'Cricket' becomes musical

Michael Jesse Bennett has been acting, directing and writing for the stage since the 1940s — with a brief interruption for a foray into retail work.

For what he claims will be his swan song (officially, he retired at the end of December from This Is the Place Heritage Park), Bennett and his daughter, Rose-Marie Smith, have created a new musical based on Charles Dickens' "Cricket on the Hearth."

Bennett has staked out a long and illustrious career with another of Dickens' works — his one-man production replicating Dickens reading from "A Christmas Carol."

He's also performed in traditional plays throughout the region, including two seasons at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, and taken several of his one-man shows about historical figures into schools around and beyond Utah.

In addition to "A Christmas Carol," Bennett's other popular one-man shows include "Mountain Man," centered around a fictional adventurer in the Old West, and his impersonation of patriot Patrick Henry (the latter both on stage and film). He's also written and performed in a show about Christopher Columbus.

In 1995, Bennett was among several Utahns honored as modern-day patriots, receiving a George Washington Honor Medal for taking his one-man shows about historical figures into the schools.

One of the first things he did when he became director of theater at This Is the Place Heritage Park a few years ago was re-establish Brigham Young's old Deseret Dramatic Association, presenting period works in the replicated Old Social Hall.

Bennett was well on his way to adapting several of Dickens' stories into one-man shows for the stage when he began working on "Cricket on the Hearth."

As Bennett was reading through it, looking for logical places to trim without destroying the story, he kept seeing phrases and sentences that "jumped out at me as a place for a song."

So he changed direction and began adapting it as an ensemble piece for a full-fledged musical. Then he put it back on the shelf when he became too busy with other projects (this was more than 15 years ago).

About 10 years ago, his daughter, Rose-Marie, told him, "Dad, I want to write a musical, but I don't have a story."

So Bennett gave her one of his copies of "Cricket on the Hearth" and suggested she read it. Before midnight that same night, Rose-Marie called her dad back and agreed they should do it.