By JESSICA NEU Walking into the Playhouse theater for their current production of Thornton Wilder’s classic play, Our Town, you are greeted with a barren stage immersed in three-quarters-in-the-round seating, with various light fixtures perched above the stage. As the cast takes… Read More ›
Among the loudest applause on opening night of Noises Off at Pittsburgh Public Theater was the turntable reveal of the play-within-the-play’s backstage, to begin the second act. Another big moment of appreciation came even before the play began, when it was revealed that Pittsburgh theater artist and educator Kyle Haden has been named as Artistic Consultant, for a company that has been without an Artistic Director since Marya Sea Kaminski departed at the end of July.
Noises Off, a backstage farce amid a play within a play, has been the gold standard of theater comedies since the work was first produced in 1983. For Pittsburgh Public Theater, the current production is the second time around for the Michael Frayn comedy; it was last produced at the O’Reilly Theater in 2014. onStage Pittsburgh presented Pittsburgh Public several cast members with questions about playing comedy, followed by their answers.
As Pittsburgh’s university campuses resume classes at full throttle, we caught up with the University of Pittsburgh’s Pitt Stages to get the scoop on their upcoming lineup featuring three plays and a modern musical along with a new logo look…. Read More ›
Limited Run Now to August 20th at Carnegie Stage By JESSICA NEU Throughline Theatre Company’s unique production is based on the Living Newspapers productions from the 1930s. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt instituted the Federal Theater Project as part of the Works… Read More ›
Reviewed by Bob Hoover Playwright David Mamet recently wrote that “theater on Broadway has largely been replaced by pageantry.” Audiences “come to Broadway exactly as they come to Disneyland. They do not come to risk their hard-earned cash on a… Read More ›
By Sharon Eberson Post updated with newly released production photos by Michael Henninger Martin Giles popped up on my Zoom screen to reveal an epic mustache a few weeks ago. Back then, the hair on his upper lip seemed headed… Read More ›
By Brian Pope Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The patriarch of a white (usually Southern) family dies. This tragic inevitability sets his family (primarily his adult children) on a pilgrimage to the family estate to root through… Read More ›
By Brian Pope They don’t call it the nuclear family for nothing. Just ask the Goodmans. Dan, Diana, Natalie, Gabe. “Father, mother, sister, brother cheek to cheek.†Or so Diana sings in “Just Another Dayâ€, the opening number of Tom… Read More ›
By Brian Pope In her ever increasingly maniacal efforts to cloister her son safely in the nest (or bubble, as it were), the conservatively hardwired Mrs. Livingston carefully curates (or rather cruelly censors) the culture he consumes. Jimmy grows up… Read More ›
