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A string of positive and/or negative reviews doesn’t do justice to the experience of the Utah Shakespearean Festival. The show may be the thing, but it’s the talk that seems to keep a lot of people coming back.
You can’t be blamed for approaching a stage version of “The 39 Steps” (retitled here as “Alfred Hithcock’s The 39 Steps”) with trepidation. Director Hitchcock is a master of cinematic visual suspense. And for all its seriousness, the 1935 film is very humorous. How could it possibly work as a full-length comedy sketch with four actors?
For those who think it’s impossible to adapt a great novel to the stage, I would offer as Exhibit A the Utah Shakespearean Festival’s premiere of “Pride and Prejudice.”
Macbeth” is getting a competent mounting at the Utah Shakespearean Festival; which is to say, an adequate production that is inadequate to one’s hopes.
The Utah Shakespearean Festival’s “Great Expectations” is a stupefyingly mediocre original musical that is getting a first-rate production.
It’s not easy these days to do a show about a Jewish moneylender who’s ridiculed, spit upon and forced to become a Christian. But director Sharon Ott respects the complexities of “The Merchant of Venice.” She helps us see that the script is about something deeper than one author’s prejudices.
Much Ado About Nothing,” which features a young couple (Beatrice and Benedick) constantly bickering to conceal their attraction, is one of Shakespeare’s wittiest. The easy-to-follow plot allows us the enjoyment of watching two vain, intelligent and good people learning to humble themselves before one another.