Almost Heaven is a celebration of John Denver's life and music, produced by Harold Thau, who was John Denver’s partner, business manager, personal manager and one of his closest friends.  "John always wanted to do a theater piece, we were always looking for him to do something like that, whether it was his own music or someone else's."  Denver's untimely death in a 1997 plane crash when he was only 53 ended any hope of an original Denver Broadway show.  "When John passed, I really decided I was going to do a show about him and his music,"  Thau says. "I had produced before, so it wasn't just about doing a tribute but about doing a really good theatrical piece.  The show boasts 29 of Denver's songs including "Rocky Mountain High," "Sunshine on My Shoulders," "Annie's Song," "Leaving on a Jet Plane," "Calypso", and more.  The songs are rediscovered and reinvented, performed against a backdrop of stunning visual images of America in the late '60s and early '70s, a time of social unrest and political protest.

The performance by the Walnut Creek Center REPertory Company was the West Coast premiere of the New York bound production.  The production was reminiscent of the old Mitch Miller television show where talented singers stood in separate spots like a Greek chorus singing the popular songs of the day.   The show featured three men wearing blue jeans and flannel shirts, and three women dressed in conservative country outfits singing songs written by one of the most popular singers of the '60s and '70s.