Opening Nights for The Public’s ‘Twelfth Night’ and PMT’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ (Thurs., 1/26/17)

Timothy D. Stickney (l.) as Duke Orsino and Carly Street (r.) as Viola in The Public’s ‘Twelfth Night.’ Photo: Pittsburgh Public Theater.

1) Amazing Shakespeare fact: just as The Winter’s Tale does not happen in winter, Twelfth Night is not set on Twelfth Night, the traditional end of the Christmas season. Rather, it seems the comedy was first performed at that time of year, and Pittsburgh Public Theater is staging it to help chase away the chill of 2017. Twelfth Night is a gender-identity comedy. The heroine, fair Viola, is shipwrecked in a strange land and poses as a man to get by. This secures her a job with the local Duke but causes trouble when the Duke’s beloved, Olivia, falls in love with Viola while Viola falls for the Duke. The plot thickens with subplots involving Olivia’s rambunctious uncle, Sir Toby Belch, and the weird servant Malvolio. Which leads us to consider a perplexing scholarly question: Why do Viola, Olivia, and Malvolio have names that use the same five letters? What does it mean? 8 p.m. Performances through February 26. At the O’Reilly Theater, 621 Penn Ave., Cultural District. (MV)

2) The story we know as The Hunchback of Notre Dame began with a strange notion: Victor Hugo wanted to write a novel about architecture. During the early 1800s in Paris, historic old buildings were being lost to neglect or mangled by ham-handed repairs. Hugo, passionate about civic issues, had argued for preservation without much success. Then he tried embedding the argument in a dramatic tale and produced a double-barreled hit. His 1831 novel, titled Notre-Dame de Paris and filled with architectural digressions, helped to save and restore the medieval cathedral of Notre Dame. But what made the book popular in the first place was the story he invented—a stirring social epic centered on the tragic fates of the bell-ringer Quasimodo and the Gypsy dancer Esmeralda. Among the many adaptations over the years, an intriguing one is the 1999 stage musical that Pittsburgh Musical Theater is performing. This Hunchback of Notre Dame is based on the Disney animated film, with notable changes. The musical hews closer to Hugo’s original. It has a darker tone and a not-so-happy ending. Plus, there is more music, including songs with lyrics by Carnegie Mellon alumnus Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Wicked, etc.). 7:30 p.m. Runs through February 5. At the Byham Theater, 101 6^th St., Cultural District. (MV)

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