Review: FRONT PORCH CABARET Announces its Biggest Get Yet at Front Porch Theatricals

The only constant is change, as anyone will tell you, and Front Porch Theatricals has always epitomized that. Other than knowing their shows are going to be good, you could go in knowing everything or nothing (more often nothing) about their curated picks and walk out satisfied. Their seasons have rarely had any connective theme or concept beyond "the right two shows at the right time," often in a deliberate contrast with each other. This year, however, things are different: there IS a theme, whether intentional or otherwise. Front Porch's 2026 summer season is focusing on folk-inflected musical docudramas: the oft-overlooked musical concept revue Working, and the immensely popular 9/11 docudrama Come from Away. As of now, it would appear that Front Porch has even secured the regional professional premiere of the latter show, which has already begun popping up everywhere as the 25th anniversary of 9/11 fast approaches.

Of course, the show announcements are only part of the fun at the Front Porch Cabaret; another part is seeing some of Pittsburgh's greatest Equity and non-union actors share the stage and sing together. Sometimes they play to type, like Allan Snyder singing a passionate ballad by Jason Robert Brown. But just as often, they subvert expectations, with character actor David Ieong singing a ravishing Texas love song from Giant, or perennial leading lady type Marnie Quick giving an endearingly chaotic, flustered performance of a David Yazbek patter song. Nothing is better than seeing serious people get funny, and seeing funny people get serious, one night a year. This cabaret setting also allows for performer pairings that you never realized you needed, like when event host Brady D. Patsy (who also received a Leon S. Zionts "beret award" for his service to the company and theatre community) sang "Wheels of a Dream" from Ragtime with Saige Smith.

I would be remiss, of course, if I didn't recognize the obligatory opening night curtain call, the dessert buffet from Aladdin's Eatery. The partnership between the bakery and the theatre company has become an in-joke, part of Pittsburgh's theatrical lore. Not only that, it fosters the sense of small-world community and hometown prestige Front Porch has always thrived on. The city's finest talent, union and non-union, rarely get a chance to perform together the way Front Porch allows, as both local neighbors and as peers on equal footing. The company is the star. No, that's wrong: the company MAKES stars.