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.
In PICT’s “The Smuggler,” a solo show by Ronán Noone about the underbelly of immigration, Michael Patrick Trimm’s Tim Finnegan gives off a pirate-like energy, in a fast-paced and energetic performance — Trimm won’t let you take your eyes off him for a second.
By SHARON EBERSON High winds and power outages this past weekend ushered in theater openings featuring provocative spins on hot-button issues, told with powerful performances. From uproarious laughter, to shock and empathy, the well-intended grownups of Eureka Day at City… Read More ›
The Smuggler – a one-man thriller in rhythmic verse – is finally ready for its closeup. Pittsburgh International Classic Theatre first announced Michael Patrick Trimm in the role of bartender/smuggler/immigrant Tim Finnegan for March of last year, working with director Patrick Cannon and expected at Riley’s Pour House in Carnegie. Fate and fire intervened, and Riley’s burned to the ground in November 2024. Starting March 13, 2026, Trimm is now ready to get fully under the skin of Finnegan, with a new director (Melissa Grande) and a new venue (Carnegie Stage), after more than a year of stop-and-start preparation.
By SHARON EBERSON It might put you at ease to know that you don’t have to be a sports fan to cheer for King James, a funny and poignant ode to lifelong fandom and an underdog friendship, struggling mightily to… Read More ›
BY SHARON EBERSON Catch my interview with Marc Masterson on the CitySpeaks: A New Play Podcast, conducted in advance of Masterson’s return to City Theatre for Birthday Candles, at the South Side theater through March 30, 2025. The podcast is… Read More ›
By SHARON EBERSON Fresh but still glowing with period flare, and dare I say fun when the subject is murder, Pittsburgh Public Theater’s 50th season is off to a fine-tuned, stylish start. The Jeffrey Hatcher adaptation of Dial M for… Read More ›
By SHARON EBERSON The comeback of Pittsburgh International Classic Theatre – PICT, in all of its incarnations – hits a new stride, with the announcement of two productions in Carnegie, PA, venues, the first in September and the next, in… Read More ›
By Sharon Eberson Simon Bradbury and Andrew Paul go way back. So it’s somehow fitting that they both wound up connecting while both were in Las Vegas, even if their artistic collaboration remains on Pittsburgh stages. 20-plus years ago, Bradbury,… Read More ›
By Eva Phillips There’s a ferocious coding that comes with being a marine. It transcends the coding that comes with any military regimentation. A marine will be the first to tell you that. Semper Fi is the tipping point—Marines immerse… Read More ›
