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Who wouldn’t love a documentary about earnest young women plying their neighbors with everyone’s favorite treat – the Girl Scout cookie? They are cute, the cookies are cute, the people who buy are supporting wholesome values, and the meanies who don’t buy are just mean. This documentary has very little of that treacle. Instead, it […]
Eureka Day at City Theatre is a wry, sly, and thoughtful comedy that just might brighten your spring in a dark time. Set in an elite private elementary school, the action centers a leadership committee (aka PTA) and a harried principal struggling to maintain a safe and supportive learning environment, controlling as much as possible […]
New from Apple TV, limited series ‘Imperfect Women’ struggles with imperfect casting that fails to challenge our familiarity the big names. Conceived as a thriller, it felt too familiar to capture my attention until the final episodes. This is the story of Eleanor (Kerry Washington), Mary (Elisabeth Moss) and Nancy (Kate Mara), best friends since […]
I left the production of ‘The Smuggler’ on Friday evening feeling uneasy and disconcerted. It took me awhile to sit with those feelings. We are not them and they are not us. ‘The Smuggler’ is a production of Pittsburgh International Classic Theater at Carnegie Stage running through Sunday, March 22, 2026. The play takes us […]
Pittsburgh has had a surge of adaptations of classics from the ‘Realism’ era of plays when attentions turned to the working class, language was more direct and common, and we were invited into homes and rooms rather than imaginations and myths. Realism seems like a fitting lens to understand how I review a play or […]
I very much enjoy live theater, you’ve probably noticed that in my blogging. Pittsburgh has multiple live theater companies and venues, from community theaters in McKeesport and Carnegie to mainstream denizens of Downtown. We are fortunate, but we are also divided. Honestly, there’s a discernible vibe between the community theaters and the Cultural District theaters. […]
City Theatres co-production of Malcolm X and Redd Foxx Washing Dishes at Jimmy’s Chicken Shack in Harlem came to Pittsburgh in time for a blizzard, the escalation of ICE kidnappings, and the beginning of Black History Month. City Theatre partnered with Dallas Theater Center, Theatre Squared, and Virginia Stage Company. It was a frenzied fit. People seem […]
Oh, did I mention I’m taking a class in theater reviews? The first lesson is to write about what you know. I know lesbians better than anything else in this production – better than ASL, Greece, mythology, or being an ex-pat. I didn’t learn anything new about lesbians, but I learned a lot about the […]
But I got an emptiness deep insideAnd I’ve tried, but it won’t let me goAnd I’m not a man who likes to swearBut I never cared for the sound of being alone I like Neil Diamond. His songs peppered my childhood then slid into the mellow soft rock of my young adulthood. Melancholy rock might […]
Since the pandemic, I’ve been a pretty consistent Giant Eagle shopper, predominantly using Curbside Express or Home Delivery. I like supporting a locally owned company, a unionized company, and a company that includes people with disabilities in their workforce. I know the financial prices might be higher, but those things are prices we pay or […]
