LOGAN – Before the local theater events of the New Year begin, it’s appropriate that we recognize the outstanding productions and performers of 2024.
Topping unofficial Cache Valley Daily “best of the best” list for the best musical is the Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre production of Cats performed in July of 2024.
Cats is a sung-through musical, based on a 1939 poetry collection by T.S. Eliot entitled “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” with the text of its poems set to the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Cats is seldom performed by local theatre groups because the demands of its dancing are so challenging. But UFOMT founder and general manager Michael Ballam brilliantly assembled a group of amazing dancers who had previously performed Cats on Broadway and with touring companies.
The UFOMT production was nothing short of mesmerizing.
Cats also earned best choreography kudos for director/choreographer Lauren Haughton Gillis and associate choreographers Mackenzie Simmons and Katy Plaziak, both of whom also performed previously as dancers in Cats.
Moving along to the best comedy of 2024, the honors go to Hay Fever, a Noel Coward laugh-riot from the 1920s produced by the Lyric Repertory Company.
Using a superb mix of Equity actors and local talent, director Paul Mitri combined Hay Fever’s perfect script with the perfect cast to produce a comedy of manners that was arguably the top attraction of the Lyric Rep’s season in 2024.
That local performing arts group also scored with Driving Miss Daisy, earning the nod as best drama of 2024.
Deftly directed by guest artist Summer Session, the Pulitzer Prize winning play was beautifully performed by a trio of Equity actors working at the top of their game.
By default, the best opera honors go to the only genuine opera produced in Cache Valley last year, the UFOMT’s thematic double-header of Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini and Buoso’s Ghost by Michael Ching.
Best director honors go to Cache Valley’s own Celeste Baillio at the helm of the unforgettable Music Theatre West production of Catch Me If You Can.
Ms. Baillio joined the ranks of talented local directors, delivering everything that Cache Valley theatre-goers have come to expect from MTW shows – superb acting, great singing, stylish dancing and lavish costuming – and all of it in spades.
Kudos for the best set design go to the brilliant artistic team behind Utah State University’s production of The Tempest by William Shakespeare.
Those unsung heroes include tech director Amy Critchfield; Mark Hulse for lighting design; Audrey Kearl for projection design; J.S. Peterson for set design; and Dennis Hassan for another example of his trademark huge puppets, as well as a host of other backstage wizards.
Leading off the list of individual honors is Levi Hopkins as best actor/singer in a musical for USU production of Floyd Collins.
Hopkins’ performance was the spark of the little-known and seldom-performed musical based on an actual Kentucky mine disaster. His efforts breathed life – and an equally convincing death — into a characterization that was both courageous and heartbreaking.
Haley Sicking takes the top honor as best actress/singer in a musical for her performance as Reno Sweeney in the UFOMT production of Anything Goes by Cole Porter.
In a role originally performed by the legendary Ethel Merman, the Dallas native effortlessly belted out a string of Cole Porter hits including “I Get a Kick Out of You”, “You’re The Top” and the title tune “Anything Goes.”
In a change of pace, UFOMT crown princess Vanessa Ballam won honors for her best supporting female role in the musical Guys and Dolls. While channeling Judy Holiday’s vocal patterns, Ms. Ballam was completely sensational in the role of the impatient-to-wed showgirl Miss Adelaide.
She also shared the stage with UFOMT veteran Lee Daily, who captured honors as best supporting actor in a musical. In the small but critical role of Nicely-Nicely Johnson in Guys and Dolls, the old pro sang and danced his heart out.
The title of best male performer in a comedy during 2024 goes to Sam Teuscher for the role of Melvin Ferd the Third in the USU Opera Theatre production of The Toxic Avenger.
Dressed in what should have been a confining muscle suit, Teuscher’s superb sense of comic timing made that title character absurdly sincere and likeable, even when he was tearing other performers limb from limb.
The amazing Leslie Brott takes the honor of best female in a comedy for her portrayal of Judith Bliss in the Lyric Rep production of Hay Fever.
As a retired actress who stages impromptu dramatic events around the summer house just for the fun of it, Ms. Brott was absolutely hilarious.
As best supporting males in a comedy, the honors go to Clifton Richards and Kyle Cottam in The 39 Steps by the Four Seasons Theatre Company.
As the anonymous Clowns 1 and 2, Richards and Cottam did the majority of the play’s heavy lifting, switching roles and accents at the drop of a hat – literally. Both delivered performances that were wildly over the top.
For best supporting female in a comedy, we have a three-way tie between Marin Robinson (for Hay Fever), Ariana Whatcott (also for Hay Fever) and Mia Gatherum (for the USU fall production of Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson).
Despite their youthful ages, all three of those performers are accomplished character actresses.
Finally, the cast of the Lyric Rep production of Driving Miss Daisy took top honors in the categories of best male, best female and best supporting actor in a drama. They were Herb Newsome, Leslie Brott and Lance Rasmussen, respectively.
On stage and screen, the role of good-natured chauffeur Hoke has been memorably performed by giants like Morgan Freeman, Brock Peters and James Earl Jones, but Newsome somehow managed to make that character his own.
In the title role of the southern Jewish matron, Ms. Brott stubbornly never broke her principles, but gradually learned to bend them with the times.
As Daisy’s son Boolie, Rasmussen reluctantly refereed the rough patches in the slowing growing relationship between Daisy and Hoke over the years