Shakespeare comes to life in Utah

Principal Emily Adams and Chase O’Connell in Jiří Kylián’s Return to a Strange Land. Photo by Beau Pearson.

The mere mention of Shakespeare-related live performances in Utah might lead readers directly to thoughts of the world-renowned Utah Shakespeare Festival held annually in Cedar City each summer and fall. Yet, this spring, Shakespeare was alive and well in the heart of Salt Lake City too. Pioneer Theatre Company produced Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night from March … Read more

NOVA Chamber Music Series closes its 40th anniversary season with a changing of the guard; music by Schubert, Messiaen, Lutoslawski

Madeline Adkins

Some of Utah’s most accomplished musicians will gather May 6 to close out NOVA Chamber Music Series’ extraordinary 40th anniversary season with a concert highlighting familiar as well as not widely known works by Schubert and two giants of 20th century music – Olivier Messiaen and Witold Lutosławski. This spring concert highlights works by composers … Read more

Hamilton: NYC versus SLC

“Have you seen Hamilton yet?” It’s the question often heard around Salt Lake these last few weeks since the first touring production of of the Broadway musical came to town. “You and your words… You built palaces out of paragraphs, you build cathedrals” –Eliza In the Tony and Grammy award-winning musical created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, … Read more

Live blog and review: Stand presented by Plan-B Theatre, KUER-FM’s RadioWest

Listen live at RadioWest, and click on the ‘listen live’ icon in the upper right hand corner. Also, listen here. The show will be rebroadcast today (April 26) at 7 p.m. and will be available in the RadioWest archives. For a preview of Radio Hour Episode 12: Stand, written by Matthew Ivan Bennett and produced … Read more

Plan-B Theatre, KUER’s RadioWest plan live broadcast premiere of Radio Hour Episode 12

NOTE: On Thursday, April 26 at 9 a.m., The Utah Review will live blog the only live performance of Radio Hour Episode 12: Stand, produced by Plan-B Theatre and KUER-FM’s RadioWest program. Tune into KUER-FM 90.1 and follow The Utah Review during the broadcast. Utah playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett is impeccably an artist of Renaissance … Read more

World, U.S. premieres highlight recent spring productions of Sackerson, Repertory Dance Theatre, NOVA Chamber Music Series

This spring has blossomed with numerous adventurous concerts and performances, including several world and U.S. premieres, with works presented by the Repertory Dance Theatre, Sackerson and NOVA Chamber Music Series. SACKERSON: SCARLET For a small theatrical company without a permanent home, Sackerson has managed consistently to electrify the Salt Lake City performing arts scene with … Read more

Samba Fogo’s Ouça promises to be exuberant, gregarious visual, listening experience

The guitarist Andre Feriante wrote that we “live in silence.” In finding his natural pulse as a composer, he believes “music that is aware of the gates of silence can cause you to see more of where you really live.” Music that inspires contemplation and heightened senses can take many forms – introspective and quiet … Read more

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company to close out season with Return, featuring music by Salt Lake Electric Ensemble; cultural diplomacy tour to South Korea, Mongolia

Many of the best literary works of science fiction, when they touch on entropy in complex systems, technologies and problems of existential significance, excel in how they render the human community of characters in genuine emotional and spiritual attributes. In the starkest environment, there is an overwhelming hunger, as portrayed literally and metaphorically. This was … Read more

Jonathon Thompson’s River of Lost Souls superbly probes long historical chain leading to Gold King Mine disaster

Near Salt Lake City, the Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine sits atop a 70-square-mile underground plume of contaminated groundwater. A burst spilling into the valleys could trigger Utah’s worst environmental disaster ever. While the Gold King Mine spill that occurred in southwestern Colorado attracted a great deal of public attention in early August 2015, … Read more

Jump by Plan-B Theatre, Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory achieves unique poignance

When the play Jump opens, the audience is enjoying the pithy, rapid banter between Erick, the young confident skydiver (Matthew Sincell), and Phil (Darryl Stamp), a 60-year-old first-timer, as they prepare for the fateful jump from 12,000 feet above the ground. The audience laughs as Erick tries to ease the nerves of Phil, who rattles … Read more