Neil Patel's set design resembles a giant impressionistic painting, complete with a gilded frame, giving the illusion that the audience is gazing into an alluring if fantastic canvas. The musical staging by Peter Anastos, with simplicity and minimal prop use, maintains the immediacy of the work. The uncluttered staging also keeps the focus on the excellent performers, proving that for Dear World, less is certainly more.. . .

The Sundance Theatre's production honors both Mr. Herman's vision and the original text from which Dear World was adapted, Jean Giraurdoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot, which Himberg calls "a delicate soufflé of a play. The story is a fable set in post World War II Paris about the power of one and the triumph of idealism and hope over calculated corporate greed.

The internationally acclaimed Maureen McGovern tackles the lead role of the charismatic Countess Aurelia, The Madwoman of Chaillot, with aplomb. Her clear diction and powerful voice are gorgeous, but so too is her acting. A masterful presence on the stage, McGovern's Countess is zany and loveable, but also entirely credible. By the production's finale, one has the distinct impression that she is not actually mad, but simply chooses to live in a world she can control.. . .

The production's second act is a musical tour de force with the juxtaposed trios of the Madwomen and The Presidents. Joan Barber as Constance, The Madwoman of Passy and Park City's own Dee Macaluso as Gabrielle, The Madwoman of St. Sulpice are charmingly loopy with their insistence that the other is insane but that their own imaginary friends and dogs do in fact exist. Their benign lunacies perfectly complement McGovern's character, and the song, "The Tea Party, beautifully blends their three distinct voices, as well as their cleverly delineated eccentricities and outrageous carryings on.. . .

With Mount Timpanogos as the backdrop, "Dear World is a frothy, almost ethereal musical appropriate for adults and children alike. When during the final song, lighting designer David Lander makes shocking use of the natural setting, the result is as though the dreamlike impressionism of the production leaps off its canvas and into the real world.