Bon Jovi in Concert at PPG Paints Arena; PPT’s ‘Daddy Long Legs’ Continues (Wed., 4/5/17)

1) Rock legends Bon Jovi and Pittsburgh have always had a mutual love. There could be several reasons for this: the band plays great rock; they are from Jersey, and as we know Pittsburgh and Jersey (not Philadelphia) have a symbiotic relationship; and Bon Jovi also has footage of their ride across the Fort Pitt Bridge and the now demolished Civic Arena in their “Wanted Dead or Alive” video. A bonus reason is that the group has a good friendship with noted Pittsburgh rocker Norman Nardini. Original member Richie Sambora mysteriously departed the band in 2013 and has since been replaced on guitars and backing vocals by Phil X. Original members in the band are Tico Torres (drums), David Bryan (keyboards, backing vocals), and of course band namesake Jon Bon Jovi (lead vocals, rhythm guitar). Hugh McDonald, a member since ’94, joins them on bass guitar and backing vocals. Bon Jovi’s most recent album, This House Is Not for Sale, was released last November. It debuted at no.1 on the Billboard 200 and was Bon Jovi’s sixth no. 1 album in the U.S. The album was also their fourth in a row to hit No. 1. Grab some beers and rock out to classics like “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Livin’ on a Prayer” and “It’s My Life” and their latest “This House is Not for Sale.” Opening is the Interlochen Singers. 7:30 p.m. PPG Paints Arena, 1001 Fifth Ave., Uptown.

Danielle Bowen and Allan Snyder in The Public’s ‘Daddy Long Legs.’ Photo: Michael Henninger

2) Pittsburgh Public Theater kicked off its 2016-17 season with a chamber musical, The Fantasticks, and apparently the genre has legs, because now The Public is staging another one. Daddy Long Legs is a two-person show adapted from the coming-of-age novel written in 1912 by Jean Webster.  A teenaged girl raised in an orphanage is told that a mysterious benefactor will pay to send her to college—quite a rare privilege for young women of that era—on two conditions. Once per month, she must write a letter to the benefactor describing her progress, and she is never to learn the man’s identity. You can probably imagine what happens in regard to that second proviso. Several movie versions of Daddy Long Legs have been made; the musical premiered in Ventura, Calif., in 2012 and has been a hit off-Broadway and elsewhere. 8 p.m. Performances continue through April 9. The Public presents it at the O’Reilly Theater, 621 Penn Ave., Cultural District. (MV)

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