Gala Opening Playhouse opens with a black-tie gala and dazzling entertainment
The Point
Fall 2018
The gleaming new Pittsburgh Playhouse opened its doors with a celebratory black-tie gala held on Saturday, October 13. Over 400 guests were in attendance, including Oscar and Tony-Award winning alumni, Point Park University administration, trustees, civic and community leaders, faculty, students and Pittsburgh Playhouse patrons.
The ticketed event kicked off with a cocktail reception in the stunning lobby of the 90,411 square-foot entertainment complex, followed by a tour de force performance by Point Park University Conservatory of Performing Arts students that included numbers from A Chorus Line, Rent, Hair and Mama Mia the Musical.
Mesmerizing performances
Tony-nominated Broadway performer Tony Yazbeck, a Point Park alumnus, took the stage to perform a solo tap dance on the darkened stage of the PNC Theater that had the audience mesmerized. After his performance, Yazbeck joined President Paul Hennigan on stage, followed by Point Park alumni and Tony Award-winning choreographer Rob Ashford and Oscar-winner Shirley Jones, to share their warm and personal memories of their time at Point Park and the Pittsburgh Playhouse.
“I’m so happy to see the Pittsburgh Playhouse in Downtown Pittsburgh,” Jones told the audience. “When I was a little girl, I used to come Downtown with my mother for voice lessons and to shop at Kaufmann’s and Hornes [department stores],” she recalled.
A Smithton, Pa. native, Jones is an Academy Award-winning actress and celebrated Broadway performer who also gained fame as America's coolest mom in the TV series The Partridge Family. Her entertainment career began in 1952, when she won a two-year scholarship at the Playhouse Theatre School, allowing her to take acting, dancing and singing classes during the day, and audition for Playhouse productions that ran in the evening. "Everything I learned about show business, I learned at The Pittsburgh Playhouse,” she said.
A place for creativity
Ashford is a Tony and Emmy award-winning choreographer and a 1983 graduate of Point Park’s dance program. “It’s so great to be back at Point Park,” said Ashford, who spent time prior to the gala presenting master classes for musical theatre and dance students. “Congratulations on the [new Pittsburgh Playhouse], this is amazing,” said Ashford. “Not only this beautiful [theater], but the entire complex, [which offers] so many places for students to create.”
Ashford has directed such productions as A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar Warehouse in London; the Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, starring Scarlett Johansson; and Promises, Promises, featuring Sean Hayes. In 2009, he won the Emmy for Outstanding Choreography for the 81st Annual Academy Awards. In 2002, Ashford won a Tony Award for Best Choreography for Thoroughly Modern Millie and he has been nominated for six additional Tony awards, including his work on Cry-Baby, Curtains and The Wedding Singer.
Dream come true
During the gala performance, guests viewed a video that traced Pittsburgh Playhouse history and shared highlights of the new Playhouse, which will not only be a performance space but also a learning laboratory for Point Park students from many different disciplines.
Following a stellar performance of song and dance by Conservatory students, guests proceeded to various locations through the Playhouse for an elegant dinner catered by the Duquesne Club. The evening ended with dessert and dancing in the Highmark Theater.
Other VIP Point Park alumni in attendance included actor John Magaro, artist and CBS executive Lynn Fero, and CEO and Founder of live production company RWS Entertainment Group Ryan Stana.
“The new Pittsburgh Playhouse is a dream come true,” said Hennigan.
Photo by John Altdorfer
The Point is the magazine of Point Park University