About the Playwrights: "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd"

By Jess Boles-Lohmann

“Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd,” intones a foreboding voice, and we are drawn into a dark world—the Tony Award-winning horror musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. You’ll notice that three writers are credited in the playbill:Christopher Bond, whose play the musical is based on, Hugh Wheeler, who wrote the book, and Stephen Sondheim, who composed the music and lyrics. The story of Sweeney Todd actually dates back to the nineteenth century, and each of these writers’ expertise helped craft something new and compelling. Let’s talk a bit about each of them and how they contributed to what you will experience while watching the play.

The primary source material for the musical comes from Christopher Bond, who wrote his version in 1974. Bond (born in 1945) is a British actor and playwright who wrote over thirty plays as well as serving as artistic director for several prominent theatres, and Sweeney Todd is his most famous contribution to theatre by far.

The character of Sweeney Todd first appears in penny dreadfuls, serialized pamphlets telling shocking horror stories for only a penny each. These massively popular stories gripped Victorian era England, and the Sweeney featured in them is an irredeemable, infernally wicked man who crept out of the darkness like a true monster. Bond, dissatisfied with this plain-old-evil Sweeney, took this long tradition and created something brand new: a story of righteous revenge with a sympathetic view of its main character.

Bond’s play borrows from the Jacobean revenge tragedy genre and gives Sweeney a haunting backstory and motive for his dark deeds. He isn’t a bogeyman; Bond’s play makes it clear that he is an abused and bereaved man driven to extremes by the crimes of people with power over him. Is it so far off from reality that an ordinary person could fall so far and commit atrocities? Bond primes his audience to sympathize with Sweeney to the point of asking, “What if this were me?” This is a powerful and uncomfortable comparison and a huge departure from the urban legend/monster story feel of earlier versions.

It’s difficult to separate the co-authors Sondheim and Wheeler when it comes to the story itself. Sondheim originally tried creating the libretto himself but found it didn’t come easily. That’s when Hal Prince suggested he contact Hugh Wheeler, a previous collaborator of Sondheim’s and Tony Award-winner for the book of their musical A Little Night Music. Wheeler (1912–1987) was a prolific writer, producing numerous mystery novels, short stories, screenplays, books of poetry, and more, in addition to his work in musical theatre. Beyond his collaborations with Sondheim, Wheeler wrote the libretto for Leonard Bernstein’s Candide and is noted by some sources as co-writing the screenplay for the film adaptation of Cabaret, among other musical theatre credits.

For Sweeney Todd, the pair built the structure of the play together and then separated for Wheeler to write the book and Sondheim the music and lyrics. The plot of Bond’s play is kept relatively intact by Sondheim and Wheeler, with most of the action occurring in the same narrative order. 

One major change that the pair performed on the Bond script was the expansion of perhaps the musical’s most famous moment. In Bond’s play, Mrs. Lovett takes only a brief moment to mention what they might do to profit off of Sweeney’s first victim. “And with meat the price it is these days . . .” she says, and Sweeney picks up her meaning straight away: they will bake the bodies of his victims into her pies. Sweeney agrees and they fall into each other’s arms, “laughing helplessly.” Wheeler and Sondheim expand this brief interchange into a full-on, lively, and hilarious musical number, “A Little Priest,” giving us an extended look into their glee over their wicked plot. Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett merrily plan, puns abound, and the pair triumphantly end the first act. This longer version forces us to dwell on the impending cannibalism for a long time before we are released to intermission. If we laugh along, it almost feels as if we are complicit. Are we allowed to have fun with this? Unspeakable things are happening onstage; what does it say about us if we laugh and clap for these two? I would argue that this structural change makes all the difference in the material hitting home for us in the audience.

Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) is far and away the most famous contributor to the musical, having composed the music and lyrics in 1979. He is arguably the most important theatrical artist of the late twentieth century, having created such timeless and beloved musicals as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Sunday in the Park with George,Into the Woods, and many more; in addition to these creations of his own, he contributed the lyrics to other timeless Broadway hits like West Side Story with Leonard Bernstein and Gypsy with Jule Styne.

Sweeney Todd was a massive departure from what was being offered on Broadway at the time, and something that sets this musical apart from others in his oeuvre is Sondheim’s use of underscoring, unusual for a musical. You’ll notice that orchestrations underlay almost all of the action. Typically, the music at the end of a song is used to cue the audience about when to react, most commonly with applause. Critically,continuous underscoring prevents us from clapping and celebrating the people onstage. We as the audience are tipped off our balance unconsciously by a relentless river of music that takes no break to praise itself. Like Poe’s tell-tale heart under the floorboards, the underscore keeps us on the edge of our seats. Are we supposed to laugh, reward the performers? No, we are not allowed to step outside of the grueling story even for a moment. The orchestrations call all our conventions of audience-ship into question. In this seemingly simple way, Sondheim actively transforms source material into something entirely new, something more akin to Hitchcock than Oklahoma.

This cinematic feeling we get while watching Sweeney Todd is no accident. In his book Finishing the Hat, Sondheim cites Hitchcock and other suspense films from his childhood as primary inspiration for his transformation of Bond’s original play, calling the musical “a movie for the stage” (Sondheim 332). Looking at his work this way brings clarity to why we feel so off-kilter when, for example, the orchestra swells with aggressive and discordant music to famously transition us out from “No Place Like London” and into Mrs. Lovett’s bakeshop. In a movie theatre, we don’t break our willing suspension of disbelief very often, remaining rapt even as we grab another fistful of popcorn. There is no built-in rest to glance at our companion or congratulate the actors on screen. We aren’t given a moment to remember that this isn’t real, that the actors are going back to their dressing rooms to refresh, that no one is in any real peril. Sondheim does what no one had done before and injects this filmmaker’s tool into musical theatre, creating “a musical horror story, one which would not be sung-through but which would be held together by ceaseless underscoring that would keep an audience in suspense and maybe even scare the hell out of them” (Stephen Sondheim, Finishing the Hat : Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes [New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011]*,*p 332).

He pulls off a masterwork of adaptation, lending further complexity to the history of this story. We couldn’t expect any less from the late, great Stephen Sondheim, who we sadly lost last year. May his memory be a blessing.

The Infamous Role of Sweeney Todd: A Glance Back

Johnny Depp as Sweeney in the movie version of Sweeney Todd

By Liz Armstrong

 Originally a non-musical play by Hugh Wheeler in 1974, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Streethas been produced as a musical many times since. The list of actors who have taken on the gigantic role of the vengeful Sweeney is long, but here are a few that stand out for us:

1979—Len Cariou: The very first production of the Stephen Sondheim/Hugh Wheeler version of Sweeney Todd opened in 1979 on Broadway at the Uris Theatre and was directed by Harold Prince. The production received eight Tony Awards, eleven Drama Desk Awards, and the Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical. Also, Cariou won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Although he played Henry Reagan in the CBS-TV show *Blue Bloods,*he is still best known as being “the original” Sweeney Todd. 

**1980—George Hearn:**Hearn replaced Cariou in the Broadway musical, and in 1980 he and Angela Lansbury (as Mrs. Lovett) headed the first touring production. He later reprised the role in a Showtime production, for which he won an Emmy Award. He also won two Tony Awards, in 1984 for his portrayal of Albin in La Cage aux Follies and in 1995 for his work as Max Von Mayerling in Sunset Boulevard. He has also appeared in many movies and television series. Hearn was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2007.  

**1989—Bob Gunton:**In the first Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd, Gunton earned his second Tony Award nomination for his work as Sweeney. He may be best known for his role as the strict warden Samuel Norton in the 1994 film *The Shawshank Redemption.*Other films he has appeared in include Ghostbuster: Afterlife (2021), The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), Patch Adams (1998), and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). Television appearances include Star Trek: The Next Generationand *Law and Order.*Gunton alsoearned a nomination for a Tony Award in the Broadway production of Evitain 1980. 

2002—Brian Stokes Mitchell: This production of Sweeney Todd was the first show of a mammoth four-month long Sondheim Celebration at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, with Christine Baranski as Mrs. Lovett. A review in the Washington Post said, “Together, Baranski and Mitchell are the very faces of comedy and tragedy, the eternal odd couple that Sondheim brilliantly unites in this show.” A popular actor, Mitchell has performed in numerous film and television shows, as well as musicals such as South Pacific, Man of La Mancha, Kiss Me Kate, and Ragtime.

**2005—Michael Cerveris:**Cast as Sweeney Todd in the second Broadway revival, this wasn’t Cerveris’s first Stephen Sondheim musical. He was also cast in *Assassins, Road Show,*and *Passion.*He won Tony Awards for his role as John Wilkes Booth in Assassins and as Bruce Bechdel in *Fun Home.*In the John Doyle directed revival production of Sweeney Todd, the character played lyric guitar, and Cerveris was nominated for a plethora of awards, including the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and more. 

**2007 - Johnny Depp:**DirectorTim Burton turned Sweeney Todd into a feature film in 2007, starring Johnny Depp as Sweeney and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett.Depp had wowed audiences for years for his film portrayals of eccentric characters, but he was cast for the role of Sweeney before anyone had really heard him sing. Even Depp commented that “he had never sung in his life.” However, the gamble paid off, and he received an Oscar nomination and a Globe Award for his performance. 

The Utah Shakespeare Festival’s iteration of this perennially popular musical will play June 21 through September 9 as the first musical ever performed on its outdoor stage. The role of Sweeney has not yet been cast, but watch our website to see which actor we will choose to add to this long list of Sweeney Todds over the decades. 

To purchase play tickets visit bard.org.

Ten Things You May Not Know about Sweeney Todd

By Liz Armstrong

The winner of eight Tony Awards in 1979 and numerous awards since, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is both wickedly funny and terrifying. It is one of the most popular and lauded musicals ever, but we think you still may be surprised by some of these interesting tidbits about this masterpiece. 

1. This is the first musical ever to be performed in an outdoor theatre at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. It will preview June 21 and open June 24 in the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre.

2. Sweeney Todd’s character originated in “The String of Pearls,” a story published serially in a weekly magazine during the winter of 1846–47. In this story, Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett were at first just thieves—and later became grisly business partners. In that story, they were simply motivated by greed, not revenge—which is now the primary theme of the musical.

3. The story went through many incarnations before Christopher Bond turned it into a play (without music) in 1973. Stephen Sondheim first conceived of a musical version that same year, after he went to see Bond’s take on the story at Theater Royal Stratford East.

4. The musical version, Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, has been around for over four decades and has been adapted into five feature films between 1926 and 2007.

5. In one of these films, Johnny Depp was cast as Sweeney Todd in Tim Burton’s adaptation before anyone even had heard him sing.

6. A very difficult feat musically, 80 percent of the production is traditionally sung while only 20 percent is spoken dialogue.

7. In the original production, Angela Lansbury played the role of Mrs. Lovett. She won a Tony Award for her performance.

8. The idea of the cannibalistic pastry– the meat pies– may sound familiar. This idea appeared around 1594 in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, as well as in Charles Dickens’s novels The Pickwick Papers (1836–37) and Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

9. There is a common misconception that the original story was based on fact. We are happy to note that Sweeney Todd is not based on a true story! This may put your mind at ease when you enjoy your next meat pie.

10. Commonly mistaken to be set in the Victorian Era in which it was first published, Sweeney Todd’s setting is actually earlier, 1785. This would put it in the Georgian Era.

Q&A with Director Brad Carroll

Brad Carroll is returning to the Utah Shakespeare Festival for the 2022 season to directSweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Streetafter music directing and conductingRagtimeandThe Pirates of Penzancein 2021. He has directed numerous plays at the Festival, includingJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat*(2019),The Liar(2018),Murder for Two(2016),South Pacific(2015),The Comedy of Errors(2014),Anything Goes(2013),Les Misérables (2012), and many others. He was also the composer and co-creator ofLend Me a Tenor: the Musicalwhich had its world premiere at the Festival in 2007.*

**The Utah Shakespeare Festival:**As playgoers, what should we watch for in Sweeney Todd that would help us enjoy/understand it better? 

**Brad Carroll:**Sweeney Todd is a Victorian thriller. In the spirit of the great Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, clues are subtly planted throughout which ultimately converge, leading to the shocking climax of the play. I think there is great intrigue for the audience in tracking these clues! The story is so complex and well-crafted that it does not require embellishing!

**The Festival:**What do you hope audience members leave with after seeing the play? 

**Carroll:**More than anything, I hope there will be an appreciation for Sondheim’s masterful score which, at every turn, demonstrates the enormous power of music and how it can propel a story and influence the emotional impact of every single moment.

**The Festival:**Why should people come see this play? 

**Carroll:**Sweeney Todd is the first musical ever to be performed in the outdoor space at the Festival. This, in and of itself, is an “event.” And given its epic, Shakespearean nature—encompassing themes of  innocence, betrayal, love, lust, humor, deceit, revenge, insanity, murder—it is the perfect “first musical" to take the stage in the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre. Not unlike Macbeth, Richard III, or Titus Andronicus, Sweeney Todd is a dark tale, exploring dark impulses of human nature and the ends to which they may lead—“to seek revenge may lead to hell, but everyone does it, if seldom as well as Sweeney."

**The Festival:**What challenges do you expect to come with directing this play? 

**Carroll:**I am prepared for any number of challenges to present themselves given that we are presenting this play outdoors and opening this dark, mysterious play in broad daylight! I expect an equal number of surprising solutions to present themselves in the course of our “discovering” this piece in the outdoor space, with natural darkness descending as the play progresses, darkens, and intensifies. It is these yet-to-be-seen surprises that interest me the most!

**The Festival:**Why are you excited to direct this play? 

**Carroll:**I have wanted to direct Sweeney Todd for thirty years. It has been at the top of my list of favorite musicals since first hearing it in 1979. The opportunity to do it with the Festival, outdoors (with all those challenges), and with a most amazing creative team seems the perfect storm of creative circumstances. I’m also excited by the prospect of introducing this musical to people who may not be familiar with it; and perhaps surprising the die-hard Sweeney fans!

**The Festival:**How long have you been directing plays? How long have you been with the Festival? Why are you a director?

**Carroll:**I’ve been directing plays and musicals for thirty-five-plus years. I’ve been a part of the Festival for seventeen seasons since 2002. I enjoy the challenges and the rewards ofdirecting—exploring the “global view” of a play that a director must have, as well as all the minute details that make up the bigger picture. But the process of bringing a show to life through collaboration with fellow artists and colleagues is the ultimate reward!

Festival Announces Passing of Beloved Staff Member

With deep sadness, the Utah Shakespeare Festival shares the news that Pamela Redington passed away February 5. Pam worked at the Festival for over twenty-five years, holding positions as correspondence secretary, administrative assistant, and executive assistant, retiring in 2013. She had many friends among the Festival staff, artists, volunteers, patrons, and board members. 

“Pam contributed so much over her many years at the Festival and was a beloved member of the staff who will be missed,” said Frank Mack, executive producer.

“Pam was a stalwart of the Utah Shakespeare Festival. She was for many people the face of the organization,” added Brian Vaughn, artistic director. “Combined with her incredible intelligence and passion, Pam’s spirit is woven into the fabric of the Festival. My heart goes out to her family. She will be greatly missed.”

Pam was born to Blaine and Wanda Anderson Wood on December 6, 1943, in Cedar City, Utah. She was raised in Cedar City where she spent her childhood learning and honing her many skills and talents as a seamstress, pianist, and typist, among many other things that she learned from her mother. She attended East Elementary, Cedar Junior High School, and Cedar High School, graduating in May 1962. She had three children: Kirk Allen Orton, Kevin W Orton, and Camille Woolsey.

Pam married Boyd D Redington on January 23, 1988, and they were sealed in the St. George, Utah, LDS temple on May 28, 1993. She was a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Read her entire obituary here.

Funeral services will be Thursday, February 10 at 11 a.m. at Southern Utah Mortuary. Viewings will be February 9 from 6 to 8 p.m. and February 10 from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the mortuary. Interment will be in the Cedar City Cemetery.

Q&A with Director Melinda Pfundstein

Melinda Pfundstein has directed and acted extensively at the Utah Shakespeare Festival for twenty seasons. Acting roles include Margaret in Richard III, Mother in Ragtime, Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Fantine in Les Misérables, Hermione in The Winter’s Tale, and many others. She has directed The Merchant of Venice and The Book of Will for the Festival, and will be taking the helm of All’s Well That Ends Well this summer. The Festival recently conducted this question-and-answer interview via email.

Utah Shakespeare Festival: Many people consider All’s Well That Ends Well one of Shakespeare’s “problem” plays, especially the ending. Do you agree with that assessment? Why?

Melinda Pfundstein: All’s Well is filled with characters whose choices affect others and may seem surprising. The hero is deeply flawed. The resolution occurs swiftly at the end. Problematic? I disagree. I see similar examples of the scenarios and people in this play all around me and certainly in a good Netflix series. For me, this play feels relevant and complex and, in short, a welcome challenge.

The Festival: Some of the characters in the play seem to be unlikeable or superficial. How do you plan to approach or even overcome that in your production?

Pfundstein: This very well may be as an outcome—and that is, again, certainly true in life. However, our job as storytellers is to eke out all there is know and play, through imagination and an acceptance of the given realities and circumstances of the characters. This is especially juicy work when presented with one who behaves in surprising and perplexing ways.

The Festival: You are updating the time period for this play and setting the characters “against the very real backdrop of France in 1940, on the eve of World War II.” What do you hope will be the outcome of this change?

Pfundstein: The story feels so relevant to me. I hope this choice allows our audience to draw personal, timely connections to this story. I continue with the quote referenced above, from my preliminary director’s note: “. . . against the very real backdrop of France in 1940, on the eve of World War II. The calm before the storm, so to speak, when France knew that tensions were rising, having weathered continued turbulence since World War I. On the brink of yet another war, they enjoyed what seems not so different from what we are living today after passing through first waves of global pandemic: a (perhaps) false sense of relief from the height of what has just passed. Caution and an impending sense of what is to come. Such hope and desire to return to life as we once knew it that so many live harder, seemingly to will the restoration of comfort and security on [personal] terms. Oh, the things we squander or dare to build for ourselves when we believe—even briefly or in error—that time, health, power, and [opportunity] are on our side. All’s well that ends well . . . or does it? And if so, for how long before we must face the reality we have created for ourselves?”

The Festival: As playgoers, what should we watch for in this production that may help us enjoy it and/or understand it more?

Pfundstein: Watch with all of your senses. Look for gorgeous ’40s interior design. Listen for layered and familiar ’40s music and sounds. Consider what it would feel like to be in a wartime uniform, a court gown, or to have exposed ankles and flow in your fabrics, or to be able to choose pants! Allow the intriguing light to tone and focus your senses, all while you nestle into the changing dusk-to-evening, and if we are lucky, the slight breeze that may accompany the movement from interior court scenes to the streets of Italy. Just let your imagination run wild with us!

The Festival: You have worked at the Utah Shakespeare Festival as a director and actor many times. What keeps bringing you back? 

Pfundstein: The Festival is where I cut my artistic teeth. [Founder] Fred Adams believed in me and paved the way for me before I understood that there was anything there myself. Over my twenty-plus years with this company, I have been able to stretch my creative wings and eke out the unexposed corners of what is possible in my ability to express. To play a leading woman when I didn’t have that kind of confidence in my own life. To step into the shoes and gorgeous costumes of the most beautiful and powerful women, when the world was telling me I was too curvy. To speak into being, everything on my mind, as with Constance in King John or Margaret in Richard III, when those worlds—indeed, our modern world—challenge such candor from a woman. And now, to helm storytelling on our stages in ways that continue to stretch my imagination and ability and allow me to partner with great creatives to challenge what is possible through story for our spaces and audience. My time at the Festival has been and continues to be a most thrilling and fulfilling ride.

The Festival: Besides theatre business, what is the one thing you plan on doing this summer in Cedar City? 

 Pfundstein: I plan to hit the reservoir with my kiddos and paddle boards. We are ready for spring and summer in Cedar to arrive!

Ten Little Known Facts about “All’s Well'“

By Liz Armstrong

All’s Well That Ends Well will open the 2022 season of the Utah Shakespeare Festival on June 23 (with a preview performance on June 20) in the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre. Directed by Festival veteran Melinda Pfundstein, interesting tidbits about the play abound. Here are ten of our favorites:

1. All’s Well That Ends Well was probably written sometime between 1598 and 1605, and many experts date the work to 1603. It is believed that the script was first printed in 1623 (seven years after Shakespeare’s death) in the First Folio.

2. As the director, Pfundstein is fast forwarding the play to the 1940s, setting it against the backdrop of the start of World War II in France and Italy.

3. The Festival has produced All’s Well That Ends Well three times before: in 1979, 1998, and 2005.

4. Shakespeare scholars consider All’s Well That Ends Well one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays.” (Others are Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida and, according to some scholars, The Winter’s Tale, Timon of Athens, and The Merchant of Venice.) These plays deal with too many complex moral issues to be comfortably labeled “comedy,” but also lack the essential ingredients of “tragedy.”

5. Although many believe the phrase “all’s well that ends well” was coined by Shakespeare in this play, a proverb in a Middle English dialogue suggests that this phrase may have been used as early as 1425.

6. Some theories suggest that this play was written at two different times in Shakespeare’s life, as Helena’s letter addressing the countess in act 3 seems to include some of his earlier, “less sophisticated” writing.

7. Shakespeare’s primary inspiration for the plot of All’s Well That Ends Well was William Painter’s collection of stories The Palace of Pleasures (1575), which itself was an English translation of “Giletta of Narbonne,” a story in Giovanni Boccaccio’s collection of folk tales called The Decameron (1353).

8.  The “bed-trick” (where one sexual partner is substituted for another) is a plot device in act 4 which Shakespeare also used in Measure for Measure and which has been used in traditional literature and folklore for centuries.

9. You may have heard the quote “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” That’s from All’s Well That Ends Well!

10. Some words in All’s Well That Ends Well have different meanings than they do today. For example, “simpleness” is used where we would now say “innocence,” and “taxed” is used where we would now use something like “reprimanded.”

Bonus: Critics theorize that Bertram rejects Helena because of her social status, resulting in his blindness to see her good qualities. This theme is picked up later by other English writers such as Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.  

Tour Schedules Public Performance

By Liz Armstrong 

CEDAR CITY — The Utah Shakespeare Festival’s educational touring production of Much Ado about Nothingwill present one public performance in Cedar City in preparation for its annual tour later this winter.

The schedule for the tour outside of Cedar City is currently on-hold because of concerns over COVID-19 for our audience, actors, and crew. Further announcements about the schedule will be made as soon as possible.

The performance is scheduled for January 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Randall L. Jones Theatre. Tickets and more information are available online at bard.org/tour or through the Ticket Office at 800-PLAYTIX. Tickets for the seventy-five minute show are $10.

Education Director Michael Bahr is ecstatic that the Festival its presenting its twenty-eighth education tour. “We need this play now,” Bahr said. “It is wonderfully comic and tragic, and it celebrates our humanity with tender, heartfelt pathos.” 

Actor Laura Brennan, who is playing Borachio and Bathlazar, seconds this idea: “I hope audiences are reminded how many different ways there are to love, to forgive, and to change when they see these characters onstage.”

Directing the play is Betsy Mugavero, a familiar face at the Festival where she has acted for over ten seasons. Some of her favorite roles include Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (2017), working with her husband Quinn Mattfeld in Shakespeare in Love (2017), and acting in The Book of Will(2019).

Mugavero has set this classic comedy in “a robust, collegiate world in which the characters will be found on campus at the tail end of football season.” This twist on the Shakespeare comedy is sure to be a “first-round draft pick!”

“In the end, we are reminded that the game of life and love can only be won with trust, humility, a deep bench of support, and the belief that our team is greater than the sum of its individual parts,” Mugavero said in regards to the play. 

Mugavero’s goal is that the characters will be relatable in both folly and fragility. “I’m hopeful that audiences will see it and remember that life’s heaviness is also balanced with levity and joy,” she said. 

She added that the play is meant to feel fresh, contemporary, and deeply lived in by the performers. “The actors open us up to our own vulnerability and, by doing so, lift burdens we may be feeling both through laughter and their honest emotion.” 

The Festival touring production of Much Ado about Nothing is made possible through the generous sponsorship of Shakespeare in American Communities, a theatre program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest; the Utah State Office of Education Professional Outreach Program in the Schools (POPS); and Ally Bank.

"The Cry Is Still They Come"

By Liz Armstrong

“The cry is still ‘they come,’” said William Shakespeare’s Macbeth; but it could just as easily have been Utah Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Brian Vaughn as he recently announced the slate of directors for the Festival’s 2022 season. These creative and talented directors come to the Festival from home bases across the country and are already at work on putting together the Festival’s sixty-first season, which will run June 20 to October 8.

“Each of these directors brings a unique mixture of talent to the Festival,” said Vaughn. “I’m thrilled to welcome them and extremely excited to bring these productions to life.”

Cassie Abate will be returning to the Festival for the second time after directing The Pirates of Penzancelast year. This season, she will be directing The Greenshow. She was assistant choreographer off-Broadway for The Brain from Planet X at the New York Music Festival and has directed and choreographed at theatres across the country, including Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Barrington Stage, ZACH Theatre, Redhouse Arts Center, the Stephen Sondheim Center, and Theatre Workshop of Nantucket. She was also the associate choreographer for the world premiere of the new musical The World According to Snoopy.

As always, Abate says the three versions of The Greenshow this season will both honor the tradition of The Greenshow while bringing a new and fresh take on the event. “My goals for The Greenshow this year are to provide a fun, interactive, joyful welcome through song and dance,” Abate said. “I feel so honored to be a part of the beloved Greenshow and to add a tiny piece to their vast history.” 

Vincent J. Cardinal is returning to the Festival to direct the tragic King Lear after directing the hilarious comedy The Comedy of Errors last season. He has also directed Every Brilliant Thing and The Foreigner at the Festival. He has worked off-Broadway at Circle Repertory Company and at numerous other theatres, including Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Redhouse at City Center, Bucks County Playhouse, Theatre Aspen, Monomoy Theatre, and Cleveland Public Theatre.

Cardinal describes King Lear as “the story of a king who demands love and admiration and, through a series of epic reckonings, becomes a man who has earned love and respect” and adds that the play is one of the finest tragedies in the English language. “King Lear challenges all of us to make a production that tells the story clearly and honestly while being entertaining and moving,” he said. 

Brad Carroll has been a part of the Festival for seventeen seasons and this year is returning to produce Sweeney Todd. Past Festival directing credits include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 2019, as well as South Pacific, Anything Goes, Les Misérables, Spitfire Grill, H.M.S. Pinafore,andMan of La Mancha, among others. He was also the composer for the new musical Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical, which premiered at the Festival in 2007. He has worked at numerous other theatres, including PCPA, Utah Festival Opera, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and Anchorage Opera.

Carroll explained that he has wanted to direct Sweeney Toddfor over thirty years, and he is excited that it’s the first musical to ever be performed at an outdoor theatre at the Festival.  “Given its epic, Shakespearean nature —encompassing themes of innocence, betrayal, love, lust, humor, deceit, revenge, insanity, and murder—it is the perfect ‘first musical’ to take the stage in the Englestad Theatre,” he said.

Hunter Foster is working at the Festival for the first time in 2022, sitting in the director’s chair for the hilarious comedy Clue. He is the artistic director for the Redhouse Arts Center in New York, and he was named the 2018 Director of the Year, by the Wall Street Journal for his productions of 42nd Street and *The Drowsy Chaperone.*He has directed Cluebefore at the Bucks County Playhouse. 

Foster wants the audience to have a great time watching the play. “There is so much ridiculous humor, which is my favorite kind,” Foster said. “An escape like this is so necessary right now!”

Keenon Hooks will be making his Festival directorial debut with the immensely popular musical The Sound of Music, although he was the choreographer for last season’s Ragtime. He is originally from Los Angeles and got into the world of theatre when he began dancing in high school. He attended the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts and worked with Cabrillo Music Theatre, San Diego Musical Theatre, Long Beach Opera, Oregon Cabaret Theatre, Musical Theatre West, Noho Arts Center, and many more. He is also the conservatory director and co-founder of Studio C Performing Arts. 

Cameron Knight is returning to the Festival for his second year after directing the dark and tragic Richard IIIin 2021. This time, he will direct Shakespeare’s famous and beautiful romance, The Tempest. Originally from Flint, Michigan, Knight has worked in television, film, commercials, and voice-over. He has a growing number of directing credits (including work at Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, the Theatre School at DePaul University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Twelve Peers Theatre) and has taught at some of the most prestigious actor training programs in the country. 

Knight hopes that, through the play, the audience is provoked to conversation, to see each other a little more clearly and to hold on and listen to the ones they love. “This play is a great exploration of forgiveness and what can happen when we try to control the ones we love,” Knight said. “It asks us to explore what happens when we can’t let go of the negative events in our lives and we seek revenge.”

Melissa Maxwell will be directing at the Festival for the first time, helming Trouble in Mind. Maxwell started in the business as an actor, but has been directing for over twenty years and has spent many years specializing in new play development and directing world premieres, such as Tunnel Visionand Safe House. She is also a director, writer, educator, and motivational speaker. Maxwell is the co-associate artistic director of the Great River Shakespeare Festival and the director of professional development at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. 

“I love this play, and the history behind it is fascinating. It is a not-so-well-known classic that everyone should know,” Maxwell said. “It has many layers to it, and I am eager for us all to figure out exactly how this onion needs to be peeled.” 

Melinda Pfundstein will be returning to the 2022 season to direct Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well. Last season she performed the roles of Mother in Ragtimeand Margaret in Richard III. At the Festival she has also directed The Merchant of Venice in 2018 and The Book of Will in 2019. She has performed at the Festival a number of times, beginning in 1996, and is the founding executive director at StateraArts. She has acted across the country in a variety of theatres including Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, The Skylight, Lake Dillon Theatre Company, First Stage Children’s Theatre, and Nevada Conservatory Theatre.

Pfundstein emphasized the fact that not only is it a rare opportunity for the audience to attend this play, but that All’s Well That Ends Wellfeels relevant to our current time. “I am particularly interested in considering that there is nothing inherently good or bad, right or wrong with [the characters’] behavior—that it is just human,” Pfundstein said. “And therefore they are clumsy and imperfect and full of complexity. What if each of these characters is actually trying to do the best with what they’ve got?”

Delicia Turner Sonnenberg will be working at the Festival for her first time in 2022, directing the one-man play Thurgood. She is the founding artistic director of MOXIE Theatre and received the New Visions Award as well as the Craig Noel award for Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Dramatic Production from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She graduated from the New York Drama League’s Directors Program and was the recipient of the Van Lier Directing Fellowship. She has also received NAACP theatre awards and a Women’s International Center Living Legacy Award. 

Tickets are now on sale for the 2022 season and may be purchased by visiting bard.org or calling 800-PLAYTIX.

What We're Thankful For!

Photos from the 2021 season, top left then clockwise: René Thornton Jr. as Gower in Pericles*, a scene from* Richard III*, a scene from* The Comedy of Errors*, a scene from* The Pirates of Penzance*, Alex Keiper (left) as Jo Smith and Michael Doherty as Vyvian Jones in* The Comedy of Terrors*; Afua Busia (left) as Esther and Yao Dogbe as George in* Intimate Apparel*; Jasmine Bracey as Belarius, Constance V Swain as Imogen, Yao Dogbe as Posthumus, and Afua Busia as Pisanio in* Cymbeline*; and Daria Pilar Redus (left) as Sarah and Ezekiel Andrew as Coalhouse Walker Jr. in* Ragtime*. (Photos by Karl Hugh.)*

By Liz Armstrong

After a wildly successful sixtieth anniversary season in memory of our founder Fred C. Adams, everyone at the Utah Shakespeare Festival has much to be grateful for. With Thanksgiving right around the corner and the start of 2022 coming quickly, it is a time to reflect on the year and think about moments that made 2021 so memorable and that fill us with thanks. 

Here are some of the show-stopping moments we can’t stop thinking about from the season:

Pericles

An audience member commented on a post, praising René Thornton Jr.: “We were eager to see Pericles after hearing René talk about it in 2019,” said Lisa. “We loved seeing this play . . . and feel delighted and grateful that he led us through the story [as Gower].” 

Properties Director Ben Hohman’s creation of the creepy heads used in the play is forever burned in our memories. 

Richard III

“Richard’s villainy was so amazing to watch unfold,” said General Manager Kami Terry Paul. “I found new depths in our production of Richard III this year.”

When the ghosts of his victims returned to haunt Richard, all the family and friends he had betrayed—well, that moment still sends chills down our spines months later. 

The Comedy of Errors

A social media comment from Mandie read, “This show was beyond amazing. I think it’s my favorite that I’ve ever seen at the Festival! [And this is] a non-sponsored, ordinary person review.”

This play was a bright and hectic production, and we can’t get over the stunning 1970s costumes, adding to that colorful Greek island paradise. 

“I didn’t know Ephesus was a real place,” added audience member Melanie on an Instagram post. “If I ever go there I’ll be picturing ’70s fashion and rock-star conjurers.”

The Pirates of Penzance

“Cecilia Iole’s portrayal of Mable [was so memorable], especially her comedic vocalizing in ‘Poor Wandering One,’” said Company Manager Tracy Blackwell.

We can still hear the tap dance battle between the Pirate King and the Policeman—and the roar of laughter from the audience at this point in every performance!

Ragtime

“I was able to take my friend to see Ragtime,” said Development Assistant Emily Cacho. “The opening number and the Model-T number were so powerful. We were both sobbing by intermission and after the curtain had closed.” 

Coalhouse Walker Jr. holding his beloved wife after she died was heart-wrenching and unforgettable. This was an important and impactful play and it was scenes like this that were truly memorable. 

Cymbeline

“[One of my favorite moments from the season was] Belarus as a female character, which was beautifully performed by Jasmine Bracey,” said Blackwell.

Ahhh, and we can’t forget about the moment Constance V Swain—as Imogen dressed as Posthumus—jumped into Yao Dogbe’s arms. 

Intimate Apparel

“The moment where she [Esther] cuts the quilt, gives him all of the money, and kisses her on the cheek and says he’ll be back with the horses,” is one of Social Media Manager Astrid Bacy’s “favorite” moments. “It still makes me so angry!”

A social media comment on Instagram read: “Emotionally wrecked. This was beautiful storytelling.” 

We will also forever remember Esther returning to Mrs. Dickinson’s with a broken heart and, despite it all, finding the resiliency within herself to sit back down at the sewing machine and once again create something beautiful. 

The Comedy of Terrors

“I remember gasping in shock when the [fight between the two brothers broke out] and the mannequin went flying across the stage,” said Southern Utah University student Abby. “I cried laughing; its arms and legs flopped so pathetically.” 

What roaring nights of fun husband-and-wife duo Michael Doherty and Alex Keiper gave us with their performances throughout the season. 

Lastly, we at the Utah Shakespeare Festival are thankful for you, our loyal and amazing patrons. Without you, the Festival, of course, would not exist. 

What were your favorite moments from the season? Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @utahshakespeare and personal message us! We would love to hear what was most memorable for you. 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!