In addition to "Women and Wallace" (see related story on facing page), two other productions opening this week along the Wasatch Front include Desert Star Theatrics' musical melodrama, "Calamity Jane" and Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale" in the Pardoe Drama Theatre at Brigham Young University.
- "CALAMITY JANE," based on a new script by Peter VanSlyke, will include songs from both the Doris Day movie version and from "Destry Rides Again," along with a new composition by James Gooden, Desert Star Theatrics' artistic director, and Val David Smithson, the company's musical director and accompanist.The show opens Saturday, Jan. 20, at 7 p.m. at Desert Star Playhouse, 4861 S. State, Murray (the old Vista Theater), and will continue on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays at 7 p.m. through March 15.
DST regulars Janie Wallace and Shawn Maxfield will portray Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickock, who join forces to vanquish the villainous Diamond Jack Butler and keep the pleasant town of Deadwood, N.D., safe for the decent, law-abiding folk.
Also in the cast are James Darling, Eric Jensen, Paula Jessop and Gooden (who also directed), with Sharon Kenison and Jesse Curd.
Frank Ackerman, formerly of Promised Valley Playhouse, has designed and painted the scenery.
All productions at Desert Star Playhouse are family oriented musical melodramas followed by olio acts spotlighting the musical, dance and comedic talents of the troupe. For "Calamity Jane," the olios will focus on old-time vaudeville routines.
Songs in "Calamity Jane" will include "After I Strike It Rich," the new tune by Gooden and Smithson; "Take Me Back to the Black Hills," "Higher Than a Hawk" and "I Can Do Without You."
The olio acts will include such familiar tunes as "Walk Down the Avenue" (from "Easter Parade"), "Danny Boy" and Cole Porter's "Another Openin' Another Show."
Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children 12 and under. Group rates also are available. For reservations, call 266-7600.
Future productions on DST's calendar include "The Sheik," "The Sword of Zorro" and "Treasure Island."
- BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY'S winter season of plays will begin, appropriately enough, with Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale," a play of romance and fantasy interpreted for the BYU stage by theater director Robert Nelson and dramaturge Bruce Young.
The play will open Thursday, Jan. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in the Pardoe Theatre of the Harris Fine Arts Center and continue on Tuesdays through Saturdays through Feb. 3. In addition, a matinee at 4 p.m. is planned Jan. 29. Tickets are available through the drama ticket office, 378-7447.
Shakespeare's play is essentially two plays in one, a concept that appeals to Nelson but is one reason why the play has not been performed as frequently as many of the bard's works.
"It's fairly challenging because `The Winter's Tale' is so bifurcated," says Nelson. "I attended the Utah Shakespearean Festival this past summer specifically to see this play and to observe how well it can be presented. I was convinced it can be wondrous and magical, particularly in the moving and awe-inspiring last scene. It shows the redeeming power of love and forgiveness."
The first half of the play deals with an insanely jealous king who is as unjustified in his jealousy as was Othello. That story virtually resolves by the end of the first half with a virtuous queen apparently dead, a son dead and an infant daughter left in the wilderness to die.
The second half unfolds 16 years later and becomes a pastoral romantic comedy that reinforces a belief in the miracle of a heart's healing.
Nelson has placed "The Winter's Tale" in the 1890-1906 time frame to make it relatively contemporary for the audience.
The cast "The Winter's Tale" includes Denise Dinsdale, Veronique Enos, David Foutz, Daniel Hess and David Paxman. Other players are G. Dane Allred, Helen Hervey Anderson, David C. Barrus, Roger C. Bennington, Doug Flandro, Briant Hall, Gregory Hendrickson, Sean Hubbard, Evelyn M. Jensen, Janae Koralewski, Jared A. Lisonbee, Kevin Monk, C. E. Nelson, Todd Jennison Parmley, W. Jarrod Phillips, Rich H. Raddon, Laurie Smith, Sandra K. Utley, Katherine Willis and Jason F. Wright.