Salt Lake City’s arts scene is roaring back to full steam: Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Total Ellipse, Roger Benington’s Psychopomp, SONDERimmersive’s The Chocolatier

With live performances resuming on several fronts, the arts calendar for the fall season in Salt Lake City has returned to levels not seen since the fall of 2019. The Utah Review offers reviews of three shows, seen within the span of four days. RIRIE-WOODBURY DANCE COMPANY: TOTAL ELLIPSE Season openers for Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company … Read more

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company returns to live performances in 58th season opener with premieres by Keerati Jinakunwiphat, Daniel Charon; Raja Feather Kelly’s Pantheon

It’s been nearly 20 months since Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company had a live concert — Allegory — in its regular season. This week, the company opens its 58th season in the Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts’ Jeanne Wagner Theatre with Total Ellipse, a program featuring two world premieres and a work that premiered in 2017. … Read more

#SLACabaret, Salt Lake Acting Company’s summer debut, shows plenty of examples about leveraging comedic punch celebrating Utah’s peculiarities

Provocative comedy is an underappreciated, underutilized art form in Utah. The state’s social character and pop culture are sufficiently peculiar, offbeat and unusual to produce spot-on satires and farces. Some segments of Utah’s independent film industry (think of the HaleStorm comedies, for example) have aspired to achieve crossover appeal by highlighting weird, quirky aspects of … Read more

Utah Arts Festival 2021: artÉmotion in collaboration with Ballet West set to premiere five dance commissions with live music

In the decade since the Utah Arts Festival added dance commissions to its chamber music and jazz world premieres, Ballet West artists have established stellar standards in the program. This year’s program (Aug. 27, 4:45 p.m., Festival Stage), however, takes the dance commissions to a new level, featuring more new works and artists than ever … Read more

Utah Arts Festival 2021: Five local companies set to perform on Festival Stage, The Round, highlighting Utah’s numerous strengths in dance.

This year’s Festival Stage and The Round programming at the Utah Arts Festival, as customary, includes some of Utah’s most influential dance institutions. In addition to the dance commissions being presented by artÉmotion (see accompanying feature at The Utah Review) in collaboration with Ballet West (Aug. 27, 4:45 p.m.), there are five performances by Repertory … Read more

Utah Arts Festival 2021: Slimmer, shorter but still state’s most comprehensive arts and cultural celebration of the year

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Utah Review begins its preview coverage today of the 45th Utah Arts Festival, which will be held Aug. 27-29 (noon to 11 p.m. on Aug. 27 and 28 and noon to 9 p.m. on Aug. 29) on the Library Square in downtown Salt Lake City. As this is the state’s largest multidisciplinary … Read more

First weekend of 2021 Great Salt Lake Fringe offers strong slate of solid productions

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series of reviews from the 2021 Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival.  With the first weekend of the 2021 Great Salt Lake Fringe (GSLF) at The Gateway now in the books, organizers say that ticket sales for live performances are close to and will likely exceed 2018 … Read more

7th Great Salt Lake Fringe brings record 52 shows with live performances at The Gateway, virtual shows, running July 29-Aug. 8

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Utah Review will present reviews of nine Great Salt Lake Fringe shows in a two-part series on Aug. 2-3. In a recent Facebook post, Utah playwright Morag Shepherd, who has participated several times in the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival, wrote, “For those who do not have the luxury or privilege to … Read more

Utah Film Center Damn These Heels 2021: Award-winning Flee set for closing Liberty Park event, If It Were Love an unconventional, highly intriguing dance documentary

With today’s Liberty Park screening co-sponsored by the Sundance Institue and two final days of films available for streaming on demand, the Utah Film’s Center’s 18th annual Damn These Heels Queer Film Festival will close on strong notes. As for the online streaming options, the festival has attracted a broad national and international audience. This … Read more

Genuine warmth of artistry in premiere of Fragments Of …, dance work by Laura Brick, Dan Higgins

Before the pandemic halted live concerts and shows, performers were more likely than not to welcome the audience from the stage within the first moments of starting, if at all. Prior to performing in the Studio Theatre at the Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts, dance artists Dan Higgins and Laura Brick went to every … Read more