Review

Making a bit of Utah dance history: Audience’s roaring approval propels Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Re-Play season opener

by

Made evident by the consistently enthusiastic response by the audience throughout the 90-minute show, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s 61st season opener, Re-Play, was a roaring successful sampler of the legendary institution’s artistic brand and character. Joining a sharper, more rousing rendition of LajaMartin’s The Bunker (2022), the two world premieres — Purple Sonata 24 by Daniel … 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

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

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

Salt Lake Acting Company’s summer show Close Encounters in the Beehive successfully works comic premise of extraterrestrial visitors

by

Solid ensemble chemistry, a nice selection of musical sendups and the especially strong performances of Zeb and Skruuck, the extraterrestrial character leads, have combined to make Salt Lake Acting Company’s (SLAC) summer show Close Encounters in the Beehive the perfect light fare during this hot, dry season. Directed and choreographed by Cynthia Fleming and with … Read more

Meeting feral, ferocious, paganistic expectations: Voodoo Theatre Company’s Utah premiere of Clare Barron’s Dance Nation made for sizzling summer fare

by

A show-stopping moment in the Voodoo Theatre Company’s Utah premiere production of Clare Barron’s Dance Nation comes when Ashlee, who is just coming into her teen years, delivers the mother of all monologues that any adolescent girl could ever dream of speaking. Running approximately three and a half pages in the script, Ashlee knocks the … Read more