Riverfront Theater Company in Aspinwall is back from its covid-19-related intermission with a 1980s musical review aimed at providing a “totally awesome” distraction from the lingering pandemic.
The online cabaret replaces the originally scheduled “Back to the 80s” show and will be available on video and possibly social media sites in early fall.
Information to link to the virtual production will be available at riverfronttheaterco.org.
At-home audience members can scrunch their hair and wear their favorite neon legwarmers while they follow a nostalgic tale that includes Rubik’s Cubes, cassette tapes and Cyndi Lauper tunes like “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”
“The songs are so iconic. I think people will really like it,” said performer Anna Ferris. “I’m so grateful to be able to perform at all this summer. I think we’re navigating the whole online thing really well.”
Talia Akiva, 18, returns to Riverfront Theater after having “a blast” performing in “Spelling Bee” last summer. Akiva, a 2020 graduate of Pittsburgh Public Schools, missed her senior musical because of the district’s coronavirus shutdown and is grateful to have the opportunity to get back on stage, albeit virtually.
“I do think it was the best choice to have the cabaret online due to everything going on,” Akiva said. “I think the arts and artists everywhere have been suffering a great deal because of the virus, and it’s important to keep the arts alive in any capacity that we safely can.”
Originally scheduled the first weekend in August, the Young Artists Summer Musical “Back to the 80s” is written by Neil Gooding. The cabaret version will be directed by Jamie McDonald, an Etna resident, with music direction by Jenna Hayes, a Fox Chapel Area graduate.
Virtual viewers might miss out on the planned Star Wars dream sequence or some leotard-clad dance routines, but the high-energy music will engage the audience and have them dancing in their at-home seats, Aspinwall performer Xavier Perry said.
“Although the performance is not our usual, I am happy we get to create something for our community to enjoy,” Perry, 18, said.
“It’s definitely a new type of theater that is taking some getting used to but everyone loves performing in this company, and I think we are all excited to be a part of a creative production during this limiting time.”
