My First Musical Adaptation - in Salt Lake City, with Puppets!

Theater Preview: Wasatch Theatre Company's Page-to-Stage Festival

Posted 2009-09-09 15:50:59 by Kelly Ashkettle

Wasatch Theatre Company's Page-to-Stage Festival

When » Sept. 10 - 27. Thu. - Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 1 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.

Where » Studio Theatre at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center (138 W. 300 South)

Tickets » $15 (includes admission to all three productions); www.arttix.org or 801.355.ARTS.

Info » www.wasatchtheatre.org

(Photo by Jessica Montana Ballard | courtesy of Wasatch Theatre Company) Tim Butler with the Tolstoy puppet in "Hands Up"

In the musical "Hands Up!" Scott Allen Curry plays a life-sized "homicidal bat puppet from hell" who goes on a mass puppet-killing spree during Christmas. Written by George Plautz (who co-directs with Curry), the new musical is based on a British young adult novel, but Curry has chosen to portray his Tolstoy a little differently than the one in the book.

"My Tolstoy is a little more vaudeville and crass American," he says, adding that he's made a collage of all the people who have inspired his portrayal: The Count from "Sesame Street," George Burns, Tony Soprano, Leo Tolstoy, A.L.F. and Ron Jeremy.

Yes, the porn star -- Tolstoy the puppet has a Brooklyn accent and is a bit vulgar; Curry says he would probably earn the show a PG-13 rating. One of his favorite lines, he says, is when Tolstoy tells his puppeteer: "Just because you have your hand up my ass doesn't make us friends."

The show is being produced by members of Salt Lake's Starry-Eyed Puppet Theatre Company. Curry has provided pre-recorded voices for them before, but he says this is the first time he's donned a puppet suit on stage. It's a bit tricky, he says, because he has to use one hand to work the puppet's mouth, making things a bit complicated when he has to perform, say, jazz hands.

Curry is also the show's co-choreographer. He says that two of his favorite numbers are an homage to the "Nutcracker" in which a ballerina dances with a broken leg; and a Motown number set in an insane asylum with inmates who wear doo-wop girl outfits made from supplies like dishwashing gloves and hospital scrubs.

"Hands Up!" is part of Wasatch Theatre's Page-to-Stage Festival and will be performed on Sept. 12, 17, 19, 25 and 27. The festival also includes "Making Waves," a full-length play assembled by Utah educators that presents their challenges and rewards in their own words; and "Short-Shorts" which features seven ten-minute plays by Utah playwrights.