By Jason and Alisha Hagey
Every summer, the Salt Lake Acting Company dives headfirst into the glorious chaos of Utah’s life, serving it with a wink and a toothy grin they call SLAC’s Summer Show. This year, the show is titled SLAC’s Summer Show: The Secret Lives of the Real Wives of the Salt Lake Hive. It’s part comedy, part cultural roast, and entirely irresistible. A handful of sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued writers pull apart the year’s local headlines, quirks, and controversies, then stitch them back together into something hilarious, charming, and just a little outrageous. The whole evening feels like swapping inside jokes with a theater of fellow Utahns, where laughter comes easily and the satire feels affectionate and delightfully pointed.
Austin Archer, Penelope Caywood, and Olivia Custodio (Playwrights) form the deviant brains behind this year’s gleefully farcical romp through Utah’s most cherished – and cheerfully ridiculed – obsessions. From start to finish, the quips, jabs, and side-eyes come so thick and fast we drink from a firehose of satire. Blink, and you’ll miss three jokes. They lampoon everything from our peculiar love affair with dirty soda shops to the eyebrow-raising double standards of certain religious members, and even the starry-eyed devotion some locals still reserve for a famously orange-hued demagogue. Nothing is too sacred to roast, and every holy cow ends up skewered, smoked, and served with comedic relish.
Taking this trio’s divinely devilish lyrics and spinning them into comic gold, Cynthia Fleming (Director/Choreographer) raises the bar sky-high and then vaults right over it. It’s some of the sharpest, wittiest, and most entertaining choreography SLAC audiences have seen in years. Fleming creates a seamless blend of wordplay and physical comedy that feels polished and playfully improvised. Her staging is sheer joy.
Noelani Brown (Parlor Christensen, Mary Cosby), Rachel Johnson (Reighlynn Maxwell), Mikki Reeve (Stefaneigh Delong), and Tori Kenton (Melinda Nielsen) bring to life a fabulous foursome of would-be Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. These sparkling sisters of sin, scandal, and soda-shop selfies boast outsized social media followings and an even bigger hunger for the spotlight. And the actresses playing them are downright terrific. Their timing in both song and snappy one-liners is superb. Adding the perfect counterpoint to all that glitz and mock-glamour is Laurel Morgan (Brooke, Ashley Smith). She plays the production assistant who sees the messy truth and is as compelling and quick-witted as her scene partners.
Stepping into the worn shoes, wrinkled t-shirts, and occasionally outrageous skull caps and wigs of Utah’s menfolk and beyond, we have Kaden Conrad (Tent Rasmussen, Russell M. Nelson), Marc Nielson (Cool Cody, Producer, Gatekeeper, Trump), Bryce Romleski (Ryland Christensen), Robert Scott Smith (Taylor Nielsen, Ryan Smith, Joseph Smith, RFK, John Curtis, JD Vance), and Harrison Timm (Mark Delong, Spencer Cox). This quick-change brotherhood charges full tilt through a dizzying array of characters. Whether channeling MAGA recruits-in-training, blustering politicians, or bumbling husbands, they do it with comedic precision and a glint of mischief. Smith and Nielson nearly steal the show multiple times with their Joseph Smith/RFK and Cool Cody/Trump characters, respectively.
This production demanded music that could cartwheel alongside the cast’s wild parade of punchlines. Enter Zach Hansen (Music Director), Spencer Kellog (Band), and Joe Killian (Sound Designer), who rose to the challenge with flair. They mixed a playful cocktail of sharp cues, lively underscoring, and toe-tapping tunes that matched the actors’ breakneck pace scene after scene. The soundscape wove the whole zany world into something polished yet spontaneous.
Adriana Lemke (Fight/Intimacy Director) gifts the show with a climactic showdown that’s equal parts chaos and comedy treasure. The fight scene is a hilariously drawn-out, slow-motion brawl. Performers time every exaggerated swing and pratfall to wring out one more laugh. And just when it seems it can’t get any more ridiculous, the scene kicks into high gear, turning the whole madcap melee into something downright legendary.
Providing the crowning touch, Erika Ahlin Bird’s (Props Designer) oversized Swig tumblers wielded like sacred comedic weapons turn Utah’s favorite sugar-laden status symbols into props of pure slapstick genius. It’s silly and staged with such clever precision that the audience can’t help but cheer.
As always, SLAC’s Summer Show: The Secret Lives of the Real Wives of the Salt Lake Hive is a passionate ode to Utah. What may have been just another parody is transformed into a rollicking, laugh-out-loud night at the theater that doesn’t just poke fun at our state’s quirks but invites us to see and celebrate the delightful absurdity in ourselves. And what could be more Utah than raising a giant Swig cup to that?
The show is 90 minutes with a 15-minute intermission
Content Advisory: There is adult language and references
Salt Lake Acting Company presents SLAC’s Summer Show: The Secret Lives of the Real Wives in the Salt Lake Hive
By Austin Archer, Penelope Caywood, and Olivia Custodio
168 West 500 North, Salt Lake City, UT 84103
Box Office: (801) 363-7522
Open 11 AM – 5 PM, Monday – Friday with extended hours during the run of the show.
June 25th to August 19th, 2025
Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 PM
Sundays at 1 PM and 6 PM
Additional Performances:
Tuesday, July 8th at 7:30 PM
Saturday, July 19th at 2 PM
Special Events:
Friday, June 20th from 2:15 – 3:15 PM: Utah Arts Fest
Saturday, June 21st from 5:45 to 6:45 PM: Utah Arts Fest
Saturday, August 9th: THE PARTY – SLAC’s Annual Fundraiser
Tickets:
$45 | Floor/High Top Tables: $50* | Sky Box Seating: $55*
Student/30 & Under: $20**
Salt Lake Acting Company
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ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION
Open Captioned Performance: July 13th at 6 PM
ASL Interpreted Performance: July 19th at 2 PM
Sensory Performance: July 19th at 2 PM
Audio Described Performance: July 20th at 6 PM
Further accessibility information is available on our website here, or by contacting our Accessibility Coordinator Emily Sinclair at Emily@SaltLakeActingCompany.Org
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