20-plus years covering theater adventurous

After 39 years at the Deseret News, it's time to move on. I'm retiring Friday.

My first two decades here are pretty much a blur — a few months on the general assignment desk ... a year or two consigned to the "back shop" making sure last-minute stuff got to the presses ... seven or so years on the copy desk editing stories and writing headlines.

The past 20-plus years have more adventurous, covering Utah's ever expanding live theater beat along with occasional circuses and a few theatrically oriented concerts.

Before I exit stage left, most of my friends just want to know about my all-time favorite (or not-so-favorite) shows, personalities and stories.

That simplifies things. Following are some lists, containing both genuine favorites mixed in with guilty pleasures. The titles and names are not necessarily in top-to-bottom order.

FAVORITE MUSICALS

1. "Les Miserables"

2. "Ragtime: The Musical"

3. "Pirated" (also known as "The Pirated Penzance")

4. "The Ark"

5. "Camelot" (the original national tour in San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House where I first saw a young chap I had never heard of — Robert Peterson)

6. "Forever Plaid"

7. "1776"

8. "The Most Happy Fella"

9. "Lend Me a Tenor" (the Utah Shakespearean Festival's recent musical version of the comedy)

10. "West Side Story"

Other strong contenders: "Big River," "Shenandoah," "The Fantasticks," "Brigadoon," "Thoroughly Modern Millie," "The Music Man," "Sweeney Todd," "South Pacific," "Man of La Mancha," "The Slipper and the Rose" and "Tomfoolery" (a revue based on comedian Tom Leher's hilarious songs)

FAVORITE COMEDIES

1. "My Big Fat Utah Wedding"

2. "Noises Off"

3. "Pageant"

4. "Incorruptible"

5. "Waiting for Godot"

6. "Arsenic and Old Lace"