Unseam’d Shakespeare Co. Running “Out of This Furnace”; “Marry Poppins” at Benedum (Wed., 6/17/15)

Hard times, come again no more: Mark Warchol and Kate Falk in “Furnace.”

1) Out of This Furnace is both a history play and a living piece of artistic history. Plays, films, and novels about blue-collar life were once common, but the genres of working-class drama and literature have been shrinking along with the working class itself, and Furnace is a survivor from the genres’ heyday. The story—which traces three generations of an immigrant steelworker family in Braddock, from the 1880s onward—began as a novel by Thomas Bell. Published in 1941 (not long after James T. Farrell’s Studs Lonigan trilogy and Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath), it was overshadowed by World War II and went out of print. But a 1970s reprint caught on and today the book is read across the U.S., often in college courses on the history of labor. The reprint also spawned a popular theater adaptation by Andy Wolk, which Pittsburgh’s Unseam’d Shakespeare Company has staged twice before. Now Unseam’d presents a newly revised version of Out of This Furnace directed by Lisa Ann Goldsmith.7:30 p.m. Continues through June 27. Studio Theatre in the Cathedral of Learning, 4200 Fifth Ave., Oakland.

2) Maybe you have a nanny, and maybe you have an umbrella, but have you seen Mary Poppins? Have your children seen it, and are they therefore properly prepared for adulthood? For that matter, are you? Take heart! It’s not too late. Pittsburgh CLO (Civic Light Opera) presents a live production of the beloved Disney movie musical to kick off its 2015 summer season—which will also feature Man of La Mancha, Gypsy, The Wedding Singer, Kinky Boots, and Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella. That’s an attractive lineup but remember: first things first. It all starts with Mary Poppins. 8 p.m. Runs through June 21. Benedum Center, 237 7^th St., Cultural District.

3) I’ll See You in My Dreams — Quick, notify the authorities; Hollywood made a movie about old people! You know some studio worker somewhere is going to get fired for this. Blythe Danner plays an elderly widow estranged from her daughter and living in a retirement community. It’s a life of TV, golf, bridge … and wine. But her world gets shaken up when a couple of men suddenly show up for romance and she reaches out to her daughter. A gentle comedy/drama, the film features supporting performances from June Squibb, Rhea Perlman, Mary Kay Place and Sam Elliot. See it now, before Hollywood remakes it with the hottest stars from the Disney Channel. Check Fandango for screens and times.

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