Review: TUCK EVERLASTING at Hale Center Theater Orem is Charmed

TUCK EVERLASTING at Hale Center Theater Orem is a fanciful, emotional production.

TUCK EVERLASTING (book by Claudia Shear and Tim Federle, music by Chris Miller, lyrics by Nathan Tysen) is based on the well-known children's novel by Natalie Babbitt. When 11-year-old Winnie Foster runs away from home, she encounters the Tuck family, who inadvertently drank water from a fountain of youth more than 100 years before, rendering them immortal. Their youngest son, eternally 17, becomes the friend she never had, and the rest of the family fills a void in her life. Should she, too, drink water from the spring and join them?

Dallin Suman is tremendously amiable and charismatic as Jesse (double cast with Carter Walker) and matches well with the passionate Abigail Scott as Winnie (double cast with Ava Hoekstra).

Dianna Graham as Mae Tuck (double cast with Laurel Asay Lowe) and Rex Kocherhans as Angus Tuck (double cast with Brett Merritt) fill the stage with tenderness and lush vocals. They are joined by Cleveland McKay Nicoll (single cast), who plays a sullen but warm Miles Tuck.

Real-life mother and daughter Melany Wilkins (double cast with Karen Baird) and Claire Kenny (double cast with Carolyn Hartvigsen) wonderfully play Winnie's grandmother and mother, respectively.

Seth Sherman's delightful Hugo (double cast with Weston Wright) and Stephen Kerr's menacing Man in the Yellow Suit (double cast with Matt Kohler) are also true standouts.

The costumes by Cole McClure are utterly entrancing with period designs that accurately reflect the intended time periods while also evoking a sense of fancy. The selected fabrics are sumptuous and eye-catching.

McClure's set and Cody Swenson's lighting combine with the costumes and Jennifer Hill-Barlow's choreography to create a charmed world that director David Morgan poignantly brings to life.

TUCK EVERLASTING plays through June 15, 2019. For tickets, call the box office at 801-226-8600 or visit www.haletheater.org.

Photo Credit: L-R Dallin Suman (Jesse) and Abigail Scott (Winnie). Photo by Suzy Oliveira.

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