January ’25 Theater Guide: Reduce Your Waist; Delicious Theater Offerings to Feed Your Soul

‘Life of Pi’ is a compelling tale of survival involving a stranded young boy and a tiger. (Credit: Johan Persson)

January is a sparse time of year. We all tend to cut down on our consumption of food and liquor; we look to tighten our belts, and we march into the new year often with a singular resolution to be a better person. Fittingly it would seem, the many theatrical stages of our fair city are focused, too, on shedding the extravagance of large casts, multiple sets, full orchestras, and dazzling stage effects. Well, mostly. Funny Girl and Life of Pi, both of which land on the Benedum stage this month, promise nothing less than what Broadway first produced to earn their national tours. And Pittsburgh Opera takes to a smaller stage with a rare offering. But the selection of plays presented here are mostly one-man shows. No less spectacular, meaningful, redemptive, or dramatic, January’s theater picks give us all sharp focus on what just one person can do to help improve the lives of many. A young black girl stands up against segregation, a Dominican boy learns that our heroes may be no more courageous than ourselves, a short man rails against the indifference that his Quaker community largely ignores, a young actor takes charge to expose the hypocrisy of all-too-organized religion, and a playwright, renowned for his rich volume of works, sets us straight on simple truths. It’s a month of wonder and awe that will fill our souls, all while we try our best to slim down.

Shows are previewed below in three sections. Spotlight Picks for the month are followed by Other Shows of Interest, and then a look-ahead to Big Shows on the Horizon. Spotlight Picks are listed by run dates. The Theater Guide is created by the theater writers and editors of Entertainment Central including Mike Vargo (M.V.) and C. Prentiss Orr (C.P.O.).

Spotlight Picks

FUNNY GIRL by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, with an updated book by Harvey Fierstein based on the original by Isobel Lennart. PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh, Benedum Center. January 7 – 12.

PNC Broadway’s ‘Funny Girl’ contains many popular musical numbers. (Photo courtesy of the production.)

Character-centric, musically adorned, romantic, bold and brash, the one-time smash hit for Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl was revived on Broadway in 2022. It ran a full year and a half with Glee star Lea Michelle replacing the original Beanie Feldstein. Now, on a national tour, the show is welcomed by the Cultural Trust’s PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh series for one week at the Benedum, beginning January 7. Hannah Shankman is scheduled to lead a cast including Melissa Manchester and Stephen Mark Lucas.

The story, of course, is about the fortune and fame of one of vaudeville’s great comic performers, Fanny Brice, daughter of saloon owners who quits school to make her name—despite all odds—on the Great White Way. She falls in love with a shady character, Nick Arnstein, who loses money one scheme after another. Fanny, of course, through thick and thin, stands by her man. The biographic plot is grossly fictionalized, but only for the benefit of musical theater lovers who will relish the Jule Styne and Bob Merrill score, including “I’m the Greatest Star,” “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” and “People.” In fact, the 2022 revival features a much revised book from the original production; Harvey Fierstein has refreshed the plot line, replete with flashbacks and spotlight cameos, to imbue a sentimental angle to the story that first wowed audiences in the ‘60s. Yes, Funny Girl has been around a long time, but it’s no less charming. Fun fact: Streisand recorded the hit song “People” well before the original show even opened on Broadway. Radio airtime garnered her critical acclaim and ensured, at the least, a lively box office. If you’re interested in doing “What Happy People Do,” tickets may still be available. (C.P.O)

LOOK FORWARD: THE RUBY BRIDGES STORY by Natalia Temesgen. Prime Stage Theatre. January 17 – 26. 

12-year-old Saniya Lavelle plays the role of Ruby Bridges.

Pittsburgh’s Prime Stage Theatre produces plays that have educational as well as artistic value, with programming targeted to youth and teens but shows that adults can also enjoy. The company’s first offering of 2025 is drawn from history—Look Forward: The Ruby Bridges Story. Bridges, now in her 70s, was just six years old in 1960 when she became the first African-American child to attend a previously all-white elementary school in Louisiana. The ordeal she faced can be hard to fathom today. Residents of New Orleans who’d been used to a segregated society picketed the school and threatened little Ruby. She had to be escorted to school by U.S. marshals and ate only lunches brought from home to preclude poisoning. White parents in the district kept their children home until one family crossed the line. Look Forward, by playwright Natalia Temesgen, dramatizes these and other events—including the debate between Bridges’ own parents over whether to let their daughter serve as a pioneer of integration. See Look Forward: The Ruby Bridges Story in the New Hazlett Theater. 6 Allegheny Square East, North Side. (M.V.) 

THE REAL JAMES BOND … IS DOMINICAN  Written and performed by Christopher Rivas,
and developed with and directed by Daniel Banks. City Theatre. January 18 – February 16.

Growing up, Christopher Rivas was like many young boys who fantasized about being someone truly famous. Said Dominican-born Rivas in a recent interview, “I loved Bond as a kid. I would run around for hours in my tighty whities with all my nerf guns strapped to my body or hidden around the house, and I would imagine and play out these elaborate James Bond fantasy missions. I had the gadgets, the cool watch, the British accent, everything.” Imagine his surprise years later when, as a brown Latino student attending a white theater conservatory, he learned that the very person on whom Ian Fleming had based his many novels was a Dominican diplomat. His real name was Porfirio Rubirosa, an international polo champion, race-car driver and pilot, and who, as a renowned casanova, had married five times, to women including Barbara Hutton and Doris Duke. Rivas made his revelation into a one-man show which takes stage at City Theatre on January 18. An actor, author of two acclaimed books, podcaster, playwright, and storyteller, Rivas is locked and loaded with the lore of Hollywood. (C.P.O)

HOW I LEARNED WHAT I LEARNED by August Wilson, with Todd Kriedler. Presented by Prime Stage Theatre. January 20 only, 7 p.m.

Wali Jamal.

Unlike the plays in August Wilson’s renowned Pittsburgh Cycle, How I Learned What I Learned is a one-man show full of tales from Wilson’s life. The late playwright was known as a world-class talker who could keep people spellbound for hours with stories of things he’d seen and done. So, after years of toying with the idea, he teamed with friend and dramaturg Todd Kriedler to write a stage show from the material. Wilson himself performed the play only once, for a benefit event in 2003. He hoped it would become a piece acted by others, but after his death in 2005 the script lay dormant for nearly a decade until revivals began—notably, at Pittsburgh Public Theater in 2015, with Eugene Lee as Wilson. Now Prime Stage Theatre hosts a one-night special: a production of How I Learned starring Wali Jamal Abdullah. He’s believed to be the only actor who has performed in all 10 Pittsburgh Cycle plays along with this one, thus having covered Wilson’s entire oeuvre. Here is a chance to see a rare August Wilson gem done by a master.  How I Learned What I Learned goes live at 7 p.m. in the New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square East, North Side. (M.V.) 

ARMIDA by Joseph Haydn, with a libretto taken from Antonio Tozzi’s 1775 opera Rinaldo, as amended by Nunziato Porta. Pittsburgh Opera. Select performance dates from January 25 – February 2.

Three of the cast members from Pittsburgh Opera’s ‘Armida’ recently won awards at the Tennessee District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.

Rarely, indeed, is Joseph Haydn remembered for his musical labors on the operatic stage.  Rarer still is the opportunity to see the one opera Haydn himself exclaimed was his finest work. That story is Armida and it’s a deliciously entangled tale of evil intent falling to the supreme power of love. The Prince of Darkness summons the enchantress Armida to dissuade the righteous army of the First Crusades from taking Jerusalem. Rinaldo, the fiercest of the crusaders, manages to overpower Armida’s false advances, beguiling her in his pure love.  All is fair in love and war, right? Haydn might not have agreed. But the Pittsburgh Opera’s new production of an opera never before produced in our city promises to be a most agreeable evening of persuasive movements and powerful arias. The opera was only first performed in the U.S. in 1981, at the Monadnock Music Festival in Manchester, New Hampshire. The young director just happened to be Pittsburgh native, Peter Sellars, who launched his controversial career in the world of opera there, having first learned something about puppets as a young intern of Margo Lovelace and her beloved marionette theater in Shadyside. Pittsburgh Opera’s Armida will offer four performances only. Tickets may be as rare as this one opportunity to enjoy a Haydn opera. At the Pittsburgh CAPA School Theater, 111 9th St., Cultural District. (C.P.O)

LIFE OF PI by Lolita Chakrabarti, based on the best-selling novel by Yann Martel. PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh. January 28 – February 2.

A transpacific cargo ship sinks in the middle of the ocean. One survivor, a 16-year-old boy, finds a life raft, but is not alone. On board are a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. If any, who will survive? Yann Martel’s 2001 novel sold more than 15 million copies. More than just a philosophical treatise on the human condition, Life of Pi is an engrossing story of servitude, wonderment, and dire hope. And now, first brought to stage in 2019 and premiering on London’s West End in 2021, it has served theater audiences worldwide as a brilliantly collaborative spectacle of puppetry, lighting, scenic projections, and choreography. Mostly, however, Life of Pi is a journey of epic proportion, filling the stage with memorable characters, finger-biting suspense, and life lessons you may never forget. With five Olivier Awards and three Tonys, it’s a breathtaking show that—now enjoying its national tour—cannot be missed. Run or swim to get your tickets now! Benedum Center, 237 7th St., Cultural District. (C.P.O)

THE RETURN OF BENJAMIN LAY by Naomi Wallace and Marcus Rediker. Quantum Theatre. January 29 – February 23.

Benjamin Lay (1682-1759) was an English immigrant to Pennsylvania and an early, radical abolitionist. Raised in the peace-loving Quaker tradition, he wrote perhaps the first anti-slavery tract in the American colonies—a tract published by a fellow Benjamin, Mr. Franklin. Lay also harangued his fellow Quakers for their slaveholding and their initial failure to oppose the practice, often staging outrageous stunts to get his points across, and eventually was drummed out of the Quaker community. Now Pittsburgh’s Quantum Theatre presents the U.S. premiere of a play that debuted dramatically in London in 2023: The Return of Benjamin Lay. This one-man show imagines Lay returning to life today and arguing his case for the ongoing pursuit of justice, with the audience standing for the Quaker congregation that once expelled him. Written by playwright Naomi Wallace and Pitt history professor Marcus Rediker, author of a book about Lay, it stars actor Mark Povinelli. He played the role in London, and is a Little Person, just as Lay was, the latter recorded as being about four feet tall. 

Ron Daniels, former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, comes along to direct the play here. The Return of Benjamin Lay is performed in the historic Braddock Carnegie Library, starting with a pay-what-you-can preview on January 29. 526 Braddock Ave., Braddock. (M.V.)

UNRECONCILED by Jay Sefton and Mark Basquill. barebones productions. January 31 – February 16. 

Barebones productions, known for adventurous theater, brings to the Pittsburgh area a new play that’s being hailed as the best treatment yet of a grim subject: sexual abuse by clergy in the Catholic Church. Unreconciled is a one-person multimedia show co-written and performed by theater artist Jay Sefton. Years ago, when Sefton was 13, he was tapped to play Jesus Christ in his middle school’s passion play. He did not suspect he’d been chosen as a target for his parish priest’s illicit advances. Then recently—after an adult life that had taken him from his hometown near Philadelphia, to an acting-and-writing stint in Los Angeles—Sefton moved back east, earned a license as a mental health counselor, and resolved to bring his experiences with abuse to the stage. With help from playwright Mark Basquill, Sefton honed Unreconciled to a taut 80 minutes. And he performs it like a virtuoso. Shifting gears seamlessly, he plays a dozen characters (including the predatory priest) while juggling old video footage of the passion play and other props. 

Strikingly, the play elicits laughter as well as pathos. It’s been called a show to see whether you followed news of the abuse scandal or not. And you can see Sefton in Unreconciled at the barebones black box. 1211 Braddock Ave., Braddock. (M.V.) 

Other Shows of Interest
(By Opening Date)

Wednesday, January 15
Malpaso Dance Company

Wednesday, January 22
Harvesting Black Dance Legacy (August Wilson center)

Thursday, January 30
My Sister’s Lipstick (New Hazlett Theater, CSA Series)

University Theater
In addition to Pittsburgh’s professional and community theater companies we have many outstanding university theater programs as well. Check their box office pages for what’s onstage:

Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama
Duquesne University Red Masquers
Point Park University’s Playhouse
University of Pittsburgh Department of Theatre Arts

Big Shows on the Horizon
(By opening date)

February 4
Dancing with the Stars: Live!

February 5
Trouble in Mind (Pittsburgh Public Theater)

February 14
Romeo and Juliet (Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre)

February 22
BODYTRAFFIC (Pittsburgh Dance Council)

February 28
I Never Saw Another Butterfly and The Terezin Promise (Prime Stage Theatre)

C. Prentiss Orr is a Pittsburgh-based writer who covers theater and other topics for Entertainment Central. He is the author of the books The Surveyor and the Silversmith and Pittsburgh Born, Pittsburgh Bred.

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