From 'Elektra' to 'Penzance'

Certified classics and a campy Broadway musical are among this week's theatrical highlights.

"ELEKTRA," a sequel to last year's production of "Iphigenia in Aulis," is the University of Utah's 36th annual Classic Greek Theatre Festival production.

Directed by Hugh Hanson, with a script translated by Kenneth McLeish from Euripides' ancient Greek drama, the four performances at the U. will be staged in traditional early Greek style — outdoors in the early morning next Saturday and Sunday, and again on Sept. 23 and 24.

Hanson is giving this version of "Elektra" an Appalachian and "ethnic-peasant" twist, with original music composed and performed by David Sharp, and period set and costumes.

"Elektra" tells the story of King Agamemnon's children, Elektra and Orestes, and their quest for vengeance on the perpetrators of their father's murder — their mother, Klytemnestra, and her lover, the new king.

The cast includes Nicol Razon as the neurotic, unbalanced Elektra; Nicholas Zaharias as her cowardly brother, Orestes; Barbara Smith as Klytemnestra (repeating a role she played last year); and Anthony Gaskins as Pylades.

Performances are 9 a.m. all four mornings on the lawn northeast of the Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre. Pre-performance lectures by the festival's founder, producer and dramaturg, James Svendsen, are 8:30 a.m. at the same site.

Tickets are $12 for general admission, $9 for U. faculty and staff and $6 for all students (581-7100, the Kingsbury Hall box office, or www.kingtix.com). Patrons should bring blankets. All seating is on the lawn. (In the event of rain, the performance will be moved to Libby Gardner Hall.)

"Elektra" will also tour throughout the region, including performances on Sept. 25 at 5 p.m. in Brigham Young University's de Jong Concert Hall, and on Sept. 27 at 7:30 p.m. in Weber State University's Austad auditorium.

"CATS," one of Broadway's longest-running musicals, is the fall season centerpiece at Tuacahn Amphitheater in Ivins, where it plays Thursday through Oct. 21, directed and choreographed by Derryl Yeager, who played the role of Rum Tum Tugger during a two-year stint with the national touring company of "Cats" several years ago.

The cast of "Cats" includes John Boy as Rum Tum Tugger and Margaret Kelly as Grizabella. Both played the same roles in the most recent national tour of "Cats."

Suzie Jacobsen Balser, who just played Nellie Forbush in Tuacahn's "South Pacific," and her husband, Nathan Balser, a recent performer in Cathy Rigby's "Peter Pan," are among Utahns in the cast, with Jay Pierce as Old Deuteronomy.