Slinging Ink at Glass Houses

A local journalistic casualty deconstructs the pulpy fictions of The Fabulist.

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - When Stephen Glass was fired from The New Republic in 1998 for fabricating elements of his news stories, I was struck with an amusing idea. What if someday he writes a book about his experiences? And what if I arrange it so that I, too, am fired from...

Arts & Entertainment

A Room With a Clue

Puzzling out Madagascar is half the thrill of watching it.

By Eric D. Snider

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - One is not heartened to learn that the evening’s theater fare will consist of three actors speaking in monologues, as one knows that this is often the recipe for pretension and boredom. But one’s mind is changed upon realizing the playwright...

Arts & Entertainment

Burden of the Beast

PTC’s attempt at Disney is admirable, but the show’s just too big.

By Eric D. Snider

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - It is near the end of the first act—fully 75 minutes into the show—that Pioneer Theatre Company’s production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast finally begins to gel. The occasion is “Be Our Guest,” a magnificent show-stopping...

Arts & Entertainment

The Importance of Being Earnest

By Eric D. Snider

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - If Oscar Wilde never cast a man as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, it’s only because he didn’t have Max Robinson at his disposal. With all due respect to the other marvelous performances Robinson has given over the years,...

Arts & Entertainment

Semi-Epic

Babcock Theatre stages an impressive first half of Angels in America.

By Eric D. Snider

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - Tony Kushner’s two-part, six-hour Angels in America is an urgent drama that examines AIDS, sexuality, religion and politics, all set in the Reagan-era, greed-centric America of the mid-’80s. That someone would even try to write a play addressing...

Arts & Entertainment

Wedded Blitz

The Maiden’s Prayer is much better when it sticks to the laughs.

By Eric D. Snider

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - Those of us who have ever clung unreasonably to a failed romance can relate most deeply to Nicky Silver’s The Maiden’s Prayer, now being staged by Pygmalion Productions Theatre Company. Luckily for the show, that group includes … oh,...

Arts & Entertainment

Lord of the Dance

Pioneer Theatre Company lures you into the stylized dazzle of West Side Story.

By Eric D. Snider

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - The first thing anyone does in Pioneer Theatre Company’s production of West Side Story is light up a cigarette like a tough guy. The second thing anyone does is start dancing, and not like a tough guy, either. The speed with which these images are...

News & Columns

Northwest Side Story

By Eric D. Snider

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - When I move to Portland next month, I will have lived in Salt Lake City for almost one year. Part of me wants to stay because I like it here, but part of me has decided I’m ready to move on. As is true of most men, my parts seldom agree on which...

News & Columns

Art Failure

By Eric D. Snider

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - The Utah Symphony & Opera is in financial trouble, and though no one is pointing fingers, the fact is, it’s your fault. You see, both the symphony and the opera—which combined in 2002 into one entity—rely on what’s called an...

News & Columns

Park Wars

By Eric D. Snider

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - Park Wars Salt Lake City gave us a nice gift this year, with free parking downtown during the holiday shopping season. The parking meters were covered with festive green bags tied with red ribbons, with the bags bearing the words “Free Parking”...