Toni/Tony Tennille will come to Salt Lake City to star in "Victor/Victoria," the Theater League of Utah announced earlier this week.
Tennille, who comprised one-half of the '70s pop act the Captain & Tennille, is also known for performing sultry '30s and '40s standards with symphonies around the nation. (In fact, the singer has made appearances with our own Utah Symphony over the past few of years.)"Victor/Victoria" is one of six productions the Theater League will bring to Salt Lake City during its ninth season.
Utah premieres of "Chicago" and "Rent" are also on tap early in the season, and "Show Boat" will float into town in August.
In addition to these classic and near-classic productions, the League has scheduled two encores that were extremely popular with audiences last year - "Tap Dogs" and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera."
Something new this season, however, is the addition of performance ratings. Much like movie ratings, they are designed to help theatergoers decide what shows might be appropriate for their families and friends.
Instead of G, PG, PG-13 or R, however, the ratings are numbered by the recommended age level, accompanied by the words: "Recommended for patrons over age . . . "
"Chicago," "Rent" and "Victor/Victoria" are all rated 17, while "Show Boat" and "The Phantom of the Opera" are 12. Only "Tap Dogs" is for "all" ages.
"These are merely suggestions and guidelines for people," said Magicworks West spokesman Bruce Granath about the ratings. "We had a lot of our subscribers requesting we rate the shows for their information."
Granath said the ratings were not there to discourage patrons, but to let them know that some of the content might not click with younger theatergoers.
"I don't think there is inappropriate content in any of the shows we are bringing in, but there are some issues that might go way over some younger viewers' heads," he said. "The ratings are there to help people decide whether or not to take their kids or their neighbors to a performance."
Here are dates and descriptions of productions for the Theater League of Utah's 1998-99 season:
- "TAP DOGS" will literally kick off the season July 7-12, 1998. The performance is part dance performance, part percussion concert, part dramatic theater and part construction site.
Choreographer Dien Perry started the boot-tapping "Tap Dogs" in Newcastle, Australia. The show was such a success during its last stop in Salt Lake City that an encore run was called for.
- "SHOW BOAT," Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's musical saga is a classic. The story of touring riverboat players spans 40 years from the post-Reconstruction Deep South in the 1880s through the Jazz Age, and finally the Roaring '20s.
- "CHICAGO," which will run Sept. 8-13, 1998, is touted as a "Drop Dead Broadway Musical" and with good reason. The story of vaudevillian Velma Kelly takes place in the 1920s when jazz and gangsters were chic. Murder, betrayal and backstage competitiveness are all part of the action in this production.
- "RENT," one of Broadway's most talked about shows in recent years, will run Nov. 24-Dec. 6, 1998. A modern-day adaptation of "La Boheme," this one is about a group of struggling artists struggling to make a living in impoverished circumstances.
- "VICTOR/VICTORIA" is slated to run March 2-7, 1999. Based on the popular 1982 musical-comedy (which was in turn based on an obscure '30s German film), the play tells the story of Victoria Grant, a beautiful woman who has fallen on desperate times. In order to eat, she takes a job in a top-notch Paris cabaret playing a man who impersonates a woman.
- "THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA" will conclude the season June 3-27, 1999. Andrew Lloyd-Webber's much-loved take on the classic love story will once again bring Salt Lake audiences to tears.
- SEASON TICKETS can be purchased by calling 355-5502. Individual tickets can be purchased by calling ArtTix at 355-ARTS (2787). All performances will be held in the Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South.