PYGmalion Productions Theatre Company’s Utah premiere production of Tiny Beautiful Things, which is based on the bestselling book by Cheryl Strayed that was adapted for the stage by Academy-Award nominated screenwriter and award-winning actor Nia Vardalos, is a charming delight of chamber theater, with a quartet of actors who give the audience a soothing respite of empathy from the nasty tenor of our current times.
With Tamara Howell both portraying the lead character of Sugar and directing the show, joined by her daughter Madison Howell Wilkins as associate director and costumer, this production hits the note from one of its most memorable lines: “Be brave. Be brave enough to break your own heart. Look, we’re all going to die. Hit the iron bell like it’s dinnertime.”
The script is scrupulously loyal to Strayed’s experiences. It starts in 2010, two years before the author hit the literary jackpot with Wild, a memoir that touched on her 1,100-mile solo hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995 that rejuvenated her life, the unexpected death of her mother who was diagnosed with lung cancer, her own struggles with beating a heroin habit and the stresses of a divorce. Wild later was adapted into a film starring Reese Witherspoon.
Tiny Beautiful Things takes us before the moment when Strayed became famous. In 2010, Strayed was 42 and was awaiting word from her editor about changes she would need to make in her Wild manuscript. Meanwhile, she took over the reins of the Dear Sugar advice column for Rumpus, an online literary magazine. Steve Almond originated the column, answering letters in the persona of a woman with a complicated history. He passed the baton for this no-pay gig to Strayed.
She gave advice in Sugar’s persona, but, of course, the real difference was that Strayed pulled her actual experiences into her responses to readers. She wrote the column anonymously and then two years after she started, she revealed her identity.
After Wild hit the book shelves, Strayed published Tiny Beautiful Things. There was an associated podcast that lasted four years, and then another one popped up in 2020. Vardalos penned the script in 2016. In 2023, Hulu produced an eight-episode miniseries based on it.
Howell situates herself perfectly within Sugar’s character and the stage chemistry binds effectively with Matthew Ivan Bennett, Stephanie a Howell and Ali Lente absorbing effortlessly the multi-character aspects as letter writers.
PYGmalion’s production demonstrates Sugar’s stickiness, a trait that many writers aspire to hold onto in the quest to give their work the longest legs. There is an ironic virtue in the no-pay gig. Howell embodies gloriously that spirit when you’re paid nothing, you truly can do everything you want. For any writer who dreams of achieving the success that Strayed eventually enjoyed, the key is to cultivate and nourish the courage to make no excuses by claiming you have writer’s block. Howell captures this sentiment vividly in her interpretation of Sugar.
Writing an advice column, Strayed, who had never signed up for therapy, recognized that everyone has had experiences that likely will help someone to find their own clear path. In the book that inspired the adaptation, as an example, Strayed responded to one of her correspondents: “You don’t have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt. You have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones you’ve been holding…” It is timely advice that resonates acutely with our present-day challenges.
Warm-hearted in every bit, the production continues through Nov. 22, with performances on Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 4 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., in the Black Box Theatre at the Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts.
For tickets and more information, see the PYGmalion Theatre Company website.