Pittsburgh Public Theater has completed the announcement of its 50th season with the musical Scotland, PA – tagline: “Macbeth with a side of fries” – that features a book by Fox Chapel‘s Michael Mitnick, songs by Adam Gwon and direction by Tony Award nominee Lonny Price.
Mitnick’s The Current War musical marked the post-pandemic comeback of Quantum Theatre, in June 2021 in Westinghouse Park. Scotland, PA had its world premiere at Roundabout Theatre’s off-Broadway Laura Pels Theatre in October of 2019, with Price directing.
New York Times critic Jesse Green admitted he was skeptical of yet another “based on” Macbeth offering, but became a fan, writing that Scotland, PA “turns out to add some delicious value to both the original play and the film. Its smart book and agreeable songs are often laugh-out-loud funny, something no one ever said about the version that opened in 1606. The show is also quietly insightful, making piquant connections between Shakespeare’s drama of political powerlust and the consumerist mania of our own fast-food culture.”
The musical is based on the 2001 William Morrissette film of the same name and Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Scotland, PA has been described as a “deliciously macabre musical comedy [that] follows Mac, a burger-joint employee with big ideas, and his wife Pat, armed with even bigger ambition, as they cook up more than just fast food. Before long, the body count rises, and they realize the terrifying depths they’re willing to plumb for a bite of the American Dream.”
Set in a quaint Pennsylvania town in the ’70s, Mitnick’s script and Gwon’s rock score “make up the perfect recipe for a bloody good time.”
Among his acting credits, director Price was the original Broadway Charley in Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along. In January, he told Playbill.com that he is working with Larissa FastHorse (The Thanksgiving Play) on a new version of Peter Pan, Among his Broadway directing credits is Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, which earned a Tony Award for Audra McDonald.
Scotland, PA will be at the O’Reilly Theater March 19 – April 6, 2025. The current Pittsburgh Public season continues May 29 – June 16, 2024, with the premiere of Mark Clayton Southers’ The Coffin Maker. Tickets and details: ppt.org.
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