Home
Theatre Reviews by Patrons and Professionals
Blog Archive
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR is a combination of all things good
SALT LAKE CITY — I am predisposed to like Shakespearean comedies, live acoustic music, and imposing architecture. Last night, the Grassroots Shakespeare Company pulled off a trifecta with their production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Salt Lake Masonic Temple. The Masonic Temple pulls together elements of Egyptian, Italian Renaissance, Colonial American, and 14th century English architecture, and…
Read more »Pride and Prejudice leaps from page to stage
CEDAR CITY — I’m a huge Jane Austen fan, having read all her books a few times and seen every popular film adaptation. I love her wit and humor. I love the romance and social commentary. I love the magic her words bring to everyday occurrences (well, “everyday,” by 19th century British standards). So I was excited to see this…
Read more »“Much Ado” is delightfully too short an evening
CEDAR CITY — Come with me to 17th Century Messina for Shakespeare’s ever enjoyable Much Ado about Nothing. Step into the Utah Shakespearean Festival’s Globe Theatre, and prepare to be regaled by 400-year-old jokes so fresh that you’ll laugh the night away.
Read more »Hunt Mysteries presents A Cruise to Remember
SANDY — This was my second time attending a Hunt Mysteries show, and they are a 2-for-2 success in my book. Now, mind you, you have to go to a Hunt Mystery with the right mindset. You should probably never go to a play in the upstairs of Spaghetti Mama’s expecting classic theater. You’re not going to be gleaning deep…
Read more »I Am Jane: The Story of a Black Mormon Pioneer
SALT LAKE CITY — I Am Jane is the poignant tale of Jane Elizabeth Manning James, a free Black Mormon pioneer. I was vaguely familiar with Jane Manning as a Black convert who lived for an extended period in the Joseph and Emma Smith Mansion House in Nauvoo, Illinois. My knowledge, however, extended to only a very small portion of…
Read more »The Little Mermaid as Hans Christian Anderson intended
SALT LAKE CITY — If you go to The Academy of Performing Arts’ presentation of Mermaid! anticipating the show to end with the Ursula being stabbed in the belly by a ship, you’ll certainly won’t come away with what you’d expected. You will – like it or not – come away having seen the story presented as Hans Christian Anderson wrote…
Read more »'Ramona Quimby' reminded me what it was like to be a child
SALT LAKE CITY — Watching Ramona Quimby at The Children’s Theatre reminded me what it felt like to be nine years old. For ninety reminiscent minutes, I got to join Beverly Cleary’s grade school heroine Ramona as she learned some of childhood’s hardest lessons. I watched empathetically as Ramona learned that grownups aren’t perfect, life isn’t always fair, and sometimes…
Read more »Women Have a Voice in SLAC’s ‘Charm’
SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake Acting Company’s Charm transported me into the world of America’s most famous transcendentalists—Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne—but I found a world quite different from what I had expected. I’ve been a huge fan of the transcendentalists since I read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, but not many other members of…
Read more »A Modern Take on Molière
SALT LAKE CITY — The Would-Be Gentleman, presented at the University of Utah’s Babcock Theatre, was wildly entertaining. While Molière’s comédie-ballet was originally written and performed for King Louis XIV in the year 1670, director Gordon Reinhart’s adaptation spruced up the play to appeal to a modern audience. Most noticeably, he took out the ballet and threw in a lot…
Read more »A play at the Gallery Theater provides a delightful evening
OGDEN — Anyone attending a production at the Gallery Theater can look forward to a charming evening. The Gallery Theater is located in the lower level of the Eccles Community Art Center. Now on the National Register of Historic Places, the building was originally built as a private residence, and the theater has since been used as a ballroom, a college…
Read more »