Hi friends! I hope you are having a great September and enjoying regional theatre wherever you might be. I have 2 shows to give my quick logs for. As a reminder the logs are for shows I attend as a patron not a critic and I pay for them out of pocket rather than the comped shows I do full detailed reviews of. Let me know if you’ve seen these shows and what you’ve been watching on the stage lately.

Silent Sky- Parker Theatre, Salt Lake

I must admit I have mixed feelings about the play Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson. While it is wonderful the play shines a light on real-life astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, it is frustrating Gunderson felt her story needs an invented romance and male character in associate Peter Shaw. It goes against the entire message of the play- a message that Henrietta’s story matters and is worth telling. Evidently it didn’t matter enough to actually tell it without a man…

Anyway, putting all that aside the production of Silent Sky at Parker is excellent and worthy of your time. The direction of Joanne Parker creates a combination of intimacy and spectacle that works beautifully on stage. I love how she basically turns the Parker into a mini-planetarium with the constellations and other lighting effects (lighting design by James B Parker.) The costumes by Paige Wilson are also excellent as are the period accurate hair and makeup by Hillary McChesney.)

Emma Widtfeldt is strong yet vulnerable as Henrietta with McChesney giving a convincing Irish accent as Williamina Fleming. If you can go in knowing everything with the Peter character is fake than I’d say Silent Sky is worth seeing at the Parker. It is playing through October 11th and tickets can be purchased here.

Little Shop of Horrors- Centerpoint Legacy, Centerville

With Halloween coming up it’s fun to see some of the horror-influenced shows popping up in Utah. One of the first is Little Shop of Horrors at Centerpoint Legacy. This is an incredible production of this classic musical and one I recommend to anyone looking for quality entertainment.

The biggest standout of the show is the professional sets that would be at home in any Broadway house. Director Ryan Bruckman and set designer Truxton Moulton have outdone themselves creating skid row and a massive stage (usually Little Shop is performed on a smaller stage) that easily transitions from one set pieces to another with moving walls that make it easy to go from the flower shop to the dentist office and other places quickly. The way Audrey grows both as a puppet but also as greenery that covers the set is also impressive with it even coming up over the walls and out the windows by the end. If you showed this set to an industry professional without telling them they wouldn’t believe it is for a community theatre in Centerville Utah.

The cast is also terrific with Janae Klumpp-Gibb crushing it as Audrey and Jake Heywood as Seymour Krelborn. Brock Dalgleish is a more redneck version of dentist Orin than I usually see but what he does with his voice in “Now it’s the Gas” is a feat to watch him pull off. I don’t know how anyone could ask anything more of a community production of Little Shop of Horrors. The sound mix was sometimes off with the backtrack being too loud but other than that it’s a great night of theatre. I highly recommend. It is playing through October 14th and tickets can be purchased here.

So there you have it! Let me know if you see either of these shows and what you think of them.

Silent Sky is a play written by Lauren Gunderson about astronomer Henrietta Leavitt. Little Shop of Horrors has music by Alan Menken with lyrics and book by Howard Ashman based on the book by Charles B Griffith and the 1960 film.

If you enjoy my writing and would like me to review your production I’d love to. I also have a patreon which is a great way to support my shorter logs for shows I don’t get to review. I have some really fun perks like bonus episodes, patron polls and monthly Q&As with actors, directors and writers. Please take a look here.