Utah Shakespeare Festival 2022

I love going to the Utah Shakespeare Festival and I try to see at least one show every summer.  I especially enjoy it when my sister Marilyn is able to come with me and I was so happy that it worked out for her to come this year.  We were literally counting down the days because we were so excited!

We drove down Friday morning and got to Cedar City at noon.  We wandered around for a little while, attended a seminar, and then saw our first show in the Randall L. Jones Theatre.  I didn't really know what to expect from Clue but it was one of the funniest plays I have ever seen!  Even Marilyn (who is very reserved) was laughing out loud!  Six guests, including Colonel Mustard (Rex Young), Mrs. Peacock (Bree Murphy), Professor Plum (Michael Sharon), Mrs. White (Melinda Parrett), Mr. Green (Michael Doherty), and Miss Scarlet (Cherita Armstrong), are invited by Mr. Boddy (Andrew Fehrenbacher) to his manor on a dark and stormy evening.  Mr. Boddy has been blackmailing each of them and, after providing them with weapons, he tells them that he will return the evidence he has against them...if they kill his butler Mr. Wadsworth (Aaron Galligan-Stierle).  Murder and mayhem ensue!  I loved the staging!  There are two doors which open up to reveal the lounge, the study, the kitchen and the billiards room at various times with set pieces for the library and the conservatory coming from above.  There is very elaborate choreography as the characters move from room to room and it is hilarious.  The entire cast has outstanding comedic timing but Doherty's physicality, especially when a chandelier falls on him in slow motion, was my favorite part of the show.  We loved it!

Friday night we saw Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in the Engelstad Theatre.  After being unjustly convicted and sent to a penal colony in Australia by the unscrupulous Judge Turpin (Tim Fullerton), a barber named Sweeney Todd (J. Michael Bailey) returns to London hoping to be reunited with his wife Lucy and daughter Johanna (Lucy Austin) but, when he learns their fate, he vows revenge against the judge.  He is aided by Mrs. Lovett (Bree Murphy), who has a pie shop below his former barbershop, but things take a sinister turn when he begins killing all of his customers and she begins using his victims in her meat pies.  This is an amazing production with a phenomenal cast.  Bailey and Murphy, especially, have beautiful voices that are well-suited to the operatic score but they also give sympathetic performances even though their characters become more and more depraved.  I really loved their rendition of "A Little Priest."  The set and costumes vividly bring Victorian London to life and the dramatic red lighting emphasizes the horror of what is happening.  I loved the staging of the murders with Sweeney's barber chair in the balcony and a large lever sending the victims down to the bake house through a chute.  It was a little bit too macabre for my sister but I loved it!

Saturday morning we saw The Sound of Music at the Randall L. Jones Theatre.  The story of a spirited nun named Maria (Daria Pilar Redus) who is sent to be the governess to the children of Captain von Trapp (Michael Sharon) never gets old for me and I loved this production.  Redus is wonderful as Maria!  She has a beautiful voice in "The Sound of Music" and "My Favorite Things" but she is also just a little bit sassy in her interactions with the von Trapp children, Liesl (Julia Kuzmich), Friedrich (Brooks Mellen), Louisa (Shelby Fawson) Kurt (Mack Lawrence), Brigitta (Liv Harter), Marta (Penny Hodson), and Gretl (Gwynn Christ), in "Do-Re-Mi" and "The Lonely Goatherd" and she has tremendous chemistry with Sharon in "Something Good."  I was also impressed with Lisa Strum as the Mother Abbess because she almost blows the roof off of the theatre with her rendition of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain."  I really enjoyed the choreography, especially for "Do-Re-Mi," "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," and "The Lonely Goatherd," because there are a lot of really fun and unexpected details. My only complaint is the set because a large curved staircase is on stage during the whole show and it is sometimes a bit confusing, particularly during "The Sound of Music" because it seems like Maria is inside the abbey rather than on the mountain and during "I Have Confidence" when Maria travels from the abbey to the von Trapp residence because there is very little difference between the two, but this didn't detract from my enjoyment.  This show is lovely and is sure to appeal to everyone as a nostalgic favorite (Marilyn and I had tears in our eyes because it reminded us so much of our Mom).

Our final play was King Lear in the Engelstad Theatre Saturday night.  It was my most anticipated show at the festival and it definitely did not disappoint!  King Lear (Anthony Heald) divides his kingdom between his daughters Goneril (Lisa Strum), Regan (Stephanie Lambourn), and Cordelia (Kendall Cafaro) with disastrous results while the Earl of Gloucester (Chris Mixon) is fooled by his illegitimate son Edmund (Philip Orazio) into denouncing his legitimate son Edgar (Freedom Martin) which leads to tragedy.  Heald is absolutely brilliant as Lear and I really loved his characterization because he is incredibly arrogant at the beginning of the play and imperious when he visits his daughters so his downfall and descent into madness is even more dramatic!  Orazio is an absolute hoot and I loved his knowing looks at the audience every time he is about to do something despicable.  I also loved Strum's performance because she is the perfect embodiment of exasperation and Aidan O'Reilly's performance as the Fool (he was brilliant in Richard III last year) because he has such a presence.  The costumes in this show are exquisite with lots of jewel tones, patterns, and embellishments and this provides a huge contrast to the tattered rags worn by Lear and Gloucester when they come undone.  The lighting and sound design is very effective at creating an oppressive atmosphere (I wrote a paper about the use of weather in this play in college) and the staging of certain scenes is incredibly dramatic, especially the blinding of Gloucester (the audience gasped).  This is the best production of King Lear I have seen and my sister, who struggles with the Shakespeare tragedies, really enjoyed it!

This was a great trip, despite the heat and my disappointment with the tarts this year, and I had so much fun!  I am already excited for the festival next year!

Nope

I have been looking forward to Nope since the first trailer and I finally had the chance to see it last night at a Thursday preview.  It is incredibly intense and thought-provoking and I loved it!  OJ and Emerald "Em" Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, respectively) are siblings who own Haywood Hollywood Horses, a ranch that trains horses for use in movies, but they are falling on hard times because most films now use CGI.  They have resorted to selling horses to a nearby Wild West attraction owned by Ricky "Jupe" Park (Steven Yeun), a former child star known for a tragic freak accident on a sitcom.  They all start to notice strange goings-on such as electricity cuts and objects that randomly fall from the sky but then OJ sees something mysterious.  They assume that it is a UFO and the Haywards want to capture it on film, first with surveillance cameras installed by Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) and then by a cinematographer (Michael Wincott) known for getting the impossible shot, while Park attempts to incorporate it into his live Wild West show.  There is a sense of unease, almost from the very first shot, that builds and builds until it is almost unbearable with brilliant sound design, atmospheric lighting, and stunning visual effects (I will never look at clouds the same way again).  I was completely captivated but also a bit uncomfortable in the very best way.  It is a spectacle that pays homage to other big blockbusters, such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, and Signs, but it is also an indictment of our need to capture every experience and turn it into a spectacle.  There are lots of other ideas, such as the exploitation of animals and the marginalization of early Black contributions to moviemaking, that will have as many interpretations as there are viewers (which makes Peele so intriguing as a writer and director).  Kaluuya and Palmer, especially, are fantastic and portray the sibling dynamic very well.  This is another great addition to Peele's filmography and I recommend seeing it in IMAX!

Note:  The trailer for Oppenheimer played before this and I am so excited for it!

Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante at St. Mary's Church

I always look forward to the Utah Symphony concerts at St. Mary's Church in Park City every summer because they always end up being absolutely wonderful.  St. Mary's is a beautiful church with amazing views of the mountains through a wall of plate glass windows and it is a fantastic venue for chamber music.  Last night's concert began with Mother Goose Suite by Maurice Ravel and I really enjoyed this whimsical piece.  I especially loved the second movement about Tom Thumb because I was transported to a magical forest (it helped that I could see trees all around me through the windows) with the sound of birdsong performed by the flutes and piccolo.  Next came Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with Kathryn Eberle and Yuan Qi as soloists.  I have always really loved Mozart and this piece is amazing.  I absolutely loved the second movement because the solo violin plays a moody and atmospheric theme meant to express grief and then the viola answers with a theme of consolation and this interplay between the two instruments is incredibly moving.  After the intermission the orchestra played Sinfonietta by Francis Poulenc.  This piece is light and breezy with really beautiful melodies but I really loved the dramatic ending, especially the timpani.  It was a lovely evening listening to the Utah Symphony in a beautiful setting and I highly recommend one of the remaining concerts at St. Mary's Church (go here for tickets).

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On

Last night I went to see Marcel the Shell With Shoes On and I was definitely surprised by how much I loved this heartwarming story about a one inch shell!  Marcel (Jenny Slate) lives with a close-knit community of shells in a large house until there is a mysterious incident after the owners, Mark (Thoas Mann) and Larissa (Rosa Salazar), have a fight and move out which leaves him alone with just his grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini).  The house becomes an Airbnb and a documentary filmmaker named Dean (Dean Fleischer Camp) moves in after a divorce.  He soon discovers Marcel and becomes enchanted with his charming existence.  He films him for his Youtube channel in order to try and find his family with both unexpected and joyful results.  Marcel is one of the most adorable and endearing characters I've seen in a long time and the way he views the world is so refreshing.  I loved all of the clever and innovative ways he uses everyday objects, especially the tennis ball he uses to get around the house and the stand mixer he rigs to shake fruit from the trees, and I was laughing out loud multiple times (and so was the large crowd at the Broadway).  I was also incredibly moved because there are some really powerful themes explored, which really resonated with me, involving being a caregiver for a family member and then being at loose ends when that role ends.  In fact, I actually had tears in my eyes during this subplot.  The portrayal of internet culture was really interesting and I found all of the people taking selfies in front of Marcel's house to be highly amusing.  I really enjoyed the mockumentary narrative device and the combination of live action and stop-motion animation is extremely well-done.  I didn't have a lot of interest in seeing this movie when I first heard about it but I'm so glad that I changed my mind because I loved it and I highly recommend it.

Sister Act at Murray Park Amphitheater

Last night I saw a production of Sister Act at the Murray Park Amphitheater.  I love seeing outdoor performances (I haven't seen very many this summer for some reason) and this show was so much fun!  A singer named Deloris Van Cartier (Kortney King-Lives) inadvertently witnesses her gangster boyfriend Curtis (Tyson Jensen) kill someone.  A love-struck cop named Eddie (Tommy Kay) places her in the Queen of Angels Convent to keep her safe until she can testify against him but she disrupts the orderly way of life at the convent until the Mother Superior (Cindy Swan) puts her in charge of the choir to keep her out of trouble.  The new and improved choir's unorthodox performances bring people back to the church but all of the attention puts the convent in danger after Curtis and his henchmen see Deloris on TV.   King-Lives is really understated as Deloris but she has an incredible voice and I enjoyed the pathos she brings to the role, especially in the reprise of "Fabulous, Baby."  Courtney Byrom is absolutely hilarious as Sister Mary Patrick because she is so flamboyant and over the top.  Chloe Cox, as T.J., Eric Lash, as Joey, and Jacob Crosby, as Pablo, almost steal the show in the songs "When I Find My Baby" and "Lady in the Long Black Dress" because they have some great disco moves!  The audience also laughed out loud during Kay's version of "I Could Be That Guy" because it features several costume changes and back-up dancers composed of homeless people from an alley.  The choreography is a lot of fun in the songs "Raise Your Voice," "Take Me To Heaven," "Sunday Morning Fever," and "Spread the Love Around," which are sung by the choir, and I especially enjoyed it whenever Sister Mary Theresa (Wendy Johnson Richhart), an older nun, incorporated her cane.  It is also really amusing when the Monsignor (Shan Lloyd) comes out into the audience with a collection basket during the nuns' performances (he made quite a bit of money!).  The costumes are absolutely fabulous and I loved how the Monsignor's vestments and the nuns' habits get more and more elaborate as the show goes on (I especially loved the purple sequins).  The set is very simple with a backdrop of stained glass windows with various pieces moved on and off as needed but it is effective.  I had a great time because the crowd for this show was really loud and animated (people were dancing in the aisles during the final number).  There are three more performances next weekend (go here for tickets) and I highly recommend it.

Note:  There were very ominous clouds in the sky as I was driving to the amphitheater and it actually rained a little bit before the show but, luckily, it cleared up just as it started!