‘Utah’: A heroic effort

Scott Dickensheets

Friday, June 14, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Because Utah isn't Oklahoma, "Utah" isn't "Oklahoma!" -- no wind sweeping down the plains, no corn as high as an elephant's eye, no Rodgers, no Hammerstein.

Instead, the musical "Utah" has Mormons and Indians, fires and floods, not to mention Chester and Minerva. All played out against the spectacular scenery of St. George's outdoor Tuacahn amphitheater.

Tonight through October, using a cast of 80, 15 songs and nifty special effects -- flames! water canons! lightning strikes! -- the $2 1/2-million show will dramatize the settling of Southern Utah, nightly except Sundays.

While it's meant as entertainment, historical-accuracy-wise, "Utah" is no Tuacahn sham. It's based on the story of Jacob Hamblin, dispatched by Brigham Young to make peace with the Paiute and Navajo of Southern Utah.

Sure, the tale has been embroidered here and embellished there for added show-biz kick. And it's rather unlikely there were many singing chorus lines in the 19th century Utah outback.

"Like any musical, we play fast and loose with the facts," admits Managing Artistic Director David Grapes.

Some fictional characters have been added (Chester and Minvera, for instance, reluctant pioneers and comic relief), the chronology has been tweaked a little. But those are merely tattoos and dyed hair on the body of historical fact that makes up most of "Utah."

"We want to entertain people," he says, "but at the same time, we don't want to lead them too far down the wrong path."

In the musical and, by all accounts, in real life, Hamblin was a scrupulously honest man. His motto: "Treat fairly, walk squarely" -- which served him well in negotiating with the Indians. "He signed the only treaty with the Indians never broken by the government," Grapes says. He also held several high positions in the Mormon Church.

"He spent most of his life among the Indians," Grapes says. "He grew his hair long, learned to speak Navajo and Paiute. He was almost a man trapped between two cultures, trying to figure out which he belonged to. He was a very interesting man."

Which makes for an interesting story, full of historical sweep and romance, but a logistical headache. Not only are there 80 performers of all ages (casting alone took three months), but 18 horses and a mule. Then there are the special effects.

"We have a lot of fire," Grapes says. "There's a burning wagon, a fort on fire, we shoot flaming arrows ..." One character even runs off stage with his hand in flames. That sort of thing takes planning and precaution. "Ninety-nine percent of the rehearsals dealt with safety," he says.

If you have fire, you need water, and "Utah" has lots of it. Forty-thousand gallons, in fact, the amount that surges toward the audience during the re-creation of the flood that wiped out the Santa Clara settlement in 1862. Water canons spray the stage as well. In yet another scene, a lightning bolt splits a tree.

So while it is a musical and there is a love story in it, there's enough action "that kids' interest is held," Grapes says.

But despite the flash and flood, don't think of it as mindless fun. As playwright Robert Paxton muses in his program notes, "What I love most about 'Utah' is that, in a world of so many anti-heroes, it tells the story of great and noble men and women who are worthy role models after whom we can pattern our lives. I felt humbled to be telling their story."