But not in Utah
Much live theater, but too little variety.
Let’s call them The Utah Five: THE LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, JOSEPH…DREAMCOAT, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, SEUSSICAL.
If you enjoy one of these musicals above, you’re in luck. Utah theaters produce these shows on repeat, season after season after season.
Ardent theatergoers crave the new, fresh from Broadway and the rarely-if-ever-seen.
At the top of the list of what I want to see produced is THE BOY FROM OZ, the colorful, silly, funny, emotional and introspective biomusical that celebrates the greatest showman, Peter Allen. The splashy spectacle includes nearly each of his well-known hits, ranging from “Not the Boy Next Door” to “When Everything Old Is New Again” to “I Honestly Love You,” along with, not to be forgotten, “I Go to Rio” (cue the maracas).
There is a wealth of shows that are never seen on Utah stages. Occasionally but all too infrequently there’s a surprise. I enjoyed each performance I attended, all seven of them, of Pioneer Theatre Company’s effervescent production of NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 last season, and I nearly shed a tear when West Valley City Arts announced that included in its current season is ALICE BY HEART (by Duncan Sheik, famous for SPRING AWAKENING).
Utah theaters, give these shows that have never been staged in Utah a chance — and we’ll leap to buy tickets:
Adrift in Macao; Allegro; American Psycho; Anyone Can Whistle; Applause; The Apple Tree; Ballroom; The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas; Big; Billy Elliot; The Boy from Oz; Breakfast at Tiffany’s; Bright Lights, Big City; Bullets Over Broadway; Candide; A Catered Affair; Chaplin; City of Angels; Dames at Sea; Death Takes a Holiday; Dreamgirls; Elegies; Elegies for Angels, Punks and Drag Queens; Everybody’s Talking About Jamie; Far from Heaven; Fela!; for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf; Follies; Fosse; The Frogs; Giant; The Glorious Ones; Grand Hotel; Grey Gardens; A Grand Night for Singing; Groundhog Day; High Society; Hello Again; Hey, Love; Honeymoon in Vegas; If/Then; Jamaica; Lady in the Dark; The Life; Little Me; Little Miss Sunshine; Legs Diamond; Leap of Faith; LoveMusik; Lucky in the Rain; Mack & Mabel; Marie Christine; A Man of No Importance; Meet John Doe; Memphis; My Favorite Year; My One and Only; A Minister’s Wife; The Most Happy Fela; Mr. President; Murder Ballad; Nick & Nora; No, No, Nanette; Nice Work If You Can Get It; On a Clear Day; On the Town; On the 20th Century; The People in the Picture; Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess; Queen of the Mist; Raisin; Redhead; The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd; Romance/Romance; The Scottsboro Boys; Seesaw; Sherry!; Song and Dance; Songs for a New World; Spamilton; Steel Pier; The Story of My Life; Subways Are for Sleeping; Sugar; Sunday in the Park with George; Sweet Smell of Success; Tenderloin; Tintypes; Tommy; Two Gentlemen of Verona; Victor/Victoria; Violet; The Visit; War Paint; Weird Romance; Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown; Yank!; Zanna, Don’t; and 13.
Thanks to Megan Gutierrez, the founder of the Utah Theater Lovers meetup group, for help with the titles listed here. Amazingly, she has logged all shows produced since 2015. Here’s her list of the number of The Utah Five that have been staged along the Wasatch Front: THE LITTLE MERMAID: 23; BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: 19; JOSEPH…DREAMCOAT: 19; THE ADDAMS FAMILY: 18; and SEUSSICAL: 18.
And the shows produced more than 10 times: INTO THE WOODS (17 productions); THE MUSIC MAN, NEWSIES (15); A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (13); MARY POPPINS, CINDERELLA, THE LITTLE SHOW OF HORRORS, TARZAN (12); MAMMA MIA!, SWEENEY TODD, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (11).
