Salt Lake County will keep its four downtown Salt Lake City arts venues closed through Feb. 28, 2021, the county announced Friday.
The four venues — Abravanel Hall, Capitol Theatre, Eccles Theater and Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center — were closed before Thanksgiving because of the surge of cases of COVID-19. The closure was to last to the end of December, but officials opted to extend it because of “an abundance of caution and an effort to reduce the impact on our medical resources.”
The December closures forced the Utah Symphony and Utah musician Kurt Bestor’s Christmas shows to go online only — and prompted Ballet West to offer a video production of its version of “The Nutcracker” on KSL-TV on Christmas Eve and Christmas evening.
Utah Symphony and Utah Opera announced they would not hold any of the previously scheduled live performances in January and February, but will record selected shows for the USUO: On Demand streaming portal.
Ballet West had scheduled performances of “Romeo and Juliet” in mid-February at the Capitol; the troupe has not announced whether those will be postponed or canceled. The Broadway at the Eccles season, which has had several postponements and cancellations already, isn’t slated to start again until May.
Sean P. Means has been reporting and editing for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991 — including 25 years as movie critic. Since 2018, he has reported on arts and culture reporter, and breaking news — and was part of The Tribune’s COVID-19 reporting team. He reviews movies for MovieCricket.net and X96’s “Radio From Hell” program.