Utah Shakespeare Festival Opens 51st Season

The 51st Utah Shakespeare Festival is now underway in Cedar City. The Tony Award winning theater offers a wide variety of productions, with some running through Oct 20.

The festival website has complete information. The festival also offers this innovative online brochure describing the 2012 season.

This Deseret News article also describes the new season. Below are excerpts.

Shakespeare lights up Cedar City, bringing an average of 120,000 visitors every year. "It's huge," said Scott Jolley, the president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce. "Guests come for the festival and eat at our restaurants, buy gasoline and stay in our hotels, with an impact on the local economy of more than $35 million annually."

And those numbers are expected to increase with at least one of the offerings in the indoor Randall Theatre.

"It's selling off the charts! People who have never come to USF are now about to be first-timers," Adams said.

He's referring to the production of "Les Miserables." First produced for the Royal Shakespeare Company, when producers learned an American Shakespeare festival wanted it, they granted the rights. And the musical will take the original format, no turntable.

"No need for it — our cast members have brilliant voices. When Melinda Pfundstein sings 'I Dreamed a Dream,' there will not be a dry eye in the house," Adams said. He is over-the-moon about the stunning voice of J. Michael Bailey, who portrays Jean Valjean.

Here is an overview of this year's schedule:

In the Adams Shakespearean Theatre

June 21 through September 1

Evening performances

• The Merry Wives of Windsor
• Mary Stuart
• Titus Andronicus

In the Auditorium Theatre

July 7 through September 1

Matinee performances

• The Merry Wives of Windsor

August 9 through August 31

10 a.m. performances

• New American Playwrights Project

In the Randall L. Jones Theatre

June 25 through September 1

• Scapin
• To Kill a Mockingbird

June 26 through October 20

• Les Misérables

September 21 through October 20

• Hamlet
• Stones in His Pockets