Did We Start With the BEST????

Day 1 at Utah Shakespeare Festival-1st Play review

A couple of notes ahead of time. First, as a child, action figures weren’t really available, especially for girls, so when I first saw a “Shakespeare” action figure I knew I had to have one. So, he will be accompanying me as I show the sites, activities, and fun around this year’s festival. There will also be a surprise visit from another action figure sometime while we are here also!!! (Aren’t you sooooo excited and curious?)

Second, there are always 6 plays at the Festival. We are only seeing 4 of the 6. “Macbeth” and “Great Expectations” are the 2 we choose not to see and the reason for that is that there is no happy ending. I’m sorry, but we, my sister Eileen and I both NEED happy endings!!!

Since our first play wasn’t until 2:00 this afternoon I decided to go to St. George this morning to buy some “School Supplies” (for my husband’s sake that is what we will call them but I will call them clothes) for a trip I am taking later this month (more on that at a later date). My sister, Eileen, was driving down today and we eventually met up at out hotel. We had a quick lunch at the Pizza Company then headed for the first play which was entitled “The 39 Steps”.

The play was inside at the Randall Jones Theater. There are 3 theaters that are the venues for the 6 plays. We were excited as we looked at our programs to see that our 2 favorite actors, Brian Vaughn, and David Ivers were both in this play!!! The other 2 actors, Aaron Galligan-Stierle and Carol Linnea Johnson, were unfamiliar to us, but they were all FANTASTIC!!

I had seen on numerous occasions the Hitchcock movie version , and recently the PBS production of this story “The 39 Steps”, which are both suspenseful. I also saw this play recently with some friends at ASU so I was looking forward to comparing the 2 productions. Due to that, we went in with the basic idea of the story. The play however, although it follows basically the same story line as the films, is not at all like the suspenseful film versions, but is a very physical, and funny play.

It opens in London, in 1935, and the main character, Richard Hannay, who is played wonderfully by Brian Vaughn, is telling us about how bored he was with life, so he decides to go to the theater, and that is where his life changes and the adventures start. He unintentionally gets involved in a murder, espionage, kidnappings, and romance throughout the play, all while trying to protect his country from the villains who are trying to sneak out of the country a secret called the “39 steps”.

The other three actors play all the other roles, which are many, throughout the play, and there are many fast costume changes which add to the fun of this show. The adventures take us from London to Scotland and back to London for the climax of the story, and we meet many interesting and funny characters along the way. There is also a love story thrown in there for fun.

We both LOVED this show and I think it was even better than the production that I saw at ASU as part of their Broadway series.

The actors were all wonderful! We all three give it a thumbs up and recommend you come see it!!!

If you don’t “do” Shakespeare it is worth the trip here just to see this one play!

Billy boy posing with a statue of Titania outside of the theater

After the play, we hit the gift shops (YEA!!!), and then eventually hit our FAVORITE restaurant for dinner in Cedar City which is La Casa Don Miguel.

This is really the BEST Mexican food outside of Mesa AZ!!! YUM!

Then to end the perfect day, we watched my all time favorite Bollywood movie “Rab Na Bana di Jodi” back at the hotel (Eileen is so nice to do this for me!). Life is sooo sweet! Stayed tuned for another review tomorrow!