'Fluke of fate' brings new musical 'Zorro' to Utah for first U.S. staging

WEST VALLEY CITY — The West End production of “Zorro” opened in London in 2008 to universal rave reviews and an armload of British Olivier award nominations. After stagings in Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, Seoul, Amsterdam, Moscow and Rio de Janeiro, the musical will make its U.S. debut on Feb. 15 at the Hale Centre Theatre.

Rewind. What was that again?

No pre-Broadway run at the traditional out-of-town tryout venues of the Shubert Theater in New Haven, Conn., the La Jolla (Calif.) Playhouse or the Toronto Centre for the Arts?

“The reason we are opening in Utah is just kind of a fluke of fate,” says John Gertz, who produced each of the “Zorro” productions and maintains sole rights to the dashing, masked and gaucho hat-wearing outlaw.

Thanks to the tenacity and creativity of Hale executive producer Sally Dietlein, audiences in Utah will enjoy the first U.S. staging of the much-anticipated “Zorro” before its 90-week national tour — which isn’t scheduled to begin until sometime in 2013.

“When John offered me the first U.S. rights, I was dumbstruck because I thought it was pie in the sky,” Dietlein says.

“Sally does really first-class, excellent productions,” Gertz says. “I was honestly quite impressed with the quality of the productions at the Hale.”

The circuitous journey of “Zorro” to the Hale is nearly as adventuresome as the saga of the avenger who slices a Z on the chests of his enemies.

At the recommendation of her friend Dennis Hassan, associate theater professor at Utah State University, Dietlein traveled to see the original West End production of “Zorro,” and she immediately knew it would be a hit. But when Dietlein asked at the time for the rights to produce the show in Utah, she received a quick and firm no — because the next step in the roll-out plan was a Broadway opening.

“The economic climate at that particular time was gruesome,” Gertz says. “We decided that a Broadway run then was ill-advised. We are going to Broadway but in the meantime we have opened all these other productions all over the world.”