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Plan your local theatrical outings with this week's latest calendar of openings and ongoing productions. Opening:
Aftershock @ Plan-B Theatre Company, 4/7 - 4/17 [tickets]
The Drowsy Chaperone @ Off-Broadway Theatre, 4/1 - 4/30 [tickets]
Fireflies @ Pioneer Theatre Company, 4/1 – 4/16 [tickets]
Passing Strange @ Salt Lake Acting Company 4/6 – 5/15 [tickets]
Beginning this week, we'll be rolling out a weekly calendar of information about local live theater productions. This is a work in progress, and we'll gradually add more outlying theater companies, and most likely other live performances (dance, opera, symphony) as well.
The Lost City, Infinite Storm, Compartment No. 6 and more
Compartment No. 6 **
Like Planes, Trains & Automobiles, this drama is built around a reluctantly-shared journey between a tightly-wound protagonist and boisterous traveling companion where a friendship gradually blossoms—except in this case, the transition is so abrupt that it doesn’t entirely work. The pair in question here are sharing a sleeping car on a train ride from Moscow to Murmansk in the Arctic Circle: Laura (Seidi Haarla), a Finnish student reluctantly separating from her girlfriend to visit an archaeological site; and Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov), on his way to work in a mining operation.
Deep Water, The Outfit, X, Master, Windfall and more
Cheaper By the Dozen *1/2
I’m certain that the creative team of this latest adaptation of the 1948 book—director Gail Lerner and screenwriters Kenya Barris & Jennifer Rice-Genzuk, all alums of Black-ish—had the best intentions in making the central family not just blended, but multiracial. It’s just sooooo awkward watching them stir complex sociological issues into this movie’s fluffy, family-flick vibe.
The Adam Project **1/2
Ryan Reynolds is such an identifiable brand at this point that it shouldn’t be difficult to figure out material that plays to his strengths and doesn’t overthink things. Yet here we are, taking his motor-mouthed wise guy screen personal and overloading it with too many clashing attempts at emotional resonance.
This weekend, the Alliance Theater (602 E 500 E, Ste 101) is kicking off a new series, “Something New.” The debut event, featuring Carey Campbell, will take place this weekend, on Sunday, March 6, with a 6 pm start time. This free event will help mark the theater’s first year of existence in Trolley Square—which, of course, is a time period coinciding with the roiling challenges of COVID-19.
The Batman, Fresh, Huda's Salon, Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts and more
2022 Oscar Nominated Short Films – Documentary ***1/2Let’s face it: The Academy Awards are often more about honoring good intentions than honoring great work. That can be particularly true in documentary categories, but this group of nominees proves to be a terrific mix of urgent subjects and inventive filmmaking.
Sending up Shakespeare and musical theater in one entertaining package
There’s a sub-genre of pop-culture storytelling that, for lack of a better term, I’d like to call the “I understood that reference” creation. Sometimes it takes the form of flat-out genre parody, and sometimes it’s more subtle (though maybe only barely), but in every case, the basic goal is the same: appealing to an audience by nudging them with gags based on other pop-culture storytelling.
