For those of you in the bosom of the church, Salt Lake City that is, you've probably heard of Saturday's Voyeur, the play performed every year which deals with the church and puts lots of local humor in it.

This is the 40th year and I've yet to see it. When I was TBM and still married, I tried to get my wife to come with me. No deal.

So this year, I found a sale price on tickets thru the City Weekly newspaper which is what I'll be doing tomorrow night instead of watching fireworks (which is something I got over about 40 years ago, give or take). I'm excited.

Here's an article about it from last weekend Tribune:

https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/arts/2018/06/27/how-do-they-let-them-do/

I didn't even know about it.

I saw it and I highly recommend it.

I highly recommend it too and would like to see it again. It's kind of on the same order as the play "Book of Mormon", which I also thought was great.

I haven’t seen a city weekly in a long time. Or a s.l.u.g. Either.

Where is this play performed?

The theater is an old morg church in the Marmalade District of SLC and they've been doing plays there for years. I knew it was close to me, but it's been a while since I was there and it's 1.3 miles per Google from where I live. If I had the energy, I could walk except it's kind of uphill and I'm kind of old.

I told my story about seeing the SLAC performance of "Angels in America" in the mid 1990s. My then-wife heard about it on NPR and got tickets to both parts. She was so overwhelmed and upset about the mormon references she refused to see the 2nd part so I went alone.

Enjoy!

We had a group go see it a few years; I remember Craig P@xton was there and some others...

We've been going to Saturday's Voyeur for 39 years and wouldn't ever miss it. It's their fund raiser so just pay the price and GO. We also subscribe to SLAC as they do many wonderful things throughout the year. Very thought provoking. Hint: don't take young children to Voyeur!

Here is a fairly long conversation on how Saturday's Voyeur got started, reported by Sean Means.

https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/arts/2018/06/27/how-do-they-let-them-do/

It started at the SLC Unitarian Church 40 years ago as an alternative to the Days of 47 celebration, a Utah state holiday commemorating the religious invasion of what was then northern Mexico. It was extremely tongue in cheek.

The show runs for two and a half months, and has the unusual (especially for Utah) feature of allowing, even encouraging, attendees to bring alcoholic beverages and/or a picnic dinner or snacks into the theater. (This does not apply to their other productions durning the year)

It turns out that in spite of the draconian and bizarre nature of Utah liquor laws, even back in the private club days, this is completely legal. As long as they don't sell the alcohol, and give their permission for you to bring it, according to Utah law, it is just a house party.

The venue is in the marmalade district just west of and down the hill from the state capitol building. It is in a former LDS ward building, making the bringing of a bottle of wine all the more satisfying! The building was erected in the late 1800s, and it has an onion dome on top, not the usual sort of thing you see on a Mormon chapel. The story I was told, and from an otherwise reputable source, was that the church architect at the time was trying to convince a woman to be his plural wife, and she fancied onion domes, so he designed one for this church building to try and impress her. The speaker did not know if the ploy worked.

The humor is very broad, bordering on slapstick. There are recurring characters from year to year. A current one is the Angel Moroni that was fried by lightening on the West Jordan temple a few years ago. The angel is portrayed as a more or less obnoxious frat boy.

The plot one year was that two COB employees had to be sent to gay recovery therapy, when it was discovered they were Democrats, and there was no therapy program for Democrats, so this was the best Church Security could come up with.

The jokes are often sophomoric, though sometimes brilliant. Besides, that is what the bottle of wine is for. It improves the jokes. :) The quality of the show varies from year to year, but frankly, that's not really the point. It's a party where you can laugh rather than cry or be pissed off at Utah culture and politics.

It is also what The Nutcracker at Christmas is to ballet companies. It is the huge fund raiser that keeps SLAC afloat the rest of the year.

They probably have tickets tonight, since holiday performances sell slower than other nights.

My wife and I have tickets for August. I can't wait!! For anyone that has seen this year's production, how was it?

Just a quick followup. My ticket tonight said 7:30 and I got there about 7:05 and guess what, the show started at 6pm.

I'm sure it was an honest error and the nice clerk at the box office was more than happy to trade me for another night. SO, I chose Friday July 13.

So I have nothing to report on for now.

I did see a guy who I hope was in the show, running down the back stairs with an orange prison-type jumpsuit which said "MORMON SPIRIT PRISON" on the back.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2018 10:42PM by memikeyounot.

Google "Salt Lake Acting Company."

It plays through the first week of September, IIRC.

Was hilarious at first now it's tired and boring. An old joke that has been heard before

you make it sound AS IF it is the same thing every year, It is NOT, they change it / revise it/ update it extensively

I realize it's changed to lampoon the curent state of culture and politics in Utah but at least to me the play has lost a lot of what made it so great at the start . Not saying it's bad just not as good as before . kind of like Godfather 3 was not that great in comparison to The Godfather

Singing—
“Who are these wankers coming down...”

Oh yeah, I've heard that one.

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz. Oh, what a relief it is. ...

.....and it was something else. Great performers, all of these relatively young men and women, very talented and funny and playing multiple roles. The play is written to be very critical of Utah, Republicans, the Utah legislature, Utah and Mormon men (some women), missionaries, bishops and counselors, Joseph Smith (the actor looks very like him). If you have a smidgen of respect for the church or members or any of the teachings or going farther, the orange man, you will be very offended and as always, it’s very topical and smutty and shocking. But the music, all versions of well known Broadway musicals, is very well done by a small orchestra, very effective lighting, scenery which in some cases uses pictures of previous productions going back to 1978. I was overwhelmed and probably need to see it again.
I normally have Friday’s off but had to work a long day to cover the normal guy who, rude person that he is, got hospitalized due to some stomach troubles.