Delivering all the ‘zazz,’ Pioneer Theatre Company’s Utah premiere of The Prom is rollicking exhibition of gold medal theatrical gymnastics

Sometimes, a feel-good musical comedy reminds us that the ideal of everyone dancing together at a concert, festival or school prom has not yet fully materialized. In Hairspray, segregation is the barrier but Tracy Turnblad’s bountiful optimism in hoping that everyone of all identities can dance on The Corny Collins Show prevails.  In The Prom, … Read more

Live blog and review: Radio Hour Episode 16: The Case of the Missing Dog, by Brandan Ngo, presented by Plan-B Theatre, KUER-FM’s RadioWest

Welcome to the 16th episode of the Radio Hour series as part of Plan-B Theatre’s partnership with RadioWest, hosted by Doug Fabrizio on KUER-FM (90.1). Today, during the live RadioWest Friday broadcast, which begins at 11 a.m., The Case of the Missing Dog by Brandan Ngo will receive its premiere. For fans of The Naked … Read more

Pygmalion Theatre Company’s world premiere of Lane Richins’ Near Mint gives baseball its unsullied nostalgic shine

As Lane Richins’ good-hearted play Near Mint opens on the Pygmalion Theatre Company stage, the sunny mood signals that ‘Cracker’ Jack Patterson, retired pro baseball catcher, feels his life is pretty close to ‘near mint’ condition. It is 1988 in California. With his best friend, Pepper Crawford, they host a popular AM radio show for … Read more

Salt Lake Acting Company’s Utah premiere of Dipika Guha’s Yoga Play is splendid for its comedy; enlightened, hard-nosed truths

Even quick research will show that many of the stretching and relaxation classes that go by the name of yoga in the U.S. barely resemble the religious yoga practices of a devout Hindu. But, there also are other implications of stripping away Hindu and Vedic elements from contemporary yoga. The Hindu remains an inscrutable foreign … Read more

Earth Month roundup: Repertory Dance Theatre’s Flight, Samba Fogo’s The Seed of Samba, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s To See Beyond Our Time, NOVA Chamber Music Series’ Connect with the West

REPERTORY DANCE THEATRE: FLIGHT Producing a gratifying trio of works to highlight Earth Month, Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) made its Flight program its strongest offering within the last four years. Zvi Gotheiner’s Dancing The Bears Ears, a 2017 commission for the company, and two first-time RDT performances of existing works — José Limón’s The Winged … Read more

The deeply rooted sensational experience of Jenifer Nii’s Fire!, Carleton Bluford’s portrayal in Plan-B Theatre production

The script for Jenifer Nii’s Fire!, the one-actor show which is in the middle of a sensational run in the Plan-B Theatre production, is so exquisitely crafted in the precise rhythm of the playwright’s language that it becomes magic in the hands of a gifted actor. Reprising a role that he performed 13 years ago, … Read more

Nijinska’s Les Noces (The Wedding) becomes crowning achievement for Ballet West’s superb 59th season

With each work evoking its unique intricate, intuitive rhythmically reciprocal relationship between music and movement, the trio of Ballet West premieres in its most recent production proved to be the crowning highlight of the company’s superb 59th season.  A complex program of rigorous demands in all aspects, the presentation of Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Noces, Jerome … Read more

Spring exhibitions at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art include Boombox Benefit, along with global contemplations and multimedia of home, place, memory

The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA)’s current spring exhibitions are about various expressions and perceptions about home, place, memory, history and entitlement, with direct and indirect interpretations. They include: Boombox Benefit  When boomboxes emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, they became an icon for hip-hop’s rapid blossoming, in defining break dancing, ciphering … Read more

Spirited, well-acted production frames Pioneer Theatre Company’s offering of Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me

After a 2019 survey by the American Bar Association revealed some discouraging gaps in civic literacy, Bob Carlson, then ABA president, said, “We cannot be content to sit on the sidelines as democracy plays out in front of us. For the sake of our country, we all need to get in the game.” For example, … Read more

Many Wests exhibition now at Utah Museum of Fine Arts: extraordinary unprecedented collaboration of Smithsonian American Art Museum, four museums in American West

When Frederick Jackson Turner introduced American historians to his Frontier Thesis in Chicago during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, very few paid attention to the significance of his proposition. It was the frontier which emboldened the “composite nationality” of Americans, Turner contended. “In the crucible of the frontier, the immigrants were Americanized, liberated and fused … Read more