Hey everyone! I hope you are doing well. I have some local productions to update you all on as well as my other theatre work to tell you about.

SHE LOVES ME- BROADWAY HD

This week for my Family Movie Night segment on my youtube channel I reviewed a pro-shot that is available on Broadway HD. It’s the 2016 live broadcast of She Loves Me from Broadway production at the Studio 54 theater. It’s a wonderful staging with Laura Benanti and Zachary Levi and well worth your time. You can get a 7 day free trial of Broadway HD here.

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN- PAYSON COMMUNITY THEATRE, PAYSON

I love going down to Payson for the shows at Payson Community Theatre. Their staging of Matilda is still one of the finest pieces of community theatre I’ve seen as a critic. Outstanding. Their recent Annie Get Your Gun may not have been on that level but it was still highly enjoyable. I was proud to not only review it for UTBA but it be the 2600th review on the site. You can read my review here. Annie Get Your Gun plays until Sept 4th and you can get tickets here.

THE DUCHESS OF MALFI- THREEPENNY THEATRE CO- SALT LAKE

Any theatre fan is a great theatre fan in my books but one of the most rewarding parts of my quest to support local theatre in the last 2 years has been in digging deeper and finding the unique small productions that I would have otherwise missed. Such is the case with the ThreePenny Theatre company and their new production of The Duchess of Malfi. This is an Jacobean tragedy first published in 1613 by John Webster (so just after Shakespeare’s era.) It has many of the same beats of a Shakespearean tragedy and reminded me most of Othello or King Lear.

What’s really cool is ThreePenny is producing the play as a public service and inviting anyone to come and pay whatever they can. The cast is excellent with Isabella Giordano as the title character Duchess and Ryan Kiville as Bosola (I recently saw both of them in The Lion in Winter at Centerpoint Legacy). Syd Vance is also strong as Ferdinand-the woman who hires Bosola to kill her sister who has had a child in an inappropriate marriage. I have never seen this play before but it was all done in a way that I had no trouble understanding what was going on and the acting was excellent. The costumes are simple and the sets non-existent so we focus solely on the story and I highly recommend the experience. This is true ground-roots theatre! You can see The Duchess of Malfi at St Paul’s Episcopal Church through Sept 3rd and get tickets here (parking is limited.)

NINE- HART THEATER CO- TAYLORSVILLE/PARK CITY

I love me an old classic. I’ve seen The Music Man, Singin in the Rain and Beauty and the Beast countless times. That said it is nice when a company does something fresh and new, that isn’t often done in Utah. Such is the case in the Hart Theater Company’s new production of Nine. I saw it at Midvale Performing Arts Center- a venue I love. But it is going to be up at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City Sept 1-10th and I’d definitely recommend adult audiences checking it out.

Nine is based on the movie 8 1/2 by Federico Fellini, which is not a movie I love. You can read my review here (I know it’s a ‘classic’ but one of the things you learn being a film fan is you don’t have to like all the classics!) Regardless, the story focuses on a director named Guido who is at a creative crossroads and all of the women who for some reason are drawn to him. The story isn’t my favorite but the cast at Hart were all strong especially Jin-Xhang Yu as Guido’s wife Luisa. She is new to Utah and I’m thrilled because the way she hit the low notes was outstanding. The whole cast felt professional in their singing abilities. The musical highlights were probably “Be Italian,” “My Husband Makes Movies” and “Unusual Way” (the latter sung beautifully by Erin Royall Carlson.)

I didn’t mind the mature content for the show. I knew that having seen the movie but it was a little disturbing to have such racy scenes with a child featured in them. I don’t know how you get around that as it is part of the script but it did make it seem more shocking than it might otherwise have been. Still, for a chance to see a show rarely performed and performed well check out Nine while it is playing in Park City next week. You can purchase tickets here.

So there you have it! What have you been watching? I would love to hear your thoughts if you’ve seen any of these shows. And don’t forget to check out Theatre Tuesday coming tomorrow to the channel/podcast.