Theater & Arts category, Page 15
Met cuts season to 18 operas, matching fewest in 4 decades
NEW YORK — The financially challenged Metropolitan Opera is cutting its schedule to 18 productions next season, matching the pandemic-curtailed 2019-20 season for the fewest since 14 in strike-shortened 1980-81. The Met said Wednesday it will have six new productions and 12 revivals, down from seven new stagings and 16...
Pop-up dining to open in former Superior Motors space
Dining in the vacant Superior Motors restaurant building in Braddock is coming back, at least temporarily. Two Braddock businesses are collaborating to offer a pop-up dining experience at the restaurant space, which closed during the onset of the pandemic in 2020. The restaurant helmed by chef Kevin Sousa — located...
Westmoreland Performing Arts production of ‘The Nerd’ brings cast full circle
Rehearsing for the Westmoreland Performing Arts production of “The Nerd” has taken cast members back to the early days of their careers and their time with Saint Vincent Summer Theatre. “It has tied us all back to a very happy time in our theater careers,” said director and cast member...
Pittsburgh Opera fashion show featured live opera performers
Guests expect to see fashion models on a runway. But for a show to include live opera singers’ powerful voices with songs from “Carmina Burana,“ ”Rigoletto” and “Rinaldo”? That’s not something you see and hear every day. Friends of the Pittsburgh Opera hosted their annual style event on Monday with...
Final curtain falls on Westmoreland Night of the Stars musical showcase
The final curtain has fallen on Westmoreland Night of the Stars — unless someone steps up to take over running the annual two-night showcase of area school musicals. In 2019, founder John Noble announced his intention to turn the production over to his daughter, Elly Carr of Irwin, a theater...
Barebones productions launches 20th season with fiery ‘Is God Is’
The brooding man acts on his cruel intentions. Married with 3-year-old twin daughters, he wants out. He wants a new life and sets a fire and leaves his family for dead. The fire does not kill his family, but horrifically scars them. Eighteen years later, the now 21-year-old twins Anaia...
Standbys, understudies, swings ensure that the show will go on
Ready to go on at a moment’s notice, some actors and actresses wait in the wings. They are in the theater in case one of their colleagues can’t take the stage because of illness, a family emergency or a scheduled day off. They often are referred to as “unsung heroes”...
Greensburg Civic Theatre’s ‘Sweeney Todd’ plumbs depths of human psyche
Greensburg Civic Theatre will present the macabre tale of the demon barber of Fleet Street this weekend at the Greensburg Garden & Civic Center, 951 Old Salem Road. Curtain times for “Sweeney Todd” will be at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. The Stephen Sondheim musical is...
‘Kinky Boots’ at Irwin’s Lamp Theatre spreads message of acceptance
It wasn’t in the plan for Split Stage Productions to do the musical “Kinky Boots” this season. But when the opportunity arose, it was too good to pass up. “We were actually very, very fortunate to get the rights, and it was almost accidental how it happened,” said Split Stage...
Pine-Richland middle school girl picked for cast of ‘Hits! The Musical’ touring company
Like most young people who aspire to a career as a performer, Loren Prisuta of Pine has been dreaming big about her future. But she hasn’t been leaving those dreams to chance. Now, with nearly a decade of hard work under her belt training in voice, dance and acting, the...
Pittsburgh Opera debuts Handel’s ‘Ariodante’ in all-new production
Pittsburgh Opera will present the first-ever local performances of Handel’s Baroque opera, “Ariodante,” in an all-new production running Jan. 21-29 at Pittsburgh CAPA Theater. “Ariodante” also will be the debut with the company of costume designer Grace Kang and set designer Ningning Yang, both students at Carnegie Mellon University. “Almost...
‘Jagged Little Pill’ crafts Alanis Morissette songs into jukebox musical
Alanis Morissette’s 1995 album, “Jagged Little Pill,” marked an alt-rock, grunge swerve from the Canadian singer-songwriter’s two previous dance-pop albums. Songs like “You Oughta Know” explored hot-button themes like sexuality, sexual harassment, self-help and societal apathy. The songs and themes are incorporated in “Jagged Little Pill,” a jukebox musical that...
Prime Stage Theatre set to open Harriet Tubman play
Most Americans know about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, but there are many more details that aren’t as well known about this fascinating and exceedingly brave woman. A good many of those details are woven into an upcoming Prime Stage Theatre production opening this week at the New Hazlett...
Pittsburgh dancer Maria Caruso’s one-woman show to be available on Broadway on Demand
Maria Caruso has never watched herself perform. On Jan. 20, that will all change. She plans to sit down in her Los Angeles, Calif., home with her husband, Alan Russell, and view her one-woman show “Metamorphosis” streaming on Broadway on Demand. And you can, too. For $3.99, the hour performance...
David Byrne’s next Broadway show will be ‘Here Lies Love’
NEW YORK — David Byrne’s “American Utopia” may have left Broadway but the Talking Heads leader is plotting a return — with disco. Byrne and Fatboy Slim plan to put their musical “Here Lies Love,” a show that charts the rise and fall of Philippine ex-first lady Imelda Marcos, on...
Cabaret Theatre hosts Irwin reading of new ‘Gatsby’-inspired musical
It’s widely accepted in the literary world that writer F. Scott Fitzgerald stole ideas and actual words from his wife, Zelda — including lines that went into his widely acclaimed novel, “The Great Gatsby.” Two Westmoreland County theater veterans have imagined Zelda Fitzgerald’s role in the creation of the novel...
A lion roars on Broadway as box office hauls reveal winners
NEW YORK — It was feast or famine at the Broadway box office as 2022 wound down, with eye-popping revenue for popular shows — including a staggering new Broadway record for “The Lion King” — not lifting all strugglers. Twenty-one of the 33 shows available broke the $1 million mark...
Resonance Works’ ‘Amahl’ stars Victory Brinker in first full opera role
Victory Brinker of Unity has been singing opera arias since she was 6. Now 10, the “America’s Got Talent” veteran is taking on her first full opera role as the title character in “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” Brinker will sing the role on the first two nights of the...
Behind the scenes at ‘The Nutcracker’ rehearsal at Palace Theatre is a winter whirlwind
In the two days leading up to the first performance of “The Nutcracker” at The Palace Theatre in Greensburg, every square inch of the space is a flurry of activity and excitement. Onstage, dancers of all ages — some 4 years old — practice pirouettes, leaps and twirls in fluttering...
‘Disney’s Frozen Jr.’ brings heart-warming winter tale to Scottdale stage
Since the movie “Frozen” was released in 2013, it’s become a favorite tale for people of all ages — and one that’s been on the “must-do” list for the Geyer Performing Arts Center in Scottdale. Circumstances have finally converged, and the winter wonderland of “Disney’s Frozen Jr.” will take over...
Lost Stephen Sondheim musical reveals insight into a giantVideo
NEW YORK — A copy of what’s being called Stephen Sondheim’s first original cast recording has been found on a misplaced CD, capturing the legendary composer’s budding skills in a student-led musical while at Williams College in 1948. Sondheim was an 18-year-old sophomore when he wrote the music for “Phinney’s...
Holiday ‘Nutcracker’ productions run gamut from classic to hip hop
For many people, taking in a performance of “The Nutcracker” is as much a part of the holidays as the shopping, baking, visiting and general merriment. It certainly is for Natalie Ann Kasievich, executive director of the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, who grew up in Allegheny County’s North Hills. “My family...
Western Pa. arts, cultural organizations rebuild post-pandemic programs, audiences
During the covid-19 pandemic shutdowns, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust President and CEO Kevin McMahon frequently reassured colleagues that things would be OK. “Even in the darkest days of the pandemic, I said, ‘We’re resilient; we’re gonna make it through this,’ ” he said. “Of course, there were moments when I got...
Franklin Regional Thespians share world premiere of new play, ‘Elsewhere’
Members of the Franklin Regional Thespians typically have a good deal of reference material when they’re looking for ideas about how to stage a play or present a character. As the group prepares to perform “Elsewhere” later this month, that material is nowhere to be found. That’s because they are...
Shaler grad returns to Pittsburgh with touring production of ‘Les Misérables’Video
Not that long ago, Daniel Bittner was performing in musicals on the stage at Shaler Area High School. Now, the 23-year-old is returning to a Pittsburgh-area stage, but this time it will be the Benedum, as part of the U.S. touring production of one of the world’s most popular musicals,...
