Review: The Utah Shakespeare Festival 2017 Season

 UPDATE: I returned to the Festival on August 5, seeing Midsummer a second time and watching two newly added shows, Shrew! and Long-Lost First Play.   This review has now been updated to include this information.

I go to the Utah Shakespeare Festival almost every year, and most years, I review the plays here on this blog.  I skipped doing the reviews in 2016 because the Festival had new buildings and a weird new schedule, and I ended up going so late in the season that it seemed pointless to post reviews.  But for 2017, I attended all preview shows, so the season is just barely starting, and my reviews may be helpful.
First, let me review the festival itself.
This is the 56th season of the festival in Cedar City, Utah (roughly a 3 1/2 hour drive from Salt Lake City). Cedar City is a college town, smallish, but with plenty of lodging and easy, free parking for the festival (completely unlike the idiotic situation for the festival in Ashland, Oregon).  Most years, the festival does three Shakespeare plays (often one history, one comedy, one tragedy --- but this is not the case this year) and three other plays, which generally include a musical, a kid-friendly play (some years, this is the musical, such as last year, when Mary Poppins was presented), and either a serious drama or a non-Shakespeare comedy.  The ticket prices are reasonable, and the schedule is arranged so that theatre -goers may see all 6 plays in 3 days (except last year, when things got weird).
The festival has won many awards, including a Tony, and it attracts top-notch stage actors.  But the best part of it is the community feel.  Every morning after the plays, seminars are held.  In the first week, the directors of the plays come to these and answer audience questions, but throughout the season, actor seminars are also held.  Furthermore, the actors, the artistic director, and the festival founder himself mingle with the patrons.  It's perfectly fine for ordinary patrons to approach an actor who is walking about on site; they are not stand off-ish at all.  There are also classes and camps and tours designed for different ages and interests; one can take a week-long course in theatre tech or a seminar in stage combat or simply go on a guided tour of the backstage areas.
However......
The festival has had to move to all-new buildings, and this hasn't really been great.  The old theatre looked like a Tudor building on the outside and was shaded by huge, old trees on a grassy area of the Southern Utah University campus.  The new theatre is concrete and industrial.  It looks like a product of Cold War Russia, all grey, lifeless, and designed to suck out one's soul.  Until 2016, the morning seminars were held in a grove of tall pine trees with a view of a grassy, park-like space.  Now the seminars are held in a hot, mostly unshaded area between the theatres.  It's concrete and gravel and has all the ambience of a parking lot.
But it's still worth it.  The plays are wonderful and the people of the festival are fantastic.  I love it.
Below are my reviews of the individual plays of the 2017 season:

A Midsummer Night's Dream:

Do NOT miss this one!!!
Wow.
This Midsummer is set in the 1920s, with a teal-green Art Deco Athens and a glitzy chrome Yin/Yang forest.  The costumes are FREAKIN' GORGEOUS!  (See Hippolyta above.)  The light cues match the magic of the fairies.
It's often that a director chooses to cast the same actors for Theseus and Hippolyta as for Oberon and Titania, and this is true with this production.  However, the director also has the same actors who play the Rude Mechanicals also play Titania's following of fairies, and the parallels in color and action are delightful to pick out. The actor playing Puck also plays Philostrate (except she was very ill the day I saw the preview, and her part was read by the assistant director, so I cannot comment on this Puck).  Only Nick Bottom (hilarious, by the way) and the lovers play single roles.
This is a superb production.  It's funny where it's supposed to be funny. (Yes, I am very familiar with this play.)  It's sexy enough without being unfit for kids. (The last time the festival did this play they made it a kids' version and took all the sexuality out of it, which was a shame.)  The subtleties between Theseus and Hippolyta work.  The physical comedy is spot-on.
In fact, the only thing I didn't like was that Oberon was not a very good-looking guy, and I prefer a handsome King of the Fairies.  However, his acting made him wonderful.  (And, of course, Melinda Parrett, my very favorite of all the festival women, plays Hippolyta/Titania.  She's nothing short of fabulous.)
This play is so good I would happily pay to see it again.  And, since this play runs all the way through October, I may very well do that.  (Note: the festival also has plays that open later and run later in the season.  Obviously, I cannot comment on those.  Check Bard.org to learn more about The Tavern, Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play, and How To Fight Loneliness.)
UPDATE:  I DID see it again!  I went back on August 5, specifically to see the Words Cubed Shrew! and Long-Lost First Play (reviews for which follow at the bottom of this post), and I loved it even more!  The addition of Kelly Rogers as Puck made it even more fabulous, as she is wonderful.  Also, numerous subtle-but-effective bits of physical humor have been added.  This show is amazing, and it runs through October.  Do NOT miss it!!



As You Like It:

 As You Like It is a delightful comedy, but a lot of non-English teacher types don't know much about it, and some people find it a bit confusing.  That, however, is no reason to miss this production: Bard.org has play summaries and introductions, as does the printed program, and there is a play orientation (free) before every single performance of every play at the festival.  The plot is convoluted, but it's a fun, light-hearted play, and this production is good.
OK, the set is a bit monotonous, but once the scene changes to the Forest of Arden, it is very pretty, if unchanging.
The director has cut a lot of this play and moved a few things around, but it works.  The costumes are good (Have a look at Rosalind/Ganymeade's jacket above.  Isn't it great?) and the acting is very good.
Rosalind is played by Cassandra Bissell (who also plays Helena in Midsummer and is fabulous there as well), an actor who is only second to Melinda Parrett (see Midsummer) in my opinion of women often appearing at the festival.  She is brilliant in this role.  And Jeb Burris is a fabulous and very believable Orlando. Michael Elich's take on Jacques is entirely different than I've ever seen before; he plays him as a sarcastically depressed man, and this makes his insult war with Orlando a bit of theatre perfection.
This is a very good production of As You Like It.  If you like live theatre, don't miss it.

 Romeo and Juliet:

To be honest, since I taught 9th grade English (usually multiple periods thereof) for 28 years, it is very likely that I know Romeo and Juliet better than either the director or actors of the play; I've simply read/seen it literally scores of times.
I know every single line that was cut -- and I got the director laughing after the seminar when I teased him about cutting most of Mercutio's filthy jokes.  And I've seen dozens of different interpretations of the play.
Thus, I feel very qualified to review this one.
Overall?  It's pretty good.
The set was dull.  Someone decided it would be a good idea to use the same set for the first part of As You Like It, all of R& J, and presumably also Shakespeare In Love.  It's boring.  The only interesting things are Friar Lawrence's cell, Juliet's bed, and the tomb -- although the latter is still really stark and leaves out Tybalt.
The costumes, however, make up for the lack of set.  They are rich and delightful.  As many directors do, this one decided to stay with the color-coding chosen by Zefferrelli in the 1968 movie, and so the Capulets are in reds and other warm colors, while the Montagues are in cool blues, greens, and purples.
And the acting......
Betsy Muscavero looks about 15 for this production.  She plays a very innocent Juliet, which is different from what we usually get (the last time the festival did R&J, the gal who played Juliet did so as a headstrong, sulking, rebellious teen).  She is supremely convincing in gesture and expression.  It is truly HER show, HER story.
Romeo, on the other hand, is played by Shane Kenyon, who has a receding hairline and looks about 35.  He played Romeo as a nerd, the sort of guy who plays a lot of video games and has trouble talking to real people.  It was awful.  There was nothing attractive or romantic about him at all.
Mercutio, played by Jeb Burris (who was amazing as Orlando in As You Like It) was manic/depressive.  The director told me at the seminar that they wanted to make him jealous of Romeo's attention to Rosaline (but they totally left out any homoerrotic overtones).  It worked, but it meant that they had to kill all the humor in Mercutio's lines.  All in all, he was not my favorite.
Benvolio looked like Gene Kelly.  I totally wanted him to start dancing.  He was OK.  They didn't make him a coward -- but they didn't make him much of anything else either.  He was better looking than Romeo, though.
The parents are very interesting in this production, and Friar Lawrence is very good.
On the whole, it's definitely worth seeing --- but don't expect to fall in love with Romeo!


Guys and Dolls:

Guys and Dolls is a fun musical based on a set of stories by Damon Runyan (I've read them; they're not my favorites).  It's set in 1950s NYC and focuses on problems of Nathan Detroit (played by the KING of Comedy, Quinn Mattfield).  Nathan makes his questionable living by running a floating crap game, but he can't find a place to hold that night's game, and Big Jule is in town -- and you don't mess up Big Jule's crap game.  Nathan makes a bet with the high rolling Sky Masterson (played by the amazing Brian Vaughn, the festival's artist director) for $1000 in order to "rent" the Biltmore Garage for the crap game, a bet that Sky cannot get a girl of Nathan's choosing to go on a dinner date with him.  Sky's problems begin when Nathan chooses Sarah Brown, the leader of the local Save-a-Soul Mission.  Meanwhile, Nathan's problems get more intense when his fiance of 14 years, Miss Adelaide (played by my favorite, Melinda Parrett) begins to insist on marriage.
I was in a community theatre production of this play about 15 years ago, so I know it well, and I LOVED this version.  The set is great, the costumes are color-coded to help the audience keep track of all the gamblers, the singing is good, the jokes are all there, the choreography is wonderful, and the acting!  Well, how could it be anything less than stellar with the combination of Brian Vaughn, Melinda Parrett, and Quinn Mattfield?  They are incredible.
This is a fun, fun show.  Don't miss it.

Treasure Island:

This is the kids' show for this year, and it's pretty good.
Sceri Ivers plays Jim Hawkins in an adaptation that stays very close to the actual novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.  I personally thought that Ivers' costume detracted from her being believable as a 12-year-old, active boy (it was bulky and made her look fat and slump-shouldered, more like a teen couch potato than the Jim Hawkins who climbs the mast of the ship), but I was told my comments in the seminar would be passed to the director, so that issue may be resolved.
The set is exceptionally clever and has many levels. (See photo.)  And a real treat is that a good deal of live music is included.
Overall, this is not my favorite thing at the festival, but it was well done and I do not regret buying a ticket.

Shakespeare In Love:
To be honest, I didn't go to this one because I loathed the movie and still hate how the story confuses people who don't know anything about Shakespeare.  Most people who saw this play told me I was stupid for missing out.  I'll leave you to decide if you want to see it or not.  (I will state that the FABULOUS Quinn Mattfield plays Shakespeare himself; that may be enough to justify the purchase of tickets.)

UPDATE: The Utah Shakespeare Festival has long supported emerging playwrights through what is now called their Words Cubed program.  Until this year, I had never attended one of these dramatic readings done by professional actors.  However, I really wanted to see what playwright  Amy Freed had done with my least favorite Shakespeare play, The Taming of the Shrew, so I drove back to Cedar City to see it (plus Midsummer again and Long-Lost).  (Note: it was only $10.00.)
I will be honest: I don't think Freed solved the main problem of the play for modern audiences, which is that the plot condones the "training" of women to be what men want.  Yes, Freed solved various other problems in this early work of the Bard's, such as making Petrucchio far less of a jerk and giving an explanation as to why Vincencio behaves as he does, but Freed's Petrucchio STILL molds and trains Kate into the wife he wants; we are still left with the message that feisty, independent Kate is still somehow "wrong" and that only a man can change her. (Insert eye roll and barf emojis mentally here, please.)
That being said, here's what was marvelous: The experience itself.   The actors did not just sit in chairs and read; they improvved a great deal, had necessary props and costume bits, and made this a fabulous bit of entertainment.  Also, the audience members get to talk to the playwright and the director, giving feedback about this work, which is a great experience.  (Note: the director of this play was arrogant and condescending, so that was not pleasant.  But Ms. Freed was very interesting.)
This particular dramatic reading will run again Aug. 30 and Sept. 1.  If you're at the Festival, consider spending the ten bucks to experience this.

UPDATE: The Festival has now opened Shakespeare's Long-Lost First Play, and I went to see it on August 5.

(Photo: Beatrice and Richard III take a selfie while Puck looks on.)
I loved the 90s play by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged," the premise of which is that a troupe of three male actors attempt to give the audience a condensed version of every single one of the Bard's plays, all in 2 hours.  It's hilarious.
Long-Lost First Play isn't quite as good.
The premise of this is that 3 male actors find a massive script buried with Richard III's body in a parking lot (yes, that's anachronistic.), but since the play would be four days long, they attempt to condense it.  Many of Shakespeare's famous characters are included, under the guise that Puck, a fairy from Midsummer, and Ariel, a fairy from the Tempest (dressed as Ariel the Little Mermaid, a joke that is funny the first time but quickly grows stale), are having a mischief war with each other, trying to change the plays.  The result is mixed.
The acting in this is phenomenal.  I was amazed at the way these three guys kept it up.  (Note: actor Marco Antonio Vega had already been in Shrew! and Midsummer the day I saw this.  He did three plays in one day --  good thing he's young and energetic!)
The script is kind of a problem.  For one thing, I seriously doubt that anyone who is not well-versed in Shakespeare would get more than 30% of the jokes.  I'm a total Shakespeare freak, yet the script at least twice referred to Shakespeare writing a play featuring Don Quijote and thus inspiring Cervantes. I'd never heard of this before (and plan to look it up).  There was one joke about the "coast of Bohemia" where my laugh was the only audible one, so I'm guessing that reference to Winter's Tale went over most people's heads.
Another problem for some people would be the humor.  It ranged from the exceptionally clever to the incredibly lame.  On the one hand, we got the delightful pairing of the ever-indecisive Hamlet with the super-pushy Lady MacBeth (hilarious!) and again the scene wherein Hamlet tells all the players how to do their jobs countered with Nick Bottom telling all his fellow actors how he would do things the best (so clever!).  Then we get King Lear fart jokes on a third-grade level (uhhhhh, not really clever or funny).
Also, some of the jokes went into very questionable stereotyping, such as "all Arabs are part of the Taliban or ISIS" and "all feminists are ugly lesbian man-haters."  These made me cringe, and there were far better ways they could have handled the Caliban jokes and getting Juliet to use Shakespeare's insults.
So, my recommendation on Long-Lost is this:  do not miss it if 1) you know your Shakespeare, 2) you do not mind sexual humor (because there's a lot of it, much of it just as funny as the sexual jokes the Bard put into his own stuff), and 3) you're not upset about getting wet (put your cell phones away when they tell you to; they do the Tempest).  Do NOT go to this play if 1) you're a Bard newbie or 2) you're the sort who flinches if someone makes an off-color remark.  This is NOT the play to see for a Relief Society outing, people.


In summary, there are no losing plays at the festival this year, but if you are short on time and/or money and want to know the best, my suggestions in order of what to see would be as follows:
1) Midsummer
2) Guys and Dolls
3) As You Like It
4) Romeo and Juliet
5) Long-Lost (if you meet the above qualifications)
5) Treasure Island


In other words, if you can only see one play, make it Midsummer, if you can see two, let them be Midsummer and Guys and Dolls, and so forth.
Find tickets, photos, a calendar, play summaries, casts, directions, etc. at Bard.org.

My Review of the Utah Shakespeare Festival 2015 Fall Production of Two Gentlemen Of Verona

Since the new version of bard.org hates Safari users and will not allow the use of photos, the above photo came from the Salt Lake Tribune.  For more photos, play information, and to buy tickets, go to bard.org, the Utah Shakespeare Festival website.

I loved everything about this production -- except the end.
I loved the costumes, the fact that it was set in 1920, the set, the incredible wandering musicians that tied the scenes together, Tasso Feldman as a believable and sympathetic Proteus, the costumes, the acting, -- and did I mention the costumes?  (Sylvia in a shimmering flapper dress!  To die for!)

But director Robynn Rodriguez chopped the end off an already abrupt ending.  It's awful.  She leaves half the conflicts unsettled and the audience blinking in astonishment.  It's probably the worst editing of a Shakespeare play I've ever seen.

Thus, my recommendation is that if you're a Shakespeare newbie, skip this one, as you'll be confused.
If you're a veteran Shakespeare fan or a lover of the Roaring Twenties or an Italy buff, go see it.  But take a copy of the Bard's original script with you so you can read how the play actually ends.

My Review of Dracula at the 2015 Fall Utah Shakespeare Festival

I really don't like the new bard.org website.  It hates Safari users, for one thing.  But one of the worst things is that it will not allow the use of photos, not even when properly credited.  Thus, to find a photo to advertise one of the plays, I had to use one from the Salt Lake Tribune.
To see more photos (which you can't use) and to buy ticket, go to bard.org.

So, I love the novel Dracula, written by Bram Stoker and published in 1897.  I teach the novel every year to my GT 9th graders, and I know it well.
Naturally, I've seen quite a few vampire movies in my time, but I had never seen a live theatre version of Dracula until this week.  It may have been worth the wait.

Do you love vampires?  Halloween?  Dracula?  You need to see this play!

My one gripe was that the chosen script (Dracula is public domain, so there are plenty of adapted versions out there) changed way too many things about the book.  Yes, I understand the need to shorten the story, but so many things were changed that weren't necessary.  Why, for example, have Lucy refuse Dr. Seward's marriage proposal for no reason because Arthur (the guy she accepts in the book) is cut out of the script?  That made no sense whatsoever.  Also, in the book, Mina marries Jonathan.  But in the play she doesn't.  And there's no reason why.  In fact, the horrid, rape-like scene wherein Dracula hypnotizes Jonathan so he can force Mina to drink his blood had to be changed -- and it lacks quite a bit because of it.
Now, the end of the play changes the end of the book -- but it may be for the better.  The end of the novel Dracula is a bit too much chase and then a way-too-quick end to the vampire.  I almost liked the stage version better.
Also, the script adapter clearly didn't understand that the English were mostly Protestant at the time of this story and that Catholicism and its mysterious rites were all part of the Gothic.  His blunders with that are pretty glaring.
However, the acting is fantastic!  (or fangtastic, if you prefer). Tyler Pierce is a sexy, creepy vampire.  Lucy and Mina are very well done.  Van Helsing is good.  Renfield is convincing.  Seward is very believably in love with Lucy.
The costumes are wonderful.  I especially loved Dracula's look as the "old" count before he comes to England and grows younger with fresh blood.  I'd never pictured him the way he's costumed and wigged for this show, and I really liked it.
The set!  Oh my goodness!
Huge projections make ghostly backdrops!  The spurting blood!  The blood transfusions with blood actually appearing to travel through the tubes!  The fangs!
I would definitely pay to see this again if I had the time.
Seriously, if you're a vampire fan, get tickets and go!  It runs until the end of the month.  Don't waste time deliberating; just plan your trip!

The 2015 Utah Shakespeare Festival: Reviews of King Lear, Henry IV part 2, and Shrew

Yesterday I reviewed the three non-Shakespeare plays at the 2015 Utah Shakespeare Festival; today I present to you my reviews of the three works of the Bard they offer.
I must admit that 2015 does not have a most tantalizing line up: Lear is depressing, Henry IV part 2 is difficult if you haven't seen Richard II and Henry IV part 1, and Shrew is just not a work for the 21st century (the only one of Shakespeare's plays that was not forward-thinking and timeless).  However, that does not mean one should disregard the Festival this year.

King Lear is one of Shakespeare's mid-life plays, written around the same time as such masterpieces as Hamlet and MacBeth.  It is based on a mythological man who may or may not have actually existed as a king of some small area of England before even Egbert in 827, rather like King Arthur, but with a much more depressing tale.

(Note: this photo is from the Salt Lake Tribune, as bard.org now prevents people from posting or pinning their photos. I must laugh at the Tribune review of this play, however, as the ignorant journalist called it "full of sound and fury," apparently unaware that that line is from MacBeth, not Lear.)
The play begins with Lear's dividing up his kingdom among his three daughters, Goneril, Reagan, and Cordelia, based on which woman will make the best public declaration of her love for him.  His youngest daughter, Cordelia, displeases him, and he withholds her portion.  Later, his two other daughters, sick of dealing with Lear's entourage of 100 boisterous, filthy knights, end up pushing him into a tantrum in which he stomps off into the wilderness.  There he meets Edgar, legitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester, who is pretending to be mad because his half-brother, the bastard Edmund (played superbly by Brendan Marshall-Rashid, who was not very good in Charley's Aunt but who clearly does better at tragedy than comedy), has tricked their father into thinking Edgar wants to depose him.
The play is gory: Gloucester's eyes are dug out on stage (this looks pretty convincing in the Festival's version; squeamish audience members may have to close their eyes for this part), Cordelia is hanged, Lear dies of heart problems.
It is very intense and probably not for everyone.  But if you like Lear or you like tragedies, this is an excellent production.  There are no weak actors in this version (even Melinda Pfundstein, who is usually so boring, has found a role that fits her as Goneril).  David Pichette (whom we saw last year as Malvolio) is an amazing fool to Lear.  Drew Shirley makes Oswald physically deformed and memorably wimpy and despicable.  And Tony Amendola is an incredibly convincing Lear.
This is a tough play, but it's done well.

Henry IV part 2 is also superbly done.

(Photo from the Tribune again.)
But the problem with this play is that it's in the middle of a series.  In Richard II, a weak king is deposed by Henry Bollingbrook, who really was just trying to reclaim lands that were rightfully his.  This Henry becomes king in Henry IV part 1, but he's wracked with guilt over killing Richard, and worried about his son Prince Hal, who spends far too much time partying with the fat and funny Falstaff for the king's liking.  Later, however, Hal goes to war to defend his father from the traitorous Hotspur, even killing the young man in the end.
Henry IV part 2 continues the tale, beginning right after the death of Hotspur, showing Hal dealing with the war, his younger brother who double-deals with prisoners, the death of Henry, and putting away his friendship with his old buddy Falstaff.  But the play clearly needs a sequel, which is the glorious Henry V.
The problem with seeing JUST Henry IV part 2 as a lone play is that it would be like reading JUST The Two Towers or JUST Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix or JUST watching The Empire Strikes Back.  It's a middle play, bridging between other plays in the series.
The best thing about seeing Henry IV part 2 is Sam Ashdown, who plays Hal.  Handsome and intense but also believably mischievous with Falstaff, Ashdown is perfect for this role.  (And both this year and last, he elicits gasps and/or nervous giggles from every straight female in the audience between 12 and 90 when he enters the stage shirtless.)
Falstaff is played by a different actor this year (from last year's Henry IV part 1).  John Ahlin isn't quite the same, but he is funny.
Overall, I would recommend this play only to those who are at least familiar with either Henry IV part 1 or Henry V.  To a total Shakespeare newbie, this play would be a bit confusing, I think.

And then we have Taming of the Shrew.

The problems with Shrew have nothing to do with the Festival; their production of the play is about as good as it can get.
No, the problem with Shrew is that it's one of Shakespeare's early plays and that, while several of his plays show racist or sexist characters, this is the only play that glorifies and romanticizes abusive relationships.  If Shakespeare had written Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey, it would have come out as Taming of the Shrew.
The plot of the play is that Baptista Minola has two daughters, Kate and Bianca, and he refuses to choose one of Bianca's numerous suitors (note that he's the one who chooses, not her, even though she does get her first choice, simply because that man has a very clever servant who makes it work out) until Kate is married off.  Kate's problem is that she's sassy and says what she thinks; she will not obey her father or any other man.
One of Bianca's suitors has a friend, Petrucchio, who has come to town in search of a wife who is rich. Petrucchio is honestly informed about Kate, but he decides her huge dowry is worth it, and he likes the challenge of taming her.
Her marries her with her father's permission but against her will.  He shames her publicly.  He abuses her emotionally, mentally, physically, -- and it's hinted sexually -- for days, depriving her of food and sleep, contradicting what she says and pretending it's for her own good, isolating her from her family so they can't rescue her.  And when he has finally broken her spirit, he brings her back to show her off as a trained animal, winning bets on her obedience, as if she were a dog.  In the end, the much-changed Kate gives a speech about how women must obey their husbands; she's explaining how she intends to survive this abuse for the rest of her life.
And this is supposed to be funny.
Granted, Brian Vaughn does his best.  The man is funny, but there's only so much one can do with making a sadistic narcissist funny as he abuses his captive.
Fortunately, there is true comic relief in Petrucchio's most amusing set of servants.  And the subplot with Bianca's suitors is funny without the abuse.  Sam Ashdown proves he can be funny as Lucentio, and Michael Doherty, whose silliness falls short of real comedy in Charley's Aunt, is truly a funny Tranio. Eric Weiman also makes even the scant part of Biondello into something delightful.
So, who should see Shrew?  Well, since there are so very, very many women who are not bothered by abuse in Twilight and 50 Shades (NOTE: I have not read 50 Shades.), I suppose there are many who will find the abuse in Shrew to be equally romantic here.  And men who are comfortable in roles of benevolent patriarchy may not even notice anything wrong with the plot.
In other words, this play should go over very well in Utah.
Now, those bothered by abuse, well -- you might well enjoy the servants and the subplots; I know I did.

And thereby hangs a tale... a review. :)
(PS. that's a line from Shrew, just in case you didn't know.)


Addendum: More info about the plays and tickets can be found at bard.org.

The 2015 Utah Shakespeare Festival: Reviews of Charley's Aunt, South Pacific, and Amadeus

I go to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah, almost every year.  (I missed 2012 when I had two surgeries and a relative's wedding taking up my summer.)  I love it.
And every year I post reviews, all of which end up getting many hits, so I know people are searching  for this information.
I usually go to the Festival during preview week, which means my reviews are up just as the true season opens, but this year I was in Iceland at that time, so I went to the Festival this week.  But it's still early in the season, so I'm going to review the plays anyway.  Today it will be the non-Shakespeare plays, tomorrow the Shakespeare plays, and Sunday or Monday I hope to have a review of other things to do at the Festival.

The Utah Shakespeare Festival was founded in 1961 by Fred Adams (who's still going strong and very visible at the Festival).  Now in its 54th season, it offers a mix of Shakespeare, a musical, and comedy, and a non-Shakespeare drama most years.  (This will change next year, as they will have new facilities and will be offering a slightly different mix.)  All play and ticket information may be found at the Festival website, bard.org. (Hint: if you wish to buy tickets online, the new website still has a lot of issues with Safari, so either call them or use Firefox if you get desperate, although it's beyond me why website developers cannot seem to make pages work for more than one browser.)

The non-Shakespeare comedy for 2015 is Charley's Aunt.
The new festival website will not allow me to post a photo to this blog, so all I can do is give you a link to see photos.  (Can you tell that I don't like the new website?  It won't let me pin the photos to Pinterest, either.)
Ah, ha!  The Salt Lake Tribune had this one photo I managed to get off their site -- not the best one from the play, but at least it's a photo!

This play was written in the 1890s as a farce.  I expected it to be as funny as the festival's 2014 production of Boeing, Boeing or their 2011 Noises Off! or 2010's 39 Steps, but it wasn't.  I suppose a big part of the reason for this is that Michael Doherty, who has the biggest comic role in the play as Babbs, plays it in a way that my grandmother would call "soft."  He acts like a 12-year-old showing off, and it's just nowhere near as funny as the humor we've come to expect at the festival from actors like Brian Vaughn, David Ivers, Quinn Mattfield, and Aaron Galligan-Stierle.
The basic plot is that two Oxford students, Jack and Charley, are in love with a couple of girls and want the girls to come to lunch so they can declare their feelings of love before both girls must leave town.  The problem is that the girls will need a chaperone.  Charley's aunt, the Lady Lucia, an English woman who married a Brazilian man of wealth and who is now a widow, is coming to visit Charley.  The boys arrange the lunch, assuming that the aunt will be a fine chaperone, but she sends a telegram announcing her delayed arrival.  The boys are desperate -- until they realize that their buddy Babbs just happens to have a woman's costume for a play he's in.....  Babbs has to be Charley's aunt -- even when the real Lady Lucia shows up.
Even though this production is not as funny as it could be, it is still delightful.  Lady Lucia, played by the lovelyChristine Jugueta, and Sir Francis Chesney (Jack's father) are both very funny.  It is still very well worth the price of the ticket.

The musical this year at the Festival is South Pacific -- and they've done a practically perfect job.  (The only downside is that the director chose to cut the song "Happy Talk," which leaves an obvious and gaping hole in the show.)

(Again, this photo is courtesy of the Salt Lake Tribune, the only one I could get to work on blogger.)
The set, lighting, and sound of this production are done very well.  I was very impressed.  (Can I tell you how fun it was to see the chair in the military office scene be identical to the chair I have used at school for years?  My chair was a vintage 1950, and this set piece looked just like it!)
Nearly every character in this has been cast very well.  Nellie, Emile, Joe Cable, and Bloody Mary are perfect!  And they sing so well!  Luther is hilarious.  The officers are convincingly rough.  The only casting that doesn't work is Liat.  For Emile's two children, the festival managed to get local Tongan children to play the roles, and Bloody Mary is played by a woman of color who looks possibly African American in the interviews but who makes a fine "Tonkenese" woman in the play.  But Liat, her daughter, looks Korean.  In no way does she look Polynesian.  It's not a big deal, but since they tried hard to get a Polynesian look for the others, Liat looks off.
Anyway, this is a fabulous version of this play -- and I've seen numerous versions.  Don't miss this one!

The serious, non-Shakespearean drama for 2015 is Amadeus.

(Photo from the Tribune again, because bard.org is not letting me use their photos.)
Like most people, I'd seen the movie Amadeus years ago.  But this is not the movie.
In the movie, Mozart is still the focus of the play, and his rival composer Salieri is a Disney-esque villain.  The movie is, as described by David Ivers, Festival artistic director and the actor who plays Salieri, a "thriller."
But the play at the Festival has evolved; it's now a tragedy.
According to Ivers this is the fourth new version the playwright has created since the movie.  The end is very different.
And this is Salieri's story now, not Mozart's.  Salieri has Hubris and the tragic flaw of not realizing that the contract he's made with God is one-sided; God is not part of the equation.
David Ivers is fantastic in this!  And Tasso Feldman is a superb Mozart with an amazing array of emotions.  This is a gem of a production.  Do not miss it!

There you have my reviews of the three non-Shakespeare plays.  Drop by tomorrow for the rest.

The 2014 Fall Shakespeare Festival: My Review Of Boeing, Boeing

On September 26, 2014, I made my THIRD trek to the Utah Shakespeare Festival for this season, this time to see the autumn plays on their line up. 
To read my review of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, click here.
My review of Twelfth Night was posted in June.  However, I saw the play again in August, and it was still AWESOME.  I would gladly have paid to see it yet again, but time constraints for me made this impossible.  Click here to read my review.  In fact, if you can only see one play at the fall festival, it should be Twelfth Night.  It's the best.

Also, all photos, as well as ticket info and prices, can be found at bard.org.

Boeing, Boeing (named for the jets) is reportedly the most popular, most translated French play ever.
The basic plot (pilfered by Love, American Style numerous times) is a farce in which Bernard, an American architect living in Paris, has three fiancees: a New Yorker, an Italian, and a German.  Each woman is a flight attendant, and with their different schedules for different airlines, no one woman knows about either of the others.  When Bernard's old friend from Wisconsin arrives for a visit, Bernard explains that three is best for polygamy, as two would be monotonous and more than three would be too complicated.  (Note: yes, there is a great deal of irony in the fact that a French play celebrating polygamy is being performed in Utah.)  Bernard has no intent to marry any of the women; he's happy as he is, and his whole carefully-arranged schedule is workable because of his French housekeeper, Berthe.  Naturally, all the flight attendants' schedules get switched at the same time, and they all arrive at the apartment on the same weekend that Robert is there.  Chaos and hilarity follow.  

Maryann Towne plays Berthe.  While I wasn't impressed by her as Maria in Twelfth Night, her sarcastic tone and eye-rolling disgust work extremely well in this play.  She is one of the best parts of the whole thing and clearly the best of the women.

Grant Goodman is Bernard.  While he has been stiff and dull in both Twelfth Night and Sense and Sensibility, he's very fun in this role.  He is still totally unconvincing as a lover, however.  But at least we can believe he's a very worried man.
Quinn Mattfeld is in another supremely funny role as Robert.  Quinn is possibly the single funniest actor I've ever seen, and he does not disappoint in this play.
The set is also superb, with sixties weirdness abounding.  (I have a vintage sofa with matching chairs in that exact shade of blue!) And the gigantic tennis ball as furniture.... well, the actors certainly get to have fun with that prop!

Boeing, Boeing is a laugh-out-loud farce done with superb comic timing.  You will laugh.  Guaranteed.
Don't miss this gem!

The 2014 Fall Shakespeare Festival: My Review Of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure

On September 26, 2014, I made my THIRD trek to the Utah Shakespeare Festival for this season, this time to see the autumn plays on their line up.
My review of Boeing, Boeing will be posted on 9/29/14.  To read it, click here.
My review of Twelfth Night was posted in June.  However, I saw the play again in August, and it was still AWESOME.  I would gladly have paid to see it yet again, but time constraints for me made this impossible.  Click here to read my review.  In fact, if you can only see one play at the fall festival, it should be Twelfth Night.  It's the best.

Also, all photos, as well as ticket info and prices, can be found at bard.org.

This script was written by a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but then the the playwright made friends with Conan Doyle and the play received his blessing, even though it does go against the grain for Holmes, as he is shown to be in love in the play -- a thing that most certainly never happens in any of the tales.
The basic plot is a mesh of "A Scandal in Bohemia" with "The Final Problem," and thus it combines the first and the last of the first two sets of Holmes stories.  (It also throws in tidbits from other tales, such as lifting the opening scene of The Sign of Four, wherein Holmes is shooting cocaine out of boredom and Watson is telling him it's bad for his health.)  Fans of the Robert Downey, Jr./Jude Law movies will think the plot was stolen from Hollywood, but I'm pretty sure it was the other way around, as this script is roughly 100 years older.
The set for this production is lovely.  (And parts of it will definitely appeal to steampunk fans!)  The waterfall at the end is really well done.
The acting, as usual for the festival, is superb.  J. Todd Adams is Holmes and the ever-popular and incredibly talented Brian Vaughn is Watson.

Vaughn's Watson is much truer to the novels and stories; he is not like the stupid Watson made famous by the Basil Rathbone films, but much more like the Jude Law Watson.
The only problem I saw with this was that Vaughn, who could still pass for 30 if he chose to do so, played a mature Watson, while Adams, who is reportedly far past 30, played a very young Holmes.  This didn't work too well for me.
Irene Adler is played by Melinda Pfundenstein, and for once, this actually works.  Pfundenstein plays every single role as haughty, arrogant, and distant, but this really works for a cold-hearted Irene.
(Note: the director chose to have Irene's name pronounced as "eye-REEN-eee," which I've never heard before, not even among the literary upper crust at the University of Edinburgh.  I never learned why this decision was made, but it does make the name grate a bit.)

Professor Moriarty is well-played by Rick Peeples, who usually plays comic roles (he's Sir Toby in Twelfth Night).  But he fits very nicely into this part and really looks like a professor/criminal mastermind.

That's basically it.  There are no real weak spots.  It's a good play.  The whole thing stays quite true to Conan Doyle's original vision of the tales.  The set is great and the acting is very good.

It's a great mood-setter for Halloween.

Go see it!

Why Visit The Utah Shakespeare Festival?

So, this week I've been reviewing the plays from the Utah Shakespeare Festival's 2014 season:

A Comedy of Errors 6/29/14

Twelfth Night on 6/30/14
Henry IV part one on 7/1/24
Measure For Measure on 7/2/14
Sense and Sensibility on 7/3/14
Into The Woods on 7/4/14

And I realized that there may be people wondering why on earth they should drive to a little college town in southern Utah to see Shakespeare.
Well, folks, I've seen Shakespeare performed by amateurs and professionals -- and the professional productions have included not just the Utah Shakespeare Festival, but also traveling companies performing in Salt Lake City (usually at Kingsbury Hall or the Pioneer Memorial Theatre), in London (yes, at the Globe Theatre), the Ashland, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and even in Stratford-on-Avon, England (birthplace of the Bard himself).  I've seen some mighty good stuff.  But I'm a big fan of the Utah Shakespeare Festival.  (If that link doesn't work, go to bard.org.)

(This statue of Sir John Falstaff stands behind the newer Randall Theatre, where shows are presented indoors.)

First of all, it's a FESTIVAL, not just a play.  You can, if you're short on time, see six different plays in 3 days' time during the summer season, and 3 plays in a day and a half in the autumn.  Plus, the actors play in multiple plays, so you can see your favorites over and over again.
Because it's attached to Southern Utah University, you can take classes for college credit (undergrad or grad credit, even).  You can see free greenshows every night, pay to take backstage tours, or attend free seminars with actors, directors, or prop experts.
Now, I notice that the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is beginning to copy some of these ideas.  That's all well and good, and I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from going to Oregon, but I can tell you I had to pay a lot more for tickets there, and their parking situation was stupidly ridiculous.  The whole layout of the Cedar City festival is much, much better.

(The Adams Theatre was, at the time it was built and until the reconstruction of the Globe in London in the mid-1990s, the most accurate Elizabethan theatre anywhere.  It is now outdated and will be replaced by a new complex in two years.)

Also, at the Utah festival, it is common for ordinary audience members to bump into and speak with the actors during the day; they do not hide from the patrons as if we were lower life forms.  And the festival artistic directors, Brian Vaughn and David Ivers, are about and around, talking to people nearly every evening before the shows and getting feedback and/or constructive criticism.  (It's OK to walk right up and say, "Hey, David, I really loved what you did with 12th Night, but I had a hard time hearing when .....")  And, of course, festival founder and local legend Fred Adams is available nearly every night to meet and greet the crowds -- and to do play orientations.

I've never experienced this anywhere else.

(This statue of Titania, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, stands at the main entrance to the Randall Theatre, which will remain as part of the new complex.)

The Utah Shakespeare Festival also often has other displays of art, history, costumes, etc. to see in the few moments you're not already busy with plays, orientations, seminars, and classes.  Above is a photo of a first folio edition of Shakespeare, which was on loan for their 50th anniversary season.  That was quite the thing to have in a small town in Utah!

(As you'd expect, there are plenty of tee shirts and souvenirs available.)

So, yes, you should see Shakespeare whenever and wherever you can, but if you get the chance to visit Utah, don't miss the Utah Shakespeare Festival, where it's not just seeing a play or two; it's immersing yourself in a whole experience for as long as you're there.

The 2014 Utah Shakespeare Festival: Review of Into The Woods

Background Info:
I visited the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City during the preview week of its 2014 season, watching the second preview show for each of the six plays.  I will be posting my reviews all week on this blog.  I will link my reviews as they become public.
A Comedy of Errors on 6/29/14
Twelfth Night on 6/30/14
Henry IV part one on 7/1/24
Measure For Measure on 7/2/14
Sense and Sensibility on 7/3/14
Why go to the Utah Shakespeare Festival on 7/5/14
Unless otherwise noted, all photos used will be from the festival website, bard.org.  Also, all information regarding tickets, seminars, tours, and classes for college credit is available there.

I'll make my review of this play short and sweet:  if you like Into the Woods, go see this version.
I discovered that I do not like Into the Woods.
Oh, I have few complaints about the Utah Shakespeare Festival's production.  I found the 2-dimensional sets, all based on 19th century wood carvings, to be very clever.  I thought the singing was good, especially because Into the Woods has a difficult and often dissonant score.  The costuming was good (although the wolf costume was about as Freudianly phallic as one could possibly put into a "children's" show.).  The acting was pretty good.  (The audience really seemed to go for the two princes.  The baker, played by Brian Vaughn, was a success -- because everything Brian touches turns to at least silver, in spite of nasty scripts like this one.  My favorite character was Red Riding Hood, but that was mostly because she reminded me of a former student who used to make me laugh.)

But we're still left with a fairly lame script.  I honestly cannot figure out why this play has been so popular for so many years.  It's anti-family, for one thing, so how on earth does that go over so well in Utah?  I am mystified.  The messages of this play can be summed up as 1) don't trust your family and 2) handsome men who cheat on their wives will merely move on to other beautiful women, but women who cheat on their husbands will be killed -- by a giant who stomps on them.
All righty, then.  That's not sexist at all, is it? (Insert sarcasm font.)  And just really cheerful for kids as well. *rolls eyes*

Overall, I'd say that the festival took an irritating and negative play and did a decent job with it.  If you like Into the Woods, go see this version.  If you are unfamiliar with this musical, skip it and spend your ticket money on one of the five much better plays at the festival this year.

The 2014 Utah Shakespeare Festival: Review of Sense and Sensibility

Background Info:
I visited the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City during the preview week of its 2014 season, watching the second preview show for each of the six plays.  I will be posting my reviews all week on this blog.  I will link my reviews as they become public.
A Comedy of Errors 6/29/14
12th Night 6/30/14
Henry IV Part One  on 7/1/24
Measure For Measure on 7/2/14
Into The Woods on 7/4/14
Why go to the Utah Shakespeare Festival on 7/5/14
Unless otherwise noted, all photos used will be from the festival website, bard.org.  Also, all information regarding tickets, seminars, tours, and classes for college credit is available there.

Remember to click on all photos in this post to enlarge them.

I didn't think I was going to like Sense and Sensibility.  Really, it's a novel, never meant to be a play.  And it's loooong -- way too long to be anything but some kind of mini-series on PBS or the BBC.  Plus, I hadn't exactly been blown off my seat by the version of Pride and Prejudice that the Utah Shakespeare Festival did a few years ago.
However, this was really very good.
Apparently, I was among the second-ever audience to see this show, as it was written specifically for this festival this year.  That's kind of cool.
I expected proper Britishness -- and I got it.  Elinor and Marianne are exactly what you'd expect; Marianne was played as a very convincing drama queen of a teenager.  :)  Sam Ashdown played the slimy, hypocritical Willoughby very effectively.
But there was humor as well, and humor in Austen doesn't always end up in performances; movies and TV versions of her books always end up so hopelessly stuffy.
Never fear!  This version has a hilarious Edward, played by the incredible comic actor Quinn Mattfeld.

He was simply THE most awkward and funny leading man anyone could ever wish.
And Mrs. Jennings and her daughter Charlotte were awesome!  Devonshire accents, tons of little lines.... oh, I could definitely watch these two again!

Yes, Austen's novel had to be simplified to fit the time constraints.  No, there's no Alan Rickman in this version. No, this is not Shakespeare.  But I'd still say it's a keeper.  It was possibly the most lighthearted Austen ever.

(Left: Quinn Mattfeld and Center: Bri Sudia, who plays Charlotte, at an actors' seminar on 6/28/14.)

If you like Austen, or if you want a light love story, or if you are looking for something other than Shakespeare, this is a good choice.  The acting is excellent; there are really no weak spots at all.
Don't miss it.

The 2014 Utah Shakespeare Festival: Review of Measure For Measure

Background Info:
I visited the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City during the preview week of its 2014 season, watching the second preview show for each of the six plays.  I will be posting my reviews all week on this blog.  I will link my reviews as they become public.
A Comedy of Errors on 6/29/14
Twelfth Night on 6/30/14
Henry IV part one on 7/1/24
Sense and Sensibility on 7/3/14
Into The Woods on 7/4/14
Why go to the Utah Shakespeare Festival on 7/5/14
Unless otherwise noted, all photos used will be from the festival website, bard.org.  Also, all information regarding tickets, seminars, tours, and classes for college credit is available there.

My thoughts on Measure For Measure:

Measure For Measure is one of Shakespeare's unfunny comedies.  As I teach my 7th graders, a "comedy" in his day simply meant that usually no one died -- never the protagonist -- and that all the couples were matched up -- however stupid those matches may appear to a modern audience -- by the end of the play.  Some comedies are truly funny, such as A Comedy of Errors, but others, such as A Winter's Tale and Measure For Measure, are far from hilarity. 
That is not to say that there is no humor in the play.  The character of Lucio, played at this year's festival by the versatile Jonathan Smoots, definitely lightens the mood as he tries to gain favors by cutting down first the Duke and then the Friar, not realizing that they are both the same person and that his lies have been detected.

The basic plot idea is that Duke Vincentio of Vienna (Shakespeare had a thing about Italianesque names, even for a play set in a Germanic place....) feels that he could be a better ruler if he could just find out the reason for the moral decline of his city, so he tells his assistants he is going to Poland but in reality disguises himself as a Friar to wander about the city in disguise and ... well, spy.  This original conflict gets completely lost and is never resolved, as Angelo takes over and goes so right wing he'd make John Birch and the Teapartiers flinch.

Angelo, played incredibly realistically by Steve Wojtas, decides to enforce an old law that requires the beheading of men who fornicate, apparently even if they plan to marry the girl with whom they broke the law.  Thus, Claudio, who has impregnated his fiancé Juliet (no, not THAT Juliet.  Shakespeare recycled names frequently.) but who has not yet married her due to some technicality about her dowry, is arrested, imprisoned, and scheduled for execution.

Lucio, who's really not a bad-hearted guy, in spite of his bragging and lying, hopes to get Claudio released, so he goes to the convent where Claudio's sister, Isabella, is almost ready to take her final vows to become a nun.  Lucio convinces her to try to persuade Angelo not to kill her brother, but to let him marry Juliet (duh).

What happens, unfortunately, is that the hypocritical Angelo's hormones are stirred, rather than his senses of justice and mercy, and he tells Isabella he'll release her brother if she yields up her virginity to him.  (He's lying; he still plans to have Claudio killed.)

Fortunately, the Duke/Friar gets involved with a secret plan to swap-out Isabella for Marianna, Angelo's estranged fiancé, who has no other marriage options because of her betrothal to him, in a Leah-for-Rachel-in-the-dark bit of sex.

All works out in the end, of course, because this is a comedy.

So, this is a tough play.  It's not a good choice for Shakespeare newbies.  (In fact, I ended up sitting in front of a whole row of teenagers from some camp.  They had been dragged to this play with no preparation whatsoever.  They were confused and bored and disruptive.  I had to give them the teacher evil eye more than once.)  But it is a tough play done well.

There are really no weak spots at all.  Every actor is superb and convincing.  The set is good, the costumes are perfect, and everything flows.  I have not one negative thing to say about this production; it is very fine indeed.

Yet, because the play is not an easy one, I would only recommend this to Shakespeare veterans, theatre lovers, and the like.  This is not the play to see if you wish to begin your journey into Shakespeare.  Try A Comedy of Errors or 12th Night for that.  Or Henry IV, if you want something more serious.

But, if you like theatre and/or Shakespeare, you will not find a better Elizabethan version of this play.  Go see it.  :)