News

Triple-bill review: PYGmalion Theatre Company’s Witch, Salt Lake Acting Company’s Very Like A Whale, Westminster University’s Chance Operations

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PYGMALION THEATRE COMPANY: WITCH Playwright Jen Silverman certainly is admired by Salt Lake City theater companies. The most recent example is the outstanding production of Witch (a 2018 play), directed by Morag Shepherd, in a PYGmalion Theatre Company run which continues through Oct. 17. This is the third Silverman play within the last year to … Read more

¡Viva el Zorro! Utah Opera set for Utah premiere of Héctor Armienta’s Zorro, Oct. 10-18 at Capitol Theatre

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The hero’s journey has been explored in many famous operas: Prince Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Richard Wagner’s Siegfried and Parsifal and Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, just to name a few. Composer Héctor Armienta adds Zorro to that genre in the operatic canon, which is about to receive its Utah premiere in a production by … Read more

Sugar Skull! A Dia de Los Muertos Musical Adventure: two City Academy students review this UtahPresents’ Family Sunday show

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Editor’s Note: In extending a tradition to feature student reviewers, The Utah Review, with the assistance of Christal Jackson, an English teacher at City Academy, is offering opportunities this year for students to review productions representing Ballet West, Salt Lake Acting Company and Utah Presents. This is the first of seven shows that students will … Read more

Two thrilling season openers: Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Act I, Repertory Dance Theatre’s Legend & Lore

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RIRIE-WOODBURY DANCE COMPANY: ACT 1 Expanding the possibilities of dance theater, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s 63rd season opener, Act 1 was as spiritually entertaining and satisfying as it was artistically successful. With two new works by eminent New York choreographers, the production rose upon the company’s legacy of innovative artistic directions that its founders Shirley Ririe … Read more

Bachauer laureate Kotaro Fukuma’s Pligrimage concert will open Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation’s 51st season

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Pianist Kotaro Fukuma sees his return to the Salt Lake City stage this week as celebrations for him personally and for the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation, which marked its 50th anniversary this year. Fukuma’s Pilgrimage program, which includes some of Liszt’s lesser performed works, is also inspired by the pianist’s love of literature and … Read more

A pair of outstanding fiction releases from Torrey House Press: Eli McCann’s Stitched, Annie Lampman’s The Origin of Ava

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the 11th in an ongoing series of features highlighting authors and new books published by Torrey House Press in Utah.  There are two boffo fiction releases this year in Torrey House Press’s outstanding catalog. In both instances, the authors make  a solid case for the wise stewardship independent publishers offer in … Read more

Repertory Dance Theatre’s 61st season set to open with Legend & Lore, featuring world premiere commission, three other historical works

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The world premiere of Penny Saunders’ Legend Has It will fit perfectly into Repertory Dance Theatre’s (RDT) 61st season opener, Legend & Lore.  It’s a smart segue from the company’s exceptional 60th anniversary season celebration of its own history.  Saunders’ commission is the inaugural offering in RDT’s Living Landscapes initiative. Legend & Lore also features … Read more

With a world premiere, Utah premieres, and numerous current, active composers, NOVA Chamber Music Series’ 49th season sets bridge to upcoming golden anniversary

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The best way to summarize NOVA Chamber Music Series’ 2026-2027 season is that it’s a major warm-up for next year’s golden anniversary celebrations. Undoubtedly having proven its historical significance in raising the heights of chamber music excellence in Salt Lake City, NOVA continues to expand the horizons of its repertoire. World premiere commissions will be … Read more

Two late summer dance performances: RDT Link Series’ This Will Destroy You, Nava Dance Theatre’s Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies

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REPERTORY DANCE THEATRE LINK SERIES: THIS WILL DESTROY YOU If one needed a forceful example of dance’s capacity to convey intense emotions, This Will Destroy You, an evening-length work directed by Molly Heller, was presented recently by RDT’s Link Series. The cycles of grief, labor, care, and unresolved voids were evoked in ways that superseded … Read more

A supreme opener for Pioneer Theatre Company’s 65th season: Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor Is the Villain

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In one of the many classroom scenes, vintage 2018, in Kimberly Belflower’s play John Proctor Is the Villain, Nell (Rocky Anicette), who just recently transferred from a school in Atlanta to one in a small Georgia town, is talking to Mason (Gage Martinez), the class jokester who really wants to play basketball but ends up … Read more