Pioneer Theatre Company — Attraction in Salt Lake City

Professional theatre company. Always does a good job, though the latest managing director seemed to have a strong preference to hiring east-coast performers at all costs, rather than our extensive local talent--it seemed like the appearance of recruiting remote actors was more important than putting on the best show. With that PTC began to lose some of its shine.

We no longer have season tickets, even though we had to give up some of the best seats in the house.

Perhaps the new management crew will return to putting on the best show rather than being able to feather their cap and attend self-paid award ceremonies.

That being said, they've have put on some fantastic shows. One of the finest was one I didn't even want to see; PTC has a tendency to put on about one play per year that seems intended to make their mainly middle-to-upper class white audiences feel uncomfortable.

Though often very well-done, I have a limit to how much of that I want to sit through. I spent a decade in college; I feel like I've had enough lectures. One year they were doing a rock-musical about bipolar disorder and I was afraid it was going to be another "Touch(ed)" or a similar story. We agreed that we would would try it, but probably leave at intermission.

It was "Next To Normal" and I became an instant fan. Judy McClane gave a stunning performance as Diane; we tried to get tickets to see it again the following week, but it turned out our season tickets were for one of the last performances. Buying the Broadway recording was a disappointment because Alice Ripley's Dianne didn't come close to the performance of McClane at PTC. And it wasn't just her; all the actors, the musicians, everything was solid and on-the-mark. Even the minimalist sets were well done and well-utilized. It was one of the finest productions I have ever seen, and here I had no desire to go to any "rock opera".

With just perhaps a couple exceptions, I would recommend any PTC production as a quality show and generally...

"Grease” at Pioneer Theater was by far the WORST play I’ve ever had to sit through!!! The choreography and dancing was laughable, the characters were not a good fit, there were awkward pauses during many scenes that made you wonder if it was part of the scene or if someone just forgot their line, and the way the scenes were all jumbled up from the actual movie was very disappointing. The random violence thrown in throughout the play, especially at the end when Sandy punches the cheerleader was completely unnecessary and absolutely made you lose any kind of connection to the character (if you even had one to begin with). The pink hot pants and black thong (um, yes you can still see it) on Sandy are horrible!

There was ONE good scene (which saved me from diving head first from the third floor balcony just to make it all stop). The good fairy in "Beauty School Dropout" in a big sparkly dress and pink wig was amazing! He did a great job!!!

The rest of the play was complete garbage. I would fold up the tents now and stop doing this play, it really is that horrible!!! Don’t waste your money,...

How Pioneer Memorial Theatre ruined Christmas: My wife recently purchased tickets to PMT's performance of Les Miserables as a surprise Christmas present for me. She often states that I'm impossible to surprise, and difficult to shop for. She thought she had found the perfect gift in theater tickets. She specifically stated that she would pick up the tickets at the box office since I'm often the one who checks the mail. PMT mailed the tickets. I saw them, and the surprise was ruined. We called the box office to see what our options were. The manager was just leaving for the day, but promised to call the next morning. Two days later, we still hadn't heard from her and had to call back. She told us the best she could offer was a free cookie and drink at the show. Needless to say, we're returning the tickets. We don't want to give PMT our business after getting treated so poorly. We're very disappointed that we won't get to see the show because PMT cares so little about...