http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews Tue, 08 May 2012 16:08:47 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=501 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=501#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 16:08:47 +0000 heatherjones http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=501
Chapter Two is inspired by Simon’s own second marriage, after the death of his first wife, and the grief he still felt for her. “Doesn't sound like a comedy,” you say? And you would be right. It’s not the subject that’s comedic, it’s the writing of it. In fact, most Neil Simon plays I've seen are basically depression and angst wrapped in wit, which isn't a bad thing. I will admit I’m wary of “auto-biographical” pieces. Usually the author finds them much more interesting than the rest of us. But Simon obviously loved his second wife very much because in Jennie Malone, he wrote a character that was surprisingly interesting.]]> http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?feed=rss2&p=501 0 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=489 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=489#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 20:47:54 +0000 peteparker http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=489
For the hardcore theatre fan in Utah this is the time of year when thoughts are turning to the many works of one William Shakespeare and plans are being made to attend a certain annual festival named for the legendary bard, but this month you don’t have to travel all the way to Cedar City to get your Shakespeare fix, only as far south as Draper for the Utah/Idaho Performing Arts Company’s (UNIPAC) highly entertaining production of the Taming of the Shrew at the Historic Draper Theatre. ]]> http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?feed=rss2&p=489 0 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=471 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=471#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:14:43 +0000 sifujc http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=471
As you walk into the Studio Theater at the Rose Wagner Center for the Performing Arts, as with any play done in a studio space, you expect to see the set subtly lit with the stage lights, but you expect it to be vacant with the actors hiding backstage or in the wings waiting for the show to start. That's not the case with Plan-B's THE SCARLET LETTER, by Jenifer Nii (Adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne). Yes, you see the set, subtly lit by the stage lights, but it's not empty. Hester Prynne, played by Lauren Noll, stands defiantly at the top of the scaffold holding her baby bundled in a black cloth. Occasionally the baby cried or otherwise fussed, and she would attend to it. I heard one audience member say, "oh! She's real" when Hester moved.]]> http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?feed=rss2&p=471 2 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=463 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=463#comments Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:52:12 +0000 Guest http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=463
On Friday, March 23rd, I had the pleasure of attending Parable Productions’ newest endeavor It Is Well with My Soul: The Joni Eareckson Tada Story. Adapted, written, and directed by Annie Fields, It Is Well is based on the autobiography Joni, and focuses on the difficult journey that one woman faces after a tragic accident leaves her a quadriplegic. ]]> http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?feed=rss2&p=463 2 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=460 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=460#comments Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:30:25 +0000 Guest http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=460
You have to admire a play that starts out with a gunshot. After you learn that the gunshot happens at the start of a 10th wedding anniversary party to be populated by the happy couples’ closest friends, you have to wonder what on earth is going on. This how the Westminster Players’ production of Rumors by Neil Simon, a frantic farce-like comedy set in the late 1980’s, begins. ]]> http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?feed=rss2&p=460 0 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=425 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=425#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:47:25 +0000 Megan B. Pedersen http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=425
Admittedly, I was thrilled when I found out that Midvale Main Street Theater had made the brave choice to produce this show. Next to Normal is one of my all time favorites. I have seen several productions from SLC to NYC. However, I was also worried because this is a Pulitzer Prize winning piece of a theatrical genius (in my opinion). I didn't expect perfection but I hoped that it would be treated with the respect that it deserved.]]> http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?feed=rss2&p=425 0 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=445 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=445#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:02:04 +0000 heatherjones http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=445
I didn’t know what to expect from this production. I knew it had Johnny Cash music, and . . . . that’s about all I knew. I had never been to the Egyptian Theatre before, but the space is lovely, parking was easy-peasy, staff was friendly, and the plethora of local sponsors made me feel like I had joined a very cool club.]]> http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?feed=rss2&p=445 0 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=421 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=421#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:00:54 +0000 Erin Walton http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=421
Saturday night, Backstage Utah was invited to review 12 Angry Men, presented by West Jordan Theatre Arts and the Sugar Factory Playhouse, and directed by JC Carter. Normally, I don’t attend community theatre, especially to review a production. It is my personal belief that most of the value in community theatre lies within the personal enrichment of the actors, and their continued growth as actors. There isn’t a ton of fulfillment for the audience. Upon discovering this would be directed by JC Carter, I felt it would be worth a look. ]]> http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?feed=rss2&p=421 4 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=411 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=411#comments Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:12:14 +0000 Chelsey Richardson http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=411
Through numerous revivals and television adaptations, Arthur Miller’s allegorical play The Crucible has taken on new and important meaning, traveling through sixty years of American history and serving as a bastion of American theater. Though the story of the play is concerned with the Salem Witch Trials, its original intent was to hold a mirror up to the McCarthy-era fear of Communism, and the work has remained relevant through its portrayal of intolerance, prejudice and suspicion.]]> http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?feed=rss2&p=411 0 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=393 http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=393#comments Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:08:32 +0000 Michele Rideout http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?p=393
The show opens and proceeds for the first few minutes in complete darkness. A companionable male voice begins speaking. "I hate theater," the voice says. "Well, it's so disappointing, isn't it?" This voice, which belongs to a lonely, and musical-loving divorcee called Man in Chair (rendered with an affable believability by Doug Caldwell), offers up a prayer as he always does before a play, “…let it be short… keep the actors out of the aisles… I just want to be entertained. I mean, isn’t that the point?” It so happens, I say pretty much this same prayer before any show too, and I can gladly report, that The Drowsy Chaperone at Center Point Legacy Theatre answers that prayer.]]> http://www.backstageutah.com/reviews/?feed=rss2&p=393 1