Theater Guide January 2026: Everything Old is New Again

The charm of celebrating a new year is never having to look back. No one must, of course, unless one wishes to. In fact, the name of the month derives from the mythical god Janus, who had two faces, one to look back and the other to look forward. This month’s picks of what’s worth seeing in Pittsburgh fits that mode neatly. No one really needs to read L. Frank Baum’s original children’s story to appreciate a return of the national touring production of Wicked. Nor will you have to search for re-runs of TV’s “Sanford and Son” to remember the humor of inner-city struggles once championed by more significant leaders than comedian Redd Foxx. And you don’t have to have been living in Pittsburgh during the Martin Luther King Jr. riots to appreciate the foresight of modern emergency medical care. It’s highly unlikely anyone still alive might remember an early production of Martha Graham’s “Appalachian Spring” to compare it with its return to Pittsburgh. And, as we speak of modern dance, we can also speak of modern opera, in particular one based on ancient Japanese theatrical traditions, yet written by a master composer (Britten) so “modern,” he died 15 years before Graham. But who’s looking back?  Greet the new year and face these favored features for January.

Shows are previewed below in two sections, Spotlight Picks for the month and Other Shows of Interest, followed by 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

WICKED (musical). Music & lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Winnie Holzman.PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh. January 14 – February 15

When children’s author L. Frank Baum wrote The Wizard of Oz in 1900, little did he know that he’d write as many as 14 books more in his series about the strange land of Oz. Likewise he would not have known that a film version of his first book would star Judy Garland in 1939, or that it would later become a true classic of American cinema. And, of course, he would never have guessed that the story of Oz would become so ingrained in American culture that authors like Gregory Maguire, in 1995, could publish his own fictional backstory to the life of the Wicked Witch of the West and, with that, carry along an audience through three more novels in his Wicked series. In 2003, of course, Maguire’s first Wicked novel turned Broadway “upside-down,” defying gravity with music by Carnegie Mellon University alum Stephen Schwartz (and a book by Winnie Holzman.) Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth played the lead roles until multiple touring companies cast dozens more young ingenues (some green in more ways than one) to travel the world over. Now, for the fifth time since 2007, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh welcome Wicked to the Benedum Center stage. In case you hadn’t heard, the show is “popular.” 237 7th St., Cultural District.  (C.P.O.)

MALCOLM X & REDD FOXX WASHING DISHES AT JIMMY’S CHICKEN SHACK IN HARLEM  by Jonathan Norton. City Theatre. January 17 – February 8

It’s true. Malcolm Little (before his conversion to the Nation of Islam) met John Elroy Sanford (aka comedian Redd Foxx) while working as dishwashers at the once-famed Jimmy’s Chicken Shack in Harlem in the mid-1940s. Whether or not they became best friends as a result of this gig, whether or not they confided in each other their ambitions to right civil wrongs or activate political winds, whether or not either had premonitions of fame and purpose is––and can only be––the subject of Jonathan Norton’s sometime comedy and otherwise prophetic study of two men whose contributions to equal rights changed America. The year was 1943 when the two men first met, but it’s true, too, that Malcolm X gave credit to Foxx years later as the funniest dishwasher he’d ever known. Perhaps more famously, Redd Foxx had issues with drug abuse and tax evasion in later years. City Theatre’s production notes warn audiences of these subject matters. Dexter J. Singleton directs.

Malcom X & Redd Foxx Washing Dishes… is a co-world premiere, produced by Pittsburgh’s City Theatre in alliance with TheatreSquared (Fayetteville, Arkansas), Virginia Stage Company (Norfolk), and Dallas Theater Center. 1300 Bingham Street, South Side.  (C.P.O.)

FREEDOM HOUSE: GIVING LIFE A SECOND CHANCE  by L. E. McCullough. Prime Stage Theatre. January 23 – February 1.

The year was 1967. The location was the Hill District, then one of Pittsburgh’s predominantly black neighborhoods which, despite its proximity to the city’s medical center in Oakland, was ill-served by the larger white professional community.  That is until Phil Hallen came along. As Executive Director of the Maurice Falk Fund, he awarded funds to Freedom House Enterprises to study EMS training. A former ambulance driver himself, Hallen was deeply concerned with the state of emergency care in all major cities, but most particularly in Pittsburgh. Believe it or not, while ambulances had existed for centuries, their limited purpose was quick delivery of patients in need of emergency care. That is, no one had really explored the idea of hiring emergency care professionals to serve as ambulance drivers or as paramedics trained to help patients during transportation. And, in 1967, certainly only Phil Hallen had considered training black emergency professionals to care for patients in the Hill District.  His timing was propitious; during the following year, which included the Martin Luther King Jr. riots, Freedom House paramedics responded to more than 5,800 calls, delivered more than 4,600 patients, and saved more than 200 lives.

Prime Stage Theatre presents L.E. McCullough’s Freedom House: Giving Life a Second Chance, directed by Scott P. Calhoon. The Saturday, January 24 opening performance features a post-show audience discussion. New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square E., North Side. (C.P.O.) 

CURLEW RIVER (modern opera) by Benjamin Britten, with libretto by William Plomer. Pittsburgh Opera. January 24 – February 1. 

The late, great Benjamin Britten was a strangely eclectic composer. His eerie 1964 opera Curlew River, unusual when it premiered, still comes across as a spine-tingling experience. Britten didn’t even call it an opera, referring to it as a “music drama” or a “church parable”—one of three pieces he composed for performance in churches. But whereas the other two were drawn from Bible stories, Curlew River was adapted from an ancient Japanese Noh play. The story concerns a woman whose son had been stolen by a slave trader. Gone mad in a search to find the boy, the woman boards a ferry across a river, where she learns that her son had died on the opposite bank—and his grave has become a shrine with miraculous healing powers. Working with librettist William Plomer, Britten transformed the tale to a pageant in the style of medieval England. The performers are garbed as monks. They enter chanting a thunderous Latin hymn. Then they shed their monastic cloaks to act out and sing the drama, accompanied by a haunting musical score. Pittsburgh Opera performs Curlew River in the majestic setting of Calvary Episcopal Church. 315 Shady Ave., Shadyside. (M.V.)

MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY. Centennial tour at the Byham. January 28 only, 7:30 p.m. 

Strange but true: the oldest surviving dance company in this country is a modern dance company. Although ballet is quite old, for centuries it was based mainly in Europe. Thus the grandmother of all U.S. troupes is the vastly influential Martha Graham Dance Company, founded in New York in 1926. And when the current dancers visit town on the company’s 100th anniversary tour, they will bring Graham’s legacy back to where she began. Martha Graham was born in Allegheny (now Pittsburgh’s North Side) in 1894 and spent most of her childhood here, moving with the family to California at age 10.

New forms of artistic dance were emerging in those years, led by dancers tied neither to ballet nor to musical theater. Graham as a young adult learned from two now-legendary pioneers of the movement, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, then set out to create on her own. She developed a visceral, sensual approach to dance, inspired by sources ranging from American Indian dance to honky-tonk rag. Graham lived long and fruitfully. She danced until she was 75 and choreographed until her death at 96, in 1991. 

The company has kept on innovating under its present artistic director, Janet Eilber. Dances being performed on the anniversary tour include Graham classics such as “Appalachian Spring” and “Night Journey” (one of several drawn from Greek mythology), along with newer pieces—notably, one choreographed by Alvin Ailey alumna Hope Boykin. Good seats are going fast for Martha Graham Dance Company at the Byham Theater. 7:30 p.m. 101 6^th St., Cultural District. (M.V.)

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
Robert Morris University
University of Pittsburgh Department of Theatre Arts

Big Shows On the Horizon
(By opening date)

February 4
An Enemy of the People (Pittsburgh Public Theater)

February 13
Romero & Juliet (BDE Productions, Greer Cabaret Theater)

February 19
Annie (PMT)

February 24
Disney’s Beauty and The Beast (PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh)

February 28
Time to Act (Pittsburgh Opera)

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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