Living Las Vegas

At Home in the City of Lights

sponsored resources

Top Vegas Hotels: Bellagio, Luxor, Rio

Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier, by Megan Edwards

Shakespeare in Cedar City

“City of Entertainment.” That’s what the big sign on the MGM Grand says, and as more big-name shows head to Las Vegas, the more the nickname is justfied. Avenue Q is about to open at the Wynn resort, and — joy of Monty Python joys — Spamalot is coming there next year, too! It’s enough to make me burst into a rousing chorus of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”

But even though I love the razzle-dazzle of a Broadway-style production, and I never say no to another Cirque du Soleil offering, there’s a part of me that still dearly loves the pre-electric drama of yesteryear. But names like Sophocles don’t look quite right on flashing casino billboards, and neither, sad to say, does Shakespeare.

But it’s really not so tragic, after all, because not too far away, there’s another “City of Entertainment,” a college town more commonly known as Cedar City, Utah. It’s a lovely, tranquil place also known for its proximity to several popular national parks. In fact, it was the large number of people who passed through on their way to Zion, Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks, Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef that made it a perfect location for a theater festival. Every summer since 1962, Cedar City has hosted the Utah Shakespearean Festival. In addition to award-winning productions of Shakespeare plays, the festival showcases the works of other noted and emerging playwrights. An added attraction is the cooler weather, a pleasant respite from Las Vegas summer heat.

The drive to Cedar City from Las Vegas takes less than three hours on I-15, which passes through the Virgin River gorge past Mesquite, one of the more spectacular stretches of Interstate in the country. There are a number of hotels in town, many of which offer deals to festival attendees. I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, which is not far from the campus. The check-in desk was well-equipped with information about the festival, and the clerk gave me a map of the festival grounds and told me the best place to park.

The Shakespearean Festival has three theaters, one of which, the Adams Theatre, is such a good model of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre that the BBC used it to film a documentary. The Auditorium Theatre is used for matinees and rainy day performances. I had tickets for a performance in a third inside venue, the Randall Theatre.

Evening shows begin at eight o’clock, but thanks to the information I picked up at my hotel, I arrived an hour early to catch the “Greenshow,” a free outdoor performance on the lawn next to the theatres. While musicians, dancers, and actors clad in Elizabethan costumes performed on a raised stage, others wandered among the spectators selling snacks. The show featured lots of dancing, singing, a May pole, and even a little audience participation. Around a quarter to eight, the troupe danced off the stage, and festival attendees began finding their way to their chosen plays for the evening.

I probably should have chosen a Shakespeare play for my first visit to the festival, but good reviews had convinced me to buy tickets for “Stones in His Pockets,” by Marie Jones. It has a cast of two, but in the course of the play, those two manage to bring no fewer than fifteen different personas to life. These include not only the Irish protagonists Jake and Charlie, but also an American movie actress, a Catholic priest, a couple of film directors, and a variety of other natives of the small Irish town where the story takes place. The performance was enthralling, and the entire experience — from the velvet green lawns and costume-clad university students to the nicely appointed interior of the Randall Theatre — was delightful. I had traveled less than two hundred miles from the Strip, but somehow I had also crossed a solar system or two. Las Vegas was a galaxy away.

Don’t get me wrong. I have no desire to move to Cedar City. But I do like knowing there’s another City of Entertainment not too far up the road. “Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding” is fine, but it will never be “Romeo and Juliet.” “O” is spectacular, but sometimes you just want “Othello.” “Wayne Newton” is great, but… well, you get it.

Planning | Advice | Tips | Routes | Books | Fun!