SALT LAKE CITY — A tap classic of musical theatre, Pioneer Theatre Company energetically brings 42nd Street to the Salt Lake Valley with a bevy of beautiful talent that just starts to explore the depth of character that even the most apparently artificial storyline can warrant. Certainly a toe tapper, not to be missed if [...]
‘Ramona Quimby’ reminded me what it was like to be a child
April 28, 2010 By 10 Comments
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 [...]
‘Stones’ Makes a Utah Stop en Route to San Diego
April 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
PROVO — Normally, I am reluctant to see a show like Stones which has a religious subject matter. I have been know to hate “Jesus Plays.” I feel it is impossible to write a successful play about Jesus. However, the production Stones, directed and written by J. Scott Bronson, at the Covey Center for the Arts was [...]
‘Once Upon a Mattress’ a Medieval Romp
April 26, 2010 By 3 Comments
‘Burn This’ is a strong production from the UTAC
April 25, 2010 By 6 Comments
‘Talley’s Folly’ is a Sweet 96 Minutes
April 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment
PROVO — Talley’s Folly, we are told from the start by the play’s protagonist, Matt Friedman, is a romance—a waltz—played out in three-four time over the course of ninety-six minutes (though this particular production was probably closer to eighty) without an intermission; all the action occurs in one place (a little gazebo-like boathouse) and in [...]
Women Have a Voice in SLAC’s ‘Charm’
April 21, 2010 By 1 Comment
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 [...]
UVU Goes ADD with Short Attention Span Theatre
April 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
OREM — As I stepped into the Noorda Theatre at Utah Valley University to see the opening production of SAST (Short Attention Span Theatre), I found myself welcomed into an atmosphere very different than I had ever seen at previous performances. The set was simply a series of black platforms, the lights were dim, and all [...]
A step into THE LAB: three new original works at the Rose
April 15, 2010 By 2 Comments
SALT LAKE CITY — The Lab | Script-in-Hand Series is a fairly new laboratory for original work by Utah playwrights. The lab is led by Tobin Atkinson (Meat & Potato Theatre) and supported by Jerry Rapier (Plan-B Theatre). This week brought the second installment of the series. Three 30-minute, one-act plays-in-progress were presented and followed by [...]
‘Our Town’ at WSU – Simply Lovely
April 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment
OGDEN — Last night at the Eccles Theater at Weber State University, I attended a lovely production of Our Town. The “lovely” I use here is in the British sense which connotes not just what is pleasing to the eye, but also that which is heard, felt and experienced. As in “what a lovely melody,” or “how [...]