EDITOR’S NOTE: For preview coverage of the 49th Utah Arts Festival, which runs June 19-22, The Utah Review is presenting individual or group profiles of artists, performers, entertainers and some newcomers to the event. Visitors will also see the first significant change of the last 15 years in the festival map. There are several new features this year: Voodoo Productions’ street theater will include roaming graffiti stilt walkers, contortionists and living master works of art. Salt Lake Acting Company will appear for the first time at the festival, offering a sample from its upcoming summer show, The Secret Lives of the Real Wives in the Salt Lake Hive. Urban Arts is offering its largest live graffiti mural installation, while a row of several other artists will be demonstrating their creative process in real time. For kids, as admission for those 12 and under will be free, there will be plenty of make-and-take art options in Frozen Spaces in the Art Yard. The City Library auditorium will be the home to the 22nd edition of the international Fear No Film program, with the strongest slate of narrative short films in the event’s history. Of course, dance, who wears the empress jewels in performing arts, will be represented by Repertory Dance Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Echoing Spirit Dancers and, of course, the ever-popular 1520 Arts, at The Round. For tickets and more information, see the Utah Arts Festival website.
SALT LAKE ACTING COMPANY: SUMMER SHOW: THE SECRET LIVES OF THE REAL WIVES IN THE SALT LAKE HIVE (June 20, 4:15 p.m., The Round; June 21, 6:45 p.m., Plaza Stage)
Making its first appearance ever at the Utah Arts Festival, Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC) will offer two sneak-peek performances of its summer show The Secret Lives of the Real Wives in the Salt Lake Hive, which will open June 25 and run through Aug. 19.
For more than four decades, SLAC had enjoyed the fruits of its summer production with Saturday’s Voyeur, a cherished blend of political satire and musical parody. Then, in 2021 after the pandemic hiatus, SLAC launched a different summer show with SLACabaret, which wisely shifted the comedic perspective to Utah’s sociocultural quirks. In 2022, SLAC’s summer production successfully cemented itself as the company’s newest tradition, with SLACabaret: Down the Rabbit Hole. The Utah Review described it as “pleasurable, scintillating, invigorating and chic like a brand new pair of white sneakers.”
In 2023, SLAC dropped ‘cabaret’ and renamed it as a ‘summer show.’ A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood was a bristlingly paced musical comedy that took audiences through the usual territory of Utah’s zeitgeist of extremism politics. Stops included book banning, cultural censorship, drag shows, unaffordable housing costs and concerns about the Great Salt Lake’s viability. Last year, Close Encounters in the Beehive starred two ETs sent from deep space to investigate the strange land of Deseret and its quirky Mormon inhabitants and to report back to their Overlord (an intergalactic Elon Musk) for determining whether or not the planet should be spared from annihilation.
The pop culture pantheon is once again set to be celebrated in this year’s show, with a writing team of Austin Archer and veterans Olivia Custodio and Penelope Caywood. The show tips its parody hat to two popular reality television series: The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and, more significantly, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
In an interview with The Utah Review, Archer talked about the process of writing this year’s show, by acknowledging the risks of irreverently pushing the envelope with the comedy and not to punch down in making jokes.
Many have known Archer as a playwright, actor and singer-songwriter in Salt Lake City but for the last decade, he has not lived in the Beehive State and has split his time mainly between New York City and Los Angeles. He has a large and very prolific presence on social media (his handle is yourpal_austin), including Tik Tok (with more than 1.6 million followers and nearly 50 million views), as well as YouTube, Instagram and a podcast with the title People Pleaser with Austin Archer. He has produced more than 1,000 comedic and satirical commentaries on social and political issues, which he says has helped to hone his writing skills in this genre.
“My Los Angeles friends are fascinated by Utah’s idiosyncratic culture, and which has grown more with the rise of Utah-based reality shows,” Archer said, adding that reality television is a rich mine for drama and culture. Indeed, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which began its second season last month, also includes the drama of the members of MomTok on social media. It is Hulu’s most successful unscripted series and has been nominated for honors as Best Reality Series.
Archer said he connects regularly with Utah content creators, which is important in writing a show with jokes and premises that will land successfully with audiences. He is not surprised by the strong external interest in Utah culture. The state churns out legions of actors, musicians, dancers and other performers who end up in major national entertainment and performing arts markets. “Utah understands how culture has always cultivated good storytellers,” he explained, adding that there are a lot of entrepreneurial people locally who know how to build an entertaining product.
As for comedic material to consider for this year’s show, the opportunities are boundless: Trump’s return to office, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s campaign to Make America Healthy Again, Utah becoming the first state to remove fluoride from its water, local billionaires Ryan and Ashley Smith and their plans to remake downtown Salt Lake City and even references to the looming shadows of artificial intelligence. Among the songs will be Alpha Male, in the style of Macho Man by The Village People; Tithing, inspired by Loathing from Wicked, and Real Ladies of the Hive, a nod to Lady Marmalade.
Cynthia Fleming, SLAC’s executive director and director and choreographer of the summer show, said, “Creating a brand-new musical satire every year is no small feat. It’s a challenge even when the same writers return year after year. However, at SLAC, we’re committed to producing a show written for our community, about our community, by a rotating team of talented writers; something even more ambitious.”
She added, “I’m proud of this ongoing artistic journey. Over the past couple of years, we’ve truly found our footing and our voice for the Summer Show. It’s become something our community looks forward to: a joyful, hilarious, and lovingly irreverent look at life in Utah. I’m grateful to all the incredible writers who have contributed to this tradition over the years, and especially to this year’s writers: Austin Archer, Penelope Caywood, and Olivia Custodio. Their brilliance has helped us capture something truly special.”
Finally, Fleming said, “We’re thrilled to be performing at the Utah Arts Festival. As a longtime admirer of the festival, it’s an absolute honor to be part of such a vibrant celebration of the power of art.”
Actor Robert Scott Smith will be making his second Summer Show appearance, after previously performing in five iterations of Saturday’s Voyeur. What makes this experience so special is the opportunity to work on a brand-new musical—something that’s pretty rare in the life of an actor,” he said. “Cynthia [Fleming] always reminds us how unique it is to not only be part of a show’s developmental process but also to workshop and then perform it within such a short timeframe.”
He added, “For me, that challenge is exciting. I’m always drawn to projects that push me creatively, and being part of something new, especially in a community that values bold storytelling, is incredibly fulfilling. And honestly, it’s hard to pass up the chance to bring Joseph Smith back to the stage. It’s a role I’ve grown to love— I’ve found so much charm, humor and buffoonery in portraying such an iconic figure.”
Putting the finishing touch on why SLAC’s summer show has resonated for years, Smith explains, “At the heart of it, I hope audiences come ready to laugh, to engage, and to be surprised. This show offers a space to reflect on our world, our own State, and the current phenomenon of SLC ‘reality’ lives on television through comedy and satire, and in times when finding levity can feel hard, I think that’s more valuable than ever.”
For tickets and more information, see the SLAC website.
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