Wive it Wealthily in Draper!

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. Continue reading

Sunshine on a cloudy day

Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys is a look at the end of a career for a performer and what it means to him and his family. Willie (Ron Frederickson) has lived in denial about the end of his career ever since his partner, Al (Andrew Maizner), walked off their act decades before the play starts. Willie is bitter toward Al and his decision, but CBS wants to include them in a “History of Comedy” retrospective and reunite them for a single sketch. Willie refuses, but his nephew (and agent), Ben (Jeremy W. Chase), persuades him to go along with it. Al arrives and the results are hilarious as two stubborn old actors try to work together despite decades of bitterness. Continue reading

“The Tempest” – Not so much a storm as a light breeze

While the Around the Globe Theatre Company’s performance of Shakespeare’s last great play stays incredibly true to the original text, the performance itself leaves something to be desired. Though it is clear that the director, Beth Bruner, has a solid understanding of the intricacies of Shakespeare’s writing (especially the stage directions cleverly written into the lines), and that all the actors have impressive command of the language, the performance sagged with a lack of energy and an incredibly slow pace. Uncut Shakespeare is an ambitious goal for any modern theatre company, and Around the Globe’s production did not move at a pace quick enough to hold the audience’s attention through the entirety. Continue reading

Review: I’m Not Rappaport

Herb Gardner’s iconic play about two New York octogenarians and their meetings on park bench is wonderfully brought to life in Holladay at what may very well be the last fully staged production from Holladay Arts Council. But what a great show to go out on. Continue reading

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