OREM – Ho-hum. Another opening of another Oklahoma! Curly ambles down the auditorium’s aisles and onto the stage rhapsodizing about “a bright, golden haze on the meadow”—
A Joyful “Color Purple”
November 19, 2010 By 3 Comments
SALT LAKE CITY – Like the Pulitzer prizewinning book and popular movie that preceded it, The Color Purple stage musical is a powerful testament to enduring love, the ability to triumph over tragedy and the joy of seeing God’s hand in all that surrounds us. After running for more than two years on Broadway and [...]
Hale’s “Scarlet Pimpernel” Sails
October 24, 2010 By 1 Comment
Romance! Betrayal! Heroics! A swashbuckling aristocrat in comic disguise performing secret noble deeds! A songbird bride guilt-ridden over a concealed indiscretion! It’s all in the the 1905 popular potboiler novella The Scarlet Pimpernel that was transformed into a lofty 1997 Broadway musical – and brought lovingly to life on the Hale Center Theater Orem stage [...]
An Oom Pah Pah “Oliver!”
October 8, 2010 By 1 Comment
SALT LAKE CITY – From overture to final-curtain bows, the Grand Theatre’s superb production of Oliver! is a theatrical pleasure. The opening-night audience was fully engaged in the richly drawn Dickens characters and delighted by the infectious enthusiasm and boundless charisma of its impressive cast. The actors clearly love doing the show, are fully invested in their [...]
Learning Self-Reliance to Confront ‘The Hairy Man’
September 17, 2010 By 2 Comments
Slumber Not at This Shakespeare!
September 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
PROVO — Who hasn’t been elbow-jabbed in the ribs by a companion after dozing off during a Shakespeare play? But in the enchanting adaptation of the Bard of Avon’s “Taming of the Shrew” at BYU’s Nelke Theatre, you’ll find yourself grinning from ear to ear throughout the entire production, only to be interrupted by your [...]
A “Preposterous” Life Vividly Portrayed
August 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment
PROVO – The life of a young lay minister was forever changed when he came across what he called “a very strange book” in 1830. But this book “was the principal means, in the hands of God, of directing the entire course of my future life,” as related in Thom Duncan’s insightful and often moving [...]