The Musical Theater Duo, Returning to Pittsburgh for a Point Park Cabaret, Talk About the Outpouring of Support Since Their Kennedy Center Cancellation
By SHARON EBERSON
It has been, to put it mildly, “a roller-coaster year,” for the songwriting team of Michael Kooman and Chris Dimond. They were thrust into a firestorm in February, when one of the first actions taken after the Trump administration takeover of the Kennedy Center was to cancel a planned tour of their children’s musical, Finn, which the center had commissioned and premiered in 2024.
The show about a shark on a journey of discovery to find his “inner fish,” was officially dropped for “financial reasons,” although it sold out its initial run. It was widely reported that it was canceled because of a suggestion that the show could be seen as a metaphor for the LGBTQ+ experience, “though there is nothing in the musical explicitly about the community.”
Despite the cancellation, the musical has continued to have life. Broadway stars including Kelly O’Hara, Andrew Rannells, Lea Salonga and Andrea Martin performed a one-night-only concert in New York City in March 2025,
Now that 2025 is coming to a close, the Emmy-nominated pair who first teamed up at Carnegie Mellon alumni have months of good will at their backs as they return to Pittsburgh for I Will Be Me — The Songs of Kooman and Dimond, a cabaret “celebrating Point Park’s rising stars of musical theater” in the Class of 2026.
The concert will be held at the Greer Cabaret at Theater Square, Downtown, on Sunday, November 22, 2025, with tickets also available to watch a live stream in the Greer Lounge.
The pair have done this before, for their alma mater and Gary Kline, the renowned vocal teacher who left CMU and joined Point Park University as the associate dean and artistic director of School of Theatre, Film and Animation in the Conservatory of Performing Arts. They also developed their Pittsburgh CLO premiere musical Judge Jackie Justice with choreographer Keisha Lalama, who heads Point Park’s Pittsburgh Playhouse.
onStage Pittsburgh spoke with Kooman and Dimond via video conferencing ahead of their Friday arrival in Pittsburgh, starting with:
ONSTAGE: We were in touch a little bit over Facebook when the whole Kennedy Center thing first happened, but what’s life been like since then?
CHRIS DIMOND: It has been crazy. First of all, thank you for all of your kind words and support throughout that process. I mean, it’s been a whirlwind of a year for us, that’s for sure. That whole experience is not something we ever anticipated having to go through as writers for the musical theater, so it was completely overwhelming and anxiety-inducing, and then almost immediately followed by just heartwarming faith in humanity generally, and the theater community specifically, because we just received such an incredible outpouring of love and support. … And we’re still sort of trying to wrap our heads around that and process it. But it’s been a really great year for us, not only with that project, but with a couple of other things as well. Michael, what would you add to that?
MICHAEL KOOMAN: It could not have been more of a roller-coaster year for us in the sense of, excited to have our show out there and go on tour, to this unexpected cancellation and being despairing about that, and then seeing how people really came to help us out within the theater community. And it’s led to so many other wonderful things, including directly next week, we actually have our Carnegie Hall debut. One of our songs from Finn is going to be performed by Zachary Noah Piser, a Broadway actor [Wicked, Dear Evan Hansen and more], with the full orchestra. So that probably would never have happened if not for the other events. People have really come to help us out, and it’s been really wonderful, including that we get to come back to Pittsburgh, too. Gary Kline has always been so wonderfully supportive of us. I accompanied him when I was at CMU, and it’s just great to get back to the city. I mean, obviously Chris is wearing a Pirates hat, and that is actually what he wears all the time. He’s not trying to just push this interview in a different direction — it’s his uniform now.
CHRIS DIMOND: That’s true. I’m not just trying to score points. It’s authentic.
ONSTAGE: It is hard to be a fan right now, even though they do have a Cy Young Award winner.
CHRIS DIMOND: But the nice thing about wearing it in an opposing city is, no one’s ever threatened. It elicits nothing but empathy … and you’re always amazed by how many Pittsburgh people are around and do comment on it.
“It was completely overwhelming and anxiety-inducing, and then almost immediately followed by just heartwarming faith in humanity generally, and the theater community specifically.”
— Chris Dimond
ONSTAGE: All roads lead to Pittsburgh, especially in the theater. As Carnegie Mellon alumni, I’m sure that you find that is true. So, Michael, you answered my next question a little bit. Was it a call from Gary Kline that brought you here?
CHRIS DIMOND: Point Park is really growing its musical theater department in huge ways. And so we’ve actually been in conversation with them for a couple other reasons, too. But we’ve done this cabaret kind of thing with Gary, because he’s really an expert at it. We did it with Carnegie Mellon, but also, it’s cool to connect with a whole different sort of department. And Keisha actually choreographed one of our shows, so we’ve been in touch with her.
ONSTAGE: Is there anything that you always do when you come back here?
CHRIS DIMOND: I mean, my family’s all still in Pittsburgh, so I’m back frequently. And so mostly it’s about reconnecting with family and friends. And Michael also has deep roots in Pittsburgh, so I don’t know that I have necessarily a go-to activity. I do love going to the Church Brew Works, or if I can see a Penguins game or something like that. Michael, do you have any Pittsburgh musts?
MICHAEL KOOMAN: I have Carnegie Mellon friends that are going to be coming to the concert, and I’m going to be hanging out with them. I’m going to see City Theatre’s opening night of Little Women on Friday. [City Theatre Artistic Director Clare Drobot] was also a composer at Carnegie Mellon, before she switched to theater. Well, I guess that’s what Carnegie Mellon did to us — turned us both into theater people. … So I go to City Theatre a lot, but I mean, if we’re talking about food, I try to make a trip to Pamela’s if I can.
ONSTAGE: What’s it like for you working with students who are hoping to launch careers?
CHRIS DIMOND: Teaching is really awesome, because having to articulate the things that you don’t necessarily need to articulate [otherwise] really makes you a better writer. It makes you a better collaborator. … Every time we do one of these cabarets, there is someone we end up hiring. Philippe Arroyo was one of the first people we worked with at CMU for their cabaret, and now he’s in Spelling Bee [on Broadway], but we also just worked with him on a new show this summer. It’s wonderful to see this next generation coming up. We get inspired by them, but we also are looking for the people that we’re about to cast in things. So it’s a win-win.
ONSTAGE: Philippe Arroyo also starred in Little Shop for Pittsburgh Public Theater. That experience of having been at Carnegie Mellon with other talented people and setting your songs on people back then — I think of Patina Miller as I say this — but how did that help you develop who you are today?
CHRIS DIMOND: I think it played a vital role in our collaboration. Having the wealth of resources that we had at our disposal at CMU, in particular, and in Pittsburgh was invaluable to us. Some of our first songs were performed by people like Patina Miller, who went on to win Tony Awards, and having not only the ability to have those people bring your work to life, and to get to work with them and get their input, but to build that network of collaborators and friends and artists that you can work with and draw on over the course of the rest of your career, is terrific. One of the reasons we love coming back and doing these sort of university programs is, the people that you’re in school with ideally are the people you’re going to continue to work with for the rest of your life. And for us, we were just incredibly fortunate and incredibly blessed to have so many wonderful people who were there right at the start.
ONSTAGE: When you do a cabaret like this, will Gary pick who’s going to do what songs Or how does that all work?
MICHAEL KOOMAN: So, every time Gary calls on us for this, we have a huge Dropbox of material and we say, ‘Gary, just choose what you want to do.’ And I think actually Gary opens the whole list to the students. He wants people to choose songs that resonate with them, which is also a really wonderful philosophy when it comes to cabaret, because cabaret is a very sort of intimate thing. And so that intimate connection can hopefully come across to an audience, and I think that’s a brilliant way to run things.
ONSTAGE: How much work do you do with students to prepare?
CHRIS DIAMOND: So we’ll come in on Friday and work with them Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So they’ve been working over the course of the semester on these songs, and then we come in for the last couple of days and share our thoughts and help to just put the polish on their performance.
ONSTAGE: What would you say about the influence someone like Gary Kline has in nurturing people’s careers?
MICHAEL KOOMAN: Gary has touched the lives of so many performers who are superstars, and thus touched the lives of audiences, because Gary has shaped the vocal technique of some of the best theater performers in the world. And I think first of all, I hope the Point Park students realize how truly lucky they are to work with Gary. He has so much experience and talent and joy that he brings … His Marvel superhero strength is teaching and performing, and I’m so lucky that I was a student who got to work with him. But then to see him sort of shape performances in vocal technique, hands-on from a different side of things, is really amazing.
CHRIS DIMOND: I think by the same token, the embarrassment of riches that you referred to earlier about Pittsburgh and the theatrical talent there — to have a program like Point Park, it is incredible to have that resource at your disposal. And I think Pittsburgh audiences are really, really lucky to have so many terrific opportunities to see great performances and, with the university programs, to see the next star. I believe I saw on Facebook that Gary brought Patrick Wilson back
to work with the students, and he was his student years ago [at CMU], before he became who he is. And so part of the joy, of the thrill of this for us, and I think for audiences, too, is to get to see the next Patrick Wilson.
ONSTAGE: When I think of talent emanating from Point Park, I think of Mason Alexander Park, who I am dying to see open Oh, Mary! in London. I never take for granted what we have in Pittsburgh, but I think it is sometimes more apparent to an outsider looking in.
CHRIS DIMOND: It’s incredible just how many people come through that program and how lucky Pittsburgh audiences are to get to see so much brilliant talent.
MICHAEL KOOMAN: I live in Hell’s Kitchen, which is where a lot of the rehearsal studios are for Broadway shows, and I cannot tell you how many people I see wearing Point Park shirts. It’s a great institution, and it’s just raising the level to new heights, and I’m excited to see these students in action.
CHRIS DIMOND: It’s also exciting to see that they are giving the students a chance to work with writers. That’s not necessarily a common experience. And the fact that Point Park, as part of this effort to really build up their theater program, is doing the important work of investing in new musicals at this point is critical, because we’re at a particularly fragile point in what the model for the development of new musicals is going to look like. I think a lot of that slack is going to be picked up by colleges and universities, and we’re just inspired by the fact that they’re willing to support us in this way and to give voice to some of our work.
ONSTAGE: Did you know Michael Campayno as a CMU alum? [The Pittsburgh native and onetime Broadway Fiyero is director of musical theater in the Conservatory of Performing Arts at Point Park. His brother Ian Campayno also is a Broadway actor.]
CHRIS DIMOND: We’ve never worked directly with Michael, but I know the Campaynos from Nate, Michael and Ian’s brother. I taught in his senior year of high school at Central Catholic, and their sister choreographed the musical that I technical-directed. So I go way back with the whole Campayno family, and it’s thrilling to see that [Point Park] brought Michael in. There have been a couple of things recently where we’ve been looking for younger performers, and we reached out to Point Park, and Michael sent us a bunch of amazing names of alums and up-and-coming students, and it really helped us to find people to cast. And having those kinds of relationships at our disposal is incredible.
ONSTAGE: So what’s next? After Sunday, what are we looking for from you guys?
MICHAEL KOOMAN: Concord will be publishing Finn, so we’re excited to get that out to the world and share that story with as many people as we can. Our show Romantics Anonymous, which premiered at the [Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in London, with a book by Emma Rice, former artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe] is going to have a big production in Tokyo, by Toho, which is a really wonderful organization. We are in the works for a couple other cool projects that we can’t announce yet, but we’re hopefully making an album of Finn … and we have a commission that we are writing for Barrington Stage that we just started. Chris, what else?
CHRIS DIMOND: I think that’s it. We hopefully have a lot of new things to announce in the new year, and just kind of continuing to try to push projects forward that are in all various stages of development.
MICHAEL KOOMAN: Randomly, we just got word that Judge Jackie is going to be performed somewhere in London. They’re doing the first UK production over there — we just found this out two days ago — so that’s pretty exciting.
ONSTAGE: I personally would love to see Finn here in Pittsburgh.
CHRIS DIMOND: So would we.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Point Park University’s Conservatory of Performing Arts presents I Will Be Me — The Songs of Kooman and Dimond at the Greer Cabaret at Theater Square, Downtown, on Sunday, November 22, 2025, with tickets also available to watch a live stream in the Greer Lounge. Tickets: Visit https://trustarts.org/production/104067/lounge-livestream-of-i-will-be-me-the-songs-of-kooman-and-dimond.
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