By Katie Jarvis
I went to see the Utah Children’s Theatre’s production of The Parent Trap Friday night for its opening and I was very impressed with the production value. The Parent Trap is the stage production of the story we all know and love from the two popular film versions, (1961, starring Hayley Mills , 1998, starring Lindsey Lohan) which were originally based off a book titled Lottie and Lisa by Erich Kästner. In the two films the sisters have various twinny names, but in this staged adaptation the twin girls separated during infancy are named Lottie and Lizzie, an homage to the original novel.
The girls meet at summer camp and originally are thrown off balance by their identical appearances. They dislike each other and feel the need to compete, but eventually they discover that they have the same birthday, and the same parents. When they realize that they are twins who have been separated and raised by each parent singly they decide they want to trick everyone and switch places so they can experience having the parent they have been missing their whole lives. The girls get to know their unfamiliar parent and quickly decide they want to be a whole family again, so they start scheming about getting their divorced parents back together. Through some ups and downs, including scaring off their father’s formidable fiancée, the girls succeed and their parents get “trapped” into spending time together and they reignite their old love for each other.
The production at the Utah Children’s Theatre is bright and energetic, the costumes are delightful and the sets are fun and creative. The use of projection onto the top quarter of the stage and surrounding walls is used ingeniously to the opening credits, signify change of scene, portray travel and generally solidify the well-crafted aesthetic. The theater itself is adorable and has a vintage 1950’s feel complete with soda fountain and stylized neon lights. In fact, it is one of the nicest venues I have been to for a children’s show. Even the bathrooms are well-decorated, clean, and charming.
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The show itself is a bit long and I noticed the younger children in the audience were getting restless by the end of the first half, and by midway through the second half were totally checked out or asleep. I went with a couple college age friends and the production is a bit young to keep adults fully engaged. That being said, there were quite a few moments the kids seemed to really enjoy, including some brilliant humor from the standout butler Dillworth, played by Steve Harmon. This is definitely a children’s play, with caricatures and larger-than-life tropes. The child actors on stage, including real life twins Mary Cernyar and Naomi Cernyar who respectively play Lizzie and Lottie, appear to have a blast, and even though they are novice actors, these two girls give fun, bouncy performances.
The best thing about Utah Children Theatre’s The Parent Trap is it gives so many young people the chance to perform and learn to collaborate and get their creative skills started. Overall, this play is a fun evening to bring your young friends to.
Utah Children’s Theatre presents The Parent Trap
3605 South State Street, South Salt Lake, UT 84115
April 20-May 26, 2018 Friday 7:00 PM, Saturday 1:00 PM, 4:30 PM
Tickets: $16
Contact: 801-532-6000, boxoffice@uctheatre.org
Utah Children’s Theatre Facebook Page
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