On hiring a producing director, measuring success, and looking ahead to the 80th season
By SHARON EBERSON
This may come as a surprise, given the much-publicized financial struggles facing Pittsburgh CLO, but the 80-year-old musical theater company is going in for a big hire.
The email blast from Indeed.com described the pay, benefits and responsibilities of “Producing Director” in great detail – and there are a lot of details.
It’s the job Mark Fleischer was doing before Van Kaplan retired as CEO in 2021, and Fleischer, now under the umbrella title of executive producer, took on both roles for the multimillion-dollar musical theater organization.
“Like my education director, director of development, director of marketing, and director of finance, this would be another senior level position, to allow me to do what I need to do for the whole company,” said Fleischer, who added that he had the go-ahead from the PCLO board to fill the position a year ago.
However, 2025 has seen structural shifts amid rising costs, particularly in union salaries and building materials.
Cost-cutting, including five front-offices jobs, has reduced the budget from a high of $13 million to between $8 million and $9 million, Fleischer said, while also maintaining and administering its educational wing, of the CLO Academy, CLO Mini-Stars, Gallery of Heroes and Gene Kelly Awards.
Concerns about the future of Pittsburgh CLO and its like-sized counterparts were on full display at an invitation-only community performing arts forum held at the O’Reilly Theater on November 5.
The idea was to address concerns and discuss the news that the three largest professional producing theater companies in the Greater Pittsburgh area – PCLO, Pittsburgh Public Theater and City Theatre – had engaged outside help to explore sharing resources.
More than 180 theater-makers, artists and other stakeholders faced the heads of each of the three companies to learn that nothing had been decided, as they continue to explore cost-saving steps together.
Shaunda McDill, managing director of Pittsburgh Public Theater, said at the time that, out of necessity, her organization’s budget of $8 million had been cut to $4.8 million. Reductions at the Public and PCLO, both tenants in Pittsburgh Cultural Trust venues, have included job cuts and fewer productions per season.
Pittsburgh CLO next big hire could be an important next step in moving forward artistically and strategically.
The job posting came on the heels of the announcement of summer season No. 80, in 2026: two co-productions, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and Mean Girls, and the first tour visit of Suffs, a six-time Tony Award nominee and winner of Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score.
‘ROCKY HORROR’ SUCCESS STORY
All three choices are very strategic, said Fleischer, who was taking a moment to enjoy the success of The Rocky Horror Show, a show he directed, at the Greer Cabaret.
“Sales were amazing,” Fleischer said. “We actually exceeded our goal by a bit.”
Fall 2025 theater in the Greater Pittsburgh area was at peak turnout for theater-goers, with, for example, Rocky Horror, God of Carnage at barebones productions and, currently, Little Women at City Theatre, all enjoying extended runs.
Filling the seats in the 2,800-seat Benedum Center is quite another challenge. The Greer seats 200.
was a hit at the Greer Cabaret. (Image by Matt Polk)
For Fleischer, having another senior-level position filled means he will have more time to strategize and perhaps more time to direct, which is his first love. When he was at the helm of Camelot this past summer, it was his first time directing in a decade, he said.
Cult favorite The Rocky Horror Show might seem like a gimme due its fan base, but PCLO attributed the SRO shows to creating experiences (drag brunches, costume contests, etc.).
With that in mind, he is working toward resurrecting the holiday tree display that had previously lined the Byham Theater lobby, as an enhancement to the annual A Musical Christmas Carol, this year starring Tony Award-winner Denis O’Hare as Ebenezer Scrooge. The glittering display on the long pathway to the auditorium was lost to cost-cutting measures, as it requires paying a union crew to assemble.
“We’re trying to put something back. It may not be as full, but I’ve had some meetings with the [Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s] production department and the union saying, ‘Hey, this is about the audience and the experience and what we offer. Also, as I pointed out, the Public Theater’s putting up trees.”
(Around the corner from the Byham, the Public has initiated a “Festival of Trees” fundraiser for the O’Reilly lobby, in which donors are invited to “sponsor or purchase a tree for $1,000 to $10,000,” including the opportunity to decorate their trees on-site.
For PCLO, the tree display represents the enhanced experience that Fleischer sees as both the present and future of theater-making.
“I think this is where we are these days, whether you’re talking about the [immersive] Guys and Dolls in London or [Cabaret’s] Kit Kat Club, I just think people are wanting more than the lights turn out for two hours — and that’s across all generations,” he said.
2026 SUMMER SEASON STRATEGY
The three choices this year represent different eras but span generations. They have in common women finding their voices, and practically scream what they are about in their titles.
Suffs covers the suffragette movement during the years leading up to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, granting American women the right to vote; Beautiful represents the music of the 1960s and into the ’70s; and the Mean Girls of North Shore High have remained “fetch,” from the 2004 movie to the 2024 musical.
“I’ve gone back and done a lot of studies of what sells and what doesn’t sell,” Fleischer said of his choices. “And it’s not just that the overall economics have made it harder. When we would do six shows, you could have a show that didn’t sell; we would be able to do a Titanic. I’m very proud of Titanic. But when you’re in a 2,800-seat house, it’s a very different strategy, while also trying to make sure we can get the shows we want to do.”
He added that, “There are shows that [the rights] come up and I’m offered, and I’m like, ‘Oh, that was in the building last year on tour, right?’ ”
CO-PRO OR GO HOME
A term you hear Fleischer use a lot is “co-pro alliances,” as opposed to solo productions.
American Theatre Magazine describes it as: “The local co-pro phenomenon spans nationwide, with companies jointly producing in Pittsburgh, Boston, San Diego, Chicago, D.C., and off-Broadway. Theatres are also forging relationships with other arts institutions,” describing in other cities what a company such as Quantum Theatre has done, in partnerships with Attack Theatre, Chatham Baroque and the Mattress Factory.
Locally, Pittsburgh CLO will be working with City Theatre and barebones productions for a Momentum Festival presentation of the in-development Joe Grushecky musical, East Carson Street.
While co-pros with other cities are “the future of the larger musicals” that Pittsburgh CLO audiences have become accustomed to, Fleischer said, they are still working out, “How can we create them together, but still retain our identity?”
Last summer, for instance, Frozen went on to two other cities with the same cast that started in Pittsburgh.
Beautiful in 2026 will be a co-production with Theater Under the Stars of Houston, Texas, which Fleischer said is among the closest in the country to PCLO. In both cases, “their landlord is their competitor,” bringing in 11 touring musicals.
Dan Knechtges, the artistic director of Theater Under the Stars, will direct in both cities, and they will share the physical production, such as costumes and props.
“But I’m still going to have auditions in Pittsburgh, and he’s going to have auditions in Houston,” Fleischer said. “And unlike Frozen … we’re actually going to rehearse the show and cast local ensembles and local actors. I’ll have a local music director. So there’ll be some elements shared, but it’s going to be a much more Pittsburgh production.”
80th BIRTHDAY PARTY
There are plans in the works to celebrate the 80th season in 2026, but nothing definite yet. However, it will not be back at Heinz Field, as it was still known in 2021, when Broadway stars came out for year 75.
PCLO is currently in holiday mode. Along with A Musical Christmas Carol at the Byham, there’s a new show taking over the Greer Cabaret stage December 2-21, 2025: YIPPEE KI YAY (the parody celebration of Die Hard), written and performed by Richard Marsh, follows Who’s Holiday!, the solo tour-de-force starring Lara Hayhurst that occupied the Greer for two seasons.
The run of the show will include Ugly Sweater Contests; Christmas Movie Trivia; an ’80s-themed dance party; and Q&As with Marsh, a Fringe First-winner, London poetry slam champion and BBC Audio Drama award-winner.
In the meantime, the executive producer of Pittsburgh CLO meets regularly with his predecessor, Van Kaplan, and “I hear Charlie Gray’s voice in my ear, a lot,” he said of the late leader who founded the Gene Kelly Awards.
While further exploring ways to maintain the legacy and secure the future of Pittsburgh’s long-running musical theater giant, Fleischer also has some job interviews to conduct.
“I’m proud to be part of this community, and we’re going to find our way,” Fleischer said.
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