You lose some, you gain some.
Two long-running summer theater troupes won't be around this season, but there are two brand-new companies waiting in the wings.
One of Utah's longest-running summertime stalwarts — the Sundance Summer Theatre — shut down last year (although Sundance Village has taken over operation of the hillside stage and will likely present several concerts).
Also apparently missing in action this season is the Actors' Repertory Theatre Ensemble's Castle Theatre Festival in Provo. Lorraine Edwards, who's been the driving force behind ARTE for several years, has moved back home to England. The company's box-office telephone number is no longer in service.
On the other side of the ledger, however, theatergoers will have two new options — the Utah Contemporary Theatre Company in Salt Lake City, and the Utah Neil Simon Festival in Cedar City.
The former is gearing up to produce cutting-edge, off Broadway plays, beginning next week in the Rose Wagner Center's Studio Theatre with the regional premiere of a recent New York hit, Charles Busch's "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife." Kirstie Rosenfield and Kurt Proctor are the company's producing artistic directors.
Further south, Cedar City is beefing up its "Festival City" standing with the addition of Southern Utah University theater instructor Richard Bugg's newly formed Utah Neil Simon Festival. The kickoff season features two comedies — "The Odd Couple" and "Barefoot in the Park" — playing in repertory July 18-Aug. 16 in the new Heritage Center auditorium.
The community's internationally renowned Utah Shakespearean Festival has a couple of new additions this year as well — the popular "Punch & Judy" shows are being revived as part of the Greenshow activities, and there'll be a new, 261-car parking lot directly across the street from the auditorium.
A major landmark being celebrated this summer is the 25th anniversary of Salt Lake Acting Company's "Saturday's Voyeur." This year, collaborators Nancy Borgenicht and Allen Nevins promise the return of several previous characters and vignettes. This year's central, topical theme is the Main Street Plaza brouhaha.
This Is the Place Heritage Park is putting "Promised Valley" on the back burner (until an amphitheater large enough to handle it can be built — maybe next year).
Instead, the Old Social Hall will be staging a compilation of humorous vignettes from the Mormon Pioneer trek, which director Michael Jesse Bennett is calling "Are We There Yet?" (He figures that, even as they looked back at the Nauvoo Temple across the river, youngsters were already asking their westward-bound parents "Are we there yet?")
The venerable Old Lyric Repertory Company in Logan is adding a fifth production this season — albeit, just four nights, as a "bonus" at the tail end of the regular series' run.
And — surprise, surprise — there will be at least one production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." The Riverton Arts Council is staging it June 21-July 19, in repertory with "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." (Presumably, some of Joseph's brothers may also end up playing some of the Pontipee boys.)
In addition to "Allergist's Wife," major regional premieres include the Egyptian Theatre Company's repertory productions of "Eating Raoul" and "Doctor, Doctor! The Medical Musical Comedy Revue."
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