Dear Evan Hansen March 4, 2020 Eccles Theater

By: Kevin Rolfe

Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy

Every once in a while we’ll get a musical that has been written in the present tense, with modern themes and modern lessons.  Sure you’ll have a show like Hamilton which has many modern elements and musical stylings, but the story takes place over 200 years ago. I’m talking about shows like Hair, which in which the story took place in the ’70s and debuted on Broadway in the ’70s.  Another show like this that comes to mind is Rent from the ‘90s. The show takes place in the ‘90s, it’s themes are from current events of the day and the show debuted on Broadway in the ‘90s. You get the idea. Now we have Dear Evan Hansen. A story for our time.

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Jeanne Robertson February 7, 2020, Eccles Theater

By: Katie Barber

Photo Credit: Kevin Rolfe @utahconcertreview

Finding humor in the every day is easier said than done, but Miss North Carolina 1963 (better known as Jeanne Robertson) makes it look like a breeze. This isn’t a product simply of age experience, it’s the result of a finely-tuned analytical perspective sharpened by wit and just the right amount of wackiness—specifically, the type of wacky that decorated the lobby of the Eccles Theater with signs encouraging the night’s attendees to enter a drawing to win a “JEANNE ROBERTSON SIGNED AND SAT-ON ROCKING CHAIR.”

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Isabel Leonard w/ the Utah Symphony January 9, 2020, The Noorda

By: Kevin Rolfe

Isabel Leonard is a two time Grammy Award winning mezzo-soprano who has appeared all over the world from the Metropolitan Opera in New York to the Vienna State Opera in Austria.  And there she was Thursday evening, with our own Utah Symphony, on the stage of The Noorda Center for the Performing Arts in Orem, Utah. I don’t think we realize what an honor it is to have Isabel here in our state.  Not only did Ms. Leonard perform last night in Orem, but she will be performing at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City tonight (January 10) and tomorrow evening.

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