Hi friends! I hope you are all doing well. I have been mad busy as usual and most of the shows I’ve been seeing have been full reviews (which is amazing) but I have 2 logged shows to talk about today. Also if you missed it I had the chance to interview Victor Hamburger about the upcoming 2025-2026 Eccles National Tour season. This interview is only 7 minutes so well worth your time:

That said here are my 2 recent logs. (For those new to the site logs are for shows I pay for out of pocket and are not full reviews.)

AMELIE- RIVERTON HIGH SCHOOL DRAMA, RIVERTON

When I saw that Riverton High School was putting on Amélie: The Musical (High School Edition) I was intrigued because I had heard about the show but never seen it. This production is also in a black box which you don’t normally see with high school, so that was a neat experience to watch.

Directed by Clin Eaton Amélie at RHS gives students the chance to perform in a more intimate environment and learn to project properly without microphones. What an incredible skill to give your students and one that will help them greatly in their careers whether they are microphoned up or not. There were times when they didn’t project enough but I didn’t mind because it’s all part of the learning experience. The choreography and amount of kids involved in the production especially in a black box is impressive.

I also appreciate how many students were involved especially for a black box. Avery Rindlisbach plays adult Amélie well capturing the introverted quality of the character convincingly. Carter Reid also has a beautiful voice as Nino. All of the leads appear to be seniors and it’s a testament to this wonderful program to see their talent on stage and I look forward to seeing what they all do going forward on the Utah stage and beyond (their Hadestown was incredible)

In the end I was impressed with the students but underwhelmed with the material they had to work with. I think the problem is Amélie is a movie that charms with vibes and visuals more than the story. It barely has a story with Amélie trying to find the owner of a box of trinkets and learning to have the confidence to embrace life. With such thin story the music and lyrics need to be incredible, and they just aren’t here. “Stay” is probably the highlight of the show but it didn’t do much for me as far as a memorable musical.

If you are curious to see this show and to support the students Amélie at RHS has one more showing tomorrow Tickets can be purchased in the front office or at the door. More information on their instagram.

LEGALLY BLONDE- HERITAGE THEATRE, PERRY UTAH

I will just have a few quick thoughts on the Bruiser Cast of Legally Blonde: The Musical at Heritage Theatre in Perry. I already reviewed the production’s Rufus Cast here. The Bruiser cast is almost the same except for the 3 leads- Hannah Atkinson as Elle, Zackery George as Emmett, and Jess Tarbet as Paulette. Atkinson leans into the bubbly youthful energy of Elle and George brings a nerdy approach to Emmett which is accurate to the character. Tarbet is hilarious as Paulette and Luke Merkley steals the show as hot UPS man Kyle. Very funny. Ryan Boam quite possibly has the best voice of the cast as the smarmy Callahan (he makes for a great villain in ‘Blood in the Water’)

They could still work on the music volume levels but they fixed the costume problem of opening night so that’s good. I would recommend they tone down the amount of blush they had on Elle. Other than that everything else went off without a hitch.

Legally Blonde: The Musical is frankly a show that is tough to screw up. It’s just so overall entertaining and neither cast gets it wrong at Heritage. Whichever one you see I’m confident you’ll have a great time (unless you’re a content-complaining Karen. See above.) It is playing through May 10th and tickets can be purchased here.

Amélie: the Musical has music by Daniel Messé with lyrics by Messé and Nathan Tysen. Book by Craig Lucas. Legally Blonde: The Musical has music and lyrics by Nell Benjamin and Laurence O’Keefe with a book by Heather Hach.

These logged shows I pay for out of pocket and I’d love to do that as much as possible. If you have a show you’d like me to take a look at and write a full review let me know. I also have my patreon which is a great way to support what I do and get some really fun perks. Find out more here.