Revamped, retitled and spruced up for a second season, this energetic musical revue - a celebration both well-known Utahns and a few unspoken heroes in the state's colorful past - is a sure-fire hit.
Except for some pesky microphones, this breezy, occasionally dramatic and unusually short production is dandy entertainment for local folks and tourists alike.Most of the talked-about audience favorites from last year - notably "Something in the Water Out West," "Farming a Symphony in the Desert," the sprightly "Square Dancing With the Bard" and "Father Scanlan/Brother Macfarlane" - have been vastly improved with new props, costumes and choreography.
There are intimate, moving numbers as well - retiring Logan school teacher Myra Walker's "Poetry Place," Mary Ann Fisher pondering her experience as a blind singer successfully auditioning for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the joyous blend of ethnic groups in Utah's coal-mining communities in "Jewels of the Earth."
Gifted musician/composer Michael McLean has added one new segment in the middle of the show. It's an upbeat rock number called "1st South and Main," in which a Bakersfield hippy finds herself stranded in Salt Lake City in September 1969, then really "finds herself" - and her family roots - in the old Genealogical Society Building . . . what she thought was a Montgomery-Ward store (now a U.S. Bank branch). Instead of cosmetics and blouses, she discovers ancestral cousins and grandparents.
The cast is first-rate, made up of 16 of Utah's best dancers and singers, from such experienced stalwarts as Charles Metten, Jan Noyes and Roger Nelson to the equally talented and energetic Abe Mills, Danny Stiles, Kristi Grover, Kim Butterworth, Anna Babcock, Travis Hodges, Katie Higbee, Kymberly Mellen, Marcie Jacobsen, Ryan Shepherd, Kim Underwood, Jason Tatom and Julie Wilson.
While they work flawlessly as an ensemble, many of the performers also get some time in the spotlight.
Stiles has three of the show's best shots - as Father Scanlan, working to establish a Catholic congregation in St. George (not named for a Catholic saint, ironically), as TV inventor Philo T. Farnsworth and as "Romeo and Juliet" villain, "Ty" Balt . . . with Metten (Scanlan's supportive Mormon friend, Brother Macfarlane, and Monty, head of "them other Gues," in "Romeo") . . . Nelson as Maurice Abravanel . . . Noyes as Miss Walker . . . Grover as Mary Ann Fisher, to name just a few.
"Musicals-by-committee" are usually disastrous, but collaborators Kurt Bestor, Sam Cardon, David Tinney and McLean - all extremely gifted guys - have crafted a production that hits the mark for enjoyable entertainment. (Tinney not only directed and choreographed the show, he's also Riff in this summer's Sundance production of "West Side Story").
John Wayne Cook's scenery, Jannette Lusk-Unterborn's costumes, John Moran's lighting and Sean Adams' sound (except for a couple of microphones) are also notable contributions.
One major gripe: At the end of the salute to the Utah Shakespearean Festival (with "Romeo and Juliet" being staged as a western hoedown), a large sign drops down noting the festival's 35th anniversary, with "SOLD OUT" in bold, red letters. Patrons may be led to believe that this year's festival is sold out - and it certainly is not.