Blair Howell - Page 9

Utah Musical Theatre Company has announced auditions for the Utah premiere of the inspirational musical SIDE SHOW.

Vernon God Little is howlingly funny at Salt Lake's Babcock Theatre with a cast of University of Utah Department of Theatre students.

As part of the Brigham Young University Performing Arts Series, Mandy Patinkin performed 'Dress Casual' to capacity audiences Aug. 31-Sept. 1 in Provo, Utah. And concertgoers roared their delight at his performance.

Founded in 1991, the Salt Lake City-based Plan-B Theatre Company develops and produces unique and socially conscious theater, with a particular emphasis on new plays by Utah playwrights. Broadway World caught up with the company's producing director, Jerry Rapier.

CRAZY FOR YOU quite gloriously translates to the Hale Center Theater Orem's small stage with Wunderkind director-choreographer Dave Tinney at the helm and an exuberant all-singing, all-tapping cast.

Founded in 1991, the Salt Lake City-based Plan-B Theatre Company develops and produces unique and socially conscious theater, with a particular emphasis on new plays by Utah playwrights. Broadway World caught up with the company's producing director, Jerry Rapier.

Plan-B Theatre has mounted an arousing, emotionally raw "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." Audiences enter the theater anticipating a rollicking cabaret, which is delivered, but are then surprised by their muddy Maybelline tears after Hedwig's tragic-comic quest for defiant acceptance is poignantly related.

Hale Center Theater Orem announces auditions for the youth workshop production of "Disney's Sleeping Beauty Kids." Thr classic fairytale is told Disney style and has many feature and ensemble parts, from King Stefan and Queen Stefanie's loyal subjects to Maleficent's slimy goons.

"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" joins "The 39 Steps," "No Time for Sergeants," "Ragtime," and "Tarzan: The Musical" to the Hale Centre Theatre 2013 season. The West Valley, Utah, company is the highest attended theater in the 7,000-member American Association of Community Theatre.

Hale Center Theater Orem announces auditions for the youth workshop production of "Disney's Sleeping Beauty Kids." Thr classic fairytale is told Disney style and has many feature and ensemble parts, from King Stefan and Queen Stefanie's loyal subjects to Maleficent's slimy goons.

The Hale Center Theater Orem staging of "The Secret Garden" is a rewarding experience for theatergoers. All of the magnificence and charm of the 1991 Tony-winning adaptation of the beloved novel is fully displayed. Seated in the intimate, in-the-round theater, the emotional involvement of fellow audience members surrounding you is clearly seen.

Anticipation is at a fever pitch among avid Utah theatergoers as local theater companies announce their new seasons. The musicals will include "The Will Rogers Follies," "The Phantom of the Opera," and "In the Heights." Dramas include "Death of a Salesman," "The Servant of Two Masters," and "'Tis Pity She's a Whore."

Leading the cast of "The Secret Garden" at Hale Center Theater Orem is Dallyn Vail Bayles as Archibald Craven. Bayles, an Equity member who has performed the masked lead role in a national tour of "The Phantom of the Opera," Enjolras in a "Les Miserables" national tour, and with Colm Wilkinson at the China premiere of "Les Miserables," a popular recording artist and treasured stage and film actor locally.

Midvale Main Street prides itself in staging unique-to-Utah musicals, and "Next to Normal" should not be missed.

When Pioneer Theatre Company premiered Charles Morey's "Laughing Stock" in 2001, New York actor Craig Bockhorn was cast as one of the leads. And now Bockhorn revisits the same role with Charles Morey, the play's director and author, for the Pioneer Theatre Company's second staging, which will open Friday, March 23.

Melva Niles Barborka, a Broadway leading lady, passed away on March 12 in South Jordan, Utah. She succumbed to chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, a neurological disease, at age 86. As Melva Niles, she stared in the Broadway runs "Song of Norway" and "Magdalena," creating the role of Solis.

Was the slave Sally Hemings the common-law second wife of Thomas Jefferson who bore six of his children?

Salt Lake City feels the "noize" of a jet-fueled ROCK OF AGES. The Broadway Across America cast is more Broadway-ready than nonEquity tour.

The University of Utah Department of Theatre will stage the world premiere of internationally renowned playwright and poet Brighde Mullins's new play, RARE BIRD. The special event will raise funds for undergraduate student scholarships and awards.

The national tour of the hit Broadway musical ROCK of AGES rolls into Salt Lake City's Kingsbury Hall on March 2-3. Broadway World interviews the tour's Stacee Jaxx, played by Matt Nolan.