The Public Previews ‘The Fantasticks’; Dressy Bessy and The Garment District Play Club Cafe (Thurs., 9/28/16)

Mary Elizabeth Drake plays Luisa, one half of the young couple in ‘The Fantasticks.’

1) The longest-running musical in the history of show business? It’s not Phantom of the Opera, which holds the Broadway record at nearly 12,000 performances and still counting, but a modestly scaled off-Broadway musical. The Fantasticks opened there in 1960 and finished its initial run in 2002, after 17,162 performances. Part of the show’s charm is its mixture of simplicity and surreal strangeness.

Using only a few actors and rudimentary stage props, The Fantasticks conjures up a bizarre tale. Two neighboring dads concoct a surefire scheme to make their children fall in love with one another: they forbid the young man and woman to have any contact. Then, as surreptitious romance blooms, the fathers hire a dashing stranger to pretend to kidnap the girl so the lad can “rescue” her—a twist that brings unexpected consequences. The show also mixes haunting music (such as the song “Try to Remember”) with wry humor, and Pittsburgh Public Theater has chosen The Fantasticks to open its 2016-17 season. 8 p.m. Performances through October 30. At the O’Reilly Theater, 621 Penn Ave., Cultural District. (MV)

2) Younger listeners may know Dressy Bessy from 2000’s The Powerpuff Girls: Heroes and Villains, the soundtrack to the popular Cartoon Network show. The Denver, Colorado, band contributed the delectable “Bubbles” in honor of the Powerpuff Girl of the same name. What listeners might not know is that Dressy Bessy are a respected indie rock group. All of their music “bubbles”—with frontwoman Tammy Ealom’s vocals, with handclaps, with hooks. They are also part of the Elephant 6 Collective, which dates to 1991 and includes some other great independent American bands, like Neutral Milk Hotel and The Apples in Stereo. (Apples guitarist John Hill also plays with Dressy Bessy.) A decade has passed, but Dressy Bessy are back with new music—this year’s Kingsized—and they’re playing a Pittsburgh date at Club Cafe. Opening is The Garment District, a project of multi-instrumentalist Jennifer Baron, a Mt. Lebanon native and founding member of the Brooklyn band The Ladybug Transistor. Baron released an album this year—Luminous Toxin. Lucy Blehar, also from Lebo, sings vocals on the non-instrumental tracks. Live, Baron is joined by friends and family including her husband, Greg Langel. 8 p.m. 56-58 S. 12 St., Southside. (CM)

3) Attention Pirate fans: Our battlin’ Buccos play the last game in a crucial four-game home series against the Chicago Cubs and if they don’t make the playoffs this will have been there last home game of the season. Next up for the Pirates is a road trip against the St. Louis Cardinals beginning tomorrow. Here’s hoping we see the Pirates at PNC Park in October. 7:05 p.m. PNC Park, 115 Federal St., North Shore.

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