Theatre Reviews by Patrons and Professionals
OREM — Ethan Coen is best known, along with his brother Joel, as part of the film making team the Coen Brothers. Recognized for their absurd situations, quirky humor, and eye catching cinematography, they have won international acclaim for movies like Fargo; No Country for Old Men; True Grit; and O Brother, Where Art Thou? Ethan, however, [...]
DRAPER — By far the most popular playwright in Utah—and likely many other parts of the world—is William Shakespeare. A quick perusal of the UTBA archives shows that this is the 29th Shakespeare play this organization has reviewed (not counting adaptations). Clearly Shakespeare’s work clearly entertains Utahans, despite the geographic and temporal distance between the playwright [...]
SPRINGVILLE — Zion Theatre Company is a unique theatre group in Utah. Although family-friendly live entertainment is not hard to find in this state, ZTC is unique for its explicit mission to produce uplifting drama that not only entertains, but provokes thoughts and conversations. ZTC is also focused on works by Latter-day Saint artists, and works [...]
OREM — One of the oldest surviving dramatic forms in the Western theatrical tradition is satire. Aristophanes wrote plays that heaped scorn and derision on powerful figures of his day, much as his modern intellectual descendants like Stephen Colbert and the writers of The Simpsons do today. Perhaps satire is so enduring today because it is [...]
SALT LAKE CITY — Every so often, Broadway sees a show that is not only a smash hit, but influences many musical productions for years afterwards. Famous musicals like Oklahoma!, Hair, and Company fall into this category. Running on Broadway for 14 years, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast certainly belongs with those, because without its success [...]
PROVO — “How did you get to be here? What was the moment?” It’s normal from time to time for a person to look back on the life decisions that made them the person they are today. Maybe you do it every year as your birthday approaches; maybe the tendency to look back—sometimes with regrets, other [...]
An announcement from Pickleville Playhouse this month caught my eye. The northern Utah theater announced that for the month of March you can watch an entire performance of Who Shot Juanito Bandito? When our reviewer saw the play last month, she wrote, “My husband was in tears for the majority of the production; I had [...]
RIVERTON — There has been a lot of interest in fellow UTBA writer Callie Oppedisano’s post about community theatre‘s place in the arts. Callie wrote a lot of great things in the post, but one simple statement made me excited for my UTBA assignment this week: “Community theatre in our state is alive and well, if [...]
OREM — As most of UTBA’s readers are probably aware, many Broadway musicals today are based on successful Hollywood films. In a way, this makes a lot of sense. Broadway has always carried a great financial risk, and those risks have only increased in recent years. If a musical can draw upon the audience that a [...]
DRAPER — No matter one’s station in life, everyone has ups and downs. We all have our different ways of coping with the downs and celebrating the ups, but no amount of wealth, power, or prestige can shelter a person from the difficulties of life. Steel Magnolias is the story of six women in rural [...]