Dylan Shaffer

What did our critic think of CRAZY FOR YOU at Hilliard Arts Council?A celebration of arts and community for the Hilliard community; who could ask for anything more?

The Tamburitzans' 85th season will be its first hybrid season, offering both in-person and live-streamed events.

As a universal language, music can cross cultures, borders, and time. The Band's Visit does just that, capturing the power of music and sharing its unyielding effects on love with a Pittsburgh audience.

How quickly can you fall in love? Can these emotions be distinguished as true love or are they lust and infatuation disguised as such?

Every decade has a quintessential musical associated with it: Guys and Dolls for the 30s, Jersey Boys for the 50s. For the 1960's, A Bronx Tale is that musical.

Mean Girls, the Broadway musical based off the 2004 movie of the same name, has arrived in Pittsburgh for the week and is tickling the town pink with its comedy and tribute to the movie.

Every family has its secrets, its lies, its loves. In the Bechdel's home, secrets of sexuality and queerness transcended a generation but could never be discussed. Welcome to Fun Home, a look inside the family life of Alison Bechdel, a lesbian cartoonist whose gay father operated a funeral home and taught English in their small Pennsylvanian town before committing suicide soon after learning of his daughter's sexual orientation. (Try advertising that on a radio spot!)

I won't grow up! And I don't have to watching the CLO's production of Peter Pan. The timeless musical brings all of the whimsy and adventure to life on stage, but the magic of this performance does not come just with the story; talented actors and a renowned choreographer/director take this production to new heights.

Mind Reader makes for a perfectly unique evening in Pittsburgh; allow yourself to open your mind and fill your glass, as Mr. Toland delivers a standout performance of mind over matter.

'It's got groove; it's got meaning. Grease is the time, is the place, is the motion.' For the Pittsburgh CLO, the star-studded cast of Greaserocks the Benedum and sets the tone for a riveting summer season. With Broadway and television actors flooding the stage, the musical has proven to be a shoo-be doo-wop she-bop good time.

Dear Evan Hansen, Today is going to be an awesome day, and here's why: the first national tour of Dear Evan Hansenis sharing its story with Pittsburgh audiences for the rest of this week at Heinz Hall.

The southern charm of a North Carolina summer would only be complete with banjo music echoing through the peaks and valleys of the expansive Appalachian Mountains. In the year 1923, in the town of Zebulon, somewhere twixt the Atlantic coast and the Great Smoky Mountains, young love finds Alice Murphy (Erin Lindsey Krom) and Jimmy Ray Dobbs (Jerreme Rodriguez). Intimacy leads to divisions within the families, stories and decades are crossed and intertwined, and the stage for Front Porch Theatricals' bluegrass musical Bright Star is set.

Ladies and gentlemen, the cast of Come From Away has turned on the fasten seat belt sign. Please sit back, relax, and hold on tight, because this production soars above all expectations.

Those who have seen his face draw back in fear, but for the past 30 years, audiences have been captivated by the man and mystery that is the Phantom of the Opera. To love the man behind the mask, Christine Daae learns to accept the creature - deformed by nature, gifted as her Angel of Music - for who he is as a person and what he has to offer her. As a musical production, The Phantom of the Operais a love story that combines raw vocals and acting talent with magnificent set pieces and special effects.

A world of pure imagination, sprinkled with a willing suspension of disbelief, yet riddled with incongruities - welcome to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the stage musical adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1964 book of the same name.

The most anticipated arrival in Pittsburgh since Le'Veon's vanishing...Hamilton, the Broadway musical, has taken up shop at the Benedum Center through January 27. The musical, nominated for a record number of Tony Awards and winning 11, recounts the life of Alexander Hamilton and the birth of our nation through hip-hop and song. With lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamiltonastonishes. To quote the author, 'There are moments that words don't reach' - and Hamilton is embodies them.

In 2003, a Christmas movie starring Will Ferrell was released in theaters. Fifteen years later, Elf has officially secured its place in the holiday traditions of millions; however, this Christmas comedy might have been better left untouched by Broadway producers, as Elf the musical under delivers on the promise of a Will Ferrell caliber classic.

Less than a month after the synagogue tragedy that shocked the world, a different congregation gathers to celebrate the traditions of Judaism in a space filled with tender hearts and welcoming arms. As the national tour of Fiddler on the Roof makes its way across the country, its stop at the Benedum Center this week is a cathartic breath of fresh air for a community still coming to terms with an atrocious act of hate.

The long-awaited National Tour of Hamilton is coming to Pittsburgh in January 2019, and tickets go on sale this Monday, November 5, 2018 at 9 a.m. Here's the best way to secure your tickets to the hottest event of the winter season:

Figures dancing gracefully, costumes sparkling magnificently, and revolution brewing eminently - all this and more compose the first scene of the beloved musical Anastasia, the story of the Russian princes title character journeying to her past to remember who she was, and in the process, discovering who she is.