Thankful for Live Theater

One thing that my mom's interests that I gained was the love of live theater. It started with many trips to the Utah Shakespearean Festival. The Festival occurs annually in the summertime in Cedar City, Utah. The festival had six now nine shows a year, only half the shows are Shakespeare plays. The other half are Broadway type Productions.



Things change as my schedule got busier. I now attend most of the performances at Super Summer Theater @ Spring Mountain Ranch. Each month from June through September is a different Broadway style play. At least one of the four is usually a well-known show. The shows run Wednesday through Saturday evenings the Clay start at sunset at the gates open hour or two before this allows the audience to have a picnic style dinner before the play. The seating area is a large open lawn. The left half of the lawn is for blankets; the right for portable chairs. I always bring a fold-able canvas chair. For some shows one or more of the cast members who wander in the audience before the play starts.

Bellman from "Lend me a Tenner"

"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"

"Spamalot"

A few years ago Las Vegas finally received the gift they needed. The city finally received a place where Broadway at other shows can appear in a full theater that was not in a casino. The Smith Center finally became a reality.  Many Broadway and other shows are longer than the 90 minute block preferred by casinos.

Many great shows comparable to Broadway have come to the city since the center open. I spent a year anxiously about Kinky Boots, which was starting their traveling tour in Vegas. I had heard a lot about The Book of Mormon then understood when I finally got to see it. I have seen Mary Poppins in New York, and both professional and amateur versions at the Smith Center.