‘Dirty Dancing’ Opens at Heinz Hall; City Theatre Staging ‘Ironbound’ (Tues., 5/23/17)

1) Let’s correct an urban legend, please. “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” the closing number from Dirty Dancing, is NOT the most popular song played at funerals in the U.K. That honor belongs to Eric Idle’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” But for a night at the theater, rather than a funeral, the stage version of Dirty Dancing might be your ticket. It’s a live adaptation of the 1987 film about a teenager and a dance instructor that has been variously called one of the best movies ever, and one of the cheesiest. A North American touring company brings it to Heinz Hall with all of the rock-pop oldies and dramatic energy that made this story the stuff of legend. 7:30 p.m. Performances through May 28. 600 Penn Ave., Cultural District. (MV)

Bronwyn Reed (Baby) and Christopher Tierney (Johnny) in the North
American tour of ‘Dirty Dancing.’ photo: Matthew Murphy.

JD Taylor as Maks and Rebecca Harris as Darja in City Theatre’s ‘Ironbound.’ photo: Kristi Jan Hoover.

2) Theater reflects the times, so it is not surprising that in today’s socioeconomic climate, plays that deal with the trials of working-class life are growing numerous and popular. A current hot ticket on Broadway (and winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama) is Lynn Nottage’s Sweat, about workers in a factory where layoffs are looming. Meanwhile Pittsburgh’s City Theatre is presenting a play that scored strongly off-Broadway last year: Martyna Majok’s Ironbound. The Ironbound is a traditionally blue-collar district of Newark, New Jersey, so called because it is girdled by railroad tracks. And the central character of the play is an immigrant, but neither Hispanic nor a factory hand. She’s a Polish woman who had high hopes when young but now finds herself a middle-aged, odd-job-working single mother with a troublesome son and a cheating boyfriend. How did things turn out so suboptimally? That’s the question that Ironbound explores, tracing the story of the woman’s life through flashbacks and dark-humor dialogue. 7 p.m. Performances continue through June 4. 1300 Bingham Street, South Side. (MV)

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