September isn’t just about back to school — it’s an all-out blitz for local theater companies starting anew.
The 2018-19 season begins with a parade of plays, including the national tour opener of “The Play That Goes Wrong,” an award-winning farce that is spreading laughter through an extended Broadway run.
It’s also a beginning of sorts for Pittsburgh Public Theater, under new artistic leadership for the first time in 18 years. Marya Sea Kaminski takes over the helm and programs her first season, leading off with an updated “Pride & Prejudice” by Kate Hamill.
The whirlwind really begins on Friday, when theater-goers have a logjam of opening-night choices, including a world premiere, two regional premieres and August Wilson’s first play: “Chatterton” (Quantum Theatre); “The Revolutionists” (City Theatre”; “The Father” (Kinetic Theatre); and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company).
And if you are looking for new experiences, there’s the return of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Festival of Firsts, which officially gets under way Sept. 21 and includes several of the premieres listed among these autumn highlights:
CITY THEATRE
Through Sept. 30: “The Revolutionists” by Lauren Gunderson, directed by Jade King Carroll (regional premiere). It’s the French Revolution and heads will roll — including playwright Olympe de Gouges’ and her muses: assassin Charlotte Corday, Caribbean freedom fighter Marianne Angelle and Marie “Let Them Eat Cake” Antoinette — a radical comedy about four women out to change the world.
Oct. 27-Nov. 18: “Pipeline” by Dominique Morisseau, directed by Reginald L. Douglas (regional premiere). When Omari is suspended from a mostly white private school for an incident with a teacher, his mother sees her dreams for him fading away.
Tickets: $29-$61, $15 for up to age 30. Main Stage, City Theatre, 1300 Bingham St., South Side. citytheatrecompany.org or 412-431-CITY.
KINETIC THEATRE
Through Sept. 23: “The Father” by Florian Zeller (adapted by Christopher Hampton). The regional premiere directed by Andrew Paul and starring Sam Tsoutsouvas is a play that views the world through the eyes of a dementia patient.
Kinetic Theatre at the New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square E., North Side. $36; kinetictheatre.org or showclix.com.
PITTSBURGH PLAYWRIGHTS THEATRE COMPANY
Through Oct. 1: “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” the first play by August Wilson, set in 1920s Chicago, with multidisciplinary artist Vanessa German in the title role.
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, 937 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $35, www.pghplaywrights.org.
PITTSBURGH PUBLIC THEATER
Sept. 27-Oct. 28: “Pride and Prejudice” by Kate Hamill; directed by Desdemona Chiang — An updated version of the Jane Austen classic. New York Times reviewer Alexis Soloski wrote, “The ever-ingenious Ms. Hamill has given us something completely and delightfully different.”
Nov. 8-Dec. 9: “Sweat” by Lynn Nottage; directed by Justin Emeka. Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. “Sweat” unfolds from 2000 to 2008, as the folks at a Reading mill are driven apart by layoffs and lockouts.
Tickets: $30-$80; $16.50 for ages 26 and younger. O’Reilly Theater, 621 Penn Ave., Downtown; ppt.org or 412-316-1600.
BAREBONES PRODUCTIONS
Sept. 22-Oct. 20: “Lobby Hero” by Kenneth Lonergan (“Manchester by the Sea”), directed by Melissa Martin. In the lobby of a Manhattan apartment building, an ambitious security guard clashes with his stern boss, an intense rookie cop and her unpredictable partner.
Barebones black box at 1211 Braddock Ave., Braddock. Tickets: $35 ($40 at the door), barebonesproductions.com; www.showclix.com/event/lobby-hero; 1-888-718-4253.
BROADWAY SERIES
Sept. 17-23: “The Play That Goes Wrong” — With a Tony Award-winning set, “The Play” features a small community theater getting its big break and putting on a show that is bound for disaster.
Oct. 16-21: “Anastasia” — Based on the animated movie, “Anastasia,” with a new score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens and an acclaimed projection design that transports us from Russia to 1920s Paris.
Nov. 20-25: “Fiddler on the Roof” — A fresh vision of the musical masterpiece, with movement and dance from choreographer Hofesh Shechter, based on the original staging by Jerome Robbins.
PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh at the Benedum Center, Seventh Street between Penn and Liberty, Downtown. Tickets: “Play That Goes Wrong,” $32-$82; “Anastasia,” $35-$121; “Fiddler” (tickets go on sale Sept. 21); trustarts.org or 412-456-6666.
FESTIVAL OF FIRSTS
Sept. 25-30: “Cirque Eloize Hotel” — world premiere. For its 25th anniversary, the company presents the story of a place and the travelers who come passing through it with acrobatics, theater, dance, live music and avant-garde stage design inspired by the elegance of the great hotels.
PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh at the Benedum Center, Downtown. Tickets: $26-$72, trustarts.org or 412-456-6666.
Oct. 4-8: “Joan Didion’s The White Album” — World premiere by Lars Jan + Early Morning Opera. A multimedia production and one-woman performance by award-winning actress Mia Barron, with a glassed-in “stage within a stage.”
August Wilson Center, 980 Liberty Ave., Downtown. Tickets: $35, trustarts.org or 412-456-6666.
PITTSBURGH MUSICAL THEATER
Oct. 25-28: “Annie” — The annual collaboration of the students of the Richard E. Rauh Conservatory, backed by the CAPA Orchestra and produced by Pittsburgh Musical Theater pros. Byham Theater, Sixth St. , Downtown. Tickets: $9.75-$55.25, pittsburghmusicals.com and trustarts.org.
Nov. 9-10, 16-17: “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” — Hedwig is a transsexual performer and victim of a botched sex change, who is playing a concert where you are the audience. Gargaro Theater, 327 S. Main St., West End. Tickets: $45, pittsburghmusicals.com and showclix.com.
PICT CLASSIC THEATRE
Nov. 23-Dec. 15: “The Old Curiosity Shop,” adapted by Alan Stanford from the novel by Charles Dickens. In this U.S. premiere, the Dickensian story follows Little Nell, 14, and her grandfather as they run from the evil moneylender Daniel Quilp.
Fred Rogers Studio, WQED, 4802 Fifth Ave., Oakland. Individual tickets not yet on sale, picttheatre.org or 412-561-6000.
CLO CABARET
Sept. 6-Oct. 14: “Men are from Mars/ Women are from Venus — Live!” — Pittsburgh native Amadeo Fusca delivers the one-man fusion of theatrical comedy and stand-up, based on The New York Times best-selling book by John Gray. Sexy and fast-paced, this show is for adults only. Greer Cabaret Theater (formerly the Cabaret at Theater Square), 655 Penn Ave., Downtown. Tickets: $38.75-$59.75, pittsburghclo.org or 412-456-6666.
Nov. 9-Jan. 27, 2019: “Game On” by Marcus Stevens and David Dabbon. An interactive musical in which three contestants “risk it all” to win a $10 million jackpot. Inspired by primetime game shows, this world premiere was developed at CLO’s Spark Festival of new musicals. Pittsburgh CLO Kara Cabaret Series at the Greer Cabaret, Penn Avenue, Downtown. Individual tickets not yet on sale.
BRICOLAGE PRODUCTIONS
Nov. 1-10: “Midnight Radio: Frankenstein” — Mary Shelley’s masterpiece about a tenacious scientist hell-bent on recreating human life gets the Midnight Radio 1940s radio treatment, as Bricolage partners with Tel Aviv’s Hanut31. with sound effects, vintage commercial spoofs, music and vocal acrobatics.
Bricolage, 937 Liberty Ave., Downtown. Tickets: $35 (including happy half-hour; $5 off opening-night tickets); webbricolage.org or 412-471-0999.
PRIME STAGE
Nov. 2-Nov. 11: “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, directed by Scott P. Calhoun. The play launches Prime Stage’s 22nd season of focusing on literary stage adaptations, and the company is partnering with the National Steinbeck Center to present the classic Depression-era story. In 1938, 80 years ago, the play won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, predating the Tony and Drama Desk awards, for best play.
New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square E., North Side. Tickets: $12-$25 ($10 for preview), www.primestage.com.
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg.
First Published: September 13, 2018, 11:30 a.m.
