New CLO Cabaret series
The cry used to be, "The king is dead, long live the king!," because as soon as one monarch dies another succeeds. So, "The CLO is dead, long like the CLO!"
Actually, the 2007 CLO isn't quite dead. As today's enthusiastic review says, its final Benedum show, "The Full Monty," remains triumphantly alive through Sunday. But the CLO doesn't go into hibernation after its season, as it used to, because it continues right on with its year-round program at the CLO Cabaret Theater.
That's at 655 Penn Ave., diagonally across from the Benedum, if you haven't found it yet. Lots of people have: the CLO Cabaret has drawn more than 116,000 patrons since it opened in 2004.
So now for something different: instead of running its cabaret attraction as long as the market will bear, as it did with "Forever Plaid" and the two versions of "Forbidden Broadway," CLO is switching to a subscription series with predictable opening dates.
"Always ... Patsy Cline" (through Oct. 28). The current attraction, which opened at the end of April, stars Marlana Dunn and Terry Wickline and more than 20 of Cline's hits, including "I Fall To Pieces," "Your Cheatin' Heart" and "Crazy." As Samantha Bennett said in her original review and I reiterated last week, it's a heart-felt show with great music.
"Plaid Tidings" (Nov. 8-Jan. 13, 2008). The stars of the popular "Forever Plaid" (JD Daw, Joe Domencic, Adam Halpin, Marcus Stevens) return for a Christmas version, sent by a heavenly Rosemary Clooney to put a harmony into a discordant world with (the press release says) "holiday standards that are 'Plaid-erized.'"
"The Big Bang" (Jan. 31- April 27). "The second greatest story ever told." Two dreamers have written a 13-hour musical comedy history of the world, from Adam and Eve on down, but what we get to see is their 80-minute backers' audition. Starring Pittsburgh's Tim Hartman and an actor to be named, "The Big Bang" is billed as "a zany, hysterical, two-man tour-de-force."
Three-show subscriptions are available at $110 (you choose your dates) or $230 (includes premium seating, pre-paid parking, pre-show dinners and more). Call 412-281-2822; groups 412-325-1582; more info at www.CLOCabaret.com.
Destination Edinburgh
Staged by barebones productions, Jim McManus' "Cherry Smoke" is already at the famous Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, where it will play 28 performances. A week ago, the cast of Patrick Jordan, Autumn Ayers, Tiffany Hickman and Jason Planitzer showed their stuff to an enthusiastic audience in a tiny space (to anticipate their Scottish venue) at the Attack Theatre Studio. It's a taut little character play, rich in McManus' proletarian poetry.
Destination Winston-Salem
Long-time Kuntu Rep managing director Eileen Morris, now artistic director of the 30 year-old Ensemble Theatre in Houston, is taking S.M. Shephard-Massat's "Waiting to Be Invited," directed by Elizabeth Van Dyke, to the biennial National Black Theatre Festival, underway this week in Winston-Salem, N.C. Performances are tomorrow and Saturday at the Arts Council Theater.
Major NBTF awards given Monday (including the August Wilson Playwright's Award) went to, among others, Wole Soyinka, Lou Bellamy, Ray Aranha, Phillip Hayes Dean, Lou Myers and the Negro Ensemble Company of New York.
Reader mailbox
An e-mail sent to the Cultural Trust: "I am shocked and appalled that you would run TV commercials for 'Chicago' featuring Bebe Neuwirth and Ann Reinking, and then unknowns (at least to me) would have their roles. I care not that Gregory Harrison was playing a male role. This show belongs to the gals. I feel I have been bait-and-switched and I am dismayed. Or maybe I was 'razzle-dazzled.'" -- Betsy Riebling.
The Call Board
As you can see in today's Bottom Line, PICT's very funny satire of revolutionary pieties, Martin McDonagh's "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," has been selling out, but I'm told there are still seats for its final performances this weekend.
John Gresh's Caravan Theatre made a fine start with John Patrick Shanley's "Savage in Limbo," as Anna Rosenstein said in her Post-Gazette review. I caught one of the final performances last weekend and particularly enjoyed the cast -- Bridget Carey, Dana Hardy, Tony Bingham, Gregory Johnstone and Amy Marsalis.
PICT veterans Tessa Klein and Allen Gilmore have been cast in "Argonautika" by Mary Zimmerman ("Metamorphoses").
The bottom line
Paid admissions at city's pro theaters for the week ending July 29:
LeadingLadies/MtPlyhse (62%) ........... 1,959
Inishmore/PICT (106%) .................... 731
Patsy Cline/CLO Caberet (36%) ............ 640
Male Intellect/City (67%) ................ 369
PJGame/TheatreFactory (65%) ....... 333
Chantecler/Pandora (9%) ................... 73-- Post-Gazette theater editor Christopher Rawson can be reached at crawson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1666.
First Published: August 2, 2007, 12:30 a.m.
