“Ghost”

Just back from a performance of Ghost: The Musical at the Hale Centre Theatre in West Valley City, Utah.

I confess that I’ve found some recent musicals just a bit irritating at points, since virtually every song seems to be belted out (screeched?) at maximum volume.  There’s not enough musical variety for my taste, and what should be powerful emotional moments lose some of their punch because everything is performed with the same degree of intensity.

I sometimes felt that way tonight, too.

But that’s a fault in the score, not in the specific performance.

The Hales’s staging was ingenious, and the acting was quite good.

Moreover, of course, Ghost is quite a good story.  It’s both very affecting and, at other moments, very, very funny.

And I did appreciate the fact that the score in this version makes extensive use of one of my favorite songs.

I’m really grateful, as I’ve said before, for live theater in our communities.  My wife and I enjoy it immensely, and want to support it.