Two musical comedies and an Arthur Miller classic are opening this week in the region.
"NUNSENSE II: THE SECOND COMING," the first of three sequels to the popular comedy/revue about the problem plagued Sisters of Hoboken, will play Jan. 21-Feb. 5, at Salt Lake Community College's Grand Theatre.
Toni Lynn Byrd is directing a cast that includes Margaret Crowell as the Mother Superior, Teri Cowen as Sister Mary Hubert, Mary Driggs as Sister Robert Anne, Annie Draper as Sister Mary Amnesia and Jayceen Craven as Sister Mary Leo.
(Byrd played Sister Hubert when the first edition of "Nunsense" had its regional premiere in Salt Lake City in 1992. Cowen played Sister Robert Anne in that production.)
Theatergoers who've followed the travails of the "Nunsense" nuns know that in the first production, they're staging a fund-raiser to enable them to bury the sisters who had died from eating tainted vichyssoise (accidentally poisoned by convent cook, Sister Julia, Child of God).
The sequel is a "thank you" concert for those who contributed to the burial fund.
Two other sequels in the series are "Nuncrackers," a "Nunsense" version of "Nutcracker," which was staged recently in Utah County, and "Nunsense Jamboree," based on Sister Mary Amnesia's first big country album, showcased in a Nashville concert.
(Yet another version of the show, currently playing off Broadway in New York, but unlikely to make into regional theaters, is an all-male edition, called "Nunsense: A-Men.")
Performances at the Grand will be Mondays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday matinees at 2 p.m. All seats are reserved. Tickets range from $6 to $16. For reservations, call the box office at 957-3322. SLCC's South City campus is located at 1575 S. State. There is free parking on the east side of the building.
"I DO, I DO," Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's 1966 Broadway classic, is being produced by the St. George Musical Theatre company, Jan. 20-31 in St. George's historic Opera House, 212 N. Main.
Performances will be Thursdays-Saturdays and Mondays at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m.
To reserve tickets in advance, call 1-435-628-8755 or 1-435-673-8183 or purchase tickets at Kenworthy Signs and Monuments, 735 E. Tabernacle.
Based on the classic comedy, "The Fourposter," the musical follows one couple through 50 years of marital bliss, infidelity, children, incompatibility, old age and simple joys.
THE CRUCIBLE — The Salem witch trials of 1692 are used as a setting for both a historical play and as a parable of contemporary society in "The Crucible" which will be presented Jan. 17-22 as a Stage II production at Southern Utah University.
Curtain time for the Tony Award winning play by Arthur Miller is 7:30 p.m. each night in the SUU Auditorium. In addition, a 2 p.m. matinee is scheduled Jan. 22.
Stage II productions at SUU are entirely student produced and directed under the general supervision of a Stage II faculty/student committee.
Duane Waihi, a senior theatre arts major from Hastings, New Zealand, is directing "The Crucible."
"Using the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 as a point of departure, Arthur Miller has created a play that delves into the dangers of hysteria," Waihi explains. "Though the play's setting, both in time and place, is distant from Utah in the year 2000, 'The Crucible' nevertheless
finds relevance, as irrational fear has been and always will be a part of the human experience."
Mark Houser, Pleasant Gap, Pa., is cast as John Proctor, a farmer and the play's protagonist. Natasha Ragsdale, Prescott, Ariz., plays Elizabeth Proctor, his wife. Other major roles are taken by Francis Tau'a, Maui, Hawaii, Rev. Parris; Sharla Lundberg, Lansing, Kan.,
Abigail Williams; and Matt Bennett, Taylorsville, Rev. John Hale.
The play will be presented arena style with limited seating but with full lighting and sound.
"This is a story of how children's lies grow and build until a whole town is aroused," Waihi explains.
Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and children, and $2 for SUU students.
COMING UP at the first of the following week, in connection with the annual Sundance Film Festival, will be the first of two live theater productions in the Eccles Blue Box Theatre in Park City.
Award-winning playwright Charlayne Woodard's "In Real Life," which was developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab, will be performed on Sunday, Jan. 23, at 7:30 p.m., followed later in the week by activist/poet/screenwriter Eve Ensler's 1997 Obie Award winning "The Vagina Monologues," on Thursday, Jan. 27, at both 7:30 and 10:15 p.m.
Tickets, $10 each, are available by calling 521-2525 or at film festival box offices in Trolley Square and Park City.
Information on stage productions or auditions must be submitted at least two weeks in advance. Compiled by Ivan M. Lincoln, Deseret News theater editor, 1-801-236-6017. Fax: 1-801-237-2550; e-mail: ivan@desnews.com