By Miriah Auth On Saturday, August 10th, performing artists took the stage at Off The Wall Productions in sweats and warm-up clothes only to walk out the theater exit. They led the audience into a vacant grassy lot adjacent to… Read More ›
Archived Reviews
Archived from Pittsburgh in the Round
“Othello” Captivates at Food for Groundlings
Food for Groundlings’ Othello is a labor of love attesting to how the region’s small companies do much with a modest resources. Shakespeare is about the human journey of the characters in stories told with words, not spectacle. This play,… Read More ›
“Hello, Dolly!” Delights from Start to Finish
By Eva Phillips The unpleasantries and discomforts of growing old, being financially disenfranchised, being a woman in a patriarchal world (and so on, and so forth) really go down much smoother with a little song’n’dance and a pop of color…. Read More ›
Spirit of Violeta Parra Invigorates Quantum World Premiere
Next to the bowling greens in Frick Park, a large tent stirs anticipation. Quantum Theatre’s audience members are invited into the peña of beloved Chilean artist-activist Violeta Parra. Looking for Violeta explores the life and art of Violeta Parra… Read More ›
The Lottery of Life in 12 Peers’ “Everybody”
12 Peers Theater’s latest production is the 2018 Pulitzer Prize Finalist play, Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Based on the play, Everyman, a 15th century morality play, Everybody tackles life, death, and one’s own impermanence and transience. Everybody is an engaging,… Read More ›
Comtra Theatre Exposes All That’s Known in “Spring Awakening”
By Eva Phillips It is unsurprising that Goethe makes an appearance, in the beautiful yet eviscerating coming-of-age musical Spring Awakening. After all, the inimitable musical, with music by Duncan Sheik and book by Steven Sater, was adapted from an 1891… Read More ›
Foot-Stomping and Heartbreaking: “Once”
By Eva Phillips Overly melancholy Irish folk music really does something to me. Rousing, but also melancholy, Eastern European folk music REALLY does something to me. The two musical cosmoses intimately appeal to my fraught sensibilities and personality traits—Irish folk… Read More ›
Finding the Self in Nicole Gallagher’s “Mija: One Bitch’s Tale”
By Eva Phillips There is a particularly arresting moment in folkLAB’s newest production, Nicole Gallagher’s mija: one bitch’s tale, that for the sake of the integrity of the story, and to preserve the experience for future audiences, I can’t explicitly… Read More ›
Alumni Theater Company Triumphs with “Passing Strange”
By Brian Pope They say that youth is wasted on the young. Well, I don’t know much about the “They” who coined that cliche, but I am sure that They have not yet seen Alumni Theatre Company’s production of the… Read More ›
Hijinks Galore at Apple Hill Playhouse’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”
By Eva Phillips A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is one of those shows that vividly proves that the Greco-Romans of the B.C. era really knew how to live with drama nerd flair. This seems like… Read More ›