Utah Theatre articles published in 15 Bytes, Utah’s art magazine, including theatre reviews, interviews with playwrights, directors, actors and more.
If you are familiar with the irreverent, bawdy, ever-so-absurdist humor of Mel Brooks’ films and plays, you will instantly understand the kind of wild ride the Grand Theatre’s The New Mel Brooks Musical: Young Frankenstein promises its audience. For those uninitiated into the 1974 cult film, the story […]
Pozdnyshev did it in the conservatory with a knife. We learn that much early on in “The Kreutzer Sonata,” Eric Samuelsen’s world-premiere one-act play, a superb adaptation (and condensation) of Tolstoy’s 1889 novella about murder and madness. Combined with a spellbinding performance of much of Beethoven’s Violin […]
The novel and (actually, several) films of The Talented Mr. Ripley are readily available in Salt Lake, but until this week the play has not been. A first step in rectifying that omission was made on Monday night, when Weller Booksworks, as part of both its Free Play Reading Series and the Utah Humanities Book Festival, staged a free reading in the bookstore. Although presented without costumes or scenery and only minimal action, the actors prepared as they would for any staging, rehearsing and working together to develop characters and impart the right voices.
Of all the brilliant theatrical tropes that Repertory Dance Theatre has introduced over half a century, one of the best comes right at the start of each performance. As the house lights dim and the roses on the curtain fade from sight, anticipation calls the audience to order. […]
The premise is unalluring: a smartly dressed, middle-aged woman stands in front of the audience and recounts the struggles of caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s. Yet an emotionally taut performance by April Fossen; a sharp, engaging script by Steve Yockey; and the fairy-tale interludes of Glen and […]
While most fans agree “The Empire Strikes Back” is the best film in the original Star Wars trilogy, few of them would suggest watching the film in isolation. It would be like attending only Part Two of Shakespeare’s trio of plays on Henry V: a middle with no […]
Just as one would not wisely attend Shakespeare’s Henry V as a primer for an exam on franco-anglo relations in the 15th-century, do not come to Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, on stage this summer at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, to better understand the life of a favorite classical composer. […]
A husband, his wife – and a sister wife: not such a peculiar scenario in Utah. But LDS Church mandated? Again? That’s the intriguing premise of Plan-B Theatre’s excellent world-premiere play, “Pilot Program.” Set in 2019, the plot centers around a hopelessly childless middle-aged LDS couple who are […]
Playwright Brian Richard Mori set himself a challenge when he set out to dramatize one of the 20th century’s most illuminating literary feuds. While more than half of all Americans must be old enough to remember this and other events from the early 1980s, few things can have […]
Plan-B’s “Mama” is an absorbing play, beautifully performed Wednesday night by a quartet of fine actors. A rich mixture of high tech and solid theater, it resonates with a hymn to every sort of mother. Bad or good, absent or too-much present, drunk or sober, playwright Carleton […]
Lighting adds a lot to a play and it simply wasn’t there opening night at Salt Lake Acting Company’s world premiere of Elaine Jarvik’s “Two Stories.” There were two interruptions in the production due to a blown fuse before it was decided that, well, the show must go […]
The world premiere of a stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is the triumph of this year’s Utah Shakespeare Festival. Under the capable hands of director Joseph Hanreddy, and based on a commissioned text by J.R. Sullivan, this Sense and Sensibility is a delight to watch, […]
This year, unsuspecting visitors to the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Adams Theatre may be startled to find Vicki M. Smith’s playful stage set, which looks more appropriate for a theatrical production of Blazing Saddles than an Elizabethan comedy: because at the 2014 Festival, Brad Carroll’s staging of Shakespeare’s The […]
Family Home Evening it isn’t. But Eric Samuelsen’s world premiere “3” at Plan B Theatre Company is still as Mormon as it gets. That doesn’t mean anyone of any belief system won’t enjoy it immensely. But it will help if you’ve spent some time in Utah. These are three […]
‘When evil comes into the world, it is the job of the witnesses to turn it into love.’ Statistically, when a child dies, more than half the time the parents end up by divorcing. The reason most often given is conflict over how to grieve. These differences aren’t […]
ACT I Eric Samuelsen enters stage right. He’s a broad man with keenly intelligent eyes and an infectious smile. Samuelsen looks surprised to be here. He’s a playwright after all, not an actor. ERIC: Choosing not to act was not a difficult call. He laughs good-naturedly. ERIC: It […]
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Eric Samuelsen, resident playwright for Plan-B Theatre Company. His latest work, Clearing Bombs, will debut on February 20. During our conversation, I was struck by Samuelsen’s success: 20 years as professor in the theatre department at Brigham Young University […]
I went to The Righteous and Very Real Housewives of Utah County having seen no more than a few minutes of a “The Real Housewives of…” TV show; but that brief taste was exposure enough to get a sense of the series’ formula of alliances, feuds, gossip, and […]
Wives, widows, forbidden love and family secrets…and all in Utah County. Whether you’re intrigued or wondering if this simply describes your family, the world premier of The Righteous and Very Real Housewives of Utah County is a play you’re not going to want to miss. Written by Miguel […]
