By CLAIRE STEVENS The opening of the Summer Company’s production of Our Town is heralded with the sound of a clock chime signaling the significance of the passing of time and the beauty of small tasks. Walking into Duquesne University’s… Read More ›
Reviews
Reviews of current productions by our writers
Review: Immersed in ‘Closing Time at the Moonside Cafe’, Where Audience Becomes Detective
By MINGSI MA Directed by Connor McCanlus and written by Sean Collier and Renee Rabenold, Closing Time at the Moonside Cafe is an original interactive theater piece that invites audiences to immerse themselves in an otherworldly club. The immersive experience is largely a success, blurring the line… Read More ›
Review: Teen Girls Take a Wild Ride to Raising ‘Our Dear Dead Drug Lord’
What happens among four teens in the 2019 play by Alexis Scheer, “My Dear Dead Drug Lord,” is the stuff of pubescent histrionics, paranormal activity, and parental nightmares. It would be hysterical if some of it wasn’t so feasible, teetering on the edge of funny shenanigans and deeply discomfiting actions. The barebones production, now playing in Braddock, is a twisty, trippy exploration into the lives of four young women who are determined to go dark, as a path into the light.
A Night to Cherish: Pittsburgh CLO Concert Salutes 80 Years of Musical Theater
PITTSBURGH CLO 80th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT: ONE BRIEF SHINING MOMENT
During a nostalgia packed night — including the honoring of former CLO intern Stephen Flaherty, the award-winning composer of “Ragtime” — the end of an eight-decade era was mentioned several times, as well as the hopes for the future in combination with Pittsburgh Public Theater. Wisely, the night was focused on the local musicians and performers who have graced stages from Pitt Stadium to the Melody Tent to the Civic Arena to every stage in the Downtown Cultural District, plus Heinz Field.
Review: Throughline Theatre’s Living News Festival, Where Fiction Tweaks the Truth
When truth is stranger than fiction, in a playwright’s hands, it can go a few steps further into bizarro world, or find a pathway to grounded reality. Such is the case of the third annual Living News Festival, a Throughline Theatre Company creation that distributes local news stories to six Pittsburgh playwrights, who each write a 10-minute play, ripe for production. The results are currently being presented at Carnegie Stage through Sunday, June 14, 2026.
Review: ‘Fun Home’ at the Theatre Factory
By HANNAH WING-BONICA It’s been twenty years since Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home made itself known in the graphic novel scene. It was only ten years later that Bechdel’s work became a hit on Broadway, with music by Jeanine Tesori and book and… Read More ›
Review: Park After Dark Delivers Raunchy Feminist Wit With ‘POTUS: or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive’
By JESSICA NEU Not many plays open with the storyline of the President of the United States (POTUS) using a controversial four-letter word that begins with the letter C to describe his wife (FLOTUS) during a press conference that subsequently… Read More ›
Review: Bonkers ‘Pickleball’ Lands a Banger at Little Lake
REVIEW: “PICKLEBALL” at LITTLE LAKE SERVES UP LAUGHS.
I took along a good friend who plays pickleball to see the Jeff Daniels satire about the sport, and nonstop laughter told me all I needed to know. “Pickleball’s” dinks and bangers aside, this madcap satire of the fastest-growing game in America serves as an endless vessel for sports obsession, skewed socialization, aches and pains, triumphs and catastrophes, with each measurable in seismic proportions.
Review: Eavesdropping on Brotherhood and Bonding in ‘Coconut Cake’
By MINGSI MA Coconut Cake, staged by New Horizon Theater and part of the Public Presents series, is a delightful treat. Written by Chicago-based African American playwright Melda Beaty, it takes place in a setting that does not serve coconut cake despite its delicious title: a McDonald’s on… Read More ›
Review: The Light Without the Longing: Broadway’s ‘The Great Gatsby – A New Musical’ at the Benedum
By Guilherme Meletti Yazbek Before the curtain rises, The Great Gatsby – A New Musical already begins to build its world. The sound of waves and distant seagulls drifts through the Benedum Center while the audience settles into their seats. Framed by the illuminated… Read More ›