The beloved musical “I Do! I Do!” by Broadway legends Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt is included in the line-up of the 2021 season of the Utah Festival Opera& Musical Theatre. Those performances will begin on Wednesday, July 7.
LOGAN – Tickets for the upcoming season of the Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre are selling fast, but festival publicist Kendal Bates says that “great seats are still available” for most scheduled performances.
Seating is limited for the 2021 UFOMT season, Bates explains, because its venue has been switched from the spacious Ellen Eccles Theatre to the smaller Utah Theatre on Center Street.
That more intimate performance space is more in keeping with the festival’s current strategy of presenting four small-cast musicals, featuring the troupe’s best-loved performers from past productions.
Those shows will begin on Wednesday, July 7 with the premiere of “Souvenir.” That musical celebrates the improbable fame of New York socialite Florence Foster Jenkins, which was based on hilariously off-key recitals she performed in the 1930s.
That two-person musical will feature UFOMT veteran Joy Hermalyn and musician Jerry Steichen.
The UFOMT will debut “33 Variations” on Thursday, July 8. That play explores the motivation that drove Ludwig von Beethoven to create the “Diabelli Variations.”
UFOMT impresario Michael Ballam will star as Beethoven in this production. He will share the stage with Suzan Hanson, Vanessa Ballam, Stephan Espinosa and Joy Hermalyn.
The classic musical “The Fantasticks” will premiere on Friday, July 9. Vanessa Ballam and Stephan Espinosa will co-star as the bamboozled lovers Luisa and Matt, while Kyle Pfortmiller appears the bandit El Gallo.
Finally, the four consecutive evenings of debuts will climax on Saturday, July 10, when the curtain rises on “I Do, I Do.” That beloved two-person musical chronicles the ups and downs of a couple’s relationship during a 50-year marriage.
Michael Ballam and Suzan Hanson will co-star in that production.
To honor the memory of Utah’s COVID-19 victims, the festival opera will also present “Mozart’s Requiem” in a matinee performance on Saturday, July 10. The American Festival Chorus and Orchestra will perform that solemn masterpiece.
Bates explains that the 2021 UFOMT season will run through July 31, with two performances of each of its four musicals in the three remaining weeks of the month.
The festival’s calendar also includes crowd-pleasing events like its Academy, Informances, Breakfast with the Stars, Café des Artistes, the Silent Film festival, appearances at the Logan Tabernacle, the Late Night Cabararet and its Donor Appreciation Event at the Griffin Farm.
Additional information about those events can be obtained from the UFOMT website and box office.
Tickets can also be purchased on the UFOMT website at www.utahfestival.org.