London calling
I'm in London this week with 38 intimate friends who signed up for the Post-Gazette's annual Critic's Choice theater tour. If the electronics have been working properly, there are already a couple of my daily reports in my online On Stage Journal (post-gazette.com/theater/onstage).
This week, I'm sorry to be missing "Doubt"; the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force benefit at the Public Theater (with Rob Marshall, Lenora Nemetz and Billy Porter as guest hosts); Attack Theatre's Dirty Ball honoring Richard Parsakian; and even Sunday night's "You're the One That I Want" reality TV show, because Rob is going to be guest judge along with his sister, Kathleen Marshall.
Being away also means I'll have to miss my regular Thursday morning gig on KDKA TV's "Pittsburgh Today Live," talking about Pittsburgh theater.
But you know, London does have its consolations.
Pittsburgh Playwrights
The new Staged Reading Series produced by Mark Southers' Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company continues with a different play (or short plays) every day all month. The theater is on the mezzanine level at 542 Penn Ave., around the corner from Heinz Hall. Performances are at 8 p.m. unless noted and are free, although a donation of $3-$5 is suggested. For info, call 412-288-0358.
Here are the next 10 days.
Week Two
March 9: Carlana Rhoten, "The Magic Room." March 10: Ted Hoover, "Welcome Home." March 11 (3 p.m.): Kim Zelonis, "Typist."
Week Three
March 12: Dan Kirk, "Parlour Games of the Chimera Gemini." March 13: Denise Pullen, "Switched at Birth." March 14: Leibel Cohen, "Bustenai." March 15: Scott Sickles, "Moonlight & Love Songs." March 16: J.P. Nickles, "Dibbs." March 17: Michael Swartz, "Rose." March 18: (3 p.m.) Sue Danks, "A New Play"; (7 p.m.) J.R. Hall, "The Chimes of War."
On the Web
It's been a month since I pointed to some of our Web-only theater coverage. On my On Stage Journal (address above; just scroll down) there are pieces on and, more important, pictures of Leo Ash Evens, Tracy Brigden, Jeanne Drennan, Christine Andreas and Diane DiMarzio, Phylicia Rashad visiting the Hill and my students' August Wilson pilgrimage to Washington. There's also a Feb. 19 Web-only review by Philip Stephenson of the famous "Dutchman" off-Broadway; if it's been pushed off the bottom of the Theater homepage by now, find it by typing Dutchman in the search box at www.post-gazette.com.
High school musicals
We welcome the first weekend's rush of 16 shows with a review of Shaler's "Grease" in today's North suburban edition; that's available online, along with a narrated slide show, on our High School Musicals page (there's a link in the upper left of the Theater page).
The Mailbag
I had a message from a reader questioning (with unstated intent) our Friday story on Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter) and his appearance in "Equus" in London, during which he and another actor appear (as the script has always specified) nude. The reader wondered how this was different from child pornography.
Obviously the major differences are that Daniel Radcliffe is not, in this sense, in England, a child, and "Equus" is not pornography. (I note that pornographers and their opponents share an obsession with nudity.) But I'm sure I'll be weighing in on this after I see "Equus" on Saturday.
The Last Word: "When people don't want to come, nothing will stop them." -- Sol Hurok, sage of a bygone era.
The bottom line
Paid admissions at city's pro theaters for the week ending March 4:
Forb.BwaySVU/CLO (29% )............ 455
RedShoes/Quantum (95 %)............ 595
Catechism/City (67%) .............. 262
Asparagus/OpenStage (91%) ......... 152 -- Post-Gazette theater editor Christopher Rawson can be reached at crawson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1666.
First Published: March 8, 2007, 5:00 a.m.
