Hi friends! I hope you are doing well and having a great time at the local theater near you. In the last week I had the privilege of seeing three shows, one I was blessed to be there as a critic and did a full review of on this site. See my review of The Secret Garden in Payson to learn more of my thoughts. I would love to do full reviews on more shows and as a professional theatre critic can give a fair and balanced analysis of any production small or large. Please email me at rachelsreviews65@gmail.com with your review requests and I will do all in my power to make that happen. Also make sure you are following me on social media as I publish all of my out of theatre reactions there and promote what I am seeing as much as possible.

All that said, I have 2 other shows I have saw as a patron that I want to do my shorter logs for. Since I pay for these shows and am not requested by the venue as a critic these are just my quick thoughts for any who may be interested. So here goes

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE- HALE CENTER THEATRE, OREM

Arsenic and Old Lace is a classic play I have seen many times. In fact, I have even seen some of these actors that were in the HCTO’s version in the play before. Particularly Jayne Luke was in a version I reviewed for UTBA at Pleasant Grove Players last Fall. Fortunately this is a classic play for a reason and it still holds up as a very funny piece of dark comedy.

If you didn’t know the play centers on 2 seemingly sweet elderly sisters who have a very unsightly hobby of poisoning old men who come to rent out a room at their house. In their demented philosophy they are helping these men from their lonely existence and ensuring they have the proper Christian burials they deserve (they make sure to know which denomination the gentleman are before administering the poison.) When their beleaguered nephew Mortimer uncovers what is happening the whole plot becomes a comedy classic full of laughs.

This version at HCTO works because it is manned by such pros like Luke and Melany Wilkins who play Agatha and Martha respectively. Jon Liddiard is a convincing straight man as Mortimer and Matt Kohler gets a lot of laughs as the bizarre Boris Karloff imitating brother Jonathan. Director Mark Fossen is smart enough to keep things simple and let his cast do their jobs. The 1940s home sets by Jason Baldwin are immersive and the costumes by Kim Wright are very well done. My favorite parts of this play is when playwright Joseph Kesselring takes jabs at theater critics (this is Mortimer’s job) and how they just might write their reviews on the way to seeing the play (I would never!) It’s this witty script that makes a play like Arsenic and Old Lace still work today and I was in stitches throughout along with the rest of the audience I was with. When something works it just works. Arsenic and Old Lace is playing at HCTO until Sept 21st and you can purchase your tickets here.

LEGALLY BLONDE: THE MUSICAL- WEST VALLEY PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, WEST VALLEY

Most people who have followed my reviews for a long time know I’m a big fan of the musical adaptation of Legally Blonde. I enjoy the movie but I sincerely think what the team did (music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin and a book by Heather Hatch) elevates it above the movie, making it one of the strongest screen to stage adaptations out there (you can see me rank a bunch of adaptations here.) All that is to say Legally Blonde is an easy win for me and WVPAC came through with a terrific version of this wonderful show (I recently saw it in Draper and that was fantastic as well.)

While the cast is uniformly strong what impressed me the most is the direction from Brooklyn Pulver Kohler and how she managed to elevate songs that are typically some of the weaker moments of the show. For example, “Whipped Into Shape” is usually pretty forgettable but the jump rope routine they accompanied with it is super cool and entertaining (terrific choreography by Benjamin Rowling.) How Bryn Campbell and the whole ensemble are able to sing and jump-rope so effortlessly is very impressive. I also loved the entire “Gay or European” number which is often a bit of a throw-away but was extremely funny and well executed.

Rachel Matorana brings the bubbly energy you need for Elle and Geoff Beckstrand is a nerdy version of Emmett I enjoyed quite a bit. Even though he’s the villain, Jared Lesa as Callahan probably has the best voice of the cast and his “Blood in the Water” is another song elevated by such a strong production.

I also really loved the ensemble throughout and they all nailed the humor making for a very fun evening of musical theater. My only main critique would be the wig they got for Matorana was too big. It looked like a Dolly Parton wig reused for Elle and that’s not who Elle is. She’s far too fashion-conscious to have a huge bouffant curly hairstyle and it managed to swallow Matorana up distracting from her wonderful performance.

Still this is a show in Legally Blonde: The Musical that I love, well done at WVPAC. It’s definitely worth your time. You can see it through August 31st and purchase tickets here.

I paid for both of these logged shows out of pocket. I’d love to cover as many local shows as possible but I need your help to do so. If you’d like me to review more theatre and appreciate what I do please check out the patreon here