EDITOR’S NOTE: For preview coverage of the 49th Utah Arts Festival, which runs June 19-22, The Utah Review is presenting individual or group profiles of artists, performers, entertainers and some newcomers to the event. Visitors will also see the first significant change of the last 15 years in the festival map. There are several new … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: For preview coverage of the 49th Utah Arts Festival, which runs June 19-22, The Utah Review is presenting individual or group profiles of artists, performers, entertainers and some newcomers to the event. Visitors will also see the first significant change of the last 15 years in the festival map. There are several new … Read more
In Deborah Zoe Laufer’s Be Here Now, the character of Bari epitomizes what an academic diet heavy in post-structuralist theory with oversized portions of Barthes, Derrida and Foucault can do in wreaking havoc on one’s psyche. However, as much as Bari wants to flex her intellectual prowess in the study of nihilism, she is at … Read more
It has been a banner year for musicals in Pioneer Theatre Company’s (PTC) 63rd season. There were the exuberant cavalcade of pop music excellence in Jersey Boys, roof-raising performances in Beautiful, The Carole King Musical and while not a musical per se, the two-hander Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins was … Read more
Remember when fake news was simply freakish entertainment? When the Weekly World News had run dry on its long streak of ‘Elvis Is Alive’ stories, editorial staff member Dick Kulpa came up with ‘Bat Child Found in West Virginia Cave.’ When the story ran in June, 1992, Weekly World News sold 975,000 copies. Other ‘Bat … Read more
Normally this critic does not review student productions but in the curious case of a 2008 musical that has enjoyed an incredible rejuvenation post-pandemic in colleges and universities across the country, thanks to a TikTok video that went viral in 2022, it seemed appropriate to make an exception. Judging by the reactions of the packed … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Utah Review is grateful to playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett for reviewing From the Borderlands to the Roots, presented by Punto de Inflexión as part of the ten-day Corriente Alterna festival, with PROArtes México. In the opening of From the Borderlands to the Roots—an ambitious, cohesive, and moving fusion of dance and visual … Read more
With two world premieres, Re-Act, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s closing production for its 61st season, will be a landmark event. It marks the final show for Daniel Charon as artistic director, who is stepping down after 12 seasons. Also, there is the world premiere of A Mischief Sublime by Annalee Traylor, the company’s inaugural Choreographic Canvas … Read more
Looking at current news headlines, one would struggle to find a scintilla of evidence to make a case for the existence of God. The extant American realities are visibly ugly and demoralizing but we also can hope that in countless inconspicuous spaces, there is still fertile ground for human connection, decency, conscience and spiritual intelligence. … Read more
Collectively, the words ‘fear’ and ‘afraid’ or some variant appear at least 30 times in the script for Janine Sobeck Knighton’s new play The Beatrix Potter Defense Society, in a gorgeous jewel box of a production by Plan-B Theatre. Set in 1882 on the grounds of England’s Wray Castle, Ambleside (Cumbria), in the Lake District, … Read more