Dylan Shaffer - Page 4

Baseball players doing pirouettes is not a typical pregame warm-up many major leaguers have, but that certainly doesn't stop the cast of Pittsburgh CLO's Damn Yankees from dancing their shoes off from left field to right, or rather, stage left to right. With bats in hand and led by a headstrong female reporter, the men of the Washington Senators deliver a power-packed, energized dance routine in 'Shoeless Joe' that reflects the charisma and passion displayed throughout the entire show.

Divas and divos laced in black are strutting across a Pittsburgh stage and bringing the scandalous stories of Chicago's Cook County jail to life...sometimes death. Chicago, the 1975 American musical set during the roaring 20's, is on stage at the Benedum through Sunday, June 26 and is being presented by the CLO for the first time.

A British encounter of a younger kind is sweeping the stage on 7th Street in downtown Pittsburgh. Matilda, the Broadway and West End hit musical about a superlative young girl with extraordinary knowledge and wit, opens the Pittsburgh CLO's summer season at the Benedum Center.

A murder. A mystery. A few laughs with your wine and cheese. All of these are offered at the CLO Cabaret Theatre, where for the next few months, audiences can witness The 39 Steps on stage.

Imagine yourself in middle school again. It's quite difficult to fully embody the memory, seeing as how most of us were considerably shorter and much more ignorant about the world; but Prime Stage's production of The Giver provides visible introspection of ourselves through the character of Jonas, the 12-year-old protagonist superbly portrayed by Capa sixth grader Will Sendera.

It's not too often that Elizabeth, Pennsylvania is fortunate enough to see real talent grace its stage. Mon River Arts' production of Legally Blonde delivers a surprisingly high-energy performance, coupled with remarkable vocals and excellent use of the Grand Theatre's space.

The New Hazlett Theater in Pittsburgh's Allegheny Center is always an eclectic experience. The black box theater allows for companies and productions to make the space their own, and that is exactly what Barebones Productions did with the Dale Wasserman play, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Figaro! Figaro! Figaro! It's hard not to sing his name over and over again as the barber did effortlessly in Pittsburgh Opera's production. Having produced the show twelve times in its history, Pittsburgh Opera delivered a captivating twist on the Rossini classic, The Barber of Seville.

A first impression can last a long time. If you go on a blind date, the better half of the evening could be spent altering the misconception of the first few seconds. A similar thing happened when I saw Pittsburgh CLO's production of FIRST DATE.

There was a National Tour of CABARET, and there was a theatre called the Benedum Center in a city called Pittsburgh. In this Roundabout Theatre Company production, resembling the 2014 Broadway revival starring Alan Cumming and Michelle Williams, the stage is metaphorically and literally a frame story, bordered and illuminated by lights with a superposed picture frame hung in the center. But this picture frame, seemingly beautiful along the boarders, hangs crooked to perfectly accent the actors' and show's message.