Hamilton: NYC versus SLC

“Have you seen Hamilton yet?” It’s the question often heard around Salt Lake these last few weeks since the first touring production of of the Broadway musical came to town. “You and your words… You built palaces out of paragraphs, you build cathedrals” –Eliza In the Tony and Grammy award-winning musical created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, … Read more

Live blog and review: Stand presented by Plan-B Theatre, KUER-FM’s RadioWest

Listen live at RadioWest, and click on the ‘listen live’ icon in the upper right hand corner. Also, listen here. The show will be rebroadcast today (April 26) at 7 p.m. and will be available in the RadioWest archives. For a preview of Radio Hour Episode 12: Stand, written by Matthew Ivan Bennett and produced … Read more

World, U.S. premieres highlight recent spring productions of Sackerson, Repertory Dance Theatre, NOVA Chamber Music Series

This spring has blossomed with numerous adventurous concerts and performances, including several world and U.S. premieres, with works presented by the Repertory Dance Theatre, Sackerson and NOVA Chamber Music Series. SACKERSON: SCARLET For a small theatrical company without a permanent home, Sackerson has managed consistently to electrify the Salt Lake City performing arts scene with … Read more

Jonathon Thompson’s River of Lost Souls superbly probes long historical chain leading to Gold King Mine disaster

Near Salt Lake City, the Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine sits atop a 70-square-mile underground plume of contaminated groundwater. A burst spilling into the valleys could trigger Utah’s worst environmental disaster ever. While the Gold King Mine spill that occurred in southwestern Colorado attracted a great deal of public attention in early August 2015, … Read more

Jump by Plan-B Theatre, Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory achieves unique poignance

When the play Jump opens, the audience is enjoying the pithy, rapid banter between Erick, the young confident skydiver (Matthew Sincell), and Phil (Darryl Stamp), a 60-year-old first-timer, as they prepare for the fateful jump from 12,000 feet above the ground. The audience laughs as Erick tries to ease the nerves of Phil, who rattles … Read more

Etiquette: pop-up production by Sackerson that redefines theater

NOTE: The review of Etiquette is written by Matthew Ivan Bennett, a Utah playwright whose work has been premiered by Plan-B Theatre. Bennett’s next premiere is Radio Hour Episode 12: Stand, which will be presented by Plan-B Theatre and KUER-FM’s RadioWest program live on April 26 at 9 a.m. Etiquette may sound like the title … Read more

The Weird Play, co-production of Plan-B Theatre and Sackerson, a liberating theatrical experience of love and interpretation

More than 50 years ago, Susan Sontag’s essay Against Interpretation became one of her most famous and widely scrutinized writings. Sontag wrote in the last line of the essay, “In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art,” – a declaration that resonated in her deep admiration for Franz Kafka’s work and, in … Read more

Two worthy Utah Enlightenment examples: Dan Higgins’ In. Memory. Of, NOVA Chamber Music Series’ Micro-Concerto program

Two recent Salt Lake City performances once again highlight the creative entrepreneurial impact of the Utah Enlightenment. DAN HIGGINS: IN. MEMORY. OF., AN EVENING OF STORYTELLING AND DANCE Talkbacks after a performance or a screening of a new film can be risky, frustrating and deflating. There are plenty of justifications why many creative professionals hesitate … Read more

Salt Lake Electric Ensemble’s recording of Philip Glass masterpiece Music with Changing Parts released on composer’s famous recording label

Nearly 50 years ago, Philip Glass (now 81) composed some of the most brilliant pieces of early minimalism. They were the seeds of a new complex music practice that only in the 21st century has been clarified for its utmost significance. Alex Ross, the eminent music critic for The New Yorker magazine, has written about … Read more

Utah filmmaker Andrew James’ Community Patrol takes Best Mini Doc honors at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

One of the least chronicled stories in the recent stream of documentaries about Detroit is how events and policies have invigorated community activists to claim the power of self-determination in the city’s neighborhoods through creative yet pragmatic strategies. In Community Patrol, which received Best Mini Doc honors at this year’s Big Sky Documentary Film Festival … Read more