When it comes to live theater, you can almost always expect the unexpected — and nowhere is that more true than when you’re performing in an outdoor venue.
Tuacahn Amphitheatre has seen its fair share of the unexpected in the 31 years that it’s been bringing live theater to southern Utah, from high winds and monsoon rains to snow flurries.
But those challenges are outweighed by what the theater’s outdoor setting, nestled at the base of the red-rock cliffs of Padre Canyon near St. George, brings to its professional-caliber Broadway productions, according to Joseph Smith, chief HR officer at Tuacahn.
“Our outdoor setting in this beautiful canyon sets us apart from pretty much everywhere else in the world,” Smith, whose parents helped to found Tuacahn, said.
As many theaters across the country prepare for their summer seasons — with Tuacahn’s “Les Miserables” and “Disney & Pixar’s Finding Nemo” officially opening this weekend — Smith talked to the Deseret News about what to expect from the season, how Tuacahn’s red-rock scenery impacts its works, as well as the benefits (and challenges) of performing in an outdoor theater.
Matching the majesty of the canyon
From the beginning, Tuacahn’s identity has been wrapped up with its outdoor stage and the desert landscape that serves as its backdrop.
Doug Stewart, the playwright who first dreamed up the idea of Tuacahn in the early ’90s, said that he was “brought to tears” when he first stood in the theater’s location, “envisioning an amphitheater and a stage with an awesome backdrop of 1,500-foot red rock cliffs and hearing the sounds of music echoing from the canyon walls.”
And even now, as Smith — whose parents, Hyrum and Gail Smith, were integral to bringing Tuacahn to life — pointed out, the theater’s mission statement says that Tuacahn aspires to create work that “matches the majesty of our canyon.”
“If you look up, you can still see the skyline above the cliffs and you can see, sometimes, you can see the starscape, so you ... suspend your disbelief, you’re pulled into this almost dream or fantasy.”
— Joseph Smith, chief HR officer at Tuacahn
During its summer season, Tuacahn typically performs three musicals on its outdoor stage. This year, that includes “Les Miserables” and “Finding Nemo,” which have already been running preview performances and will officially open this weekend, as well as “Grease,” which will open in July.
“The canyon never changes,” Smith said. “It’s beautiful. People come back year after year just to be in this atmosphere.”
The pros and cons of an outdoor stage
Although Tuacahn does also have an indoor stage, allowing the theater to perform year-round, its outdoor stage is what sets it apart, according to Smith.
“It really is a unique venue,” he said. “And the things that we’re able to do on our stage, you just can’t do in an indoor theater, the scale, the scope that we do them.”
Some of those things include technical features, like pyrotechnics and fireworks, as well as water features. The size of the stage allows the sets to be on a grander scale.
“How you build the sets, how you do the lighting, how you do the technical things, is all different on a much larger scale,” Smith said.
But for all the benefits to an outdoor stage, there are challenges as well. For one thing, the sets have to be built to withstand all types of weather: from desert heat to winds to rain and snow. And not only the sets, but the costumes, as well, have to be durable and adapted for actors who may not be used to the southern Utah heat — even sometimes sewing ice packs inside of a costume.
Unexpected weather can even sometimes cause shows to be canceled, even due to things like wildfire smoke. And Tuacahn is not alone in dealing with that.
“Wildfire-related air quality has become an issue for venues throughout the West,” The New York Times reported in 2022, citing open-air theaters in California, Oregon and Colorado that have been impacted by wildfire smoke in recent years.
But despite the challenges, Smith said, “sometimes the elements work for you and do things at magical moments that you’re just like, wow.”
A couple of years ago, during a performance of “Frozen,” a winter storm blew in a gust of snow flurries across the stage. And the year before, a thunderstorm struck during a performance of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” with a flash of lightning lighting the theater right at the crescendo moment of a song sung by the show’s villain, Frollo.
“So things like that kind of happen that you’re like, all right, Mother Nature sometimes throws us a bone and we feel good about it,” Smith said.
‘Les Mis’ under the stars
But one of the biggest benefits to an outdoor stage is the way that it can influence the feel of a performance. Smith said that this influence is evident in this year’s production of “Les Miserables,” which opened last week in previews and will have its official opening night on Saturday.
“The canyon never changes. It’s beautiful. People come back year after year just to be in this atmosphere.”
He said that a powerful moment in the production comes during the performance of the song “Stars” by the character Javert (played by Randal Keith) — which the audience actually listens to under the stars.
“So here you are in this outdoor venue, and you have Javert talking about stars. And it’s dark now, and we’re able to light up not only the stage but the backdrop of the canyon with stars,” Smith said. “And then if you look up, you can still see the skyline above the cliffs and you can see, sometimes, you can see the starscape, so you ... suspend your disbelief, you’re pulled into this almost dream or fantasy.”
That impacts the way that the audience experiences the message of the song.
“It pulls the audience members just at a whole new level, if you will, of emotion and attachment to this character of Javert, who is struggling with this sharp sense of justice,” he said.
And that emotion is part of the experience that Tuacahn is trying to convey.
Tuacahn’s goal, according to Smith, is to make sure “that what we produce here is on the highest level so that when our patrons come, they are going to have a moving experience. They’re going to have an emotional experience. And they’re going to walk away with just this feeling of, wow, I have never experienced theater like this before. And then they come back because they want to feel that again.”
Tuacahn’s outdoor season runs through Oct. 24. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit Tuacahn.org.