18 stories by "Brian Pope"
Now that the Tony Awards have been handed out, let the betting begin on which of the winning and losing shows will receive a box office boost and which will soon post a closing notice. If…
As I stood in line in 2016 vying for rush tickets to a new musical called Bright Star, pretty much all I knew was that comedy legend Steve Martin co-wrote its bluegrass score. I also knew…
Do I Hear a Waltz? is a little-known 1965 musical with a dream creative team that found themselves on a nightmarish road to Broadway. Originally, Arthur Laurents was set to adapt his play…
With its remaining 2019 productions, Stage 62 raises a glass to those who dream. Following last month’s winning production of the YA musical Junie B. Jones The Musical, the company will be…
Bright. A blank screen or an even smaller blank screen. The challenge: Make sense out of 280 characters. George Seurat is notable for employing the meticulous painting technique known as poi…
Cathy and Jamie are married. She acts at a community theater in Ohio. He is a best-selling author. Cathy arrives home and finds a letter with her name on it. Jamie has just left home and …
Once upon a time, the world at large acknowledged the fact that there are more than just two genders. Or so Aristophanes tells it in Plato’s philosophical epic Symposium. In the age o…
History has taught us what a revolution sounds like. The slice of a falling guillotine. The pulse of rapid gunfire. The echo of a rallying cry. But when it comes to culture, you can only rec…
Now is the time to seize the stage! That’s literal when it comes to Pittsburgh Musical Theater’s 2018-2019 season. Each of the shows they’ve chosen for “Seize The Stage” represents…
What comes first: the music or the lyric? This question has been asked by people of all levels of engagement with the craft of musical theatre. One thing that has been true about musical the…
Front Porch Theatricals—three words have become synonymous with musical theatre prestige in the city of Pittsburgh—has more than fulfilled its ambitious mission statement over the last s…
When the weather outside is frightful, there is no place more delightful than the theater. Companies all around the city of Pittsburgh are offering up holiday-themed shows of all genres to g…
If you enjoyed the historical gravitas of The Homestead Strike of 1892, get ready for a whole group of productions spearheaded by that show’s playwright, Mark Clayton Southers. He is the…
“We are one City for this city.” There are tons of leaders and movements that launch their campaigns on platforms of unity. Some are genuinely attempting to heal insidious schisms in soc…
Summer may be ending, but things are about to heat up at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in Oakland. The home of Point Park University theatre— The REP Professional Theatre Company and the Conser…
Is it weird to think that an actor has done it all at only age 31? Maybe. Still, that’s the impression I got after talking with Quinn Patrick Shannon. Over the last decade, you’ve likely…
A bright, beautiful Sunday afternoon was the perfect backdrop for my second day at Pittsburgh Fringe. The glorious sunlight showed the blurred lines separating the performances in the festiv…
If you’ve been keeping up with our coverage of the Fourth Annual Pittsburgh Fringe Festival, you’re probably assuming that this is also my first time attending such an event. If you did …
