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

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

Great Salt Lake Fringe 2024: Festival marks 10th anniversary with 22 shows, 2nd year at Trolley Square in Alliance Theater campus

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is Part 2 of a two-part feature about the Great Salt Lake Fringe (GSLF) festival’s 10th anniversary, This year’s festival will comprise two weekends of performances (July 26-28 and August 2-4) at the Alliance Theater, connected to the Utah Arts Alliance, at Trolley Square. See Part 1 here, for a feature about … Read more

Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival 2024: A look back at its first decade

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is Part 1 of a two-part feature about the Great Salt Lake Fringe festival’s 10th anniversary, This year’s festival will comprise two weekends of performances (July 26-28 and August 2-4) at the Alliance Theater, connected to the Utah Arts Alliance, at Trolley Square. See Part 2 here, for a summary of this … Read more

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

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

Generous, heartwarming performances, well-timed comedic delivery highlight Meanwhile Park’s world premiere of Tom Misuraca’s In Dogs We Trust

In Tom Misuraca’s gay romantic comedy In Dogs We Trust, a wonderful first date for the young couple of Darryl and Noah quickly sours on a Sunday morning at a West Hollywood dog park, when Noah brings the wrong dog back to Darryl. While it might be a deal breaker before what seems to be … Read more

An outstanding, riveting collaboration: Immigrant’s Daughter Theatre, Hart Theater Company stage Paul Zindel’s classic The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

The question of and quest for personal dignity come through with sharp bites in the outstanding production of Paul Zindel’s The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, with  Immigrant’s Daughter Theatre in collaboration with Hart Theater Company. Directed by Morag Shepherd, the production reinvigorates for a contemporary generation a 1965 play which some critics … Read more

Meanwhile Park set for world premiere of Thomas Misuraca’s gay romantic comedy In Dogs We Trust

The splendid Meanwhile Park outdoor theatrical venue will be the site for the upcoming world premiere of Thomas Misuraca’s In Dogs We Trust, a gay romantic comedy set in a West Hollywood dog park. The play by Misuraca, a Los Angeles-based playwright whose short- and full-length plays have been produced internationally, was selected by a … Read more

Gobsmacking and dazzling: Pioneer Theatre Company’s Utah premiere of Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812 wows opening night audience

The electropop opera Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812 draws the audience into the stage action in ways unlike conventional experiences with musical theater. Take, for example, the rapid-fire exuberance of the Act II sequence comprising Balaga, The Abduction and In My House.  On opening night for Pioneer Theatre Company’s (PTC) Utah premiere … Read more

Sackerson returns to public performances with In Your Dreams, showcasing its logistical talents for a marvelous theatrical tour of emotional vulnerabilities, laments, realities

Becoming more popular than its precursor “dream on,” the slangy derisive “in your dreams!” quickly took hold in the 1980s, making it painfully aware that despite desiring so much for something to happen, it will never be. With eight miniature scenes by four Utah playwrights, presented to a tiny audience of six persons per performance, … Read more

PYGmalion Theatre Company’s Utah premiere of Jane Anderson’s Mother of the Maid is superb closer to a spectacular company season

In the introduction to her superlative biography Joan of Arc: A History (2014), Helen Castor wrote about her subject’s unique position as historical figure and as an epitome of Medieval Age culture, military history, politics and religious faith: “Unsurprisingly, the effect of Joan’s gravitational field – the self-defining narrative pull of her mission – is … Read more