SHAKESPEARE FEST FEATURES TRIO OF ACTORS WITH TIES TO VEGAS

Actor Michael Sharon's not quite ready to write his memoirs yet. But he's already got the title:

"From Showgirls to Shakespeare."

Sharon -- who spent a year performing in Bally's "Jubilee!" -- is one of three actors with Las Vegas ties at this year's Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City.

Phil Hubbard, who performs in all three of this season's Shakespeare plays, proves that those who can, teach -- he heads the theater performance program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

And Jered Tanner, a former singing gondolier at The Venetian, plans to return to the Grand Canal (at least temporarily) following the festival's summer season.

For now, however, he's starring in the world premiere of "Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical" -- and playing Feste, the resident fool (or at least the only professional fool) in Shakespeare's comedy "Twelfth Night."

It's the summer's sole production featuring the Vegas trio: Tanner as Feste, Hubbard as the aptly named sot Sir Toby Belch and Sharon as the lovelorn Duke Orsino.

Hubbard and Sharon also share the stage in Shakespeare's Roman drama "Coriolanus," with Hubbard as the title character's fellow general, Cominius, and Sharon as Coriolanus' battlefield rival, Tullus Aufidius.

Hubbard, who's spent eight seasons at the festival, appreciates the chance "to utilize and practice the technical skills I teach" onstage.

"It is a laboratory of sorts for me," he says, where "I consciously apply the things I say you should do."

Sharon also has applied some of the lessons he learned in "Jubilee!" to his festival roles.

Particularly in 2005's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," when "a lot of what I learned playing Samson came in handy" while performing dancelike lifts.

It was Sharon's experience as a singer, however, that initially brought him to the festival to make his Cedar City debut in 2005 as "Camelot's" Lancelot.

"It's one of the few theater companies" that focuses on the classics, yet "has such a great appreciation for musical theater," Sharon comments. "My two loves."

Hubbard also demonstrated his musical talents in such past productions as "1776" and "Man of La Mancha."

And while Tanner's musical talents -- ably showcased in "Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical" -- may eventually take him far, he and his family have chosen to make Las Vegas their home.

Tanner's initial Southern Nevada showcase was at Henderson's Macaroni Grill, where he serenaded patrons -- until a friend suggested he audition for The Venetian, which led to two years as a singing gondolier (and, before that, a singing doorman).

Of course, it probably helped that "the guy casting (at The Venetian) had seen me at the festival," playing the Fool in a previous production of "King Lear," Tanner explains.

He hopes to "do something musical on a grander scale" than the Grand Canal, participating in the Strip's ongoing musical theater experiment. (The upcoming Vegas version of the Broadway Tony-winner "Jersey Boys," for example, which would be "perfect for me," Tanner says.)

For now, however, the play's the thing -- or, more precisely, the plays at the Utah Shakespearean Festival's summer season, which continue in repertory through Sept. 1. (The festival's fall season runs Sept. 14-Oct. 27.)

"I love it here," says Sharon, who returns home to New York -- and "the vast unknown" -- once his Cedar City season ends. "There are so many aspects that make it such a worthwhile experience."

Including the Adams Shakespearean Theatre itself, a "fabulous, intimate outdoor theater that perhaps resembles" Shakespeare's own Globe Theatre, Hubbard points out. "That space -- there's nothing like it."