All-Female ‘A … My Name is Still Alice’ and the Pittsburgh Premiere of ‘Bandstand’ Are on Tap for 2024
By SHARON EBERSON
On a music-filled night representing Front Porch Theatricals’ past and future, the summertime company announced 2024’s two-show season:
A … My Name is Still Alice, directed by Nancy McNulty McGeever, with Douglas Levine as music director, is May 17-26, and Bandstand, directed by Joe Jackson, with Deana Muro as music director, is August 16-25.
During the company’s 8th annual benefit cabaret at the Greer Cabaret Theater, several clues were given between performances before producers Bruce E.G. Smith and Nancy Zionts announced the Front Porch upcoming season.
They acknowledged that even with clues, A … My Name Is Still Alice would be unfamiliar to most people in attendance. Set in the 1990s, it is a sequel to the all-female revue-and-sketch show A … My Name Is Alice, which was produced by Pittsburgh Public Theater in 1994.
According to The New York Times, the show “forgoes the meat cleaver for the ostrich plume and clearly would rather tickle a male chauvinist pig to death than hack him to pieces.”
Written by a variety of writers, lyricists and composers, A … My Name Is Still Alice includes 15 songs, ranging from gospel to country to rock to pop ballads, with titles such as Sensitive New Age Guys.
of Monday’s Front Porch Theatrical 2024 season announcement.
Front Porch has in recent years shown a knack for gaining the rights to shows on the brink of New York revivals, for example, A Man of No Importance in 2022 and, last year, Merrily We Roll Along. It also is no stranger to firsts here at home, with its 2017 production of Big Fish a regional professional premiere.
Two-time Tony Award nominee Bandstand, about troubled World War II veterans who form a band, had long been on Front Porch’s radar and notches a Pittsburgh premiere for the company.
The show that starred Carnegie Mellon alum Corey Cott on Broadway won Tony and Drama Desk awards for choreography by Andy Blankenbueler (Hamilton), with recognition also coming for orchestrations of its swing/bebop/big band score.
Smith and Zionts got a few oohs and aahs when they announced the Front Porch production will pack a 13-piece orchestra and five-piece onstage band into their summer home at the North Side’s New Hazlett Theater.
On Monday night at the Greer, the stage was crowded with reminders of Front Porch’s specialty: providing a spotlight for local talent.
The show will mark a coming home for Jackson, who choreographed Front Porch’s Fun Home and had been a dance and musical theater instructor at Sewickley Academy before becoming an assistant professor at his alma mater, the University of Mississippi.
With Brady Patsy as host – plus soloing on Sondheim’s Being Alive – stars of 2023 productions Falsettos and Merrily We Roll Along were joined by others from past years.
Halle Surgil kicked off the night with History of Wrong Guys from Kinky Boots and a duet of Something to Believe In with Miles Hanna, then helped close things out with a monologue from A … My Name Is Alice.
The Merrily trio of Dan Mayhak, Nathaniel Yost and Catherine Kolos were reunited in song, while Yost (Pretty Little Picture, A Funny Thing Happened …) and Kolos (Diva’s Lament, Spamalot) provided two of the merriest solos of the night.
Others shining in the spotlight were Falsettos cast members Chad Elder, Sal Bucci, Natalie Hatcher, Lindsay Bayer and Justin Borak, plus soloists Marnie Quick, Erin Lindsey Krom and Michaela Isenberg. Kolos, who belted a powerful, funny Diva’s Lament from Spamalot, also joined Front Porch constant David Ieong in a memorable rendition of Move On, from Sunday in the Park With George.
The impressive lineup of talent provided a predictably entertaining night, while the announcement of A … My Name Is Still Alice and Bandstand were anything but predictable.
And isn’t that just like Front Porch Theatricals, to entice us with shows both meaningful and surprising, and provide yet another reason to look forward to summer.
Categories: Company, Our Posts, Preview, Season Listings
We are now living at Longwood in Oakmont , a senior independent living campus . Transportation is available
To off site activities . Presently , they are scheduled for 2024
Pittsburgh Symphony , Pittsburgh Pops , Pittsburgh Public Theater , City Theater, Chatham Baroque etc but most residents are unaware of Front Porch excellent Theater .
Could you send me a separate write up on each of the 2
Upcoming plays that I can post on bulletin board and put in binder for people to sign up to go. We need minimum of 8 for transportation.
Our phone number 412-849-2077 if any questions .
We are subscribers and donors and want others to enjoy !
Your request was forwarded to Front Porch Theatricals, as you know their website is: https://www.frontporchpgh.com