News

Pianist Anna Han set to open Bachauer’s 2024-25 concert series, with Touchpoints, including four toccatas, repertoire spanning 3 centuries

by

In two years, the Gina Bachauer International Foundation will celebrate its 50th anniversary and the path leading toward the celebration of that milestone has been paved for the 2024-2025 concert season, by showcasing pianists who have been part of the Bachauer competitions and have established their footprints in the global music landscape. This season’s lineup … Read more

Sting and Honey Company deliver a very smart production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull

by

There is always room for Anton Chekhov in the theatrical season. Plays such as Uncle Vanya, Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters remain relevant and timeless. And, The Seagull became the first of the great Chekhov quartet of plays when it premiered in 1896. It stands out for rendering complex psychological profiles of characters — notably … Read more

An exhilarating cavalcade of pop music excellence: Pioneer Theatre’s 63rd season opens with Jersey Boys

by

At the end of Jersey Boys, Tommy DeVito says to the audience, “Everyone remembers it how they need to, right?” When the Tony Award-winning musical about Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons premiered on Broadway in 2005, it was among a substantial string of biographical musicals that have emerged during the first two decades of … Read more

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company set to open its 61st season with Re-Play, including two world premieres, 28 guest dancers from six Utah universities

by

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s 61st season will open with Re-Play this week, featuring two world premieres and a reprise of a 2022 dance theater piece that was tapped as one of The Utah Review’s Top 10 Moments of the Utah Enlightenment that year. The production features the first regular season performance of two new company dancers … Read more

Plan-B Theatre’s 12th annual Free Elementary School Tour production for 2024-25 academic year features EllaMental by Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin

by

Within a few days after third grader Martin Richards from Boston was killed in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, a photo which showed the boy holding a sign he created that read ‘No more hurting people. Peace’ went viral. He made the sign a year before, when an activist who was protesting the handling of … Read more

The compelling political power of remembrance: Fazilat Soukhakian: Under the Same Sky at Material Gallery

by

In recent decades, Iranian visual artists — photographers, painters, filmmakers and animators — have communicated through their work how the politics of history and memory are the cogent pivotal driving forces of constructing and preserving identity, which has been under existential threat since the 1978-79 revolution that toppled the Pahlavi dynasty and installed an Islamic … Read more

Passing the test of collaboration with full honors: The Rose’s Performing Arts Coalition show ReFramed hit perfectly with sold-out house

by

As appealing as collaboration is, many arts organizations are more likely to make a bit of an awkward, even contentious mess of it. In some instances, performing arts organizations choose the safer route for collaborating, by setting a broadly articulated theme for everyone to contribute their distinct piece to the effort. But, if groups sincerely … Read more

Ballet West is staying in its blockbuster groove, as it prepares for its 61st season

by

Ballet West is staying in the blockbuster groove for its upcoming 2024-2025 season. After a 60th anniversary edition that brought record attendance not only for the season but also for three major productions, Ballet West is poised to continue the momentum with four Utah premieres, the return of Cinderella, and the 80th anniversary of The … Read more

Great Salt Lake Fringe 2024 closes on solid notes: Awards, reviews, final payouts

by

The 10th Great Salt Lake Fringe (GSLF) is in the books. Once again, the venue of the Alliance Theater, connected to the Utah Arts Alliance, at Trolley Square, was ideal for this event. Total attendance was 1,796, and a total of $18,848 was paid out to the artists for 21 shows. The average payout per … Read more

Great Salt Lake Fringe 2024: First weekend reviews of Non, Seize the Initiative!, I’ve Become a Digital Pet, How Did We Get Here?, Chiasm Cabaret

by

The first weekend of the 10th Great Salt Lake Fringe (GSLF) is in the books. Shows for the second weekend resume Friday, Aug. 2 and run through Aug. 4 at the Alliance Theater, connected to the Utah Arts Alliance, at Trolley Square. The  Fringe campus is accessible in the near downtown area, just north of … Read more