Pittsburgh Playwrights Has ‘A Dinah Washington Christmas’ (Mon., 12/15/25)

A DINAH WASHINGTON CHRISTMAS (musical revue) by Ernest McCarty. Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. Through December 22.

She was celebrated as the “Queen of the Blues.” Known for a voice developed from her gospel upbringing, Washington ruled the club circuit in early 1940s Chicago, but performed hither and yon as blues and jazz festivals beckoned her to travel the country. Playwright Ernest McCarty’s A Dinah Washington Christmas envisions a night, one perhaps of many in her brief career, in which she performs at Pittsburgh’s famous Crawford Grill. The venue was razed in the early ‘60s as part of the city’s mindless economic development of the Lower Hill. (A second Crawford Grill, also built by Gus Greenlee, still stands—albeit dark and lifeless—on Wylie Avenue in the proud Hill District.) In its heyday, however, clubs like the Crawford Grill created and fostered a fusion of blues, jazz, boogey-woogie and be-bop when this singular Pittsburgh neighborhood was known as the crossroads of the world. Come hear Delana Flowers bring down the house in a performance reimagined from December, 1954. Hallelujah, it’s the spirit of Christmas in the Hill come again! 7 p.m. Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company at Madison Arts Center, 3401 Milwaukee St., Upper Hill District. (C.P.O.)

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