1,750 stories by "Ghoover"
Question: “How do you sink a Polish battleship? Answer: Put it in the water.” Please, don’t get offended, the David Ives’ play Polish Joke is loaded with “Polish jokes” that ar…
Escapism has no tool more effective than nostalgia. Forever Plaid, an off Broadway musical originally created by Stuart Ross, is a series of harmonized covers and polite sketches from a musi…
Prime Stage Theatre’s adaptation of George Orwell’s 1949 classic, 1984, is ambitiously loyal to its original text. It attempts to extrapolate the inner story of one man inside of a par…
This is not a review of the world premiere of Arlene Weiner’s play Findings produced by the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. This is a “re-view”. What’s the difference? In Fin…
This musical has so much; it is so rich. It is a cascade of characters who are fully drawn, with captivating arcs. It’s a litany of singing performances, CMU’s great bastion of tal…
The Pittsburgh Playhouse’s adaptation of Big Love wrestles with relationship language the same way that the 470 BC tragedy Aeschylus’ The Suppliants did. Big Love is a very smart but dar…
A letter from the Editor, According to Punxsutawney Phil, Spring is still another two weeks away, yet we couldn’t help but look ahead to the next three months and we are excited! Spring is…
Pittsburgh theatregoers have a great mix of musicals to choose from this spring. Our preview features five shows that offer a mix of style, period and contemporary relevance. Two of them are…
Partaking in the spectacle of theatre and performance is a profoundly immersive phenomenon. An audience member can be wholly consumed, enraptured by the dialogue, the stage tricks, the leg…
Even steel rusts, and that is the underlying theme, and title, of the new play currently in production by Duquesne University’s Red Masquers. The play, written by Duquesne alum F.J. Hartla…
Elise Forier Edie’s The Pink Unicorn at off the WALLÂ invites us into the home of a woman named Trish. The stage is a cozy southern kitchen, modestly furnished with a Martha Stewart-ian …
The Theater Factory’s The Complete History of America (abridged) directed by Jen James is a delightful and frantic journey through the formation of the United States, from Vikings to Nativ…
As One, the second of Pittsburgh Opera’s two Resident Artist Program productions for this year, opens next Saturday night, February 18, at the company’s headquarters in the Strip Distric…
In the book “Get-R-Done”, Larry the Cable Guy once quipped: “This is the first book I’ve written since 1975, when I was in the 7th grade and wrote Boogers Are Good Eatin’.” If yo…
As it turned out, Ann Talman was, indeed, her brother’s keeper – literally. Talman – a playwright and actress who grew up in Pittsburgh – has an older brother, Woody, who has severe …
This was the tightest play I’ve ever seen: opening night of The Royale at City Theatre. The jabbing dialogue overlays every continuous line. The chorus that pieces the fight, from buil…
The experience of seeing The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity the first time was, for me, a series of uniquely fortuitous revelations. Sitting in the back row of the bleacher-style seats bef…
Pittsburgh Musical Theater’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame brings a powerful mixture of student and professional performers to the Byham Theater, where it continues playing through February …
With each passing year, Pittsburgh Opera’s Resident Artist Program productions seem to maintain or excel the high standards of those of the past. At first glance, this season’s offering…
2016, it has been said, has been a pretty garbage year. The division between Americans is greater than ever in living memory, the incoming president’s speeches resemble a series of Cards A…
In a shift from its usual Christmas offering, the Conservatory Theatre Company at Point Park University has chosen to play The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: The Musical for its holiday show. …
I’ve attended the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s production of The Nutcracker countless times. I went as a young, aspiring dancer growing up, and in the past few years, have the renewed the…
It’s well into the holiday season and there’s a chance you’ve either had or will have a tense family dinner. No matter your family situation, you’re probably not going have as tense …
There is a certain immutable emotion that resides in rhythmic silences. That which we cannot articulate, understand, imitate in words or conversational gestures dwells in the physical puls…
Some lines from Robert Frost’s 1914 “Home Burial” came to me Friday night while watching off the WALL’s production of Duncan McMillan’s Lungs: “You that dug with your own hand …
