2025 Season in the Randall L. Jones Theatre
The Utah Shakespeare Festival is excited to announce the shows and directors for the Randall L. Jones Theatre for the upcoming 2025 season. “We are proud to not only focus on our cornerstone of Shakespeare in the Engelstad Theatre, but produce a brilliant musical, a satiric Victorian comedy, and a comedy-drama about the resilience of true friendship in the Randall,” says Artistic Director John DiAntonio.
That’s right! A musical is back in the lineup, along with two other thoroughly enjoyable and touching plays.
A Gentleman’s Guide To Love and Murder
Book and Lyrics by Robert L. Freedman
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Lutvak
Based on the novel Israel Rank by Roy Horniman
Directed by Amanda Berg Wilson
Music Directed by Brad Carroll
Previews on June 19 and 23, 2025
Opens on June 26, 2025
This Tony Award-winning musical comedy follows the story of Monty Navarro, a lowly born Englishman who discovers he is ninth in line to inherit a fortune. To move up the line of succession, Monty decides to eliminate the zany relatives (who are all played by the same actor) who are standing in his way, meanwhile navigating a love triangle.
Amanda Berg Wilson is the co-founder and artistic director of The Catamounts in Boulder, Colorado. Her work has also been seen at Creede Repertory Theatre, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and Opera Steamboat. She received a BCAA Theatre Fellowship and her work has been profiled in American Theatre magazine. She received a BA in English and drama from Kenyon College.
Brad Carroll, who directed this past season’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, also music directed Jane Austen’s Emma The Musical, Ragtime, and The Pirates of Penzance at the Festival. He also directed Sweeney Todd, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, South Pacific, and Les Misérables here, among many others. He is the composer of Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical, has also worked at PCPA, Utah Festival Opera, and Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
“I am framing our realization of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder as an English music hall production,” says Berg Wilson. “Think: inventive staging, fourth-wall breaking, and a live pianist playing! Our production will be inspired most specifically by the ‘lion comique,’ an English music hall tradition of making fun of the upper classes, a strong thread of A Gentleman’s Guide. This framing will allow our audience a lively point of entry into the piece, in which they will be repeatedly acknowledged in the space, and in which the whole theatre becomes part of the storytelling.”
The Importance of Being Earnest
By Oscar Wilde
Directed by Rodney Lizcano
Previews on June 20 and 24, 2025
Opens on June 27, 2025
Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy satirizes Victorian society through the witty and farcical escapades of two bachelors, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff. As they navigate double lives and mistaken identities, the play cleverly explores themes of marriage, social expectations, and the triviality of propriety.
Audiences will remember Rodney Lizcano as Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew and Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing this past season. Previously he spent 22 seasons with the Denver Center Theatre Company, as well as time at the Arvada Center for the Arts, The Old Globe, and ten seasons at Colorado Shakespeare Festival, among others. He earned an MFA in acting from the National Theatre Conservatory and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association as well as Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
“The Importance of Being Earnest is truly Shakespearean in its theatrical devices of mistaken identities, secret engagements, and lover entanglements,” explains Lizcano. “I’m thrilled to pair this piece with such an eclectic theatrical season at USF and cannot wait for audiences to experience this rapid-fire comedy of wits and manors.”
By Robert Harling
Directed by Melissa Maxwell
Previews on June 21 and 25, 2025
Opens on June 28, 2025
Set in a Louisiana beauty salon, this poignant play explores the enduring bond between six Southern women as they navigate life’s joys and challenges, from friendships and laughter to heartbreak and loss. Through humor and resilience, the women showcase their strength and solidarity in the face of adversity.
Melissa Maxwell previously directed Trouble in Mind at the Festival in 2022. Her work has also been seen off-Broadway at the Pearl Theatre Company and Soho Playhouse. She has also worked at the Great River Shakespeare Festival where she is also co-associate artistic director, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and Off the WALL Theatre. She is also a motivational speaker, author, and teacher. She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, and Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and earned her BFA from Boston University.
“I am thrilled to be returning,” says Maxwell. “I played M’Lynn in a production a few years ago, but this is my first time directing it. I am excited to be revisiting this timeless classic.”
IN THE EILEEN AND ALLEN ANES STUDIO THEATRE…IN CASE YOU’RE WONDERING
In 2025, the Festival plans to continue to use this space for new play development with the popular Words Cubed program, as well as educational programming, among other things.
“We’ve loved all the past performances in the Anes, as we know our patrons have," says Executive Managing Director Michael Bahr. “It is a young space but don’t fear: it is anticipated that mainstage productions will return to it in the near future.”
Don’t miss our 64th season in 2025! Be sure to get your tickets on sale during our Cyber Monday event on December 2 and join us in 2025 for a season of mischief, friendship, and love. For more information visit our website at bard.org or call the ticket office at 800-PLAYTIX.
