‘Night Watch’ Continues at McKeesport Little Theatre; Tours of The Bayernhof Museum (Sun., 3/15/20)

NIGHT WATCH by Lucille Fletcher. Through March 22, McKeesport Little Theater. 

1) During the 1940s, American writer Lucille Fletcher was known as the “queen of screams” for her spooky radio mysteries. Fletcher didn’t write much after radio drama died out, but one of her late plays for live theater was made into a 1973 movie starring Elizabeth Taylor, and it’s still a psycho-chiller on stage. McKeesport Little Theater presents Night Watch, about a woman who claims she saw murders taking place while looking out her window at night. Is she delusional or is foul play truly afoot? 2 p.m. 1614 Coursin St., McKeesport. (MV)

2) Charles “Make-a-Buck Chuck” Brown, was a humble, but eccentric bachelor-millionaire who made his fortune in gas light manufacturing. He died in 1999, but he left behind one of the world’s most peculiar museums.  And it’s right here in O’Hara Township, on a ridge, overlooking the Allegheny River. The Bayernhof Museum was Brown’s residence, but it’s a many-level estate that features secret passageways, a cave, an observatory, a corporate boardroom (with no apparent exit), and an indoor grotto and swimming pool. If the rambling architecture alone doesn’t impress, more than 30 nearly-unique automated musical machines will.  Brown was a passionate collector of all things audio-mechanical. From tiny “birdsong” music boxes to grand Wurlitzer “Nickelodeons,” visitors can watch and listen to 100 year-old machines that play drums, keyboards, trumpets, and banjos. One even plays a violin. Admission is just $10, but call ahead for tour schedules. (EC, RH)

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