Bardway Bound

Call it concessionary theatergoing. The Neil Simon Festival serves all visitors to Cedar City, Utah, who do not share the Shakespeare fetish of their traveling companions. Beginning its eighth summer, it runs through Aug. 14 with productions of Simon's "Broadway Bound" and "California Suite."

The festival also will stage Robert Harling's "Steel Magnolias."

"The thing I love about Simon is that he can take our most tragic moments and, without belittling them, take us through the tragedy but also bring us to laughter," says Richard Bugg, the festival's founder and artistic director.

Bugg, a 49-year-old theater professor at Southern Utah University, conceived of the annual nonprofit tribute while running the ticket exchange office for the Utah Shakespearean Festival.

"I can't tell you how many husbands would say, 'My wife drags me to this thing every year,' " Bugg recalls. " 'When are you gonna do something I can understand?' "

Doc and The Bard are hardly an odd couple at all, according to Bugg, who notes that both were accused in their heyday of being overtly populist.

"Neil Simon has had a lot of critics pooh-pooh his work as television scripts, but he has a very unique perspective on the American character," Bugg says.

So solidly structured and universal are Simon's plays, Bugg argues, that "two or three hundred years from now, we'll still be producing them."

Acted by a cast culled from auditions in Utah and Southern California, "Broadway Bound" will be directed by Southern Utah University arts administration director Matt Neves, "California Suite" by University of Utah theater professor Bob Nelson. Bugg is directing "Steel Magnolias."

" 'Broadway Bound' is one of his best," Bugg says. "It's a very poignant play, but also very funny. It's about the time when he's finally leaving home and making his way in the professional world -- but also seeing the disintegration of his family."

In its eight years, Bugg's festival has yet to repeat itself.

"Neil Simon wrote 38 plays and he's still writing," Bugg says.

Contact reporter Corey Levitan at clevitan@review journal.com or 702-383-0456.