Musicals, operettas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy, intimate drama, off-the-wall humor and nearly everything in between is on this week's jam-packed menu of theater productions opening across the state.
Shows opening this week are:- THE MIKADO - Director/star Ralph Rodgers, reprising his role as Ko Ko, the Lord High Executioner, promises that this Pages Lane Theater production of the Gilbert & Sullivan classic will take the election year liberty to parody many of the hundreds of political topics that are fair game. Gilbert & Sullivan themselves frequently rewrote lyrics and dialogue to fit current events and lampoon government officials.
Except for Rodgers, all other roles will be double-cast. Performers include Glen Clayburn, Lance Ferrell, Julie Evans, Diane Rosser, Russ Anderson, Doug Cobabe, Ron Johnson, Alan Stoneman, Nelson Leduc, David Rowe, Judith A. Jones, Ruth Stoneman, Dee Ann Blair, Hazel Rowe, Teri Christensen and Nanc Ludwig.
FYI: Opens Friday, May 8, at the Pages Lane Theater, 292 E. Pages Lane, Centerville, then continues on Mondays and Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m., through June 13. Also a matinee at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 13. Tickets: $6 for adults and $5 for children on Mondays and Thursdays and the matinee; $8 for adults and $6 for children on weekends. Box office: 298-1302.
- LEONCE AND LENA, translated and adapted for a Babcock Theatre production by director Adrian Giurgea, is taken from Georg Buchner's 1836 look at the dilemma between freedom and determinism.
Buchner, a German medical student and scientist who was only 22 when he wrote the play - and who died the following year - took two of William Shakespeare's melancholy and ribald clowns and made them the central focus of the play, rather than the marginal decorations they are in Shakespearean works.
Buchner wrote only three plays during his short lifetime (the other two are "Danton's Death" and "Woyzeck"), but he is credited with influencing Brecht and other German expressionists.
The plot of this particular play concerns Leonce, a melancholy young prince about to be forced to marry a princess he has never met. With the help of his servant, he escapes to the country where he accidentally meets the very woman he is supposed to wed . . . and naturally the two fall in love.
Giurgea's approach includes a puppet stage and marionettes.
The cast includes Trevor Black, Matt Bohling, Jenniffer Buckalew, Robert C. Chynoweth, Siobhan Flynn, Angel Hayes, Katherine Kingston, Ira Joan Macner, Kris Lane Nelson, Roy R. Newton, Jason Novak, Maria Elena Ramirez, Theresa Raunikar, Ben Rolly, Ryan Sales, Lithe Sebesta, Natalie Stewart, Ahou Tabibzadeh, Wendy Williams and Chris Woodward.
FYI: The Babcock Theatre is in the Pioneer Memorial Theatre building, University of Utah campus, Broadway at University Street. (300 S. 1340 East). Performances are Thursdays-Saturdays, May 7-9 & 14-16, at 8 p.m.; Sundays, May 10 & 17, at 7 p.m., and one matinee on Saturday, May 16, at 2 p.m. For reservations, contact the PMT box office at 581-6961.
- CLASS ENEMY, Nigel Williams' scathing drama about six teenagers left to their own devices in a high school in a poor section of London, probes the dark corners of our social system.
Trevor Williams is directing the play for the Lab Theatre at the University of Utah. The drama centers on a power struggle between two of the youths - one a domineering bully and the other a lad who has a live-and-let-live attitude.
Williams warns that the play contains explicit language that might offend some patrons, but also points out that the language makes a powerful statement about youths and how they think.
The cast includes Christopher A. Borg, Stevie Ray Dallimore, Lurissa Lashay Gines, Mark Larson, Randy Reyes and Adam Middleton-Watts.
FYI: The Lab Theatre is upstairs in the Performing Arts Building, which is adjacent to the University of Utah's campus bookstore. Performances are Thursday-Saturday, May 7-9, at 8 p.m.; matinee on Friday, May 8, at 5 p.m.; Sunday, May 10, 7 p.m. Admission: $3.50 for general public, $2 for all students. All seats general admission. Box office: 581-6961.
- NUNSENSE, Dan Goggin's smash hit, off-Broadway musical comedy, just recently became available for regional and collegiate theater companies.
It's already been mounted in Provo, will play this week at Weber State University in Ogden and is scheduled for engagements later this season at Salt Lake Acting Company and the Old Lyric Repertory Company summer series in Logan.
Ronald V. Ladwig of the WSU theater faculty is directing.
The cast includes Jerri Christian, Rebecca Hess, Julie Armstrong, Laura A. Fisher and Jeni Carver.
FYI: Performances in the Allred Theatre, Val A. Browning Center for the Performing Arts, Weber State University, Ogden, Tuesday-Friday, May 5-8, at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, May 9, at 2 and 7:30 p.m. All seats reserved. Admission: $6 for adults, $3 for students/senior citizens. For reservations or further information, call 626-8500. Tickets available from the Dee Events Center box office, Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or at the Browning Center ticket office one hour prior to performance.
- COME BACK TO THE 5 & DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN, Ed Graczyk's Broadway play about the 20th reunion in a west Texas dime store of members of the Disciples of James
Dean fan club, is being directed by Lynda Linford at USU.
Now middle-aged, the Disciples are a group of women who were teenagers and part of the excitement when Dean filmed
"Giant" in a nearby town.
FYI: Morgan Theatre, Chase Fine Arts Center, Utah State University, Logan. Thursdays-Saturdays, May 7-9 & 14-16, at 8 p.m. Tickets: $6.50 for adults, $5.50 for senior citizens and USU faculty/staff, $3.25 for USU students with valid I.D. For credit
card reservations, call 750-1657.
- A DREAM FOR KATY: A CELEBRATION OF EARLY MORMON WOMEN - The contributions of 19th-century Mormon women as seen through the eyes of an ambitious 20th-century teenage girl form the core of this new play, premiering at Brigham Young University.
The play lauds several historical women's achievements while offering encouragement to young women who mistakenly believe that to be accepted, they need to "smother themselves" to conform to a specific image.
Claudia Harris of the BYU English Department is directing the work, which has been written by Susan Howe, another member of the English faculty. Held in conjunction with a Women's Conference May 7 and 8 at BYU, it is sponsored by the Women's Research Institute and the Department of Theater and Film.
The cast of 35 includes several key players: Carolyn Varga as Katy; Janice Power as Sarah Kimball; Tayva Patch as Eliza R. Snow; Renee Hieftje as Emmeline B. Wells; Kelli Frost as Zina Diantha Huntington Young; and Celesta Davis as Ellis Shipp.
FYI: de Jong Concert Hall, Harris Fine Arts Center, Brigham Young University, Provo. Wednesday, May 6, 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, May 7, 5:30 p.m., and Friday & Saturday, May 8-9, 7 p.m. All seats $5. Tickets available from the Music Ticket Office, 378-7444.
- INTO THE WOODS is Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Tony Award-winning musical that takes three beloved fairytales beyond the "happily ever after" stage.
With betwitching dialogue and witty songs, the show explores the "what if" side of Cinderalla (living with a prince isn't all that charming), Jack (who grapples with selling the family cow), Little Red Riding Hood ("I really hate to ask it, but do you have a basket?") and the Baker and his Wife. Their combined journeys pit them against a wicked witch, a ravenous wolf, giants, two princes, and even Rapunzel.
Director Roger Bean's large cast includes R. Matthew Benton as narrator and Christy Tice, Buddy Waters, David Weeks, Jenny Minster and Erin Hiatt in leading roles.
Sisters Robbie and Lainie Berry will play Cinderella's stepsisters, Florinda and Lucinda, and several cast members have dual roles.
FYI: Randall L. Jones Theatre, Southern Utah University, Cedar City. Thursdays-Saturdays, May 7-9 & 14-16, 8 p.m., plus matinee on Saturday, May 16, at 2 p.m. Tickets: 586-7876.
- IT FLOATS! is an original melodrama written especially for children's audiences (but adults are more than welcome, too).
The show was written and directed by Carol Lasson of The Winner School's Curtain Call Children's Theater.
FYI: The school is at 6230 S. 2075 East. One performance only on Wednesday, May 6, at 7 p.m. Admission: $1 per person or $5 per family. Tickets available at the door.
- THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH, Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic fantasy-comedy unfolds the extraordinary adventures of a family through the ages.
It begins with the dawn of time and continues into the 20th century with a focal point on an everyman known as Mr. Antrobus or Adam. It also features Mrs. Antrobus or Eve; the eternal seductress, Sabina; and a fortune teller who is really the prophet Jeremiah.
Director Charles Metten, hoping to show that the play is about the whole human race and not just the North American white human race, has assembled a multicultural cast that includes blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Australians and Latins.
FYI: Margetts Arena Theatre, Harris Fine Arts Center, BYU, Provo. Thursday-Saturday, May 7-9, then Tuesdays-Saturdays, May 12-16 and 19-23, all at 7:30 p.m., plus one matinee at 4 p.m. on Monday, May 18. Reservations: drama ticket office, 378-7447. Tickets are priced at $6.50 for general public, $5.75 for senior citizens, and $5 for faculty, staff, students and children.
- TOGETHER ONE, being touted as "the new LDS musical," will make its public debut on May 4, with one performance only in Logan.
Composer Mark Furlong and playwright/lyricist David Hanson have collaborated on the show, which features David Wright and W. Lee Dailey as two LDS missionaries. Also in the cast is Shaun Stoddard.
FYI: Kent Concert Hall, Chase Fine Arts Center, Utah State University, Monday, May 4, 7:30 p.m. Admission: $6 for adults, $3 for students, senior citizens and children (in advance at the Taggart Student Center or The Book Table). Admission at the door: $8 for adults, $5 for students/senior citizens or $3.50 for children. Information: 752-9525.