Putting together any season of theater can be a taunting task for any producer. Throw in the educational needs of a large student body and respectful consideration of that student body’s interests, and the task of putting together a balanced… Read More ›
University of Pittsburgh
Recoil
In his 1990 musical Assassins, Stephen Sondheim wrote “It takes a lot of men to make a gun”. In their 2018 production of Recoil, University of Pittsburgh Stages proved that it takes a diverse collection of young actors, a skilled… Read More ›
Marie Antoinette
To enter the University of Pittsburgh’s production of Marie Antoinette in the Cathedral of Learning’s Studio Theater is to be confronted. Actors dressed alternately as nobles or revolutionaries either welcome you to the party as you enter or congratulate you… Read More ›
Little Shop of Horrors
Give me a little murder with my musical. Cynicism with my choreography. Horror with my harmonies. Camp with my catastrophes! Give me Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s goofy, bizarre, touching, surprising modern morality play, Little Shop of Horrors. This 1980s… Read More ›
5 Musicals You Don’t Want to Miss This Winter 2017
Welcome to our annual pick of five of must-see musicals this winter. We have a diverse mix that includes two community theatre productions; Annie at Comtra and The Last Five Years by Split Stages at the Theatre Factory. From the… Read More ›
Parade
Painful stories and shameful histories benefit from the illumination of dramatization. While the audience views past events in almost real time, we are required to look and perhaps to learn. Parade is more than worthy of your attention for these… Read More ›
Our Town
Thornton Wilder’s 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Our Town, marks the opening of the mainstage season for University of Pittsburgh Stages in the newly renovated Richard E. Rauh Studio Theatre. Our Town is a deceptively easy play to produce, famously requiring… Read More ›
Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play
12 Peers’ production of Mr. Burns reminds me how theatre is actually a sickness: an uncontrollable urge for group chemistry to elucidate collaboration, values and to define social archetypes. It’s a phenomenon that spans cultures for a reason; a desperate… Read More ›
Thom Pain (based on nothing)
12 Peers Theater’s production of Thom Pain (based on nothing) is prefaced by this note from director Vince Ventura: When I first read Thom Pain, I was struck by the density of the language, the specificity of the images, and… Read More ›
Hair
I shouldn’t be partisan. Anybody can read this and as a journalistic document or review, this should appeal to all people. Though there is something undeniably liberal about the classic 1968 musical Hair, which the University of Pittsburgh is currently… Read More ›