November 2015 | Page 3
Ogden Source.Com
Standing Ovation Earned and Delivered for ‘Young Frankenstein’
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By Nancy Van Valkenburg t’s alive! And you need to go see it while it is.
The Ziegfeld Theater, in South Ogden, opened its electrifying production of Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein” Oct. 16 to an enthusiastic crowd. The bawdy, punny script follows Dr. Frederick Frankenstein as he visits the estate of his late, monster-making grandpa. Frederick soon finds himself following in his infamous grandfather’s footsteps, customizing and reanimating a corpse to produce a monster (played by Rick Rea). Which, of course, leads to chaos and comedy, Mel Brooks style, except with a lot more song-anddance numbers. Pack was spot on as Fredrick, a role created by Gene Wilder in the 1974 comedy film. Pack’s “Frederick”, a little less overplayed, making him more relatable but just as absurd. And this doctor can sing and dance with the best of them. Rea’s monster flailed and staggered across the stage, producing the perfect whine/bellow when he was scared or confused. His “Putting on the Ritz” will be burned into your brain for days. Stealing every scene she was in was Rebecca
Marcotte’s Frau Blucher (insert a frightened whinny here). Eb Mason as Igor, Becky Cole as Elizabeth and Erica Choffel as Inga all drew the full humor from their comical roles. Caleb Parry and Talese Hunt, director and choreographer respectively, put together a fairly tight two hour and 45 minute show that will only improve during its run. Hunt, in particular, squeezes a dazzling amount of dance onto a fairly small stage. The only distractions on opening night were a costume-catching curtain, a few mic pops, cracks and drop outs, and a fog machine that caused badsmelling, stage-obscuring fog into the audience, causing several in the audience to cover their mouths and noses. Here’s hoping the stinky fog is dialed back or completely absent in future performances, but that’s a decision for the director. “Young Frankenstein,” which has mature content, plays at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday nights through Nov. 14 at the Zig, 3934 Washington Blvd., South Ogden. Tickets are $19 for adults, $17 for children, students and seniors, when purchased through www.theziegfieldtheater. com. Tickets cost an extra $1 when purchased at the door. l
“Young Frankenstein” cast members posed for a group shot at the opening night reception.
The Newest Ride in Town By Joanna Brashear Phillips
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t may not have been a real roller coaster, but it’s just as fun. Nestled in the hills of Ogden Valley is Powder Mountain, where we found the new and improved boardercross track. If you’ve never ridden a boardercross track, you will want to go this winter and give it a shot. Boardercross tracks consist of steeps, gap jumps and berms that riders race thru at heart-racing speeds.
Site of future boardercross track.
I grabbed two local riders, CJ Phillips (age 7) and Dee Daniels Spencer (age 26) to check out the track. Of course, there’s no snow, but seeing the track layout would still be fun. We arrived at PowMow and were greeted by JP Goulet and Mitch Shaum, who then proceeded to load us up into “powzilla”, an off-road beast! As we sped up and down the mountain, kicking
up dust and laughter, I saw our destination. There were piles of dirt being pushed by an excavator and a bulldozer and some serious berms and jumps were taking shape! It did not look like much to the average eye, but to a snowboarder it’s happiness and hope for snow. The track started over near the top of hidden lake lift, next to the terrain park, and
followed its way down the mountain. It was pretty long, but very wide, which makes it ideal for riders of all abilities. Once the snow hits, you’re going to want to strap in and give it a go. My two riders were impressed and excited that there is now a complete track where they can practice boarder cross for upcoming events in the regional USASA Big Mountain West Series. As soon as the snow hits, these two will be racing through the berms, over the jumps and down the steeps, over and over to get the fastest time. The best part is that the track is open to all riders, so you can perfect your skills too! Just don’t forget your helmet: this is an extreme sport after all. Also new to Powder Mountain is a beginner terrain park. This park is going to be awesome for the kids and anyone who may be looking to begin riding. It’s nestled in the trees away from the larger features and felt like we were sitting in a secluded forest. The features will be smaller and will easily allow progression for young and old. In addition to the smaller park, there were a ton of new wood features which blended in with the natural forest. These features were scattered throughout the area and will be an adventure to find and hit after a fresh snow. The team up at PowMow had been working hard in the hot days of summer to give us riders more features, more jumps and more jibs, and now an amazing boardercross track! We can’t wait for that first big storm to shower us with powder so we can begin our winter routine. l Eat.Sleep.Ride.Repeat.