Thriller 2022

I have been attending Odyssey Dance Theatre's annual Halloween dance extravaganza Thriller for the past fifteen years and it has always been one of my favorite Halloween traditions.  However, Derryl Yeager, the founder and artistic director of ODT, is retiring so this year's production will be the final one.  Since I won't be able to see it again I enjoyed it even more than usual last night and so did the loud and enthusiastic crowd at Kingsbury Hall!  There weren't any new dance numbers but that didn't really matter because I felt very nostalgic about all of my old favorites.  I looked forward with great anticipation to seeing the undead cavorting in a graveyard in "Thriller," a breakdancing mummy and his maidens in "Curse of the Mummy," misbehaving pandas during their first recital in "Miss Alli's Nightmare," a Pas de Deux gone horribly wrong in "Frankenstein & Frankenstein," tap dancing skeletons in "Dem Bones," schoolgirls who are possessed by porcelain dolls in "Annabelle of the Ball," a trio of Jasons wielding a variety of weapons (including chainsaws) in "Jason Jam," scarecrows that are not what they seem in "Children of the Corn," a coven of condemned witches seeking vengeance from beyond the grave in "Salem's Mass" (my favorite number in the show), demonic dolls in "Chucky-Rama," acrobatic vampires in "Lost Boys," and a costume parade in "Trick or Treat."  Every one of these numbers put a huge smile on my face and I think "Jason Jam" was even funnier than usual!  Once again the artists from Aeris Aerial Arts performed "Siren of the Sea," "Phantom of the Opera," "Full Moon," and "Slytherin" and these numbers were so much fun to watch because I have no idea how they do what they do!  My favorite was "Full Moon" which involved a group of six artists costumed as wolves and one as Little Red Riding Hood performing on a spinning globe.  Finally, I was so happy to see the return of Bubbles the Clown (he is hilarious) in between the numbers!  I had so much fun last night (as well as at every performance through the years) and, if you have never seen it before, I highly recommend getting a ticket before it is too late!  It runs at Kingsbury Hall through October 22 and at Tuacahn through October 31 (go here for tickets).

Fall Camping Trip 2022

For the past four days I have been on a fall camping trip with my family up at the property and it has been so much fun!  My brother-in-law Trent and I went up Thursday and decided to take the scenic route through Big Cottonwood Canyon over Guardsman Pass into Midway in order to see the fall foliage.  The views were amazing!

Once we got to the property in Tabiona, we took the side by side on a few trails.  I'm getting better at driving it!

There are so many trails to explore!  I always have to make a stop at my favorite rock formation!

Kristine, Tashena, Trent's sister, his two nieces, and his niece's three kids (who were adorable) came up Friday afternoon.  We drove to a little town called Bluebell (in the middle of nowhere) for a really great corn maze with lots of other fall activities (I loved the pumpkin launching).  We got dinner there and I had my first caramel apple of the season!

On Saturday Trent made one of his famous breakfasts on the griddle and then we had a lot of fun playing games and sitting around the fire.  The kids made s'mores and we roasted brats over the fire for dinner.  It was wonderful.

I slept each night in the trailer and, as always, I really loved it.  I am so grateful that Trent and Kristine let me stay in it whenever I want!

By Sunday afternoon I was tired, dirty, sunburned, and everything I brought up smelled like smoke.  In other words, it was a really great trip!  It was really hard to come back home!

Sister Act at HCTO

Another musical that has become very popular with Utah audiences is Sister Act.  Even though the production at HCTO last night was the third one I've seen in a year I thoroughly enjoyed it!  A nightclub singer named Deloris Van Cartier (Aria Love Jackson) accidentally sees her gangster boyfriend Curtis (Brock Harris) kill someone so she is placed in the Queen of Angels Convent by a love-struck policeman named Eddie (Nathan Wawro) to keep her safe until she can testify against him.  She wreaks havoc on the orderly way of life at the convent until the Mother Superior (Mindy Taylor) 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 when Curtis and his henchmen see Deloris on TV.  This is such a fun and energetic show and the exuberant cast had the audience laughing out loud and, eventually, dancing in the aisles!  Jackson is outstanding as Deloris because, even though she is diminutive, she has a powerful voice and I really enjoyed her rendition of "Fabulous, Baby" and the reprise.  She is hilarious when she tries to teach the nuns how to sing and dance and full of sass during her interactions with the Mother Superior.  All of the nuns (Abigail Filmore, Courtney Byrom, Tina Fontana, Shannon Eden, Mary Jane Smith, Channing Spotts, and Sophia Campagna) do a great job singing and dancing in the big production numbers "Take Me to Heaven," "Sunday Morning Fever," and "Spread the Love Around."  I couldn't stop laughing when Sister Mary Lazarus (Tina Fontana), the oldest nun in the convent, starts rapping during "Sunday Morning Fever" wearing a Phillies baseball cap but Austin Baum (as TJ), Christian Wawro (as Joey), and Armando Serrano (as Pablo) steal the show with "Lady in the Long Black Dress" (the choreography is so much fun).  I also really enjoyed Michael Smith as Monsignor O'Hara (watch him twirling his stole during "Take Me to Heaven").  This show is set in the 1970s so the costumes are absolutely fabulous with lots of bold colors and patterns and I loved how the nuns' habits (and the Monsignor's vestments) get more and more bedazzled as the show goes on!  The set features moving panels which are used to project images of stained glass windows, Gothic arches, and various office interiors with the addition of a few props moved on and off stage.  The floor is a rotating checkerboard of flashing lights (which caused a few technical difficulties last night) and this, along with a disco ball, adds a lot of energy to the choir's performances.  This production is a blast (I left the theatre with a big smile on my face) and I highly recommend it.  In runs at HCTO through November 19 (go here for tickets).

Utah Opera's The Flying Dutchman

I have always wanted to experience a live performance of one of Richard Wagner's operas so I was thrilled to see The Flying Dutchman (the only Wagner opera small enough in scale to fit on the stage at Capitol Theatre) last night.  I really loved the music and the performances.  The Dutchman (Michael Chioldi) is doomed to roam the ocean endlessly on a ghostly ship as punishment for defying God but he is offered a chance for redemption every seven years when he is allowed to come ashore.  If he can find a wife who will be true to him, he will be released from the curse.  He encounters a sea captain named Daland (Kristinn Sigmundsson) who has found refuge from a storm several miles from home and, when he learns that Daland has a daughter, he offers him a treasure chest full of gold in return for her hand in marriage.  Daland is dazzled by the treasure and agrees.  Daland's daughter Senta (Wendy Bryn Harmer) is pursued by the Huntsman Erik (Robert Stahley) but she is enchanted by the legend of the Flying Dutchman and refuses him.  When Daland returns home with the mysterious stranger, Senta is transfixed by him and agrees to the betrothal.  During a homecoming celebration on the shore, Erik renews his vows of love to Senta and reminds her that she once loved him.  The stranger overhears them and, believing that all hope is lost, reveals that he is the Flying Dutchman and returns to his ship.  Senta then throws herself into the ocean vowing to be true to the Dutchman in death and her sacrifice breaks the curse.  The music is incredibly dramatic and the Utah Symphony, under the direction of Ari Pelto, performs it brilliantly.  I especially loved the leitmotifs used for the storm-tossed ocean (very powerful), the Dutchman, and Senta.  Chioldi has an amazing voice and the aria "The time has come" where the Dutchman bitterly laments his fate gave me goosebumps!  His rendition of "As from the distant dawn of my creation" with Harmer, where the Dutchman allows himself to hope that the curse might be broken and Senta longs to be the one who ends his suffering, is also quite stirring and his aria "It's hopeless! Ah! It's hopeless," where the Dutchman believes that Senta has betrayed him, is filled with so much pathos that it brought a tear to my eye.  The rest of the cast is also outstanding, particularly Sigmundsson.  This show features a large ensemble and I enjoyed the scenes with the ghosts on the Dutchman's ship because they are quite scary (perfect for the spooky season) and the scenes where Daland's crew pull his ship to shore.  The set is very minimal because projections are used instead and, even though the sudden appearance of the Dutchman's ship through the fog is unbelievably thrilling, I was just a little bit underwhelmed by this because the stage often looks empty (I fear the use of projections is becoming the norm).  I also think the final scene between the Dutchman and Senta, where they are meant to ascend to Heaven, is a bit anticlimactic because they simply walk across the stage and take each other's hands.  It took the audience a few minutes to even realize that the opera had concluded.  My criticisms are minimal because I was completely overwhelmed by the grandeur of Wagner's magnificent music and I definitely recommend getting a ticket to one of the three remaining performances of this haunting tale (go here).

Sign Here

My October Book of the Month selection was Sign Here by Claudia Lux (the other options were Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott, The Family Game by Catherine Steadman, Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong, Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese, Jacqueline in Paris by Ann Mah, and As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh). I thought that a novel set in Hell (literally) would be an appropriately scary read for October but this ended up being an incredibly poignant meditation on what it means to be human. I couldn't put it down! Peyote Trip works on the fifth floor of Hell in the deals department. His job involves convincing people to sell their souls in return for what they most want and he is pretty good at it. He is in line for a big promotion if he can get one more member of the wealthy Harrison family to sign on the dotted line. He observes the family, including Silas, his wife Lily, son Sean, daughter Mickey, and Mickey's new friend Ruth, when they arrive at their summer home in New Hampshire for their annual vacation. They all have their secrets, including the unresolved trauma caused by an incident involving Silas's brother, and Peyote hopes to exploit these secrets in order to secure a deal with one of them. However, he is distracted by a partnership with a newcomer to the fifth floor named Calamity Gamon who has her own agenda. The narrative alternates between the POVs of Peyote, Calamity, and the members of the Harrison family and I was deeply invested in each character to the point that I had to keep reading well into the night to find the connection between them all. There are many surprising twists and turns before reaching a powerful conclusion that took my breath away. The writing is beautiful, especially Peyote's philosophical musings about the need for love and connection (which all eventually inform his actions in the end), and the story is so clever. I especially loved the world-building in Hell. It is not like the fire and brimstone images that you get from Dante (although there are levels that get progressively worse) but is actually more relatable because it is filled with the little annoyances that plague us every day such as pens that don't work when we need them, a broken A/C in the office, the music that you dislike on a continual loop, and Jagermeister as the only option in the bar (this made me laugh because I actually like Jagermeister). This is not really the horror novel that I was expecting (it is really hard to classify the genre because it is so unique) but I am really glad that I picked it because it might my favorite book this year! I loved it and I highly recommend it!