Tuacahn Amphitheater & Center For the Arts

I’m no admirer of the arts but my wife has dragged me two different shows here over the last couple of years. As a venue, Tuacahn is amazing. It’s an outdoor amphitheater nestled in the red rocks of Snow Canyon. Quite simply, the backdrop and scenery are spectacular. It’s also small enough that everyone in the audience has a decent view of the stage. Ticket prices are usually reasonable, especially for the shows put on the performing arts students at the nearby high school.
The first show we attended was «Footloose» and was put on the by high school kids. It was ok — a little campy but still a decent effort. The second was «Thriller» that was done by a professional performing arts company. The high school kids were all made up like zombies and they shuffled around trying to look macabre (but not so much that little kids would be scared). «Thriller» was a well done show — great dance numbers, good comedy, etc. I’d go see it next year voluntarily, no dragging required.
So, even if you are not crazy about stage productions, you will probably enjoy Tuacahn for the scenery if nothing else.

Have seen several shows here. Love the outdoor setting. My boyfriend and I saw Sister Act. The singers were amazing.

Can not ask for a better venue. The stage is set with towering red rock cliffs behind it. They get great entertainment, the story is as performances head to Vegas they stop here to pick up some extra cash. Seating is comfy, it’s outdoor so weather… well…its outdoors. My only gripe is that the sound system is not nearly state of the art. I’m used to Vegas, which offers the best sound/​lighting/​staging anywhere so I get picky. Every time I go I always am disappointed about the sound. Needs to be fixed.

Lovely amphitheater set within the red mountains. Every seat is a good seat. I’d go to another show here for sure.

We saw Sister Act on Saturday September 26^th. Having never been before, I was super excited! We got there early, so parking was a snap. Leaving on the other hand is a complete nightmare! With one entry/​exit we spent a ridiculous time trying to get out. They have big fans at the top of the stairs and water misters which are nice because it is so hot but they drip a lot of extra water leaving the concrete slick and with puddles. Seating is a little squishy but there isn’t a bad seat in the whole place. The show started a little late but it was fun and the actors are so talented! I can’t wait to go back next season!

Went and saw Beauty and the Beast. What an amazing show! The acting was great, the sound and lighting was spectacular. My only regret, wearing pants thinking it would cool down. It did not, but to combat that, they have giant fans they turned on for a little breeze. It was nice. The lights on the rock behind and how they used everything was just superb. If you’re in the area and don’t go see a show you are seriously missing out. Loved every second of it. Seemed a touch pricey at first, worth every penny.

I just saw Beauty and the Beast last week and loved it! The cast was great. I especially loved Gaston. It was so well done. The costumes, props, sets, and special effects were perfect.
I’ve been here a few times now and every time I am blown away with how gorgeous a location it is. The red rocks behind the stage is something you just can’t get anywhere else. I’ll admit it gets a little warm since you are outside during the summer months. We usually try and go in September or during the spring to help with the heat. Honestly though you get so caught up in the pay and the gorgeous surroundings that the heat doesn’t bother you. Once the sun goes down you can look into the night sky and see stars! Lots and lots of stars. Something you don’t get in the city. They have an intermission and we usually get snacks at that point. The frozen lemonade is great to cool you off. The bathroom lines are crazy long during intermission but that is to be expected. After the show is over you can have a chance to meet the actors of the play. My young girls (11 and 5) were so excited to meet Belle this time around. They will sign your program and take a picture with you.
Overall I love this place and I really have nothing negative to say about it. We plan to keep the family tradition of taking a girls trip down there to enjoy all it has to offer.

I saw Beauty and the Beast last night, and it was honestly one of the best experiences I have ever had! The cast was amazing. Every member was on point with their acting, singing, and dancing. The set and props were so creative, and they even utilized fireworks in their performance. The theater itself is stunning and very unique. I was also impressed with how comfortable the seating was for it being outdoors. I would recommend this experience to anyone!

We went over the weekend and saw, «When You Wish.» It was made by Disney I believe just for this venue and it was FABULOUS! I love this place. I love the vibe, the background and most of all the productions that I have seen. A boy in front of us accidentally spilled his candy during the performance and a sweet worker there quickly came over with a brand new box of candy and simply gave it to the boy! It was such a sweet gesture and that is how the entire experience has always been there! All the seats are fantastic but I have to state that this production, «When You Wish» is the best I’ve ever seen!!! If you have the chance. go see it!

We saw Beauty and the Beast and it was fantastic! My parents said this is even better than Broadway and that this one is the best. Fireworks, sparklers, confetti, fabulous lighting, live orchestra (on the side of the stage), all parts of the huge stage are used, plenty of seating, outdoors (so there’s fresh air), great actors/​actresses wearing superb clothing/​props, water with colors on it, fog, live animals, pyrotechnics, projectors on screens and there’s so much more. It’s very showy and fun to see their interpretation of it. We were thoroughly impressed and entertained.
Beautiful theatre. Lots of improvements every year. Disney works closely with them. Very popular theatre and great facilities. The staff is friendly too. They have great concessions, bathrooms, and even a photo booth. Kids will love it and can even meet characters after the show.

This is an annual event for my family each year. We always see the summer shows and return for the Halloween show. The kids love taking pictures with the performers and in the cut out paintings. It’s been one of their favorite childhood memories. Plus the setting is so beautiful. Love this place.

Just about every performance we have seen at this venue has been fabulous. The outdoor setting of this venue in St. George is truly gorgeous. It can get warm during the summer months but the productions more than make up for the heat.
For this performance we saw When You Wish Upon a Star, a new Broadway show by Disney. I must say I wasn’t all that impressed with the first half of the show but the second half more than made up for it. As always the props and settings are over the top with real horses, a gorgeous waterfall on stage during Ariel, just to name a few. We’ve never been disappointed brining our children to any performance we’ve seen here. There are lots of special pricing nights making more than affordable for families!

Place was nice went to thriller show pure show was great with all the zombies taking pictures with you started off with thriller then lost Halloween theme wasn’t that great after starting show people that worked there were very nice show wasn’t as good as I expected it would be but had good time

I was blown away by my experiences at Tuacahn. We were told about the place from a friend who had recently seen a show there. So, when we were making plans for a vacation in southern Utah, we decided that we should include this place on our itinerary.
The setting is awesome. The entrance to the parking lot has a great waterfall that sets the mood for the entire experience. The amphitheater itself is set into the red rocks and you can see through the stage to the rocks and waterfall behind.
We saw «The Little Mermaid» and it was great. They actually incorporate the water from behind the stage into the show. In this case, they flooded the stage to give the appearance of the water surface. The other special effects are great as well, including water sprays and fire.
There doesn’t appear to be a bad seat in the house. Although the theater looks big in the seating chart located on their website, in person it is a different story. We were seated toward the center but in the back. It was a really good view. However, I think we would have had no problem seeing from the sides, as well.
It was such a great experience that we are already checking our calendars to see if we can catch a show next year! We’ll definitely be back.

Tuacahn is great at creating spectacle and I always enjoy the shows that I see there, but I do feel as though they rely far too much on the spectacle rather than just a high quality theatrical performance.
As a performer myself, I can tell that their actors are talented, but I feel that there is a disconnect between their performance and the audience. It seems their performances aren’t very real or connected. They are fairly one dimensional and stereotypical. I’m sure this is in large part due to the way it is directed and produced, and not necessarily a reflection on the talent of their performers. Part of this also has to do with the fact that their venue is so large it is difficult to connect with the audience and create an intimate experience the audience can walk away from feeling any sort of deep emotion that connected with them. Instead they leave saying «those fireworks were cool.»
Also, the performance of The Little Mermaid that I attended had literally 15 understudies. I understand that some of it was a domino affect, but 15 understudies? Seriously? I feel like that really affected the performance as many characters were clearly not comfortable in their roles or used to reacting off one another. It also affected some of the special effects because understudies don’t get nearly as much rehearsal time with those kinds of things– Scuttle, for example, was super uncomfortable and awkward on the fly system, which affected his ability to portray the character well.
While some of the special effects helped to create a magical underwater experience, I felt like they focused so much on the effects to the point that it detracted from the essence of the story. For example, for one of Ursula’s songs, they took a pre-​recorded performance of her singing and projected it onto a sheet of water. It was a cool effect but a live performance with Ursula physically on stage would have been so much more powerful. People go to the theater to have that connection with a live performer. If they wanted to see a projection, they’d stay in the comfort of their air conditioned home and watch a movie.
Some of the things they used to create a more flowing, underwater quality were very cool and creative, but they did sometimes detract from the performance because they were difficult for the actors to move in. Ursula, for example could only move her arms, which really takes away from the essence of the character, especially in such a large theater space where movement is much more visible than facial expression.
I also feel that their tickets are overpriced.
Although this review is specific to The Little Mermaid, these are the same types of critiques that I have for every single show I see at this theater. I always have a good time, but the substance is lacking. While the actors are talented and the spectacle is great, I never go away from a show there feeling an emotional connection to the story they have told. I hope that in the future they might be able to merge the two to create an experience that still has elements of spectacle while creating a believable, vulnerable and grounded performance that the audience can go away from feeling uplifted and/​or emotionally connected to.

INCREDIBLE theater and setting!
Spectacularly mediocre shows!
I’ve almost never been in a more beautiful theater setting-​completely surrounded by red-​rocked mountains, stratified geological thrust faults and gorgeous Mormon women!
For some reason, the directors and stage managers at Tuacahn think it enhances a theatrical experience to find reasons to drive smoke and smog-​spewing cars, buses, ATVs, motorcycles and gawd knows what other contraptions across their huge stage, many times per show. Don’t we see plenty of these in our everyday lives already without needing them as a stage novelty when we’re trying to relax and breath clean air?
Not content with asphyxiating the audience, they also march a succession of terrified rental animals across, this last time including camels, horses and an unfortunate chihuahua that one of the dumb-​ass «actresses» yanked up in the air by its leash, essentially HANGING it for 5 seconds before one of the «actors» came to its rescue and lifted it up by its «body.» What a novel idea. Have you ever heard an entire several-​thousand person audience gasp in horror in unison?
So far the shows I’ve seen are:
Peter Pan (meh, but the actors and actresses were wildly flying out across the audience in a pretty spectacular suspension-​by-​wire act)
A Live Nativity Show (at Christmastime, where the temperatures must have been 5 below zero. Despite my heavy parka and massive extra layers of clothing I was turning blue and dreaming of being in a boiling jacuzzi in Mazatlan through the whole thing.)
and just recently:
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (a show I usually love but was turned off this time by a poor pre-​recorded musical track and all of the above vehicle and animal complaints. But the guy playing Joseph was good. He had a Thunder From Down Under body and actually sang really well, unlike most of the rest of the cast.)
So I’ll probably keep coming back here because of the good things. Hopefully, somebody with creative powers will read this, fire all the hacks causing all of the problems and stage some really excellent shows, and do justice to the breathtaking facility they have the privilege to run.

Tuacahn is a beautiful setting in the desert, and worth seeing even if not for a show. They have some pretty good performances, although its hard to see many big name events here due to st george’s relatively small size and proximity to vegas. Despite that they do a pretty good job of getting famous people here.

I was here for the Tuachan Summer Institute and saw two plays; The Little Mermaid and The Wizard of Oz. They were really great! I was surprised by how great the quality of the shows were. The Little Mermaid was was definitely better in terms of special effects and singing quality, but they were both pretty good. If I lived in the area I would probably go see plays regularly.
The parking lot looks scary, but it didn’t take me too long to get out of the parking lot. I also recommend you bring a jacket or blanket just in case. Even though it was a summer’s night it was super windy during one of the shows because of how the stage is fixated in the canyon. The second show wasn’t as cold, but I was glad I had a coat just in case.

I love Tuacahn! It is an annual tradition to see a Broadway show at this amazing venue. My inlaws have a place in Mesquite, so it’s very convenient to head to Tuacahn for an evening. This year we saw the Wizard of Oz on the 4^th of July and had the great fortune of seeing our own personal fireworks show after the musical. This is a must see place when visiting Southern UT!

The ambiance at this place is amazing. As you walk through the parking lot to the entrance there is a waterfall/​creek that your walk along, and it is beautiful.
The amphitheater is set into a red rock canyon and it is spectacular. Every seat is great, because it isn’t that big of a place so you always have a great view.
They do all sorts of special effects and theatrics, such as flooding the stage for the little mermaid, all sorts of wired flirting scenes, fireworks, and do much more.
They have drink and snack booths, with fairly reasonable prices. They also have themed dinner deals before the show if you want to pay a little extra.
I have seen Mary Poppins and the Little Mermaid and both were amazing, Mary Poppins was my favorite though, and am seeing Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat in August.