Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC), Utah’s premier professional contemporary theatre located in the heart of the Marmalade District in Salt Lake City, satirizes and brings Utah favorites from the screen to the stage with The Secret Lives of the Real Wives in the Salt Lake Hive. The brand-new summer parody production written by TikTok star and celebrated Utahn Austin Archer, alongside local theatrical-favorites and veteran Summer Show playwrights Penelope Caywood and Olivia Custodio, explores what happens when The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City collide with the less TV-worthy, though equally dramatic, reality of life in the Beehive State (and the rest of the country) to create a musical overflowing with earworm hits and laugh-out-loud comedy, specifically catered to Utah audiences.
(Nick Fleming, Courtesy of Salt Lake Acting Company, sponsored) | Rachel Johnson, Noelani Brown, Mikki Reeve, Tori Kenton
With a unique focus on employing local artists in the community, SLAC’s revered annual parody is an irreverent summertime tradition that dates back nearly 50-years, and invites audiences to bring their favorite food and drinks and gather together to laugh and escape everyday life. Written newly each summer by Utahns, for Utahns, SLAC’s Summer Show has solidified its longevity as a musical catharsis for folks who are baffled, bothered, and bewildered by life in the state we call home. The Secret Lives of the Real Wives in the Salt Lake Hive serves as the perfect palate cleanser for those looking to find relief from the unceasing day-to-day rollercoaster of frightening headlines and polarizing news.
In her welcome address to audiences of the show, Executive Artistic Director of SLAC, and Director and Choreographer of the Summer Show, Cynthia Fleming (a veteran performer boasting credits such as the original Broadway production of A Chorus Line), celebrates this year’s show, as well as the group of locals who created it: “Our local theatre artists are among the most talented, generous, and inventive people you’ll ever meet. This project has asked more of us than any other. It’s a brand-new play written in months, not years. That means we’ve had to build it from the ground up, moment by moment, line by line… It has been a joy to be in a room with all these creatives, giving everything we’ve got to bring you something funny, fresh, and full of life.”
(Nick Fleming, Courtesy of Salt Lake Acting Company, sponsored) | Tori Kenton, Rachel Johnson, Robert Scott Smith, Noelani Brown, and Mikki Reeve
Known widely by his moniker @YourPal_Austin (with 1.6 million followers and counting on TikTok), head writer Austin Archer is no stranger to the Utah stage. Speaking of his experience writing the show, which undergoes near daily rewrites in response to the local and national news cycle, Archer said, “I am loving the opportunity to satirize life in Utah as part of this long-standing SLAC tradition. The word I’m focusing on this year with my incredible writing team is catharsis. That’s what I think the Summer Show is all about. That’s what I think SLAC is all about. A cathartic release for the sane citizens of Salt Lake City who vote for humane and rational leadership and policies despite so seldom getting that… I hope they laugh their asses off and have a great night out seeing some live, original, homegrown theatre on the SLAC stage.”
The show will run Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 7:30 PM, Sundays at 1 PM and 6 PM from June 25th to August 17th, 2025, with additional performances on Tuesday, July 8th at 7:30 PM, and Saturday, July 19th at 2 PM.
Tickets start at $45 for general seating, $50 for floor tables, $55 for Sky Box seating, and $20 for students and patrons 30 and under, with additional discounts available to groups of 10 or more and reservable event spaces.
(Paul Branca, sponsored) | SLAC’s summer show cast and creative team
SLAC’s annual fundraiser THE PARTY will be held on Saturday, August 9th at 6 PM, featuring food, drinks, silent and live auctions, as well as other surprises throughout the show.
Additional ticketing, accessibility, and group reservation information is available online at SaltLakeActingCompany.org or by calling the Box Office at (801)363-7522 during business hours, 11 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday, with extended hours on performance dates.
Salt Lake Acting Company
168 West 500 North
Salt Lake City, UT 84103