I know how it’s done, and I have seen it done numerous times, and every time, it’s still like magic. If you’ve seen Disney’s Frozen onstage, you know what I mean. It’s that split second when, mid-”Let It Go,” a transformation occurs that inspires spontaneous gasps and applause.
The transformation of Pittsburgh Musical Theater got off to a smashing start – a wall-breaking ceremony on July 9, with Mayor Ed Gainey and County Executive Sara Innamorato striking the blows for change. The ceremony offered a view of the façade at the corner of Sanctus and South Main Streets, where a window to the two-story lobby will replace brick and mortar. Inside, renovations were already well underway.
The $8 million first phase of an ongoing $20 million campaign will add the building’s first elevator, allowing accessibility to all levels of a facility that includes the Gargaro Theater and the PMT Conservatory, for students ages 4-18.
Summer in the city just got a refreshing splash of in-your-face joy. Pittsburgh Public Theater’s first Public Works production serves up a respite from the storm and stress of heatwaves, downpours and breaking news, along with the witnessing of wedded bliss: the marriage of a musical “Twelfth Night” and civilian performers working seamlessly alongside seasoned pros.
By SHARON EBERSON Choreographer Gustavo Zajac has worked with some of Broadway’s biggest names – Chita Rivera, for one, in the Tony Award-winning 2003 revival of Nine. In 2025, at the start of a gray Pittsburgh evening in June, standing… Read More ›
Pittsburgh CLO is bringing the Lerner & Loewe musical “Camelot” back for the seventh time, to lead off its 79th summer season, and the legend of King Arthur and the Round Table couldn’t come at a better time. The casting brings Broadway to Pittsburgh, through stars Adam Kantor as Arthur (“The Band’s Visit,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “RENT”), Ben Jacoby as Lancelot (“Beautiful, The Carole King Musical”) and Kyla Stone as Guenevere (“Harmony”; and “Into the Woods” with PCLO).
The Scottish play has awakened passions since Shakespeare’s day, inspiring countless interpretations and re-imaginings along the way. Enter Mac Beth by Erica Schmidt, “equally giggly and grisly,” according to Time Out New York, finding its way to Washington’s Landing May 30-June 15.
By SHARON EBERSON The four-day symposium hosted by the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater will be filled with performances and legacy showcases, but the focus is the way forward for the East Liberty theater. The title Owning Our Future: A Symposium on BIPOC… Read More ›
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company and the August Wilson House have made it official, setting the schedule for a 2025 three-play summer festival, titled August Wilson’s American Century Cycle Experience. with Stephen McKinley Henderson scheduled to direct “Fences.”
By SHARON EBERSON The new play Art of Wise opens with a heart-stopping scenario, then turns back the clock for a lyrical, gripping buildup to a fateful faceoff, during an enslaved man’s desperate flight for freedom. The “art” of Art… Read More ›
City Theatre heads into the 2025-2026 season with an expansive five-show subscription lineup that features three world premieres, a Pittsburgh premiere, a revival in the heart of the Pittsburgh Cultural District, plus a visit from the improv troupe Second City, making its South Side debut.
