Park City Follies Director Returns for 25th Anniversary, Tom Clyde's Final Year

Paul Tan's return to the Park City Follies director's chair after two years away came down to two things converging at once: a 25th anniversary and Tom Clyde's decision to call it a career.

Tan stepped away from directing the Egyptian Theatre's annual satirical musical revue in 2023. Egyptian Theatre manager Randy Barton brought him back into conversation about the milestone production, and what sealed it was learning that Clyde, an original creative team member and the show's beloved opening monologist, planned to make this his final run. "So, when Randy and I talked, we decided this thing that celebrates the greatest things in Park City, that means a lot to people, deserved to have its own celebration," Tan said.

Clyde, a retired lawyer and cow-farmer best known locally as a Park Record columnist, has performed in the Follies since its 2001 founding. He is recognized for his Depression-era costume and an opening PowerPoint monologue that sets the satirical tone for each year's show. His retirement after a quarter-century closes a founding chapter the production has never had to navigate before.

The 25th-anniversary run performs April 17-19, April 22-26, and April 29-May 3 at the Egyptian Theatre at 328 Main Street. Tickets range from $45 to $50 for house seating and $50 to $60 for preferred or cabaret seating, with weeknight performances priced lower than Fridays and Sundays. Demand is already outpacing supply: the April 26 early 5 p.m. show was listed as sold out before opening night. Tickets are available at parkcityshows.com or by calling 855.745.SHOW.

The Follies launched in 2001 under the improbable stewardship of Chad Brown, a Deer Valley ski lift operator with a passion for the stage. The show's origin story has become local legend: the very first production never made it past intermission. The cast decamped to The Alamo bar, now the No Name Saloon, and never returned to the stage that night. From that shaky start, the production grew into one of Main Street's most anticipated annual runs, featuring an all-local cast lampooning Park City's development debates, municipal politics, and resort-town culture.

The 2026 run lands in a particularly layered moment for the Egyptian. The venue opened on Christmas Day, 1926, making this its centennial year, and Barton has said the theater is "going all out with programming and celebration" for the anniversary. The Follies is part of a broader slate that includes two-time Grammy Award-winning singer Sheena Easton, Devotchka, and KT Tunstall.

Behind the scenes, Mark Conklin, who has been part of the Follies crew for more than a decade, and Terry Moffitt, who writes original lyrics set to pop melodies, return alongside the all-local cast. The production process has grown considerably more structured since Brown's informal early days, when cast members sometimes saw the script for the first time at the first rehearsal. Whether the show outlasts Clyde's opening monologue with the same electricity is a question the next 25 years will have to answer.