What Makes a Legend? November Theaters Answer! (November Theater Guide)

The classic opera ‘Pagliacci’ is part of a double bill this month from Pittsburgh Opera which also includes ‘Cavalleria Rusticana.’ (Photo: Ken Howard)

What makes a story classic? Why, like a five-year-old begging her parents to play the DVD of  Frozen for the umpteenth time, do we so enjoy tales we have heard many, many times over? What is it about The Wizard of Oz, The Nutcracker, Annie, or even La Traviata that makes us want so desperately to experience them again and again? Of course, there can be no one answer; each example offers so many elements of great storytelling: compelling characters, magical settings, deep yearning for redemption, and music that fills one’s soul. But I suspect there’s something more to the answer. And, frankly, if answered with logic, Hollywood, Broadway, Carnegie Hall, and The Met wouldn’t risk their box office revenues to produce anything less than that one production which incorporates all of these “classic” elements. Yet, what the contemporary artist knows, what the writer thinks, what the dancer embraces, and what the musician feels is all that they know altruistically, organically, and individually to be “creative.” And create they do. Day after day, all season long. Year after year. Thank God.

For this November in Pittsburgh, our stages are set with works, old and new, that approach that “je ne sais quoi” that makes them classic. Film buffs will surely delight in a stage presentation of the first “doctor” to bring to life the meaning of horror, while literary fans will find exceptional fun in reliving the “rags to riches” journey of a young “everyman.” Opera aficionados will rejoice in the arias cried amidst the tears of tragic sorrow, and pop fans will walk over the moon with their anointed king. No play may be more “classic” than the young, star-crossed lovers Shakespeare created, but this month, the bard changes his tune. And while a local dance troupe presents new works that may be destined for a world audience, modern dance from a far-away world steps onto our local stage. Finally, for one night only––in fact, on the eve of America’s next presidential election––we may learn some of the most classic lessons any mother may have to share. Do, please, please, show us the way!

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

THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI by Jay Ball, adapted from the film. Quantum Theatre. November 1 – 24.

Quantum’s ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ is as they say, an “Out of the box experience.” Pictured here are Jerreme Rodriguez (Cesare) and Sara Lindsey (Hannah). (Photo: Jason Snyder)

If you feel that real life has gotten scary and surreal, Quantum Theatre has a play for you. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is an original adaptation of the spooky German silent film of 1920, in which a mad hypnotist induces a sleepwalking subject to commit ghastly crimes. And if you suspect that the story might carry a political message—a parable of how an unwitting populace can fall under the spell of a mad authoritarian regime—you are right. By 1920 this had already happened across Europe with the horrors of the First World War, and in Germany it would happen again. (Years later, a German film critic even wrote a book titled From Caligari to Hitler.) But let’s not forget aesthetics. The classic film has been called the first true horror movie. At once tense and disorienting, it was shot entirely in a studio, using weird, distorted sets and stark lighting to reinforce a tale that teeters between dementia and reality. Re-creating those effects on stage has been the challenge for Quantum. The script is by Jay Ball, who previously adapted parts of the Odyssey to write Quantum’s 2021 play An Odyssey. The cast includes Daniel Krell as Dr. Caligari, on sets designed by Yafei Hu. See The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in the theater at the Union Trust Building, 501 Grant St., Downtown. (M.V.) 

GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens, adapted by Neil Bartlett. Prime Stage Theatre. November 1 – 10.

Prime Stage’s ‘Great Expectations’ features (L. to R.) Sam Lander as Pip, Jennifer Sinatra as Miss Havisham and Michaela Isenberg as Estella. (Photo: Laura Slovesko)

It’s not surprising that so many of Dickens’ great novels, serialized in mid-19th century London papers, have found new audiences and renewed popularity on stage; they tell engaging stories filled with plot twists and off-beat characters. The number of seasonal productions of A Christmas Carol must be in the hundreds. (And that’s in the United States alone!) Oliver! was a musical splash in New York and London in the 1960s. Tickets to Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby were the envy of theater-goers in the late ‘70s, requiring two separate performances to cover the engrossing tale. And his famously unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood was a West End and Broadway hit in the late ‘80s. Now, Prime Stage is producing Dickens’ Great Expectations, a sweeping saga of an orphan’s rise to wealth and social standing. The novel, which many critics have said is Dickens’ best, features well more than a dozen memorable characters, each of whom are more integral to the plot than not. Of course, there’s Pip, Estella, and Miss Havisham, and Abel Magwitch, Biddy, and Pocket. And then there’s Joe Gargery, Mrs. Joe, Mr. Pumblechook, Bentley Drummle…well, the characters go on. But, if you’ve never read Great Expectations or not seen any of the great film adaptations, worry not. Prime Stage’s production of Neil Bartlett’s clever adaptation calls for just six actors (and a minimalist stage of chairs and benches) to pull all the strings of this sweeping saga into one satisfying evening of fun and delight. 

Indeed, Great Expectations may take most of Pip’s life to unfold, but you won’t get lost or bored. Nor are you likely to forget a single character. At the New Hazlett Center for Performing Arts, 6 Allegheny Square East, North Side. (C.P.O.)

FIRST MOTHERS: The Women Who Raised America’s Presidents by L.E. McCullough. Prime Stage Theatre. November 4.

Lillian Carter, Rose Kennedy, Martha Truman, and Ann Dunham, mother of Barack Obama, among 15 historic women who gave birth to future presidents of the United States, will impart their wisdom, love, and wonderment of motherhood in Prime Stage’s First Mothers: The Women Who Raised America’s Presidents. Most every American child is told he or she can someday grow up to be president of the United States, but only 45 ever have. And, so, on the eve of the next presidential election, Prime Stage presents this one night of American history. Playwright L.E. McCullough is a prolific writer of poetry, young-adult theater, and, surprisingly, Irish music. Director Ponny Conomos Jahn most recently directed Prime Stage’s legal thriller, Witness for the Prosecution. Come witness the lifeblood of America’s political peerage in First Mothers. 7 p.m. at the New Hazlett Center for Performing Arts, 6 Allegheny Square East, North Side. (C.P.O.)

CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA / PAGLIACCI (operas) by Pietro Mascagni (with libretto by  Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci) and Ruggero Leoncavalla, music and libretto for Pagliacci. Pittsburgh Opera. November 9 – 17.

Performed in tandem––opera aficionados pair them as “Cav/Pag”––these two short operas, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, written about the same time, are performed often on identical sets and, just as often, with the same cast. Furthermore, they both represent a genre of opera called verismo suggesting that, like realism, they promote a more natural dramatization of the human condition. If common townsfolk can cheat and avenge jealousy in the same way that courtesans and kings can, then this is meant to be very real. Of course, in Cavalleria Rusticana, we are indeed presented with common townsfolk whose tangled love interests incite one to bite the ear of another, resulting in a duel to death. And, in Pagliacci, a troupe of commedia del’arte clowns come to realize that love betrayed is sufficient cause for murder justified, which, if true, is sadly laughable. In any case, opera fans have loved this “double feature” since 1893. 

You will, too. Pittsburgh Opera offers both the music that inspired the score for Scorcese’s The Godfather III, as well as the arrieta by which Enrico Caruso proved he was no clown. At Benedum Center, 237 7th St, Cultural District. (C.P.O.)

 TEXTURE CHOREOGRAPHY PROJECT 2024 (ballet/modern dance) by various artists. Presented by Texture Contemporary Ballet. November 15 at 8 p.m.

Texture Contemporary Ballet’s ‘The Choreography Project’ features eight new works from talented choreographers. (photo: Rachel Harman)

Texture Contemporary Ballet is a Pittsburgh-based company whose name says it all. Founded to explore the possibilities of merging experimental modern dance with classical ballet, Texture now presents an evening of eight new short dances by different choreographers. If you are a fan of the company you’ll know to expect the unexpected. Texture has created dances set to music by artists like the prog-rock quartet Cello Fury, and during the pandemic year of 2020, Texture released a creepy-but-jaunty outdoor dance video for Halloween. This year, in a show billed as the Texture Choreography Project 2024, you get to see eight unexpected dances.  Guest choreographers are Theodore Alexander, Anthony Alterio, Irinia B Garcia, Brittany A. Nettles, Haley Nolan, Anna Caison Roguski, JoAnna Schmitt, and Deanna Stanton. Also contributing choreography are Alan Obuzor, Texture’s artistic director, and Texture resident dancers Madeline Kendall Schreiber and Jillian Sinko. See this unusual dance production at 8 p.m. in the Greer Cabaret Theater, 655 Penn Ave., Cultural District. (M.V.) 

13 TONGUES (modern dance) by Cheng Tsung-lung. Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, presented by Pittsburgh Dance Council. November 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Taiwan’s Cloud Gate Dance Theatre brings ’13 Tongues’ to the Byham Stage this month choreographed by CHENG Tsung-lung. (Photo: LIU Chen-hsiang)

What is the oldest art form? An argument can be made for dance. No tools or materials are needed, nor is language needed. Thus we can imagine ancient proto-humans moving their bodies creatively to tell stories, express their feelings, or just have primeval fun. And through the long years, those early performances grew into today’s modern dance, a very highly evolved version. Currently its chief practitioners include Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. Founded in 1973, Cloud Gate is named after the oldest known Chinese dance. The company’s dancers practice traditional methods of meditation and exercise. But they combine their skills with cutting-edge choreography and high-tech stagecraft, to produce dazzling performances that give new life to the raw, contagious energy that dance has always had. Cloud Gate now visits Pittsburgh on its latest world tour. The feature-length piece to be performed is 13 Tongues, created by Artistic Director Cheng Tsung-lung. The dance is inspired by Taipei’s famous Bangka/Wanhua district, which houses historic old Buddhist and folk-religion temples—and in recent times, was home to a street artist and storyteller calling himself “13 Tongues.” See Cloud Gate dance 13 Tongues at the Byham Theater. 7:30 p.m. 101 6th St., Cultural District. (M.V.)

MJ THE MUSICAL (jukebox musical) created by director and choreographer Christopher Wheeldon with a book by Lynn Nottage. PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh. November 19 – December 1.

From Gary, Indiana, to Berry Gordy, from “ABC” to “I’ll Be There,” from the imposing Joseph Jackson to the immortal Jackson 5, and from “Bad” to “Billie Jean,” little is left lacking in this lyrical look into the legendary life of Michael Jackson. Now, more or less direct from Broadway, in its first national tour, MJ The Musical arrives at Benedum Center in time for Thanksgiving. The production features at least three actors playing Michael at various stages in his life, but, so demanding is the title role, the cast lists as many as seven actors able to fill it on any given night. At least twenty more performer-actors are ready to take the stage as dancers in as many as 25 different pop numbers promised in the playbill. Jukebox musicals don’t get much bigger than this, but then, MJ, the King of Pop, was no one-hit wonder. Beat it to the Cultural Trust box office for what few tickets may remain. Benedum Center, 237 7th St., Cultural District. (C.P.O.)

THE WICKHAMS: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY (comedy) by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon. City Theatre. November 30 – December 22.

For those who might well remember City Theatre’s December offering last year, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Lauren Gunderson’s comic take on a reimagined adventure in the fictional world of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, we return this year to a new adventure.  The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley pivots the perspective of the story to the household staff downstairs. Two years after the conclusion of Austen’s 1813 novel, all of the Bennets and Darcys are flitting around upstairs when an unexpected guest is welcomed into the festive fray. Mrs. Reynolds, the no-nonsense housekeeper, Brian, the lovesick footman, and Cassie, an eager-to-please new maid must make the estate “very merry, indeed,” despite the very much “married” intruder who shows up just before Christmas Eve. It all becomes a festive farce, replete with figgy-pudding, frantic fun, and foolish folly. Which is all to suggest you might consider making City Theatre’s offering one of your family’s affairs this holiday season. The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley is produced in association with Carnegie Mellon’s School of Drama. 1300 Bingham St., South Side. (C.P.O.)

Continuing

& JULIET (jukebox musical) book by David West Read and music and lyrics by Max Martin and friends. National touring production. PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh. Through November 3.

PNC Broadway Series’ ‘& Juliet’ takes a musical look at what Juliet’s life could be like if she hadn’t died tragically in ‘Romeo & Juliet. (Photo: Matthew Murphy)

Clearly, the title informs us that Romeo is missing. & Juliet, the tour-de-force jukebox musical based on Shakespeare’s romantic coming-of-age character Juliet, asks the question no one has had reason to ask: What if she didn’t die in the end? Written by “Schitt’s Creek” Emmy winner David West Read, the answer gets explained by William Shakespeare himself. As the curtain rises, the famous bard attends the opening of his latest work after which his wife Anne (nee) Hathaway (also present for the new teen tragedy) has a lot to say about love and marriage. Shakespeare dutifully listens. And then, because this is all theater-within-theater anyhow, he rewrites the sad fate of Juliet whose parents want to whisk her off to a convent. No, suggests Anne, that can’t happen. And from there, the audience is brought into a new world of music and dance in which William and Anne set their dreams on those they would wish for Juliet. The fanciful plot is embellished with pop tunes like “I Want It That Way,” “Roar,” “I Kissed a Girl,” and “Oops!…I Did It Again,” all written and/or produced by Max Martin. Juliet, of course, would feel right at home with Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and The Backstreet Boys.

If you, like Juliet, want a second chance at love, & Juliet might be the show to experience. Presented as part of the PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh series at Benedum Center. 237 7th St, Cultural District. (C.P.O.)

Other Shows of Interest
(By Opening Date)

Friday, November 8
The Case of the Carbolic Smoke Ball (The Haunted Pittsburgh Players)

Wednesday, November 13
Locating Lucidity (Attack Theatre)

Sunday, November 17
Cinderella (Stage 62)

Wednesday, November 27
Who’s Holiday! (Pittsburgh CLO)

Friday, November 29
Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Little Lake)

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)

December 4
A Christmas Story (Pittsburgh Public Theater)

December 6
The Nutcracker (Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre)

December 13
A Musical Christmas Carol (Pittsburgh CLO)

December 17
The Hip-Hop Nutcracker (Pittsburgh Cultural Trust)

December 18
A Lyrical Christmas Carol (PMT)

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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