Wasatch Theatre Company to Stage Neil Simon Classic, GOD'S FAVORITE

Successful Long Island businessman Joe Benjamin is a modern-day 'Job' with a demanding wife, ungrateful children, and wise-cracking household employees. Just when it seems things couldn't get any worse, he is visited by Sidney Lipton, a.k.a. A Messenger from God (and compulsive film buff) with a mission: test Joe's faith and report back to "the Boss." The jokes and Tests of Faith fly fast and furious as Neil Simon spins a contemporary morality tale like no other in this hilarious comedy.

Wasatch Theatre Company continues its 20th Anniversary Season with the Neil Simon classic comedy, God's Favorite. Performances run September 22 through October 8 in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center Studio Theatre. Tickets to God's Favorite as well as season tickets are available at arttix.artsaltlake.org.

This will be the fifth Simon play to be performed by Wasatch Theatre Company over the 20 years since the company was founded. "God's Favorite" is one of Simon's rarely done classics about a man who is visited by a messenger from God, asking him to fulfill a bet between God and the Devil. This hilarious set of misadventures will have audiences rolling with laughter.

Directed by David Hanson, the show features Andy Maizner (Joe), Gordon Dunn (David), Anne-Marie Leishman (Sarah), Tristan B. Johnson (Ben), Natalie Keezer (Mady), Kaltin Kirby (Morris), Sallie Cooper (Rose), and Eric Geels (Lipton). Production staff includes Dylan McKernan (stage manager), Sammee James (prop designer), Johnie Rankin (light designer), Amy Allred (sound designer), Michael Nielsen (costume designer), and Kit Anderton (set designer.

IF YOU GO:

God's Favorite by Neil Simon

Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Studio Theatre (38 West 300 South)

Sept. 22-October 7 (Fridays and Saturdays) at 8:00 pm

Sept. 21, Oct. 1, Oct. 8 (Sundays) at 2:00 pm

Tickets are $20.00 at arttix.artssaltlake.org

Wasatch envisions theatre as a classroom where actors, directors, playwrights, and technicians can apprentice, experiment, and produce in a supportive environment that encourages individual and collaborative growth. Over the past 20 years, Wasatch has presented everything from regional premieres of big name musicals (Avenue Q) to contemporary classics (True West) in places as diverse as a deli, a coffee shop, various university lobbies, and, for the last ten years, at the Rose Wagner.

Neil Simon was born on July 4, 1927 in The Bronx, New York City as Marvin Neil Simon. Almost every one of his 30-plus plays, mostly Broadway comedies, have also been adapted into a motion pictures or TV series-the greatest such achievement of any playwright/author, even surpassing William Shakespeare. As a result, Simon has received more Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer in the history of show business.

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