By SHARON EBERSON
Under the umbrella of Confluence Theater of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh CLO and Pittsburgh Public Theater are still alive in name and spirit in the first season unveiled by the newly named, unified company.
In fact, the seven shows announced by the unified Downtown companies, titled “A Revolutionary Renaissance,” have a lot in common with Public and CLO seasons of old, featuring a Golden Age musical among a classic trio, new plays, and a Shakespearean offering.
The 2027 musicals start with She Loves Me, February 2-28, 2027, included under a “Pittsburgh CLO Series” banner, with Les Misérables, Cabaret, and a fall musical to be named later. She Loves Me also is part of the “Pittsburgh Public Theater Series,” grouped with the previously announced Pulitzer-Prize- and Tony-winning Purpose and Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, as well as Matt and Ben, the Mindy Kaling-Brenda Withers wild comedy seen at Carnegie Mellon University in October of last year.
It makes sense that She Loves Me is a connector among Confluence’s season-ticket packages: It harks back to a planned Pittsburgh Public season that never was, announced in 2020, on the eve of the pandemic shutdown. The Public produced the show in 1986, its 12th season; Pittsburgh CLO, in 1978 and 2003.
Purpose and Les Misérables will inhabit the Byham Theater, Cabaret, She Loves Me, and The Comedy of Errors will be onstage at the O’Reilly Theater. Matt and Ben will be at the Greer Cabaret in August.
The 2027 season follows the Confluence Prologue Season, which begins with Jacob Ming-Trent’s solo tour-de-force, How Shakespeare Saved My Life, at the O’Reilly November 11-23, 2026, and includes former Pittsburgh CLO productions Who’s Holiday! (December 2-23, 2026, at the Greer), and A Musical Christmas Carol (December 11-23, 2026, at the Byham).
The seven 2027 shows constitute “a year round lineup with no offseason,” and include “a festival partnership, a spirited holiday celebration, two of the region’s most beloved student showcases, and more.”
The seventh production will be at the Greer Cabaret “just in time for spooky season: one wild musical ride.” There are good guesses to be made there. The season also brings “a coming-of-age story you won’t soon forget, followed by a spirited holiday production in December 2027, and the Impulse New Works Festival in partnership with the CMU Center for New Work. This trio of works TBA will be available as add-ons to season ticket packages.
“This season is our first opportunity to show Pittsburgh what a unified company can do,” said Dr. Brett Ashley Crawford, Interim Executive Producer. “Season One keeps our stages active throughout the year, and we built our season tickets and pricing so that more people can be part of it. This is just the beginning.”
“We programmed this season like a great dinner party, bringing together guests who might not normally share a table,” said Kyle Haden, Interim Artistic Director. “A golden-age musical romance sits next to a Pulitzer winner. Les Misérables shares a summer with Mindy Kaling. Shakespeare throws the wildest farce he ever wrote. Every show earns its place on its own, and together they show the range of this company: big voices, big laughs, and stories that send you out into the night still talking.”
The search for a permanent Executive Director is ongoing, led by TOC Arts Partners. In a statement, Confluence emphasize they it is “a union house.”
“Auditions are required by Actors’ Equity, and we will hold them with local [Equity Principal Auditions],” the statement said. “Creatives will also be recruited through union channels. Our goal is for the majority of both the cast and creative teams to be Pittsburghers, whether current or past residents.”
The standard two-act version of Les Misérables has only recently returned as an option for regional theaters, following a 10-year North American licensing restriction. Purpose was the most-produced play in the United States last year, and was pounced on quickly by Confluence, for a March run at the O’Reilly.
The unveiling of the season included the return of the Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Contest to the O’Reilly Theater, March 6, 2027, and the Gene Kelly Awards for High School Musical Theater Excellence, back at the Benedum Center on May 29, 2027.
Classes and workshops, school residencies, touring performances such as Pittsburgh CLO’s Gallery of Heroes, professional development, and internships continue under Confluence. In addition, “Behind every show is a first-rate Production Studio, home to the artisans and builders who bring each CTOP production to life,” the announcement stated. “Across all of it, the company is a working collaborator with Pittsburgh’s artists, supporters, audiences, and partners Downtown and throughout the region.”
INAUGURAL SEASON: A REVOLUTIONARY RENAISSANCE
Source: Confluence Theater of Pittsburgh
SHE LOVES ME
February 2–28, 2027, O’Reilly Theater
A tale as old as time: two people who can’t stand each other are secretly, hopelessly in love. They just don’t know it yet. Amalia and Georg trade barbs all day at Maraczek’s Parfumerie and pour their hearts out every night in anonymous love letters to a “dear friend” neither has ever met. Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock’s (Fiddler on the Roof) She Loves Me is one of the most beloved musicals ever written: effervescent, funny, and achingly romantic, set against the golden glow of a 1930s European perfume shop. It’s the story that inspired You’ve Got Mail and a show that reminds you why you fell in love with musical theater in the first place. There’s no better way to open Confluence Theater of Pittsburgh’s very first season.
PURPOSE
March 30–April 18, 2027, O’Reilly Theater, Pittsburgh premiere
The Jasper family has built a legacy: a patriarch who marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a son whose political career has already imploded, and a matriarch determined to protect the family name at any cost. Then there’s the youngest, the family’s watchful outsider, whose own secrets are about to surface alongside everyone else’s. Get them alone at one homecoming dinner, and the knives are out: crimes, cover-ups, and non-disclosure agreements all come due.
LES MISÉRABLES
June 15–27, 2027, Byham Theater
One of the most produced, most beloved musicals ever written, a show that has moved audiences to their feet across the globe for four decades.
CABARET
July 20–August 15, 2027, O’Reilly Theater
Step through the doors of the Kit Kat Club, where the wine is flowing, the band never stops, and nothing, not politics, not heartbreak, not the future, is allowed to spoil the party. American writer Cliff Bradshaw arrives in Weimar-era Berlin and falls hard for cabaret performer Sally Bowles, even as the city around them begins to change in ways too dangerous to name. Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret is a dazzling, unflinching musical landmark.
MATT AND BEN
August 4–29, 2027, Greer Cabaret
Before the Oscars, before the fame, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were just two guys in a cramped Boston apartment trying to write a screenplay that refused to come together, until a mysterious, fully finished manuscript literally fell from the sky, titled “Good Will Hunting.” Matt and Ben takes that real friendship and runs delightfully wild with it … From the fearlessly weird minds of Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers, it’s a love letter to friendship, ambition, and the very strange machinery of showbiz.
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
September 14–October 10, 2027, O’Reilly Theater
Two sets of identical twins, separated since infancy, wind up in the same city on the same day, and neither pair has the faintest idea the other exists. Wives mistake husbands, merchants mistake customers, and the confusion spirals into glorious, breakneck chaos. The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s earliest and zaniest plays. Endlessly inventive, this is Shakespeare stripped of any stuffiness: just pure, unfiltered fun for audiences of every age.
TICKETS, SUBSCRIPTIONS AND DETAILS
Four season ticket packages save 15%, compared to buying individual tickets. Priority seating goes to Pittsburgh Public and Pittsburgh CLO legacy ticket-holders.
● Confluence Theater of Pittsburgh Series: All seven productions, with first priority for seat selection.
● Pittsburgh CLO Series: She Loves Me, Les Misérables, Cabaret, and the fall musical.
● Pittsburgh Public Theater Series: She Loves Me, Purpose, Matt and Ben, and The Comedy of Errors.
● Flex Plan: Any four or more of the seven productions.
Season tickets go on sale later this fall, Individual tickets go on sale this winter. Rush tickets, Pay What You Can previews, and $20 tickets for patrons 18 and under will also be available, with details to come. https://confluencetheater.org/
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