Empress has a BIG evening of laughs and heart
MAGNA — “Being big and tall doesn’t make you a grown-up.” This lyric, from the title song of Big: The Musical, encapsulates the message of this stage adaptation of the…
Lots of bang, not much substance in CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG
WEST VALLEY CITY — It is easy to sum up my impression of the Hale Centre Theatre production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: it’s all about the car. The actors,…
Covey Center’s CHARLIE BROWN carried by stellar performances
PROVO — There is a unique challenge to theatre for young audiences: How to create something that is entertaining for children, but also is fun for adults and high quality?…
THE FANTASTICKS has all the fixings of a good production
DRAPER — This was my first time seeing The Fantasticks, and it only took me a few minutes to understand why it’s such a staple of community theater. Tom Jones’s…
Foibles abound in THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES
OGDEN — The Will Rogers Follies, book by Peter Stone, with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and music by Cy Coleman, is a fascinating story of a man…
DREAMGIRLS offers a dreamy night
SALT LAKE CITY — In the title song of Dreamgirls, currently playing at the Capitol Theater, our three leading ladies make us a promise: “We’re your Dreamgirls. We’ll make you…
The Zig’s NEXT TO NORMAL is anything but ordinary
OGDEN — The Ziegfeld Theater’s production of Next to Normal (music by Tom Kitt; books and lyrics by Brian Yorkey) has set the bar very high for theater in 2013.…
Gimme a show like HAIR!
SALT LAKE CITY — The reason live theater is such an enduring and beloved art form is that there is something deeply resonant about shared experience. So powerful is the…
Lead actresses keep SIDE SHOW together
PROVO —It is human nature to have one’s attention drawn to something unusual. And nothing quite captures “unusual” like conjoined twins. In an individualistic culture like America’s, the idea of…
THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL provides laughs at the Empress Theater
MAGNA — There are few things that can tempt me to leave my warm, cozy apartment on a cold winter’s eve, but a good musical is among them—especially a classic.…