COMMENTARY by SHARON EBERSON
The final locally produced summer musical under the Pittsburgh CLO brand opens Tuesday, July 7, 2026. When Mean Girls closes the following Sunday, July 12, that’s a wrap for the Civic Light Opera, which soon will be officially folded into a unit with Pittsburgh Public Theater.
Where to begin.
I was thinking about how I would write about 80 Pittsburgh CLO summers, short-timer that I am — I moved here in 1980 — when a couple of voices called out to me from my car radio, giving me the inroads I needed.
Listening to the Sirius XM channel On Broadway, I heard Max Clayton and Isabelle McCalla — cast members of 2026 Tony-winning Best Musical Schmigadoon — say they had met 13 summers ago, as ensemble members of 42nd Street at Pittsburgh CLO.
That same day, I read one of Mark Fleischer’s reflections on his tiem with Pittsburgh CLO, as he chronicles the last days of the company on LinkedIn.
He was thinking about beginnings, too, it seemed.
“Throughout my 12 years at Pittsburgh CLO, I had the privilege of watching [the Benedum Center] stage come alive through the imagination of writers, composers, directors, choreographers, and designers who first envisioned what it could become. It was brought to life by the extraordinary artists who shared their talents, the musicians in the orchestra pit, the stagehands and production crews who transformed empty space into entire worlds, the volunteers and staff who welcomed every patron, and the audiences whose laughter, applause, and tears gave every performance its meaning.
“Today, as I stood on that same stage, I found myself reflecting not just on the productions, but on the people who filled those spaces with life.
“It seems like the right place to begin.”
And so that is where I will begin, with people.
Mean Girls will have a cast of 24, more than half ensemble members or swings. Mara Newbery Greer, an experienced performer and choreographer, is making her debut as a Pittsburgh CLO director after more than 20 shows with the company. She splits time between New York and Pittsburgh with her husband, Michael Greer, a performer in more than 30 PCLO shows. Dana Solimando, who played Tiger Lily here in a 1998 Peter Pan, will choreograph her second PCLO show, after recently serving as director/choreographer of Mean Girls for McCoy Rigby Entertainment.
There will be a live orchestra of 12 musicians, led by Robert Neumeyer, also on keyboards with Catie Brown and Jim Burns, and including Bryan Persinger, Ken Karsh, Jeff Mangone Sr., George Hoydich, Sam Eisenreich, Dave Wingenbach, Bob Matchett, RJ Heid and Paul Evans.
And that is only the beginning of the number of local artists and others who will be employed by this production …
I find it impossible to go on about new beginnings without a look back.
It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? The one-time mainstay for hundreds of professional and aspirational pros, the company that weathered previous financial storms while launching dozens of stage and screen careers, whose musicals were a sure sign of summer in the Pittsburgh Cultural District, is going away.
“The Next Act” — Pittsburgh CLO’s unification with Pittsburgh Public Theater — tells us that the two local companies based Downtown will maintain some of what each was at its peak.
Pittsburgh CLO, by any other name, will remain foundational for advancing education, training and opportunities for young talent, including the CLO Mini Stars, CLO Academy, and the Gene Kelly Awards, the forerunner of the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, also known as the Jimmys — further evidence that our Civic Light Opera has been a heavy hitter in the theater world, and a source of cultural touchstones and civic pride.
That legacy doesn’t disappear with a new name or direction.
Gone, however, will be the grand-scale musical summer seasons of week-to-week Broadway- and screen-star visits to Heinz Hall and the Benedum Center, with local theater artists sprinkled amid the core casts, and ensemble members from far and near, showcasing their talents, with more than a few moving onto national stages.
Mean Girls, in my scenario, serves as a reminder that Pittsburgh CLO summers held the promise of witnessing performances by the stars of tomorrow.
A prime example: While preparing to play Sophie in Pittsburgh CLO’s 2017 production of Mamma Mia!, Erika Henningsen was announced as the star of the then Broadway-bound musical Mean Girls. She also had starred for PLCO the previous summer, in South Pacific.
Another here today, Broadway the next, was Corey Cott. While still at Carnegie Mellon University, Cott was an ensemble member (plus Peter in Jesus Christ Superstar) throughout the summer of 2011. Within a year, he would be starring in Newsies on Broadway.
As an audience member, I have special memories, as I am sure most of you do, of PCLO shows, such as the unsurpassed 2009 production of Into the Woods, with Beth Leavel, Hunter Foster and Brynn O’Malley, local players such as Tim Hartman and the ever-present Paul Palmer, seven-time director James Brennan, and the late Tom Helm, who was a music director at PCLO for 20 years.
My most vivid memory provided by Pittsburgh CLO wasn’t a local production, but a National Tour stop. The company, a prolific investor on Broadway, held some clout as a presenter of such tours in Pittsburgh, as it will be for Suffs to finish the 2026 summer season.
Billy Porter, a CLO Mini Star back in the day, had made his Pittsburgh CLO debut in 1984, as one of the Townspeople in 110 in the Shade. He came back to Pittsburgh CLO with Dreamgirls in 2004, dazzling as James “Thunder” Earley, but the third time was one for the musical theater history books.
For one week in August of 2015, the Tony Award-winner for Kinky Boots made an unprecedented swap, temporarily exchanging the Broadway stage for the Benedum, to star as Lola before a hometown crowd.
On opening night, after Porter sang “Hold Me in Your Heart,” wearing that fabulous glittering gown, an audience filled with friends, family and admirers sprang to its feet for a nearly 5-minute standing ovation.
It remains among my most cherished moments in Pittsburgh musical theater.
If you were there, the event is stored in your memory vault, under the heading, “Unforgettable.”
In the recent past, Pittsburgh CLO helped us find our way back to live musical theater in a stadium-sized way, with the star-studded 75th Anniversary Gala concert and a Wizard of Oz under the stars at Heinz Field.
And that’s just for starters.
Because Pittsburgh CLO could attract big names, Chita Rivera spent time here, working on a musical inspired by the cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost. Ms. Rivera told me (the interview was for her Trust Cabaret appearance) how much she regretted that the PCLO-developed Casper the Musical never got off the ground, but she enjoyed her time here.
One of the “I can’t believe I said that” moments of my career was perhaps ruining a moment for Christian Borle, as he stood holding his trophy for Something Rotten!. A screen in the press room was showing a live number by Best Musical nominee in An American in Paris, a co-production by Executive Producer Emeritus Van Kaplan and Pittsburgh CLO, and I pointed to it, asking him about his Pittsburgh roots. Borle said, pointedly, “You know, they never chose me.”
The rejection still stung, even while he was holding his second Tony Award. Every musical theater kid from our region saw Pittsburgh CLO as the golden ticket.
I need to say that I have much to thank Pittsburgh CLO for, aside from the entertainment. I followed in Post-Gazette theater critic Christopher Rawson’s footsteps as a Kelly Awards judge, and I am still at it, although now only for the finalists. And I also followed Chris as the producer of the musical fundraiser Off the Record, benefitting the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. The Pittsburgh CLO was among our theater partners, providing microphones and other assistance during 25 years (interrupted only by the pandemic shutdown) at the Byham Theater.
My involvement in Off the Record has meant doing what critics are not supposed to do — become friendly with the people I cover. I have partnered in my years as producer with Chris Laitta, our director and choreographer, who has appeared in nearly three dozen PCLO shows, most recently, in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.
I hold our Pittsburgh-based artists and behind-the-scenes magicians in my heart when I say that perhaps the new beginning for Pittsburgh CLO and Pittsburgh Public Theater will bring more opportunities to showcase local talent in the place we call our city’s Cultural District. I hope so.
Some of you may read this as a putdown of musical theater happening elsewhere during the summer months. The Greer Cabaret will host Stage 62!’s Company, and Rogue Entertainment’s Assassins, and, not too far from Downtown, Alumni Theater’s production of Once on This Island will be in Oakland, and Front Porch Theatricals’ second show of the season is Come From Away, across the Allegheny River at the New Hazlett Theater.
Between Suffs and start of the next PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh season, opening in September with The Lion King, the Benedum Center will remain silent.
A time to reflect on what was, and on new beginnings.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Pittsburgh CLO’s production of Mean Girls is at the Benedum Center, Downtown, July 7-12, 2026. Tickets and information on related events: visit https://www.pittsburghclo.org/shows/mean-girls.
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Our Posts, Show Previews
Working for the CLO was always a highlight. For me each time they brought in a “star” they would inevitably say. “Wow! The talent in Pittsburgh is unbelievable! We don’t know how you do this.” I’ve worked with everyone from Tony award winners to rising stars and they all say the same thing. Working at the CLO was an experience that they cherish.
Personally, for me, it has been where I’ve learned to hone my craft. Learn the importance of preparation and how important supporting local theater truly is for everyone. Last year when I was very ill and things were touching go for quite a while. I thought I would never be back on the Benedum stage. But I used it as one of my motivations to work hard and recover. I’ll be forever grateful to everyone at the company. Thank you for so much Joy and my artistic growth.