Entertainment category, Page 179
Pittsburgh CLO marks 76th season with diverse summer lineup
Pittsburgh CLO will celebrate its 76th season with six award-winning musicals and added opportunities for fun, starting June 7 with the national tour of “Jersey Boys.” The 2022 Summer of Musicals promises a showcase of national, regional and local performers. Productions will feature enhancements like a new video wall, along...
Eric Clapton cancels Pittsburgh concert date
The forever man is forgoing his Pittsburgh concert date. Legendary rock and blues guitarist Eric Clapton has removed a performance scheduled for Sept. 16 at PPG Paints Arena from his current tour and replaced it with a gig at Boston’s TD Garden for the same date. Clapton gave no reason...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking ‘Top Gun,’ ‘Obi Wan Kenobi,’ ‘Pistol’
In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss pop culture news of the moment, including the new “Top Gun Maverick,” which broke Memorial Day weekend box office records. The pair also review – spoilers included! – what they like and...
It’s an upset: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ tops DVE Memorial Day 500
You might say it was a case of another one biting the dust in WDVE radio’s Memorial Day 500. The holiday weekend countdown of the top 500 classic rock songs of all time has often seen Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” ascend to the top of the list. It has...
Rachel Zegler to star in ‘Hunger Games’ prequel
NEW YORK — Fresh off her breakthrough role in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” Rachel Zegler will star in Lionsgate’s planned “Hunger Games” prequel. The studio announced Tuesday that Zegler will play Lucy Gray Baird in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” an extension of the “Hunger...
Faces of the Valley: Adam Matcho’s latest poetry collection offers thought-provoking take on everyday struggles, triumphs
You won’t need a primer on poetic pentameter to find enjoyment and meaning in Adam Matcho’s latest collection. Some might call it poetry for working stiffs. The 90 poems the Washington Township writer included in “Ask Your Undertaker” are simple, deftly crafted vignettes that immediately feel familiar. Big-box retail stores,...
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ wins Tom Cruise 1st $100 million opening
Forget breaking the sound barrier: Tom Cruise just flew past a major career milestone. The 59-year-old superstar just got his first $100 million opening weekend with “Top Gun: Maverick.” In its first three days in North American theaters, the long-in-the-works sequel earned an estimated $124 million in ticket sales, Paramount...
Out & About: Westmoreland art museum hosts ‘triple feature’ reception
A Saturday evening reception at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art was a “triple feature,” according to Anne Kraybill, the Greensburg museum’s Richard M. Scaife Director/CEO. It served as the opening of the exhibit, “Alone Together: Encounters in American Realism,” featuring works of magic realist and scene painting from the...
Herminie native’s book details struggles of longtime friend, Army veteran
As Memorial Day draws closer each year, Ronald Kaiser of Franklin Park always thinks of Anthony Herbert. Kaiser and Herbert grew up together in Herminie. Kaiser went on to a career in advertising, and Herbert went on to become one of the most decorated enlisted veterans of the Korean War....
Frankie Avalon joins forces with Fabian for Rivers Casino show
A couple of legendary ’50s and ’60s crooners, Frankie Avalon and Fabian, will be appearing together as “Dick Fox’s Golden Boys” on Aug. 27 at Rivers Casino Pittsburgh on the North Shore. Both were teen idols, as they were called back in their heyday. Avalon had a string of hits...
Pittsburgh Ballet plans ‘Open Air’ series, free Hartwood Acres performance
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s “Open Air: A Series in Celebration of the Performing Arts” returns for the second year with performances June 9-12, at a new location on the Allegheny Riverfront along 19th Street in Sharpsburg. The company also will host its annual “Ballet Under the Stars,” a free performance scheduled...
Westmoreland Cultural Trust’s TGIS concerts include new acts, old favoritesVideo
Josh Jams, a one-man jam band with an improvised set list driven by audience requests, will kick off the 18th season of TGIS (Thank Goodness It’s Summer), the popular outdoor summer concert series hosted by Westmoreland Cultural Trust. The free series opens at 6 p.m. Thursday on the lawn of...
At long last, jury gets closing arguments in Depp trial
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Johnny Depp’s lawyers asked a jury Friday “to give Mr. Depp his life back” by finding his ex-wife, Amber Heard, guilty of libel. Heard “ruined his life by falsely telling the world she was a survivor of domestic abuse at the hands of Mr. Depp,”...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh native helps ‘Star Wars’ fill in some blanks with ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week: Disney+’s “Obi Wan Kenobi,” now streaming, seeks to not only fill in a gap in the Skywalker saga, but also to bridge the great divide between older “Star Wars” fans devoted to the original trilogy...
Turn it up: Car audio competition set for Sunday in GreensburgVideo
“Just kick a little somethin’ for the cars that be bumpin’.” That’s the admonition that kicks off “The Boomin’ System,” the first track on old-school rapper LL Cool J’s landmark album, “Mama Said Knock You Out,” and it extols the virtues of having a high-powered sound system in the car....
Best rock song of all time? It’s in the ear of the beholder
The WDVE Memorial Day 500 returns this weekend for the fourth year since taking a 20-year hiatus. It begins at 10 a.m. Friday. Back in the day, it was a pretty good bet that Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” would come out on top. But a funny thing happened when...
The Westmoreland’s ‘Alone Together’ explores living in difficult times
“Alone Together: Encounters in American Realism,” opening Sunday at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, brings together works of art separated by almost a century but connected through the shared experience of living and working in difficult times. “The show broadly responds to the social conditions surrounding the pandemic,” said...
Andy Fletcher, Depeche Mode co-founder and keyboardist, dies at 60
Andy Fletcher, a founding member of multiplatinum synth-pop band Depeche Mode, has died. He was 60. The keyboard player helped define the sound of 1980s and ’90s alternative music and beyond through hits such as “Just Can’t Get Enough,” “Personal Jesus,” “Enjoy the Silence” and “People Are People.” Fletcher’s death...
Ray Liotta, ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Field of Dreams’ star, dies
Ray Liotta, the actor best known for playing mobster Henry Hill in “Goodfellas” and baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson in “Field of Dreams,” has died. He was 67. An official at the Dominican Republic’s National Forensic Science Institute who was not authorized to speak to the media confirmed the death...
Sweetwater Center for the Arts stands with Ukraine through new exhibition
Photographer Michael Haritan said he presents his work with the aim of educating those who see it. “I always had the approach that it was of value to generations to come from a historical perspective,” said the Peters Township resident and owner of Haritan Photography. That mission has special urgency...
Ellen DeGeneres ends daytime show with plea for compassion
LOS ANGELES — Ellen DeGeneres brought her nearly two-decade daytime talk show to an end Thursday with a celebrity lovefest and a forceful assertion of her achievement as a gay woman daring to be herself. DeGeneres and guests Jennifer Aniston, Billie Eilish and Pink shared memories and affection as “The...
TV Talk: Former KDKA-TV reporter Julie Grant announces the National Spelling Bee; ‘Pistol’ premieres
Former KDKA-TV legal reporter Julie Grant, now a Court TV anchor, will be an announcer for live coverage of the “2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee” next week, a full-circle moment for the Steubenville, Ohio, native who once attended the Bee in Washington, D.C., as a competitor. Moving from its long-time...
Steven Tyler enters treatment, Aerosmith cancels showsVideo
BOSTON — Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has voluntarily entered a rehabilitation program, forcing the Boston-based rock band to cancel the first portion of its upcoming Las Vegas residency. Tyler, 74, has made no secret of his lifelong struggle with substance abuse disorder. “As many of you know, our beloved brother...
Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band to tour in U.S., Europe
NEW YORK (AP) — The Boss is hitting the road again, and the E Street Band band is coming with him. The rockers announced Monday that they will begin an arena tour in February in the United States, followed by stadium shows beginning in April in Europe. Details on the...
TV Talk: ‘This is Us’ ends quietly, poignantly; bloated ‘Stranger Things’ returnsVideo
This column contains spoilers for the series finale of NBC’s “This is Us,” which aired May 24, 2022. After last week’s episode about the death of Rebecca Pearson (Mandy Moore), viewers could have come into the series finale expecting a “Six Feet Under”-style, time-hopper that showed what became of each...
