Review

More from a bountiful autumn season in performing arts: Fem Dance Company, Local Independent Theatre (LIT Co.) and NOVA Chamber Music Series

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The fall performing arts season in Salt Lake City has been a bountiful harvest of enterprising programming. Featured reviews include Fem Dance Company, Local Independent Theatre (LIT Co.) and NOVA Chamber Music Series. FEM DANCE COMPANY: HEAR HER Earlier this month, Fem Dance Company’s premiere of Hear Her, choreographed by Alicia Ross, was an enlightening, … Read more

Utah Museum of Fine Arts’ Tatau: Marks of Polynesia meticulously documents everlasting cultural resilience of Samoan tattoo masters

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To illustrate the everlasting cultural resilience of tatau, among the greatest art forms to emerge in Oceania, the story of Chris Lemuelu is potent in its lucidity. He is a Samoan who lives in Australia and is, as writer Fareed Kaviani has explained, “a soga’imiti, a man who has completed the full pe’a.” As Tatau: … Read more

Ballet West’s joyful, exquisite and evocative celebration of founder Christensen’s legacy in The Firebird production

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By Chris Myers For 60 years, Ballet West has been arguably among the finest jewels in Salt Lake City’s artistic crown. As the recent retrospective in The Utah Review demonstrated, this company has led the way to bring artistic excellence to the Intermountain West. Beginning last Friday (Nov. 3) with the company’s latest production, Ballet … Read more

Outstanding performances propel Pygmalion Theatre Company’s first-class staging of Lauren Gunderson’s The Half-Life of Marie Curie

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Some 60 years after Marie Curie died (in 1934) from a rare blood disorder caused by her work with radium and polonium, the French government had planned to move her body as well as that of her husband Pierre to the Panthéon. However, the team responsible for exhuming their coffins had to be extraordinarily cautious … Read more

Live blog and review: Radio Hour Episode 17: Sherlock Holmes and The Final Problem, by Matthew Ivan Bennett, presented by Plan-B Theatre, KUER-FM’s RadioWest

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Welcome to the 17th episode of the Radio Hour series of Plan-B Theatre’s Radio Hour series, produced with KUER-FM’s RadioWest, hosted by Doug Fabrizio on KUER-FM (90.1). For the first time since 2014, a Radio Hour episode will have a live audience for its premiere. The episode, written by veteran Radio Hour scribe Matthew Ivan … Read more

Three performing art jewels in October: Repertory Dance Theatre’s I AM…, Aristo Sham at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation, NOVA Chamber Music Series’ concert

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October’s performing arts schedule was filled with many jewels, including Repertory Dance Theatre, the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation and NOVA Chamber Music Series. The reviews below:  REPERTORY DANCE THEATRE: I AM… One could not have asked for a more spectacular opener for Repertory Dance Theatre’s (RDT) 58th season than the premiere of Natosha Washington’s … Read more

Halloween season must-see productions: Ballet West’s Dracula, Pioneer Theatre Company’s The Rocky Horror Show

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What better way to celebrate the Halloween season than with the first-class productions of Ballet West’s Dracula and Pioneer Theatre Company’s The Rocky Horror Show. BALLET WEST: DRACULA  By Chris Myers  In 1997, choreographer Ben Stevenson chose to celebrate the centennial of Bram Stoker’s Dracula with a ballet adaptation that would not have seemed out … Read more

When becoming uncomfortable is important to finding truth: Morag Shepherd’s Worship in exceptional Immigrant’s Daughter Theatre production

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Earlier this year, playwright Morag Shepherd directed the excellent Pygmalion Theatre Company production of Debora Threedy’s Mountain Meadows, which was about historian Juanita Brooks’ search for the truth behind the Mountain Meadows massacre, one of the darkest stains in Mormon history. With news of the massacre, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints institutionalized … Read more

Taiwanese artist Lu Wei makes her first solo American show in Salt Lake City’s Material art gallery

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Now in Utah, Lu Wei’s first solo exhibition in the U.S., My Sole Desires comprises ink paintings, handmade art books and scrolls. Quickly, the viewer is drawn to how the Taiwanese artist exquisitely explores the vicissitudes of time and space in the female gaze. She captures with gentle elegance in warm hues the boundary layers … Read more

Salt Lake Acting Company scores magnificently with Sarah Shippobotham’s solo show Can I Say Yes to That Dress?

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Joining what has been an outstanding start for several independent and local theatrical companies this season, the Salt Lake Acting Company has scored magnificently with Sarah Shippobotham’s solo show Can I Say Yes to That Dress?, directed by Jamie Rocha Allan. Channeling herself through the character she has written as Sîan Jones, Shippobotham presents a … Read more