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Review: BIRTHDAY CANDLES Crystallizes Moments at City Theatre
The first thing I noticed in the theatre at City Theatre's Birthday Candles was the set. I'm a longtime lover of thrift shops, junk shops and the maximalist 'detail everywhere' aesthetic of the Disney Imagineers. My companion for the night and I spent the preshow prying the set apart with our eyes (...
Review: KIMBERLY AKIMBO Finds Beauty in the Grotesque at Benedum Center
One of the oddest dramedies in recent history is also one of the most satisfyingly heartfelt....
Review: TROUBLE IN MIND Speaks Inconvenient Truths at Pittsburgh Public Theater
It's a very good play about a very bad play. That's the capsule version of what you'll see at Justin Emeka's production of Alice Childress's once-controversial Trouble in Mind. Though written in 1955, the mix of seriousness and satire in the piece feels shockingly contemporary, both in terms of its ...
Review: JEKYLL & HYDE Brings the Drama at Split Stage
Frank Wildhorn's Jekyll & Hyde has long been a divisive show among theatre fans. Is it a worthy follow-up to the other literary-based megamusicals of the eighties and nineties, like Les Miserables, Martin Guerre and Miss Saigon? Or is it a trashy, boneheaded knockoff of Sweeney Todd with more power ...
Review: REMEMBER JONES: JONES SINGS JONES Brings Retro Back at City Winery
Remember Jones is funny, but he isn't a joke. There's a knowing kitsch value to the cabaret artist turned rock revue revivalist's stage presence: he looks like Elton John, dresses like Liberace and sings like Joe Cocker, on a stage full of bandstands and matching-jacketed musicians. But this isn't a...
Review: LIFE OF PI Is Existentialist Magic at Benedum Center
In some ways, Lolita Chakrabarti's Life of Pi, adapted from the novel by Yann Martel and directed by Max Webster, can feel like a grown-up version of the puppet-heavy visual multimedia spectacles often seen in high-end children's theatre....
Review: A SHERLOCK CAROL Blends Dickens and Doyle at Kinetic Theatre
It has long been posited that Sherlock Holmes is difficult to adapt well, because the nature of Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Sherlock Universe' is so fragmented. Most of his memorable characters apppear only once and rarely interact; even more vexing, Holmes's own behaviors vary from the misanthropic and c...
Review: A MUSICAL CHRISTMAS CAROL & WHO'S HOLIDAY Revive Holiday Traditions at Pittsburgh CLO
CLO's seasonal favorites may not be new, but they have yet to wear out their welcome....
Review: FRONT PORCH CABARET Sings the Hits at Front Porch Theatricals
I keep saying it and it keeps being true: it doesn't really matter what Front Porch announces for their season, because 'Front Porch Presents' is a strong enough endorsement on its own. If you told me Front Porch was presenting a notorious snooze like In My Life or Lestat, I'd put my preconceived no...
Review: MJ Explores an Enigma at Benedum Center
Like the King of Pop himself, this adventurous jukebox psychodrama blends darkness with joy....
Review: THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI Is A Dark Dream at Quantum Theatre
Out of nowhere, the silent film classic The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari rocketed back into the zeitgeist about five years ago. It's name dropped, adapted, referenced everywhere from art films to children's cartoons. ...
Review: & JULIET Fuses Pop and Art at Benedum Center
Max Martin's songs have never made more sense than they do in this jukebox confection....
Review: POTUS Brings Serious Laughs to Serious Issues at City Theatre
City Theatre's brand, the last decade or so, has often been less is more. Tiny casts, simple sets, show don't tell, but also don't show. The last two or three seasons have included an increased focus on immersive unit sets, but the principle still stood... not anymore, though....
Review: BANDSTAND Breaks New Ground at Front Porch Theatricals
Front Porch's biggest show yet is also one of its best....
Review: A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN Drops Jaws, Bombshells at Quantum Theatre
Swerving between low comedy and high tragedy, this outdoor O'Neill drama stuns and swelters, even on cool nights....
Review: SEUSSICAL Is Eighty Minutes of Musical Heaven at Pittsburgh CLO
The summer season ends with this kid-friendly spectacular....
Review: YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN Makes for a Monster Hit at Pittsburgh CLO
Sometimes, smaller, dumber and cheaper is a compliment, not a put-down, as in this miniaturized Mel Brooks classic....
Review: CHEEK TO CHEEK Is Sincerely Old-Fashioned at Saint Vincent Summer Theatre
Irving Berlin's songs are both timeless, and also thoroughly of their own time and place....
Review: VERY BERRY DEAD Makes a Big Impression at Big Storm Performance Company
José Pérez IV's new tragicomedy feels like it's always been around, but still remains refreshing and new....
Review: THE MUSIC MAN Is Still Charming at Pittsburgh CLO
I'll admit, I had a huge smile on my face all the way through The Music Man that had little to nothing to do with the production itself. You see, I'm a nerd and a theatre kid in my thirties, and to that demographic, there was a cultural phenomenon just as big as Monty Python and Star Trek were to Ge...
Review: UNNECESSARY FARCE Updates the Formula at Saint Vincent Summer Theatre
The funny thing about farce as a genre is it seems to be perpetually stuck in the past; the constant misunderstandings, cross-dressing and door-slamming seem tied to a time before the internet, before cell phones... hell, maybe even before the Pill. It's a Ken Ludwig world that seems tied to the Ken...
Review: THE COLOR PURPLE Brings All the Feels at Pittsburgh CLO
As a literature major, part of me has always found it unbelievable that tight, two-hour adaptations of Alice Walker's The Color Purple have been so successful. The novel is sprawling, complex and dense, with an epistolary structure not unlike the similarly tricky-to-adapt Dracula. Nonetheless, my st...
Review: WEST SIDE STORY Makes a Classic Feel Fresh at Pittsburgh CLO
There is no greater musical theatre staging preservationist than Baayork Lee, who has devoted much of her career to preserving and restaging the original direction and choreography to A Chorus Line. ...
Review: LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR & GRILL at Pittsburgh CLO Is Brilliant, Hard to Watch
It's a tale as old as time: the downward spiral of a once-brilliant talent into substance abuse and early death. It's the second half of the 'star is born' template, and it never goes out of style... because it sadly never stops happening in real life. The list is long, with Amy Winehouse as the rec...
Review: THE COFFIN MAKER Deftly Blends Genres at Pittsburgh Public Theater
Folks, this is a first. I've been writing reviews for BWW for about ten years now, and rarely have I seen a new work that so deftly and fearlessly blends genres and tones together. Director Monteze Freeland and playwright Mark Clayton Southers have achieved the impossible: The Coffin Maker is an exe...
Videos
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Mullett: 80's Hair Band Tribute The Lamp Theatre (6/20-6/20) |
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The Dinner Detective Murder Mystery Dinner Show The Dinner Detective Pittsburgh (6/13-6/13) |
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Late For The Sky: A Tribute to Jackson Browne Featuring Jake Thistle of American Idol The Lamp Theatre (7/19-7/19) |
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The Great Gatsby – Theatrical Production at Benedum Center Pittsburgh Benedum Center Pittsburgh (5/26-5/26) |
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Pet Sounds Live! The Music of The Beach Boys The Lamp Theatre (6/06-6/06) |
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Eaglemania: The Worlds Greatest Eagles Tribute Band The Lamp Theatre (6/13-6/13) |
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Kanin Wren's Taylor Swift Experience at The Lamp Theatre The Lamp Theatre (7/11-7/11) |
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Brad Williams at Byham Theater Byham Theater (5/29-5/29) |
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Zac Brown Band PPG Paints Arena (9/13-9/13) |
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The Dinner Detective Murder Mystery Dinner Show The Dinner Detective Pittsburgh (7/18-7/18) |
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