A celebration of great singing, great music, great costumes, great vocal iteration, and great personality is going on at the Stage Theatre of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. 3 Mo’ Divas is alive and very, very well – running through June 29.

The formula is fairly simple. You take 10 styles of music – spirituals, rock & roll, gospel, opera, Broadway, movies, blues, jazz, soul, and rhythm & blues. Then, you find three classically trained singers, and have them sing – solo, duet, and ensemble – some of the best song titles of the respective 10 styles, all the while never hinting, from one style to the next, the influence on their voices of the other styles of music. That’s right: singing jazz that sounds like jazz, not jazz run through a classical filter, or gospel that does not reveal the cross over from classical and other styles, while exhibiting in each style the exquisite talent and discipline that their training has fixed in them.

As Marion J. Caffey, the founder, director and choreographer of the Divas show, said, “It’s unprecedented to have classically trained performers cross seven to 10 different styles of music. . . . That is what this show is: a celebration of female vocal versatility.”

Caffey, a writer, director and former song and dance man as in Ain’t Misbehavin’ and other Broadway credits, experienced the Three Tenors, in Los Angeles, and conceived the notion of the “3 Mo’.” In 2001, he brought Three Mo’ Tenors to the stage. In 2004, he premiered Divas in San Diego, and it has been a mad hit ever since.

In an interview, Caffey said his goal was to show that, with highly talented singers, one could “marry opera and other styles, and maintain the integrity of each style. The Divas have something within them that allows them to jump from style to style without damage to the respective characteristics of each. You don’t hear jazz in the opera; you don’t hear opera in the blues.”

At the same time, the Divas are interpreting each style in the best way it can be done. He said that it is his “hope to expose people to talented vocalists who have tremendous depth in their musical reach with no sacrifice to their approach –musically – to life.””

The Divas loll, live, love and languish in the chops they bring in the show, of whatever style. And no age is too young or too old to appreciate the talents they exhibit.

The three Divas are mezzo-soprano Laurice Lanier, soprano Nova Y. Payton and soprano Janet Pittman. Lanier has appeared in Broadway’s La Boheme and in Carnegie Hall’s Leontyne Price Showcase, and may have the greatest musical range of the three, exhibiting skills from the second-tenor/baritone range to mezzo. Payton has sung in Prince Music Theater’s Dreamgirls, and the national tour of Smokey Joe’s Café. Pittman’s credits include Porgy and Bess – Live from Lincoln Center and Broadway’s La Boheme.

All three love singing opera, but have learned the difficulty of getting choice roles in the premier opera houses around the world. They are aware that Denver is a fertile and rich venue for all of the styles, and the altitude has not affected the richness of their singing. They would love to sing with Colorado Opera or the Central City Opera. While they constantly have to be aware of the factors that strain their vocal cords, they delight in exhibiting the wonderful possibilities of the human voice in the Divas show.

To experience the show is really almost to witness 30 Divas, each 10 of which look exactly like the three individual Divas who have been introduced to the audience, and dress like them. When a gospel is to be sung, the three gospel-singing Divas go out and represent. They then give way to the three rock & roll Divas, and so on.

Each of the 10 styles is wondrously presented with no mixing of the styles, because three separate divas are really singing the vocals, and the audience is in awe of the 30 Divas. But, really it’s just the three Divas, and they are just that talented and disciplined in the presentation of their art and craft. And we love them for it.

They give a wonderful model of how we can perform in the shower every day, expressing versatility over an enormous range of songs and of vocal reach. And if we close our eyes, and let the sound of the water ease over the notes, we too will be 3 Mo’ Divas. Or, we can save our vocal chords, and listen to three divine artists (or is it 30), clap our hands, stomp our feet, sing along (as they invite the people to do), or just luxuriate in the sight, sound and feeling of the highest glory of the sung song.

Everyone should see this show, and bring children and young people with them. If you do not, you will never know how good you are in that shower.

Editor’s note: For information and tickets for 3 Mo’ Divas, call 303-893-4100 or visit www.denvercenter.org.