"TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE," through Oct. 17, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Cedar City, 800-752-9849, running time: One hour, 40 minutes (no intermission).
When I first read "Tuesday With Morrie" by Mitch Albom, I was on a plane and could not stop the tears from rolling down my face. The flight attendants stopped to ask if I'd like anything to drink. I could barely choke out "Diet Coke" I was so moved by the book.
Closing the cover, I vowed to be a better person, embrace life a bit more and to always tell those whom I love that I love them.
Much like Mitch in the book, life started to get in the way and I was looking forward to a renewed sense of purpose from the stage adaptation now running at the Utah Shakespearean Festival.
Though the production is warm, charming and very good, I didn't leave feeling profoundly changed — which may be the script or may have been my expectations — I just wondered if the script, written in 2002, needs one more revision.
In case you're not one of the millions who have made the book a bestseller and the best-selling memoir of all time, "Tuesdays With Morrie" is about journalist Mitch Albom. Sixteen years out of college he looks up his favorite professor, who is now dying of Lou Gehrig's disease. Albom agrees to visit the deteriorating professor on Tuesdays, and during his visits, Morrie Schwartz teaches valuable life lessons.
The major difference between the book and the play is that the book feels more direct — with so many quotes and brilliant thoughts as guidelines to living a truly fulfilling life. The play feels more like a really great story about two men. For me it's missing that clear directive to go forth and be a better person.
With that said, it is still a moving evening of theater, as evidenced by the numerous, audible sniffles in the audience.
Portraying the professor suffering from ALS is actor Dan Kremer. There wasn't a sound to be heard as Morrie tried, with his stiffening body, to eat a spoonful of egg salad. Even the fidgety man behind me sat still as we witnessed the frustration of a failing body defy the lucid brain's request. I cannot comprehend watching this happen to a loved one. Kremer's ongoing decline was extremely well done, right down to his voice-quality changing.
James Stellos as Mitch captured the youth, energy and hurried life of a big-league sports journalist, though at times it felt like he was shouting at his professor rather than having intimate conversations.
The one odd choice for director Kathleen F. Conlin, in an otherwise tight production, is having an old upright piano positioned so that the audience could watch Stellos' hands as he played. Mitch is supposed to be an aspiring jazz pianist, Stellos clearly is not — it is distracting.
"Tuesday's With Morrie" is a lovely production and a well-told story with plenty of nuggets to ponder. But I was just hoping for that life-changing experience which would have left me needing a moment before ordering my post-show Diet Coke.
e-mail: ehansen@desnews.com