy nominations, and also performed for many years on and off Broadway. He has been a featured storyteller at the National Storytelling Festival and is the author or coauthor of several books and plays. His one-man shows include “Half Horse, Half Alligator,” “They All Wanted in the Act,” and “Damn Everything But the Circus,” which became a PBS special. He also has directed more than 50 productions in New York and elsewhere, including eight seasons of CU Opera’s summer shows.

“Mooney is a performer of real power and grace,” Limerick said.