For the past few years, folks in the Utah County theater community have been asking me to review productions south of Point of the Mountain.
In fact, they've suggested that since I do not personally review shows in the Provo-Orem area, I must consider them second-rate, at least compared to those in Salt Lake City.
I have explained on several occasions that not reviewing stage productions in that area was purely a matter of (1) time and (2) distance, and that I was pretty sure the plays and musicals produced on Utah County stages would stand up very well against those I see regularly here.
So, a few weeks ago, with a relatively free weekend available, I drove to Orem to see "Disney's Beauty and the Beast" at Hale Center Theater Orem.
Co-owner Anne Swenson took me on a tour of the building — a rather tired old structure that is nowhere near as upscale and modern as the Hale family's flagship Utah venue in West Valley City. (There are plans afoot to replace the Orem theater with a new space in a nearby mixed-use development.)
The Orem theater reminded me of HCT's "old days" in South Salt Lake, when the Hale family — partially transplanted from Glendale, Calif. — got back into show biz after a failed attempt at retirement. The South Salt Lake site was a tiny theater that was expanded twice but still fell miserably short when it came to rehearsal and storage amenities.
That's sort of the predicament Hale Center Theater Orem is in right now.
Originally built as a Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting hall — reportedly constructed by the veterans themselves — HCT-Orem has a cramped basement that is a rabbit's warren of helter-skelter hallways, awkwardly placed stairwells and a place where virtually every nook and cranny is used for some type of storage.
The auditorium, too, is far removed from the state-of-the-art facility in West Valley City. Orem audiences sit on hand-me-down theater seats encircling a small stage. And it's a stage that doesn't revolve or raise and lower. It just sits there (though they managed to build a lift to bring the Beast up through a trap door during his climactic transformation from Beast to handsome Prince).
All of these artistic limitations were in place for the show I saw that afternoon — a beautifully costumed, energetically choreographed production of one of the most complicated musicals in recent years.
OK, it wasn't as lavish and spectacular as Pioneer Theatre Company's, and HCT-Orem doesn't have anywhere near the room that the Tuacahn Amphitheater does in its expansive canyon setting — but the Hales in Orem still manage to do a bang-up job with excellent talent.
Theater in Utah County is definitely not second-rate. (I have never said it was.)
In addition to Hale-Orem, there is an abundance of quality semiprofessional and collegiate theater in the area, notably Provo Theatre Company and productions at Brigham Young University and Utah Valley State College.
And I will continue to rely on our Utah County Bureau to review shows in their neck of the woods — not because I consider the shows inferior, but, frankly, I have more than enough to keep me very busy in Salt Lake City.
IT'S BEEN PRETTY WELL established that much of the nation's entertainment industry is out of touch with mainstream America.
While most folks out here in the hinterlands see this lack of family values in movies and television — the entertainment that is most readily available in our homes and neighborhoods — it has struck me that Broadway, too, seems to be in a little world all its own.
On Nov. 20, a production that general audiences have enjoyed immensely — Michael McLean and Kevin Kelly's "The Ark" — was shut down in a small off-Broadway theater after East Coast critics lambasted the show.
Meanwhile, one of Broadway's biggest hits, now well into its second year, is "Avenue Q," a musical that, at one point, has Muppet-style puppets engaged in hot, steamy sex.
These producers have, however, taken a smart approach; instead of taking the show on tour, where it would undoubtedly meet with protests in the Bible Belt, it's being scheduled for a "sit-down" run in a Las Vegas resort.
Although it got the short shrift in New York City, I am certain that "The Ark" will be well-received across middle America.
SPRINGVILLE'S OLD Villa Theatre recently (and very abruptly) changed hands. The newly renamed Art City Playhouse is operated by Gavin and Sharilyn Grooms, who also run the Center Street Musical Theatre in Provo.
But if you visit the www.artcityplayhouse.com Web site, at the top of the file is a photograph of a huge, ornate balcony in an elegant theater of "movie palace" proportions — not the Springville venue at all.
According to a couple of e-mails from fellow aficionados on the www.cinematreasures.com Web site — an Internet site dedicated to preserving the history of grand, old movie theaters, the photograph depicted on the Art City Playhouse site is apparently the 2,506-seat Warner Theatre in Erie, Pa.
The first thought that occurred to me was "so much for truth in advertising." I have since been told that the site's Webmaster will be removing the photograph.
E-mail: ivan@desnews.com