Hi everyone! Quick update. I hope you all had a wonderful holidays and got in a bunch of holiday theater.

There are a couple of shows I didn’t end up reviewing just because of the holidays and things got crazy: Scrooge: A Christmas Carol at Terrace Plaza might be fun for little kids but that’s about it, Holiday Review at Lehi Arts was a delight with a good variety of songs and style of singing (everything I’ve seen at Lehi Arts has been outstanding), and A Christmas Carol at Hopebox was well staged and enjoyable even if I think the songs in this version are uninspired and bland.

Next up we have my annual Best of Theater Awards. This time I did it as what would end up being my last episode of Theatre Tuesday (more on that later.) My friends Maren and Scott joined me to crown our winners of the best we saw (and some worst) in 2023. I have already notified the winners but here is my list for the record:

Excellent professional (Equity) productions			Back to the Future: The Musical
Excellent semi-professional productions			Kinky Boots Ziegfeld
Excellent college/university productions			Godspell at BYU
Excellent amateur productions			Jekyll and Hyde at Draper
Excellent productions of musicals			Bright Star at Hopebox
Excellent productions of Shakespeare			Macbeth at Tooele, Midsummer’s Night Dream at Shakes,
Excellent directing and choreography			Around the World in 80 Days Hale
Excellent acting performances			Emily Voorhees, Danny Keetch in Daddy Long Legs, Tanner Tate J&H Draper, Sydney Vance Kinky Boots Ziegfield, Mackenzie Tolk Houmand in Addams Family Timp Arts
Excellent plays			Pride and Prejudice HCTO, Wait Until Dark Hopebox
Excellent technical designs			Hello Dolly at Hale, A Christmas Carol Parker
Other excellence in Utah theatre			Emma at Parker, Bright Star at Lehi Arts, Somethin Rotten at Murray
Worst of the year-			Principle Wife, Sleepy Hollow, Puffs

The other exciting news is the reason behind why I am retiring Theatre Tuesday. I am super proud of the series and how it shined a light on Utah theatre but I have received the opportunity to expand my platform with the folks at OnStage Blog and I couldn’t be more excited! Three or more times a month me and Chris Peterson of OnStage Blog are going to be talking all things theatre and I can’t wait!

Our first episode is previewing the 2024 Spring Broadway season. Would love your thoughts and feedback.